Making 'Toons That Sell Without Selling Out

PREFACE

Back in my twenties, when I was a struggling illustrator in New York, things weren’t going so well – no one liked my artwork, my syndicated strip was going badly, it was in only twenty newspapers, and they were diminishing. Any time I tried to create a cartoon that I felt was hard-hitting, the newspaper editors thought it was offensive and in bad taste.

At that point, it felt like my career was a big flop. I could barely pay my rent, my meals consisted of ramen noodles and popcorn, and my landlord (who worked at a fabric store on the ground floor) made it very difficult for me to get in and out of my apartment without him yelling “Pay ...