Sometimes I tell people that I draw cartoons for a living and other times I try to keep my mouth shut; the latter being the wiser course. Do you know what I'm talking about? Sometimes telling people what I do for a living kills the conversation. Sam Gross, tired of explaining the strange business of cartooning, will tell people he's in dry cleaning. Smart man, that Sam Gross!
Case in point, the other day, at the deli counter ... a total disconnect:
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10 comments:
Love the cartoon Mike, that deli guy was just jealous of success ;)
GREAT cartoon, Mike!!!
How true it is!! Been there, done that, and even though I say to myself, "I'll never do that again"...I find myself BEATING UP MYSELF for...doing it again...but that's IT!!! NEVER again!!! :0)
Lol. That's awesome. Great work!
Thanks for the kind words. I know you sweet guys (sniff!) understand!
Mike
You bring up an interesting facet of cartooning. I've found when someone asks me what I do and I say I'm a cartoonist that their eyes always get big and they say, "Really?" It's like they think I'm making it up. I understand this, of course, in a way it's like answering, "I'm an astronaut". People don't often, if ever get to talk with people in such an unusual field.
While the person's mouth is stil agape, I usually give them some specific details of what I do so as to give them something they can relate to. After that, they usually seem very interested.
Dan Reynolds
Hey Mike
Nice cartoon! I like your sequential work, too!
On another note, the Sam Gross story I heard, which may have mutated over the years, is that he kept trying to explain his profession to someone who kept scratching his head and saying, "Is that wholesale or retail?" And Sam finally gives up and says, "I'm in manufacturing."
Tony Murphy
As I've said before I love thses slice of life pieces.
What we do is a complete mystery to most people unless you draw or write a well known comic strip or work on an animated tv show or movie. When I tell folks I'm a free-lancer they just get this blank look on their face and switch the topic to sports or the weather.
I also get these comments..."My son loves to draw! Could you give him some pointers?"
"Do you pay the magazines to put your cartoons in them?"
"My wife's birthday is coming up, could you draw her a card?"
"Could you draw Garfield for my daughter?"
...sigh....
Well, you can always lie outrageously if you don't want to simply shut it down by saying "not too much". Nine times out of ten folks aren't really interested in your answer when they ask you a question like that-whether you're a cartoonist or an accountant.
Sam has told me that story himself, and he wrote it down for an article in Cartoonist PROfiles magazine. It was his then-prospective father-in-law who didn't "get" what it was that Sam did for a living.
I don't know if "nine times out of ten folks aren't really interested in your answer," but I'll just sick to telling the truth when asked.
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