"Meet the Prestons: Editors who entertain and inform us" by Norm Ritter of the York County Post Star, recounts the life of the man who brought daily gag cartoons to the stuffy ol' Wall Street Journal. And he also does puzzles and acrostics and so on.Let's see, cartoon editor at WSJ from June 6, 1950 to present. Yeah, I think he's got the record!"The Journal now has five cartoon slots each week for which Preston fields about a thousand submissions.
"'I've looked at more cartoons than anyone in the history of mankind,' he says."
That reminds me, I have a Rapunzel cartoon on my desk that I have to redraw for the WSJ and the Prestons! Anyway, I first sold to WSJ maybe 8 years ago now, and Charles has always been accessible. Linda is also just the nicest person. She always puts a note in to say hi. Nice to know that my new neighbors (they live in MA, and summer in ME) are so friendly.
Related: "Funny Side of the Street" cartoon collection at that Harvard Business School Baker Library. That's where I snagged the caricature of Mr. Preston.
Related: Cartoonist Eli Stein on Preston and the WSJ, "my first sale to a major market."
Related: selected photos of Preston-edited cartoon collections from Christopher Wheeler's site.
Big hat tip to Tom Spurgeon at Comics Reporter for catching this one.
What a great find! I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of talking to Charles, so it's nice to "meet" him like this!
ReplyDeleteThanks!