Here are three new cartoons now appearing in the new January-February issue of this old magazine Benjamin Franklin started way back.
I was quite surprised to find three of mine all in one issue. If someone would have told me in '53-54 ( when I was 18 ) while attending Billy Hon's Cartoon School in Los Angeles that someday I'll have three cartoons in one issue of The Saturday Evening Post, I would have assumed he was under the influence of loco-weed or firewater ( or both ).
The New Yorker Magazine continues to behave like a frigid woman as she still does not warm up to me after 19,000 rejections . . and still counting. ( Actually, it's not my problem, I believe it is them that are losing out by not publishing my work ).
I guess I'm in good company, as Lee Lorenz once told me ( not selling to The New Yorker ), one of the nicest guys in the business.
It took 50 years, almost to the day, to sell Playboy. I'd sent the first batch to Playboy while in the Marines and stationed on Okinawa in 1957, and on and off on intermittenly I'd try and try again to hit the slick 'girlie' mag, with no avail. People would say, why are so you obsessed with trying to sell Playboy and The New Yorker ?
Bill Cosby's mother scolded him many times as a young man and would harshly admonish him by saying ' Why do you always have to try to be funny ?
Thomas Edison, when asked by a reporter why, after all of these years and thousands of failures in his attempt to invent the light bulb . . ' Why are you obsessed, why don't you just quit ? '
He replied confidently, ' Oh no, not now ! . . Now I know 10,000 things that DON'T work ! '
On January, 2001, the Brit George Leigh Mallory while on his way to climb Mt. Everest, was asked by a reporter : ' Why do you want to climb Mt. Everest ? ' . . His famous reply: ' Because it is there. '
Goals should be personal, worthwhile and challenging. It must be YOUR own goal . . if it's YOUR goal to be or to do, and it is challenging and meaningful, and worthwhile . . GO FOR IT !
FOLLOW, LEAD, or GET OUT OF THE WAY.
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3 comments:
Roy,
Congrats on SEP.
Don't they buy ALL rights? I know they don't pay much, and if memory serves and they buy all rights, why sell all rights? This question is assuming they buy all rights - which I'm not 100% sure is the case, but it's my understanding.
Also, Roy, do you (and if you do, how often?) actually go to the NYER to try and push your work directly to Bob?
I went ONE time a number of years ago, and I have to admit on one hand I felt EXACTLY ike I was sitting in the principal's office. On the otherhand, because I knew I wasn't in a pricipal's office - I was in a cartoonist's office - and he was SO serious...I almost spit up laughing. I thought, are you kidding me? I know (and STILL know) it makes no matter what he thinks of my work or whether he chooses any of my cartoons, that my work is as good or better than what he's already publishing.
Seriously, part of me wanted to just say, "WHY IN THE WORLD ARE YOU LOOKING SO DAMN SERIOUS WHEN YOU'RE READING CARTOONS?
Btw, I PURPOSELY brought him only "average" cartoons of mine because I was afraid he's buy ALL rights, and I didn't want tolose the rights to anything I really like. The best part of it was he STILL set aside THREE out of ten for further contemplation. that's what he does, if he likes something he pulls it and puts it in anher pile. When all the cartoonists got done, they all started comparing notes on how many Bob had set aside. I had had morset aside than most and the rest of the cartoonists were regulars who have been published for years in the NYer. Now, one would think that would inspire one to keep it going at them with one's GOOD stuff, but it didn't me. I might very well - if I kept showing up in person - land the NYER as a regular client, but I don't. As it is, I might send them stuff only once in awhile - mostly because I HATE using the mail - but they're not going to buy my stuff. It's no reflection on me.
I do have one idea, though, that I'm thinking of using on them someday, that might FOOL them into choosing my work.
Hi Dan, I love to hear first hand stories about The New Yorker . . they're fun to hear . . and I know everybody has a story, I've heard hundreds of them.
As far as selling the rights. I'm not saying it is smart . . I stopped asking why a long time ago why any one does anything. I'm not trying to get rich. I've never said I was smart. I never said it is a smart thing to do . . In fact, I KNOW I'm not very smart. PAT BYRNES told the world that Roy Delgado will never sell The New Yorker because he's not smart enough.
I wonder if he said that AFTER he read HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE or BEFORE he plans to read it or ( I would bet he's never heard of the book, or maybe he thinks he already knows everything in it ? ). Talking about WHY someone does what they do . . that's a good one right there.
I draw because I like to draw, I draw because I enjoy drawing, I draw because I have to draw. If there was no such thing as money, I would still be drawing cartoons anyway.
No, I've never visited The NY'er offices in person.
Bob Mankoff called me and left a message on my answering machine on Tuesday May 2, 2007 at 11:24 AM ( after I'd sent a barrage of notes to him wondering what was wrong with my stuff ).
He said to the effect " You want communication, OK, here it is . . Roy, you're not a BAD cartoonist . . in fact, you're a pretty GOOD cartoonist . . You have too many cliches, dopey characters, dopey situations . . you're OK for Reader's Digest, but your work is not quite right for us . . " then he left me his personal phone number if I wanted to talk about it. I didn't call back.
READER'S DIGEST ? Why in the world do you think he would mention Reader's Digest . . ? It's obvious that he did because it is PLAUSIBLE that a lot of Reader's Digest material is a different slant .
Why didn't he say my work was too HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEWY or TOO BARRONSY ? Obviously . . because almost ALL the New Yorker cartoonists appear there or WISH they could sell there, H-M-M-M-M ?
Roy, that comment that Pat Byrnes made -- Are you referring to a letter Pat wrote to THE GAG RECAP? Just wondering.
Yeah, we all have NYer stories and I have a bucketful. I went to Bob's office for 6-7 years. Lots of conversations, lots of cartoon "holds," nothing was ever bought. My take: Lynch is not a good fit at this time.
Roy, I think the reason you appear as "anonymous" is because of your log-in preference. You can change that in your profile.
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