Monday, November 10, 2008

Mike Lynch Cartoon in November 10, 2008 Wall Street Journal

Of all the cartoon cliches (boss chasing secretary, prisoner shackled to wall, etc.) the number one gag cartoon cliche (as voted by Mike Lynch Cartoons readers) is the desert island cartoon. I have a desert island gag cartoon in today's Wall Street Journal. And below, reproduced oh-so-small (even if you click to supersize, it only pops up to a wimpy size of a few more centimeters) -- below is the original drawing that was OKed by the cartoon editor:




"Thank God! Somebody to network with!"

The cartoon is almost 4 years old. I drew it in January 2005, and it went to many markets before it sold. This is why I emphasize persistence.


I had to draw it bolder for reproduction. Above is the published version.

Like most people, I hate annoying, overused phrases like:

  • At the end of the day
  • Fairly unique
  • At this moment in time
  • With all due respect
  • 24/7
  • It's not rocket science
(And there are more at Wired's article: Oxford Researchers List Top 10 Most Annoying Phrases.)

But the nice thing is that I can take phrases that I don't like -- like --



... "paradigm shift" ...


... "crunchy" as an adjective ...



... "outsourced" -- and on and on .... Where was I?

Yes. Right.

I can take these overused words and phrases, and not only make fun of them, but also make some money while doing it. Well, soon. Welllll, not really soon -- but in a year or 2. Welllllllll, maybe 3 is more like it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the sale, Mike! The fact that you can still sell a cliche cartoon says a lot about your work.

Matt Jones said...

Hi Mike-if you're into Brit cartoons thousands have been made public at the British Cartoon Archive

http://www.cartoons.ac.uk/

Mark Anderson said...

That's such a good one. I liked the less bold one better art wise, but that's sorta nitpicky.

BTW, I'm also picking nits now, so let me know if you have any I can help with.

Tyler Garn said...

I like the original better too. I think the best cartoonists know how to make clichés work to their advantage.

Sometimes I have a dream where I'm flying over the Atlantic Ocean and below me are hundreds of tiny dessert islands with stranded guys doing one liners. Do you ever have that dream? Maybe it's just me...

Tyler Garn said...

... and in case you're wondering what a "dessert" island is, it comes after your main course peninsula but before your digestif archipelago. (I'm stupid.)

Anonymous said...

Nice save, Tyler.