Drawn to Success #4

“LIGHTING THAT FIRE DOWN DEEP IN YOUR SOUL”

Or...

”How I Sang RUBY BABY With A Pencil And Shirt Cardboard From The Laundry Delivery Truck”

When you're driving down that road to "Big Time Cartooning Success", you're bound to hit a bump or two in the road. I don't care if you're driving a Hummer, or a '68 Dodge Dart held together with super glue, a coat hanger and a prayer, the bumps are going to come. The Hummer drivers are the ones whose cartooning careers seem to be humming along very nicely, and for quite some time. Established. Recognized.

The old Dodge drivers are those who have made enough noise in the business to start climbing out of their paycheck to paycheck prior lives, and have enough going for them that they seem to be slowly getting on their way�just a couple of jobs away from trading in the old hoss for something snappier.

Then�a bump of trouble. The phone doesn't ring as often. A project doesn't sell. Too much month left at the end of the money. Tragedies. The inevitable personal storms of life. It's when you're faced with those tough moments in your career when sometimes it's easier to forget the fire. Douse the flame and move on to a real job. The fire of desire can easily fade and become a dying ember. That's the time when it can help to go back and remember that spark. That first spark you felt down deep in your soul that made you want to become a cartoonist or illustrator in the first place!

Instead of doubting yourself and your true feelings, maybe it's about time you go back in time for a while and remember WHY you want this dream so badly! In every person's life, there is a moment of change. A moment of inspiration. That experience that winds up defining our life's goal, and US in the process. Let me tell you about my "first time."

Okay, yes�I'm old. I'm so old I watched Andy Griffith when the show was new. I'm old. I bought two comic books and a Bazooka Joe piece of gum for a quarter. I'm old. I went to Elvis movies when they were in theaters. I remember rock and roll before The Beatles. I'm OLD. In 1963, I was six years old. In 1963, JFK was still president; Roy Rogers was still on Saturday morning TV. And Dion DiMucci was the biggest rock-and-roll star in the world. WHO? Dion. He sang "Runaround Sue," "Why Must I Be A Teenager In Love," "The Wanderer" and lots more.

I, at six years old, knew who Dion was because I had seen his poster in a mill discount store hanging off the ceiling in the record department. There were three posters at this mill store, as I remember. One was of Grace Kelly, by then Princess Grace. She had a crown on her golden head, was dressed in a white gown, and was surrounded by white roses in a white room. I thought she was married to God. I had an old record by her and Bing Crosby that my mother had bought, where she and Bing sang "... For you and I have a Guardian Angel on high...," and she was very pretty. So pretty that, at six, I thought that she must be singing about Heaven because she was Mrs. God.

As you can tell, I wasn't all that bright a boy.

The other posters were of Elvis Presley (my mom's favorite), and Dion with a red-orange guitar. So, on this particular Saturday afternoon in 1963, I was sitting in front of our black-and-white little TV set, set for life with peanut butter and jelly on Wonder bread and a Dixie cup full of Kool-Aid, because it was raining outside. If it hadn't been pouring, my brother Brad and me would have been outside climbing trees, jumping out of them, playing underneath the old house and in dangerous old barn lofts, running around shooting each other with our Roy Rogers six-shooters, scaring girls with frogs and spiders, and exuberantly living the Opie Taylor lifestyles that got us into trouble with Mom�if she found out.

After all the cartoons were over on Saturday morning, American Bandstand came on in the afternoon, and then a local version of Bandstand came on, hosted by a local disc jockey and sponsored by the Connecticut milk companies. I liked music, so I usually watched those shows... if it was raining. All the time I watched, I would be drawing on whatever paper I could find. Usually I'd be drawing my favorite cartoon character, Woody Woodpecker. Sometimes I would steal the shirt cardboard out of a laundered shirt because it was so crisp, hard and white. WOODY looked better on shirt cardboard. I had an uncle that worked as a delivery guy for the cleaners and eventually he found out I needed paper and would stop by and give me stacks of the stuff. He was my favorite uncle.

Now, even at six years old, I knew the singers sang along with their records and really didn't perform live. At least I was THAT smart. But, still I watched and I loved to hear the singers talk to the host about their new record, or their lives that were so glamorous to me. Really, I just wanted to know where their "art" came from, and . . . would they take me away with them on their swell tour bus to Hollywood, so I could go to Disneyland and visit the studios of Walter Lantz, who drew Woody Woodpecker? I watched The Woody Woodpecker Show each day after school. Walter Lantz would introduce his 7-minute cartoons with a sort of "show and tell" about how he created these WOODY, CHILLY WILLY, or ANDY PANDA cartoons.

He would draw his character, and then show us his cool studio, where 3,000 people (or what seemed to me to be that number) all copied his style to animate these full-color, moving things of Heaven-sent beauty. I would sit there with my cardboard and pencil and copy him, dreaming, every day, and wishing with all my heart that someday I might be one of Lantz's Army, in Hollywood... at The Walter Lantz Studios... where the Chiffons', or The Drifters', or The Beach Boys' or Dion's tour bus would take me... if I could just get to Dion! Well, as God would have it, on that day, on our local Bandstand show, DION was set to perform his new smash.... RUBY BABY.

I was watching intently. Out came Dion, into the gymnasium that was packed with teenage guys and girls. Everyone was clapping like crazy! He walked up to the microphone, with his red-orange guitar (I could tell because on my black-and-white TV, red and orange were black) that I had seen so many times on his poster. And then he spoke those immortal words that every kid from the Bronx to Brooklyn to Canton, Connecticut, where I sat longed to hear: "How you doin'?" So much for finding out some secret to his art. Then, two special things happened. He KEPT his mike on, talking all the while, as he reached down on his guitar and flipped a switch on it. He turned ON his guitar. There was a loud WHOOOOOMMMMPPPFFFF that crackled over the airwaves from the gymnasium. WHAT WAS THIS??? I had never heard or seen anyone EVER perform live.

Then, Dion started to strum the guitar, and sing. "Welllll . . . I've got a girl an' RUBY is her name . . ." For two minutes, he sang and, as he sang, he changed that atmosphere in that old gymnasium into a party, and he changed my life. By the time he was done, the place was going crazy! All the guys wanted to be like him! All the girls wanted to know him! The air was super-charged! He had changed the world with his talent, his song, his ART. Just one person. He made the world a more exciting, beautiful place.

I looked down at my cardboard and pencil. The pencil became my voice. The picture on the cardboard . . . my song. I didn't have to be one of 3,000 members of Walter Lantz's Army to create art, and make the world a more beautiful place. I could do it all by myself. I gave my little picture to mom, who kissed the top of my head, told me it was lovely, and stuck it up on the refrigerator (or "Koolerator" as Chuck Berry would say) for the whole wide world to see. That was the day I KNEW I would drive down this road. This bumpy, pothole filled, beautiful, glorious road of Cartooning.

Remember your dream when the world tries to snuff it out. Troubles are temporary. Talent, hard work and your inner fire are forever. You can make this world a more pleasant place to live. You can put excitement, humor, and love out there to inspire us all! Sometimes it ain't easy, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy.

Oh, and Dion? Years later, he and I became close friends. Brothers. One day I asked him about that day so long ago when he sang that song LIVE, instead of lip-syncing the record. Incredibly, he remembered that very day! The only time he ever did that, he told me. It seems the record had broken, and couldn't be played. They had no back-up 45 on the tour bus. So, he was "forced" to go get his guitar and sing and play LIVE with the sound pushed through the old school PA in the gym. He said to me, "I always wondered why that happened. Now, I KNOW. God made sure the record was broken, because YOU had to become an artist."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go over to my Sears stereo and flip the record over. I want to hear the flip side of this dream.

--Guy Gilchrist Artist of "Nancy," "Mudpie," "Your Angels Speak," "Jim Henson's Muppets"

Founder, Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy

http://www.gilchristcartoonacademy.com/

Drawn to Success #5

"GETTING IN THE MOOD"

Or...

"Where Are My Groupies?"

I don't have to have my favorite album playing in the background in my studio to get in the mood to draw or write.

I don't need candles and a bubblebath.

I don't need a glass of beer, some oysters and a Viagra to get up for drawing and writing.

I just go ahead and do it.

When I finish my strip, pretty little groupies don't rush my drawing table to show me how much they appreciate my masterful brush and ink solo.

Yeah. I know. Bummer. But, you know what? I do it anyway. Everyday.

I AM A PROFESSIONAL CARTOONIST.

My motivation is a soul-deep love for what I do, and a soul-deep love for my family that needs to be sheltered, clothed, and fed.

If I needed any additional motivation....how about daily deadlines in a thousand newspapers? Daily deadlines are something else, man. Everyday a newspaper goes to press. Everyday I need to fill my slot. Death, taxes, and my daily deadline.

I meet folks almost everyday who tell me they are "Artists", have tried to be "Artists", or that they have a kid who's an "Artist". They feel they have something in common with me. They tell me how lucky I am, and then tell me that they would like to be that "lucky", too. They would like to be professional artists, too...

"BUT........."

Then it starts. Their ROLLERCOASTER. All loaded up to go. Going UP when their art is working out, and when they are pumped up by outside forces. Spiraling DOWN when their art isn't working out, and they go on to blame the nearest distraction or latest disappointment for their lack of production.

As I understand them, their LIVES got in the way of the LIVES they wished they had lived.

That's very sad. But that's how many "Artists" are. There is a big difference between ART and THE BUSINESS OF ART.

The reason I capitalize and put "Artist" in quotation marks is because of the self-importance and mystism of the muses that these creative, well-meaning but misguided folks seem to drape their work in. That stuff applies to the Weekend Artist, but NOT to the Artist-Businessperson!

We can't go outside and dance in the meadow and chant at the moon before each cartoon we draw, people! We've got find a way to do an honest, masterful piece of artwork anytime we have a deadline, drop it off and go cash the check.

I remember a long, long, time ago when I was a teenager and was eagerly reading an article about "The Eagles' "newest album in Rolling Stone magazine. I always loved reading about my favorite artists and where the art came from. The Eagles had just put out two huge first albums and had become " The California Beatles".

Don Henley and Glenn Frey were talking about how they had previously had their entire lives to write all those songs that filled their first two albums, but now had to tour the country, deal with fame, and having no quiet time at all, and STILL had to figure out how to write a whole album of new, great songs. This time, with the WORLD looking on and the record company screaming for hits.

"They called this process ,"The Hardening of The Artistry". They had to figure out how to turn off all personal and business distractions to do what they were born to do.

That's what professional cartoonists have to do, too. That's what I do everyday.

I'm not sure where I developed that gift, but I know that if you want to make it , you'll have to develop it, too.

No matter what is going on in "Yourlifeville", newspapers come out every day, and if you're a syndicated cartoonist, you need to fill your space, and admirably so. You need to a find a way to do your job everyday!

Some of you have full time jobs, and still need to find a way to work on your craft every morning or night when you get home.

Here's a tip to start to separate your life and your art.

Keep two journals. One journal, you'll never re-read it once you've written in it. The other, you'll re-read all the time.

The first journal is called your " Morning Journal". Set your alarm clock 45 minutes early each morning. Then grab your journal and write. Write down anything that comes to mind. Not so much ideas for cartoons, or stories or anything that has to do with your art... but, write about ANYTHING else.


Like life. Whatever you're going through. Whatever is bothering you, or pleasing you. Whatever comes to mind. Never edit this!! This is stream of consciousness writing.

All your roller coaster of emotions rolls out onto the tracks of your paper right here. All the STUFF that gets in the way of your creativity pours out into this journal. You have to do this everyday. Write three pages in long-hand in this journal everyday!

THREE PAGES. I know. It's a lot.

What if you have nothing to write? If you have nothing to write, start writing anyway. Begin your writing in your "Morning Journal" with the words,"I have nothing to write". Write it over and over until something emerges. Just fill up the three pages. Eventually, you'll write down something.

Do this all alone, with no one around. Find a quiet place the night before where you know you will not be disturbed the next morning. Do this before you DO ANYTHING ELSE! No newspaper reading, or email checking, or feeding the kids, or ANYTHING at all. You can make a cup of coffee while you're doing it and drink it. That's all. Never re-read what you wrote, or you'll edit yourself. No editing! Just write anything and everything down . This will get you released from your emotions that might be tying you down or hindering your creative output. You can always write MORE than three pages if you're obsessing that day, but never LESS than three!

Julie Cameron, in her book, "The Artist's Way", calls this process "doing your Morning Pages". She meant this exercise to help unblock your "writer's block". I use this exercise to free up my imagination each and every day. You can write down anything!!

And you WILL!




One thing you might want to write down somewhwere in it are your dreams and aspirations .Perhaps you'll want to describe a definite goal for yourself professionally. These might flow out of your pen, along with fantasies about some hottie, the neighbor who's bugging you, the benifits of mowing your lawn, the exact count on dents in your ceiling, or how ugly and stupid your boss is. I don't care what you write, just write.

Then, when you've filled that journal up, burn it. Trust me. Just burn it.

This journal is simply the place you fill up with your roadblocks...or "Brain-blocks". So, Never save them, or re-read them. If you do, you will then begin to subconsciously self- edit these pages, your emotions, and your thoughts in these pages, and destroy their purpose! Burn 'em, baby. As soon as you fill one up. Burn 'em!

The OTHER journal? Now, that's the money, honey.

Write down your jokes, your ideas, your stories, your poems, your art. Keep it with you all the time. Write down anything you think you can use. It's all going to be good in this journal. This is the journal you'll look at again and again for ideas to use when you have a job to do as a professional cartoonist. You'll find that writing in this journal almost right after closing your other journal might be the most creative time to write. It is for me!

You'll have your good days and bad days as a writer. When things are flowing, you'll fill this journal. When things aren't flowing, this will be your reserve. You won't be able to turn everything you write in this journal into gold right away....but this is your garden where you'll always go to create.



When you fill one up, date it with the last day you wrote in it, and start another one. Keep this filled-up journal around to check back in on when you need to find a starting point for your creative process anytime! I have stacks of these journals going back twenty years! Jokes and poems that I wrote years ago but could not at the time PERFECT, I have found the seed of something I could later use! These journals are GOLD.

I hope this idea helps you separate your personal life and your professional life.

It's helped me for over two decades to be productive, creative, and enthusiastic at my drawing table.

I still wish I had groupies like The Eagles do, though.

Guy Gilchrist

Cartoonist: Nancy®, Mudpie, Your Angels Speak, Jim Henson's Muppets, Night Lights and Pillow Fights

Founder: Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy

Drawn to Success #6

“What To Write About?”

or...

"or: 365 Days in a Cat Suit and a Plaid Dress”



"It's all right now, I've learned my lessons well. You see, you can't please everyone, so...you gotta please yourself." --Ricky Nelson, "Garden Party"

Rick Nelson's anthem for individuality was a big hit back when I was in high school in the Stone Age. I'd like to change a word or two in it to reflect my own ideas on what makes a comic strip worth reading.....

"You see, you can't BE everyone, so... you gotta BE yourself" - - Guy Gilchrist, "Cartoon Party"

When you write a comic strip everyday for 365 days a year, you had better be HONEST. Write what you know. Write WHO you know. Write about yourself! We all do it. Any successful comic strip is a true reflection of its creator.

A person who knows his or her own self can become a successful writer. Those that write material strictly because they want to appeal to everyone, and therefore writing "jokes" that come from outside themselves and not from within themselves is doomed to failure. Try it. Wear a Halloween costume for one day a year and it's a lot of fun. Wear that same Halloween costume everyday and they'll lock you up in a place where the walls are covered with mattresses. Wear a costume for a day, and the opposite sex might find it sexy. Wear a costume EVERY DAY and the same person you were trying to attract will RUN for the hills and leave "DIAL-A-PRAYER" as their phone number if you ever try to reach them again. That's because HONESTY is ultimately attractive.

In relationships, in business, in life, and in cartooning. I've known otherwise brilliant men and women who never let this sink into their cute, little craniums. They try to be something, or someone they're not. It works for a while, but ultimately; one's own true self emerges. Then, it's either, "Nice to finally MEET you!" or "HEEEERRRRRRREEEE'SSSS Johnny!!!" When I started out, I sought out the "Keys To Success" from those who were the most successful in building a loyal following to their comic strips. I tried writing about all the "stuff" I read in other people's comic strips, thinking that I could write like THEY wrote and become successful in that way. I copied the writing styles of Charles Schulz, Mort Walker, Johnny Hart, Chic Young. I got nowhere. I had enough syndicate rejection slips to wallpaper my apartment! THEN...I decided to ASK THEM what I should write about. Here's an approximation of what I learned. BE YOURSELF IN YOUR WRITING.

Is there any doubt that Mort Walker shares of himself in Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois? Mort was in the Army during World War II. He was always caught up in the middle of the chain of command. He was a little guy, a corporal, who heard it from both sides. The grunts, and the officers above him. He also knew that the Army was a bunch of guys, completely different from each other in every way, trying to somehow get a job done as one cohesive unit. So, what's your strip about, Mort? In "Hi and Lois," Mort is all over the place in that strip, as a family man in the suburbs. Mort's got seven kids... so there is PLENTY to write about! Mort told this young KNOW-NOTHING to write about what I knew... and who I was.

So did Dik Browne, Mort's partner on "Hi and Lois"... a father of three and a closet Viking. When Dik created "Hagar The Horrible," he was drawing himself. Not only did Dik LOOK exactly like Hagar... but, INSIDE, he was Hagar as well. A family man, just trying to earn a living. Sure, Hagar did it by pillaging, plummeting, and taking over countries... and Dik did it by taking over the laundry room in the basement as his studio... but he wound up taking over countries, too... newspaper by newspaper. Hagar WAS Dik Browne, in life, and in his dreams and fantasies. Now, "Hagar" is being done by Chris Browne, one of Dik's sons, and written by Chris and some of Dik's closest friends.....all folks that share common experiences of family. So.... the Viking fun continues. "Hi and Lois" is now written by Brian and Greg Walker. Both are Dads from the suburbs, writing about what they know, and the strip is drawn by Dik's other son, Chance Browne. Also - - you guessed it - - a dad from the suburbs.

Chance, Chris, Brian and Greg are all good buddies of mine, so I have a first-row, 50-yard-line seat to watch as they all put pieces of their experiences with their children, and their lives into these comics and come up with awesome gag after gag. I've watched as Greg's and Brian's children have grown up, gone through all the changes and trials that all children do and how Greg and Brian have taken much of their every day life, filtered it through the cheesecloth of comic timing and understanding... and turned it into a timeless strip full of love and laughter.

Brad, my brother, and partner on "Nancy," and I do the exact same thing. We are both dads. Brad is the father of two brainy, beautiful and talented girls, Jayme and Carly, who have provided him with enough material for a dozen comic strips...all of which I'm sure he'll get around to writing after the girls let him get one good night's sleep, and myself, the father of three. My son, Garrett, is out in LA working on trying to be a filmmaker. My oldest daughter, Lauren, is a talented artist, a successful professional retailer, and the woman who made a grandpa out of me. Oh... and my youngest, Julia, is a breathtaking high school beauty, so full of brains, wit and charm that I need two baseball bats to keep the boys at bay. So... d'ya think Brad and I have any trouble writing NANCY? Nope. Plenty of SLUGGOS running around.

And the beautiful Aunt Fritzi? My wife Angie poses for her when I need a model. The reason I knew Brad and I could make a good team on NANCY and could keep Ernie Bushmiller's strip rolling was because we were doing, at the heart of it, a family strip. Aunt Fritzi is Nancy's "mother," even though they are really niece and aunt. Aunt Fritzi also takes care of Sluggo, a boy with no immediate family.

Coming from my place in children's books, I knew that I wanted to take Nancy more in this direction of family than even Ernie himself had done. The heart is the strongest bond. LOVE is at the center of everything I do. Therefore...our comic strip is about LOVE. Fritzi has centered her life around her niece and this bald-headed kid who raids their refrigerator. She is not immediate family to either of these children, but still she provides in every way for her niece. Love, compassion, discipline, role modeling and...oh, yeah...food, clothing and shelter. And she has plenty of love and fried chicken to go around for Sluggo, too. She has no love life to speak of, since that would just gum up the works...and instead finds joy in the raising up of her orphaned child by choice. That's how I see it.

We live in a world where "families" come in all shapes, sizes and configurations. Children being raised up with love and strong hearts by grandparents, aunts and uncles, stepparents and adoptive parents of all kinds. LOVE is the strongest bond. That is the heart of NANCY, and both Brad and my lives. I'm not saying that in REAL life anyone should put their love life on hold forever to raise children. But the star of the NANCY strip is NANCY, not Fritzi, and giving her a love life in the strip might take the focus off her relationship with the star of our show and dilute the daily message we try to put forth. That's important message of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE that we feel so strongly about.

When you do a daily strip, you have to constantly reintroduce your cast of characters, since there are people who are always reading you for the first time, in addition to those who are faithful readers of many years. Now, some folks don't like NANCY. It's not for everyone. That's where "being yourself" comes in. If you try to write for everyone, you'll wind up writing for NO ONE. That's not to say, I write without the audience in mind! Completely the opposite! I ALWAYS write with the audience in mind. MY audience. I write a strip I feel is easy to understand. I write with the idea that many people probably feel the same way I do about things. Then I try to make a strip that communicates my feelings, and my emotions in a fun, thoughtful way. I also try to make it universally understandable, as my comics are read in many different languages in many different countries.

I do the same thing with YOUR ANGELS SPEAK, NIGHT LIGHTS and MUDPIE. They are ALL pieces of ME. My spiritual side, my side that longs for direction, my side that longs for love and acceptance. MUDPIE is a cat... but really, he is me. He really wants to get the girl, and once he gets her...he doesn't have a clue as to what to do with her. ME...in high school. Or yesterday. The fact that he's a cat, has a guardian angel who's a mouse.... well, that's just a furry coating I put on things in hopes that more people of all races and nationalities will be able to identify with the soul of this white, middle-aged Connecticut hillbilly.

Same goes for "Night Lights," where I write poems illustrated by pictures of fairies and monsters. Still me. All of the characters I draw are bits and pieces of me. So, I make it easy on myself in the writing process. I write about their hopes and dreams, really what were or are my own hopes and dreams, and hope and dream that some readers out there will identify with what I'm writing and drawing about. And having my characters slip on a banana peel once a week doesn't hurt either. Sure...it hurts them... but they're pen and ink and they'll bounce back tomorrow. Just like my audience... and me.

We all go through triumphs and tragedies... but we hope that we can bounce back tomorrow. I hope that this column has been worth the time you spent reading it. I hope you will look inside yourself and find your own message. Your own art. Your own truth. You are a one of a kind, never-to-be-duplicated child of God with something to say that is valuable and enriching...and maybe even funny. Don't deprive the world of that.

--Guy Gilchrist Artist of "Nancy," "Mudpie," "Your Angels Speak," "Jim Henson's Muppets"

Founder, Guy Gilchrist's Cartoonist's Academy

http://www.gilchristcartoonacademy.com/