Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 87

ILLUSTRATED SUNDAY MAGAZINE 7 WHY IS A COMIC ARTIST? HY is a comic artist? Well with me it was a plain case of inheritance or my grandfather's cousin was a sign painter Mother first the awful truth that I had a taste for art when at the early age of six I Itched all the paint oft a half finished water color Even hen she did not tj''ip mo off to Parl'Yo the School of Boozarts or the Pere la Chaise or whatever the name of that place is where they turn out the great artists Instead she put a mustard plaster on my tummy and sent me to led Not until several years later did fresh symptoms of the art malady begin 'o show up in me After a fniir rntifsr in f'Mithall al thv University of Nebraska I grew too strong Io work That showed that the art hook vnn had begun on my syatein Also I persistently refused to get my hair cut bad sign! And finally when I adopted tho full size ra Elbe! us (or Old Alithr Hubbard) fluwing tie forgot to shave comb my hair and fhine my shoes the evidence was complete 1'ate had decreed I was to be an artit So I took a few lessons from Cartoon ist Briggs and sent off a bunch of rot to the magazines rom that day to this my collection of rejection slips has Increased by leaps and bvunds The Philadelphia Academy of ino Arts and the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn both tried to make a second Rembrandt out of me but some how it take Under their influence I did uhnipt a serious work of art When the criticsiw it they said I must have been under the nduence but 1 that pass They were only' jealous The subject of this masterpiecu was the ne from Uncle Cabin Crossing the Say boys! that picture was a wonder! Why you could hear the hounds bark and even fo the cold the ice was so realistic I sent it off to ono of the big money magazines suggesting it a center double page Then 1 spent the money I was to get for it ami when I came to I was handed a letter from the editor the very ntv this is what ho wrote: "The Editor of Blankety Blank regrets he cannot make use of jour comic contribution Crossing the Delaware' etc Thin the truth came home to me that I was cut out for a comic artist A new ambition seized me by thy back of the neck and yanked me up before a Philadelphia editor Ah the wisdom of that editor! He would have made Solomon look Hko a kindergarten pupil How did he really know I was a cartoonist? I hav often wonde red There was no evidence of 1 at if Gul IS A CARTOONrT? tho fact in the sample drawings I submit ted to him lie said so It must have been his intuitive pow ers of perception Either that or lie The Conf essions of a Cartoonist By HY GAGE PHILADELPHIA had just dined well and was feeling philan 111 ustrated by the Authors Own Cartoons tliroplc Anyway he gave' me a job A cartoonist! Ah that is what I would be A moulder of public opinion at so much per mould Ever draw a cartoon? Probably not Well just They have no friends in your family or on the paper that you know of So you walk into the august presence of tho editor with an idea for the cartoon You keep your seat a few minutes until I step out and have this stuff copyrighted (so the to be a eartoontst by mall in fifteen corres pondence art schools can't appropriate my sys tem) and confess the inside facts of the game You are supposed to get down to the office will pound to a jelly the would be grabbers of coal pile If the idea is timely the editor quickly runs through the same mental process that you did decided that he has no embarrassing relation ship or financial connection with that particular about nine A if the boss is due at one it is advisable for you to arrive not later than 1255 This just gives you time to yank off your Coat and collar muss up your hair smear ink on vour nose light a cigarette joss stick to Billiken (the god of car toonists) a look busy before the bjss jiends for you And now it is high time you wore thinking about your idea for a cartoon Perhaps times are dull and news is scarce and your paper has been ham mering the local political gang so long that the public is wearied It's up to you to change your tune While walk ing up to the sanctum you 1 you will have to fail back on the Trusts for a subject for the day boar old Trusts: a would the poor jaded cartoonist do without you? When there Is nothing else doing he can hammer the life out of you to his content There is no harm done The trust gets a little more free advertising the dear public say the stuff! Hit 'Im and everything is lovely Mentally you skip hurriedly over the list of trusts in which your father in law and your rich relatives hold stock These are allowed to escape unharmed Then you recall these that ate owned by your friends Eor them the sign is up Next you exonerate all the trusts in which you hold stock on your own account (hearty laughter!) Now trust and tells you to retire into the soul calm and get busy A dozen different methods for out" the picture present themselves but you carefully eliminate all but the simplest If you can make a pair of hands do in place of drawing the whole figure ou a n'ge back to that pool game so much the quick er So you de cide to let a big pair of hands sent tho grasping Orab enheimers Then comes the II would tho over worked under fed moulder of opinion survive without his old friend "Common Pco Next you decide just how you will have the big hands squeeze the Al aska mineral wealth out of the I oor abused Pv You sketch out a few preliminary put the victim In a lemon squeezer and lals the lemon juice luvva one hand grab him by the throat while the other picks his or better still have the hand snatch the svr victim up ly the kg and ruthlessly and fearlessly shake the dayllchts out of hint and incidentally his wanlth which you will label appropriately Cm1 "Mineral Rights" Power etc The ether hand rakes In the IkhhIIc as usual and your idea is complete almost You must not forget to have Congress Un Hllc man looking on this cheerful scene and enjoying the Joke without lifting a hand to interfere pW I' rem ZXg ootefrtto I I 7 WWe fa A MouMer of Public Opinion at so Much Per Mould Mr Rimnng the Berlin iend" Who Buy Anythin That She Think is a Bargain vl r7x jS fW If I 'yTX T7Y 111 soe A xv 1 I 1 see try the brass wire Trust No that do Your sheet buys its 1 from them II about the Peanut Trust" No Your Is er in law's htts and 1 president of that II about the gen ii I 're getting pretty busy up there in Alaska da As to the actual drawing that is a mere de tail! Any one with fifteen or twenty years of hard study and constant practice can block the thing in with a pencil and slap on the lines with pen and ink! so easy a shame to take real money for it! Cartoonists ought to be paid in stage money and Confederate bills nothing to it except to put the lines exactly in the right place! I divulge this secret with fear and trembling for 1 know when it is made public that the coun try will be overrun with a swarm of cartoonists that will make the plague of locusts in Egypt lose its place in history! And then where would I be? I might have to get a real job and soil my lily white hands with actual work! And now comes the saddest part of this mournful confession of a repentant sinner Pause reader for you are about to embark on a voy age into the depths of degradation with a lost soul! It is hard to write these things about self but having once put my hand to the plow I refuse to heave the ship to and go back to the garage! If by these awful revelations I can keep some brother artist from plunging into the abyss of the Comic Supplement this story will not be in vain (and it may leave more of the business to me) As I look back on It all I can scarce.