About a month prior, I had been asked to contribute cartoons for a new teen department of the Sunday supplement, REACT. The new editor was Ms. Aris Georgiadis who was previously with Good Housekeeping magazine and had gone over to this new magazine. She had remembered my work at Good Housekeeping where I was appearing pretty regularly at the time and so I was asked to submit.
The letter in its entirety is as follows:
April 3, 1998
Roy Delgado
PO Box 2593
Washington, D.C. 20013
Dear Roy
Thanks again for your comics and the effort you put into this batch, but your style of comic is different from the type of humor and "look" we try to capture in our pages.
As much as I found your comics personally to my liking, I also have to meet editorial needs of our readership. I think your gags capture and conform to an adult's view of teens. For example, one gag reads: " Do you have any other irons in the fire besides playing the lottery every week ? " This is not what I think today's teen reader relates to - - he or she would be able to hear the adult voice behind the gag line.
Also, the feeling here is that your style is too " NEW YORKER ", so to speak, and though far from being a bad thing, it's just not the type of comic we're looking for.
I hope this is of some help. Thanks again for your comics.
Sincerely,
Aris Georgiadis
Fun Zone
REACT A Parade Publication
It's amazing to me in the variety of responses you get from the various editorial departments . . Here I see a real professional who thinks it is important enough to take time and show some courtesy to write a cartoonist a letter with some useful advice, even though after sending only a couple dozen cartoons. I didn't even ASK for why or anything.
Then, you get the other extreme, send in 19,000 cartoons to a magazine, and after 7 years of submitting batches every 10 days without interruption, you ask for a response on three different occasions by letter, and you get silence. It was only after having to draft a unique ' Pavlovian psychological-response ' query was I able to get a "rise". AND I got a PHONE CALL none the less ! Actually, it was worth it, I think. Man, it was like pulling hen's teeth ( I haven't heard that expression for a long while ).
MY stuff was TOO READER'S DIGEST, ELI STEIN'S work was TOO SATURDAY EVENING POST, and HARLEY SCHWADRON'S is TOO GREETING CARD LOOKING ! Man, GIVE ME A BREAK.
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5 comments:
That's the nature of the beast, isn't it! Lol. Funny though how they compared your work to NewYorker all while NewYorker hasn't touched it.
For the record, Roy, I'm a Mr. and I my job prior to React was Ladies' Home Journal. I hope the past 11 years have been good to you.
Best,
MR. Aris Georgiadis
Hi MR.Aris Georgiadis,
Please accept my apology. I really am sorry for the double blunder. My mistake. Shouldn't have assummed! I don't know WHY ! But, I do admit to sometimes doing things without THINKING and CHECKING.
Kind of related story, while in Marine Boot Camp, in my platoon we had a fellow recruit named " DESPATAKIS "( Back then, we had our last names on a patch in 3/4 inch letters and sewn over our left front chest pocket ).
One of the Drill Instructors, a Corporal Hollingsworth, ( who was a good leader and typical example in looks that you see in a " Gung-Ho " Marine recruiting poster, although I cannot attest to his oral and reading aptitudes, was in the middle of mail call reading off the bundle of letters and packages.
When he attempted to read a letter addressed to DESPATAKIS, the Drill Instructor began . . " DESKA-POT . . er-r DES-PT-SKOT . . e-r-r . . . what do your friends call you ? " he inquired . . " GREEK, SIR ! " the recruit shot back . . . " THE D.I. replied, " Well, that's what I'm gonna call you! "
I don't remember DESPATAKES' first name, but I'm sure it wasn't ARIS, or I would have remembered yours !
You live and learn. ( I may have to live longer than most people ).
As for the years since your letter, things have been going really great for me . . in fact, if things were going any better, I couldn't stand it . Great to hear from you, Aris and the best to you at Advertising Age. Drop me an Email with your street mailing address and I'll send you a gratis copy of my book !
who, from the New Yorker, called? What did they say? Are you still submitting?
I feel like I only got half the story. C'mon. Spill the beans.
Shannon Wheeler
fellow cartoonist and New Yorker submitter
Shannon, I tried to email you info on your question, but never was successful. Email me and I'll post the whole story on my blog.
Thanks for your comments, everybody !Roy
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