Gag Cartoon Rejection and Persistence

Something I meant to mention in my October 20, 2006 entry:

Cartoonist Roy Delgado told me he's going to be in the Guinness Book of World Records. I laughed, but he pointed out that he's been submitting to the New Yorker since 1992. "That's 19,000 cartoons -- all rejected!"

He really has been in touch with the Guinness editors, and is serious about becoming the most rejected cartoonist. Which, really, he is not -- since a lot of those cartoons that are rejected by the New Yorker magazine do get sold to other major markets like Barron's, Reader's Digest, etc.

I guess the real question is: Why not quit? I mean, if you've been trying to scale a cartoony Everest for 14 years, without the payoff of actually summiting -- then why oh why keep trying?

A successful cartoonist is not necessarily smart, but he/she is persistent.

"I WILL be published in the New Yorker," states Roy.

(Above cartoon by Mike Lynch, rejected by New Yorker, bought by Harvard Business Review.)