“….And please remember to set your watches forward one hour”. One hour? I just fast forwarded mine 17 years. And where did those years go? Londons Times Cartoons is 17 years old this March 2014. Holy Smokes. Where did the time go? Where in the world did it go. I know I fought some battles and faced some challenges along the way (that seemed like I was walking through a long bad dream), but looking back, it seemed like last week that all this started.
The last thing I remember after the workplace still looked like Scott Adam’s cartoon “Dilbert” was being downsized from a cubicle and pc to an abandoned warehouse; living on occasional donations of food and small bills from friends. I received no governmental support. It was March 1997.
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Shifting career gears and goals from producing/editing/marketing to “writing cartoons” at age 44 was not something that Dale Carnegie might have recommended in “How To Make Friends And Influence People”. In fact if I had to write a book about it’s humble beginnings I might have called it, “So you’ve burned every bridge but your dog still loves you”. And he did. As did my new calico kitten which wandered up to the warehouse on day. This caused my loyal dog of many years to reassess his reasons to love me but I found “Pat” the cat a new home rapidly and Thor the dog loved me again.
When I launched Londons Times Cartoons, I virtually had nothing. My car died and with no job I could unwisely spend what little cash I had on another piece of tin, or put it into technology which would help me “build a cartoon empire” (whatever that is).
Thor was with me for nearly ten years of my journey. What a wonderful administrative assistant.
My skills were very limited. I can draw a little but not to the level that matched the vision of the cartoon of which I had in mind. This cartoon would have an offbeat nature ala Far Side, yet not the cartoony look of Far Side (or other cartoons for that matter). If I could eventually create it, my feelings were there was nothing else like it on the market. I talked to masters in the cartoon industry. I was too naïve to know to leave them alone. The bigger these icons were, the more friendly and open they were. Charles Schulz recommended I recruit illustrators who were also fine artists who might do so on spec. He admitted it was a long shot, but long shots do happen, especially in the cartooning industry.
As time went by, I wandered and called around with my shoebox full of cartoon concepts. Sure enough, a bite. Problem…he didn’t want to do color. Color was part of my vision but I gave in and figured I could get them colored later. As time went by a Ca. tee shirt company offered us $10,000 for rights to 12 images (if they were in color). My illustrator/partner decided color would be good. And from that moment on about 99% of our cartoons were done in color and still are.
I slowly moved “up the creative corporate ladder” which meant moving eventually to my own place to my favorite mountains in Arkansas; a place surrounded by the most gorgeous natural beauty in the world. As my instincts suggested, it would be impossible to hike those hills, and not be inspired to write some unique panels. At one point I was working with eight different top illustrators and writing from 30-100 cartoons per day (not all great albeit but usually 3-5 were marketable).
There’s a lot more to the story. I pretty much took a permanent break around 2001 to return to college and study business as it applies to the Internet at Western Governors. The professors were fantastic and I learned things that were pragmatic enough to bring into the workplace and facilitate the same or next day.
I never thought during my pursuit of my own happiness I’d meet the woman of my dreams, Lee Hiller-London , whom I’d eventually marry and as it turns out she, too, loves to hike in the same mountains, and is a wonderful artist and photographer and is building her own brand based on her art and nature/wildlife photography. We both love what we do and never get bored. When I was young I used to jokingly say that might happen to me one day; but I never really believed it. Lee and I have been married since June 18, 2010.
We’ve changed our lifestyles dramatically. We’re vegans. We mountain hike 3 or so days a week. We’re out in nature all the time. We’re active with animals and the environment. We have a good life.
I guess there is a moral to this story; several actually.
We are not our last mistake nor are we an accumulation of all the mistakes we have made.
It is never to late and start right where we are and begin working on our dreams. I was 44.
There will be obstacles and naysayers, lots of them. And that’s all they are; and best left ignored, or not ignored but looked at as teachers.
There are those who say “Never quit no matter what”. I say that’s foolish. I say quit every single time you feel fatigued, tired, uninspired, etc. It can be from 5 minutes to 5 years (or more). In my case I needed more knowledge, hence school.
Oh, in the middle of school, I started receiving emails, mails, phone calls etc from every major charity, religious organization, private school, animal cause, environmental cause etc. all wanting autographed cartoons.
I thought it was some kind of joke. Finally friends started congratulating me. Why? For having Google’s #1 ranked offbeat cartoons and gifts. Several years later also Bing’s #1; and have remained #1 on both search engines since Jan. 2005.
I guess my point is, if I can launch a creative venture mid-life, anybody can. Please remember 17 years has gone by like a flash so if you plan to start, please get started.
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Rick London is an author, designer and cartoonist. He is best known for his #1 ranked LTCartoons.com offbeat cartoons and funny gifts Londons Times Cartoons. He is married to popular nature photographer Lee Hiller London who runs the popular blog Hike Our Planet.
Rick London Syndication 