The Education Committee of the National Cartoonists Society has compiled information to promote a better understanding of the world of cartooning.


Educating YOU!
The purpose of the NCS Education Committee is to help, inform, and be a resource to aspiring cartoonists, struggling cartoonists, art teachers, educators, and generally anyone interested in the art and business of cartooning.

The Education Committee has many different listings that can be sent to those interested. Such listings include, art schools, books, web site art stores, background and history of comics, multimedia listing and more. A lot of what I do is answer many e-mails from people all over the world asking about the ins and outs of cartooning.

If you have a question please feel free to e-mail me.
Looking forward to hearing from you!

Rob Smith Jr.
NCS Education Committee Chariman
HOW TO BE A CARTOONIST
My name's Chris Browne and I do a comic strip called Hagar the Horrible.

I've also written and draw cartoons for magazines, comic books and advertising. Hagar appears in over 1,900 newspapers worldwide, so as you can imagine, I get a lot of mail asking about becoming a cartoonist. The following is a compilation of information and resources for aspiring cartoonists. It's a work in progress that I add information to from time to time, so it's a little choppy. For the most part this material is a starting point- a list of where to look for more information about this fun and interesting profession.

PART 1: A Little Advice
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I think the best thing any aspiring cartoonist can do for him or herself is to learn the basics of drawing. In addition to reading books on the subject, it's a good idea to take a drawing class; if you're in high school or college, they are pretty easy to find. The rest of us can find art schools and adult education classes in the Yellow Pages, in the classifieds or through organizations such as the YMCA.

Even if your "type" of cartooning is non-realistic, there are huge benefits from sharpening your skills. Representational drawing seems hard to the beginner, and remains challenging to the professional, but it's important to learn as much about the basics as possible. After all, cartooning is a job, and if you have any success at all, you will one day be competing with hundreds of other cartoonists who have taken the time to develop these skills.
Art by Jack Davis

PART 2: Breaking In
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Generally it's better to try breaking in at a low stress level like submitting cartoons to a magazine before you try to tackle the constant deadlines and sensory overload of a syndicated strip or comic book. When I was 20 I assisted as a penciler on the "Bullwinkle" and "Barney Rubble" comic books and it almost killed me. Then I tried selling cartoons right out of my sketchbooks to National Lampoon. ...to my amazement, the Lampoon paid pretty well and the editors and art directors were very nice people, easy to talk to. If you have an opportunity to meet with an art director in person to show your work, DO IT.

Show only your best work, and show work that is appropriate for the magazine or publication you are pursuing. I showed an editor loads of things I'd done for other people, ads and stuff, and she said impatiently, "I don't want to see what you've done, I want to see what you've got for me." After that I only showed her work that I was specifically trying to sell her for publication in her magazine.

Also, show finished work. Don't show anything that the a.d. will have to use her/his imagination on... they don't want to see that you have potential, they aren't art teachers- they want to see what you've got. I don't want to make editors sound scary. They are not. They like artwork, like seeing cartoons, but they are busy people and a lot of the cartoonists who send then work haven't really thought through their presentation. A common mistake is bringing or sending EVERYTHING to the a.d. Just show your best.
Art by C.F. Payne - From the Collection of The US Postal Service

PART 3: Mailing Your Work to a Magazine
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Make a phone call, find out who the art director is, do they have an editor who buys the cartoons, what's that person's name, who's his secretary. Write all this stuff down in your Day Runner. It's information, and information is power. If you can't meet in person at least talk to the a.d. on the phone and then send artwork promptly. Keep track of what you've sent and when. Keep copies of everything, or better still, send copies.

A common mistake is not sending a SELF ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE (SASE). If you ever want to see your work again, send (or bring) one of these. If you can send copies- CLEAN, sharp copies of your artwork DO THAT.

The NCS web site has a terrific Syndicate Directory, completed with online submission policies. Check it out!

PART 4: Finagling, Schmoozing and Spitballing
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In the meeting you'll be expected to dance (metaphorically).

As with real dancing, stay on your toes, off his or her toes, try not to exhaust your partner and if the art director wants to lead, you follow.

If you do manage to swing a meeting with an a.d., listen to what she/he is saying, ask questions, look for opportunities. If nothing happens, see if you can come back in a month and pitch more material.
Try to never leave a meeting completely empty handed: without being obnoxious, see if you can get something out of the a.d., like another appointment in a few weeks, the name of another a.d. who might be looking for work.

Be human, ask human questions like "What do you think I should do? If you were in my shoes, what would you advise me to bring in to show you next time, what sort of materials?"
The human approach sometimes will bear great fruit.
Art by Mike Lester

PART 5: Keep Moving Forward
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It's the easiest thing in the world to slow down, or to become overwhelmed by the void. Don't. Keep moving forward. Make a call, make a contract, go sit in a magazine's lobby, drop off copies of your work, take an editor out for coffee, hang with other cartoonists, try everything. A great thing to do is to get together with another cartoonist for a bull session. You both bring sketchbooks, you go to a deli or other relaxed place for lunch, you talk and laugh, you write down the funny stuff and then later at home you try to mold those informal gems into cartoons. It works and it's fun.

Listening to your editor or art director can lead to some magical alchemy. My editor at a syndicate liked the little Scotty dog that appeared in some early examples of my comic strip "Chris Browne's Comic Strip". I tried to write some additional material for the character of the dog, MacDuff, and soon he became the most popular character in the strip. Now that comic strip has gone bye-bye but I'm developing children's books with the MacDuff character. Remember- you too can recycle!
Art by Tom Richmond © Mad Magazine

PART 6: Submitting Work to a Syndicate
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The main newspaper syndicates are:

Creators Syndicate (B.C., Wizard of ID)
King Features Syndicate (Hagar, Zits)
Tribune Media Services (Lola, Dick Tracy)
United Media (Peanuts, Dilbert)
Universal Press Syndicate (Foxtrot, Doonesbury)
Washington Post Writers Group (Opus)

(For detailed submission guidelines for each of these syndicates, please click here.)
Soup To Nutz © Rick Stromoski Dist. by NEA, Inc.
In putting together a syndicated strip, there are many, many methods of working- here's one:

1) Work up your characters and concept. Let your work arise from the characters. Charles Schulz advised me once not to fall in love with a cute idea; the writing should come out of the character, not the other way around. Fill your sketchbooks with drawing of your characters. Don't tell them what to do; ask them what they want to do.

2) Try to write a minimum of six gags a day, with rough drawings.

3) At the end of each week pick the six best daily gags and the one best Sunday gag in that batch. File the rest.

4) Roughly draw up the dailies and Sundays. For now, just rough in the layouts including the lettering. Then go back and finish the artwork. Then go back and add touches.

5) Ink the weeks work. You ink like this: Before you first dip your pen, make sure the nib is clean. Scrape off old ink with a razor or X-acto knife. If it's anew pen nib wash it in soap and warm water. Why? Because pen nibs are sprayed with oil to keep them from rusting while they sit in store rooms for years; if you don't clean off the oil the ink will fly off your pen and destroy your artwork. Always keep your ink bottle in a clean spot on your desk or side table, always LOWER than your artwork. If you keep it higher, you'll spill it. Ink loves to jump onto artwork. When you actually ink: a little bit on this daily, then set it aside and while that much dries, do a little bit on the next one, and so on. Don't try to ink a whole cartoon at one sitting. You'll get tired, bored, sloppy, your hand will smear a line you thought was dry.

6) Check the work. Go back and erase the pencil line after all the ink's dry. Go back over the work again and look at it. Indicate with pencil any place you feel you need to fill in with black. Put a tiny "x" there, then go back and spot the blacks all at one sitting. Add any texture.

PART 7: Closing Thoughts
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Motivation is important to forward movement in the cartooning business. Cartooning can be a solitary occupation at times, but it can be a great one as well. If you need help in the realm of motivation might I suggest "Do It!" from Prelude Press, written by Peter McWilliams.

It is available in paperback, on audio tape, and there are abridged paperback and audio versions as well, "The Portable Do It!" This book has been a great help to me and may be to you as well. Hope so.

Very best wishes,

Chris Browne
Updated Jan. 20, 1999
Art by Revilo
©2008 The National Cartoonists Society. All Rights Reserved. All artwork is © the respective artists and copyright holders and used by permission. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.