Interview: George Booth

George Booth is interviewed by Richard Gehr for The Comics Journal.

It's a terrific interview, with lots of background on George's family and their inspiration for his cartoons.

"Mother wanted me to give my first chalk talk when I was nine, but I was not ready to get up and talk to people. I’d been drawing since I was three, but I wouldn’t cooperate with her, I didn’t want to talk. She got disgusted and said, 'All right, you do the drawing, I’ll do the talking.' So we went to the ladies’ thing and I drew some numbers from a 1930s chalk pin-up book. I’ll tell you about that in a minute. I memorized the stuff and drew. Mother did the talking, and it went over well. The ladies started clapping when it was over, but I didn’t bow or anything. I just shot for the nearest tin chair to get outside. Mother came over, gathered up my shirt in one hand, stood me up, and said, 'You stand up there and act like you know something, whether you do or not.' It’s been a good lesson in life."