Mike Lynch Cartoon in August 2008 CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Above: no, not the cartoon. It's a rough sketch for the cartoon from my sketchbook. Looks like I was calling Guy Gilchrist that day. Yeah, I tend to make notes on my cartoons and sketchbooks. Digression & Plug: I'm giving a talk all about cartooning at Guy's Cartoonists School next month! It's in Connecticut, on a Saturday. More details at the link.

OK, back on topic:

The sweat shouldn't show in a good cartoon. A good cartoon should just be funny and look effortless. This cartoon of mine, in this week's CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, was full of effort and grunt. I knew what I wanted to do, but it just wasn't funny at all in the early drafts.

This is the kind of gag where you apply a formula and then see how funny it is. This is just off the top of my head, but I could have drawn the seven dwarfs of politics (Photo-Oppy, Reactionary, Progressivey, Whacky, Waffley, Stay-the-Coursey, Changey) or the seven dwarfs of cartoonists (Webby, New Yorkery, Syndicatey, Graphic-Novelly, animationy, caricaturisty, Gaggy) ... well, the list goes on.

It was a challenge to come up with these names, and, especially, the last two, which give a final bit of a gag to end it. Click to super-size.

I wanted to draw the dwarfs in a non-cuddly manner, and I think I succeeded. They still have big noses and cute beards, but they all look real world kinda tired. Not the sort of cutesy-poo figures anyone would license as a toy.

I don't always know when my cartoons are printed. My thanks to Brian at DePaul for the heads up!