Just a note, guys and gals, we've had a few experience some heartbreaking losses recently in John Sheppard's mother-in-law and Kevin Williams' grandfather. When you hit your knees tonight, remember them, and write a note of encouragement if you would.

Also, I've had a few requests from some non-members, but who might one day join us, to publish the chairman's column here, so here's this month's exposition... -------------------------------

Economy Bad? The Dickens You Say!

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” My ancestor penned those words and they certainly reflect the days in which we are now living. The economy has impacted just about every business and certainly the arts take a big hit in uncertain economic times. We as cartoonists, however, have an arsenal of creativity to combat such times. In fact, during the Great Depression cartoonists actually thrived as people needed humor and cheer for encouraging them to persevere. The same is true today. The challenge for us, as creative artists, is to also be creative in how we approach our business. “Look for a need and fill it” has always been a good maxim for any business. The opportunities abound. It’s just a matter of pairing your talent and creativity to a market in desperate need of your services.

What do you do best? Caricatures? Concepts? Consulting? Character development? Just plain ol’ inking or penciling? Try to tailor your strengths to markets that need what you do. Don’t limit yourself to preconceived notions of past markets that worked for you. Directly approach corporations, mom-and-pop start-ups, self-publishers, and independent designers. Act as your own rep, syndicate, cheerleader, etc. Don’t wait to be discovered. You’re already good! Let everyone know what you can do. I remember when I was a staff artist with a newspaper in the 70’s a young woman came into the art department to hawk a strip she had conceived and sell it to the publisher. She had invested her time and money into a regional tour. That woman was Cathy Guisewite and her strip was, of course, “Cathy.”

When I left the newspaper to go freelance, the unemployment rate was higher than it is now. (Ahhh, ignorance is bliss.) But seriously, folks, my income more than doubled that year. The Graphic Artist Guild used to encourage its members to self-promote with the case study of a young artist who set out to advertise via postcards for six months, one new mailing per month. By the end of that time, the artist was consistently working with new assignments. The kicker was, that was not a unique story—it was pretty consistent with everyone who followed that path. I will say, times have changed in the method of self-promotion. Today, you can do it almost cost-free over the internet. But how do you get people to your online portfolio? Advertise your online portfolio web address via postcard mailings. If they like what they see, they will bookmark your site. Include meta tags in your pages so Google and other search engines will bring your work up in a general search. I can’t tell you how many worldwide inquiries I get for cartoon maps weekly, simply because someone types in “cartoon maps” in their search and those words are embedded in my pages.

What do you want to do most? Advertise that and that alone! Don’t waste time on things you think you can tolerate but don’t really want to do. When immigrants come to America, they are so amazed at how the world is their oyster! And they are also amazed at how no one is competing for what they want to do! This is truly the land of opportunity, bad economy or great. You simply have to determine what it is you love most, are best skilled at doing, find the need for that service, and fill it.

My personal charge as Chairman of our chapter is to encourage all of you to be better off at the end of my tenure than you are now. But a lot of that is up to you. Don’t look to government to fix your life, don’t look to a rep to make your career--although reps are certainly good if you can demonstrate that you are a marketable item (yeah, I added this for you, Will ;-), don’t look to a magical windfall to happen, or to suddenly be “discovered” by Hollywood— (another addendum, I was discovered by Hollywood after writing this) -you are in control! And that’s probably the best flesh-and-blood person you can rely on to advance your career. I’ll get into the theological side on another exposition…

Jack