For Illustration Friday, of course! Guess what the topic is. LATE. As I always complain I am. Fortunately, the pleasant people at IF never complain.

I hardly ever do single/dating cartoons anymore, except to please myself. I’m practical; there’s nowhere to sell them. Yet isn’t it something like some huge % – okay, just looked it up 42% of the US is single! Most cartoonists are not, however- I wonder why. In fact, I don’t know any single cartoonists. So anyway, there was that syndicated panel a few years ago, Single Slices. Not in the Times for years now.

Ooh. I just checked my facts, and it turns out the cartoonist is now a dentist. Here is his story. I should just never look at Google when I’m writing, too distracting. I just skimmed it, but it looks like he was going to switch from LAT Syndicate to Creators, and became a dentist, instead? It doesn’t say whether he’s really single, but I don’t think he was – they didn’t ring true.

Anyway, nice try at the Tiffany lamp shades, Donna! You goof!

You may have noticed that I didn’t have a blogroll that included other cartoonists. Until now.

Richard’s first book, Cul de Sac.

However I noticed a long time ago that blogs who have the courage and selfconfidence to link to others, grow fat and plump. One of the early blogs I went to, Manolo’s Shoe Blog, is so distinctive and funny! This is how all good blogs should read. Anyway, his (her?) policy is if someone links to him, he links back (in a rotating list, since he is SO BIG now.)

I probably visit LA Observed more than any other blog, and he had a huge blogroll, and he is bigger than most LA Times blogs. Even a small website like mine benefited from that link! I thought of LA Observed as a blogger giving back to the readers! (unfortunately, he hasn’t had a blogroll for over a year now, but I’m sure he’ll get it back when his self-esteem improves.)

Believe it or not, there are many other cartoonists out there who have blogs, too. Yes, I’m competitive. /hangs head in shame. But let’s look at the original definition of compete:

Late Latin- competere to seek together, to come together, agree, be suitable, to strive together, to coincide -from com- + petere to go to, seek.

So, in the spirit of coming together, striving together, and plain ol’ good self-esteem, my blogroll begins! I’ll be reviewing other blogs and cartoonists from time to time, but I pick Richard Thompson to start off with.

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One might consider this an example of poor boundaries on my end, or simply showing my hand, but I’m going to divulge a little trick that cartoonists or writers might want to use when working with an editor.

Act as if paying that month’s rent isn’t all that. Have fun in spite of the tanking stock market. Be playful.

I wrote to an editor that has never bought any cartoons from me before. After listing some key positives about my writing and cartoons,  and encouraging her to buy something, I closed with this:

As the 1-800 Dentist might say, “Seriously. It’s time.”

Most likely she laughed and laughed, as she hit the delete button.

(This assumes you know the 1-800 Dentist ads. I love them so much, with that wise-cracking east coast actress,  [Suzi Barrett, according to the 1-800 Dentist himself, who comments below!] that I turn the sound on for them. I can’t wait for new ones!)

“Waiter, there’s a string of pearls in my oyster stew.”

Illustration Friday, of course. What else would get me to write something during this horrible, confusing week? I hate the stock market, and am afraid for the future. I decided a guy I liked isn’t all that. Editors who I thought would buy something this week, didn’t. In spades.

(Although I did get two unexpected queries for textbooks. Surprises do come from unexpected places! Textbooks pay well, but you must ASK for the money. Most cartoonists are the worst businesspeople around. Listen and learn, kids. College textbooks sell for around $70 each. Say the printing is 5000 copies. Add it up. It’s almost $1000 a page. (Although one editor got annoyed with me for pointing this out. “That’s not how we think of it. College bookstores take a part of the price.” Well, that’s how I think of it, ma’am!)

Anyway, back to Illustration Friday. Subject is: strings. See, if I had told you the subject first, it would have ruined the joke. Many contributors to IF are from other countries. I hope everyone knows the old joke about finding a fly in the soup!

This feature, Daily Special, is all about restaurants and food, and runs in a lot of major papers, including the award-winning Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aspen, Albany, and alternatives. It started a few years ago in the Los Angeles Times, in Calendar Weekend. The editor was great – giving me such an opportunity to do a cartoon on a subject I loved.  There was no other graphic on the page at all, not even ads, and so the text “hung” on my drawing/cartoon, as so often happens with a good drawing. I wish more Art Directors understood this!

When it started in the Times, my editor said, “I hope you won’t do anything gross, like finding bugs in the food.”

Nah, that’s not my style. I’m more like Pollyanna. Pearls for everyone!