Top Ten Reasons My Parents Didn’t Want Me To Be A Cartoonist
It was July 16, 1954. I was just washed from exiting my mom’s womb. “Congratulations, Ms. London,” I used to joke that the OB/GYN told my mom, “It’s a Realtor”. My parents owned a very old real estate stable family real estate company and were from a generation where, if and when an offspring arrived, especially a male, they were born to be bred shaped and molded into that genetically-inherited business. I tried it a few years. It was disastrous.
Of course at birth, I was not aware of these southern traditional family values, and, as I became more aware of my environment around me, I was certain I wanted to have something to do with humor as I grew older. How did I know this? The answer was quite simple.
I can remember being grounded, in trouble, about to get in trouble, or locked in my room with no going out with friends for some wrong-doing (never violent or terrible); just pulling pranks since I was very small.
Rarely do I remember my parents smiling and being happy around me except when they had friends over on weekends and were playing record albums by such comedy greats as Don Rickles, Tom Lehrer, Jack Benny, and the like. I introduced them to The Smothers Brothers as a teen, thinking I would earn brownie points but again given the pink slip for “developing radical taste in hum
Stand-up in New York City. Keep in mind this was straight off the farm from Mississippi to the Big Apple. I won’t “even go there” as to how awful I was. It was sort of like Dan Quayle in his memorable v.p. debate, but more like me debating, say, Steve Martin and my comparing myself to Lenny Bruce. Steve to me: “Mr. London, Lenny Bruce was a friend of mine, and you, sir, are no Lenny Bruce.” I won’t bore you with the gory details.
Around 1996 or so I became interested in humor writing, and was planning a book but decided on forming a group of artists and creating a cartoon instead. All of us were surprised when Londons Times Cartoons shot to the top of the Internet rating charts.
In my mid-40′s after a lengthy illness, I decided to start opening stores, selling products with my cartoon images which now amount to over 8500 in number and our counter shows over 8 million visitors since 2005. I have to admit this was quite a shock after only 25 visitors or so for so many years, as it was only a hobby.
Creating a cartoon is not an easy task, but an interesting and educational one. No matter what branch of humor in which one may find their niche, it is a growth experience, sometimes painful, sometimes exhilirating, more often painful, to be honest, not to mention humbling.
If it is in your blood, you will know it, and no matter what you were “born to be”, will not matter. It will have to come out in some way, shape, or form. Educate yourself, hang out with others who have blazed the trail, educate yourself and be persistence. Obstacles will show up, believe me. Learn to like obstacles as it is getting past those obstacles that make us creative and successful.
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