My Cartooning History and its Contribution to PCHS
Many of the drawings on this web site seem to lack talent, but really they just lack time and effort. If readers are to get the gist of each cartoon regardless of the quality of the drawing, I find it pointless to labor for hours on aesthetic details.
Why am I telling you that? Because I have been cartooning for years, and it would make me look stupid to have been cartooning for so long yet only be able to produce these shitty drawings. (Yes, sadly, I DO care what others think of me).
Let me explain how my art history has brought me to this point.
The cartoons that I produced in elementary school were very off-beat. Many are sexual, and others are drawings of my neighbors and family members with funny accessories, but a lot of them are just plain weird. A few of my favorite elementary school cartoons are: the two-headed republacrat, Nerr Universe (a family of aliens based on Nintendo Gooombas. The social structure was fascist in Nerr City but in nearby Zeet city it was a socialist utopia), Nernie Divisions (a parody of a monopolizing American corporation), the election with Bob Dole vs. a Worm (the worm wins) and the blow job/hot dog stand (a guy pretends his dick is a hot dog in order to get it bitten). You can see that I was a lot more intelligent as an elementary school kid than I am now. My, what the standardized American education system can do to its students!
The cartoons of middle school became more sexual and detailed. I made the "Whores Catalogue", including a hairy whore, a whore with six breasts, a gardening whore and an obese whore. I also made a catalogue for sex toys and a slide show about sexual stores (including Boxer's Animal Stables, Pornamount Productions (its token film was Horny Willy, a sequel to Free Willy), Wesleyan Museum of Fine Sex, Guapo Seximo's Sex Club and Building #19's Used Prostitutes). I also wrote a multicultural porn with Yuppies, Landscapers, Hippies, Computer Programmers and UPS Deliverers. My friend Marie (who co-wrote Nerr Universe with me) and I started making mock advertisements and brochures.
In the early years of high school, I began to see cartoons as more of a literature than an art: I thought more about the content than simply the mechanics. I still loved to make cartoons and jokes, but my humor became a lot more cynical due to a depression that had grown substantially since fifth grade. I began to write long satires and cartoons connected more to school and my personal life. The cartoons, rather than being purely funny, began to make statements. PCHS is a good example of one of those cartoons.
I am confident with the cartoons and satires that I write now, but they are missing something that I once had in my work. As I grew older and more self-conscious, I lost my free hand. What I mean is that now I do not create cartoons merely for myself; I am often worrying how others will react from my work. My humor has become more mainstream, less witty and more toned down. I hope I can disregard the criticism of others at some point and regain the innocent passion I once had for cartooning.
Back to PCHS for another day