Author: Mark Heath

I'm a freelance cartoonist. My work has appeared in Reader's Digest, Harvard Business Review, American Scientist, Woman's World, and others. I'm also the creator of Spot the Frog, a comic strip you can find at Gocomics.com.

Eyelashes

~ Mark Heath ~ 1 Comment

On Top And Unsold

Though I’ve never sold this cartoon, it’s one of my favorites. I love the punchline. It’s rare to read an old punchline and not feel the flutter in my chest that says, revise it, make it better.

I’m puzzled by the eyelashes, a classic bit of visual shorthand. They’re not necessary. The punchline depends on tonnage disparity, not gender. That’s the first clue to the cartoon’s age; only a younger me would have thought the elephant needed the blatant and traditional signage for gender identification. Male, female, the punchline still works.  The second is the spacing of the eyes. Today I favor the widely-space variety you see on the man. This might be a transitional cartoon, with elements new and old. A Missing Link cartoon, except for the missing part.

UPDATE:

Summer Slides

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Summer Slides

And speaking of reliving memories, this cartoon might remind you of another cartoon. I’m too lazy to track down the link, but it concerned a loud-mouthed amino acid.

When my laziness peaks (oxymoron intended), I’ll reuse a drawing — or combine elements from several drawings —  and hope that few notice, or mind. There are times when I think of myself as Mark Heath, stock house for cartoons, rather than Mark Heath, cartoonist. Several years ago I was crippled with artist’s block (a condition I rarely hear about — writer’s block, yes, artist’s block, no.) I couldn’t draw. I lacked the strength to plow and grind the pen nib across paper.  The more I thought about this Herculean task, the less Herculean I became.

I eventually outwitted myself — often my greatest nemesis — by reusing old art, cutting, pasting, repurposing. I did this for a year and more, feeling like an impostor, a grave robber, a charlatan.

The Summer Slides cartoon wasn’t assembled during my Artist’s Block.

Sometimes I”m just lazy.

In defense of my work ethic, however, I did draw the boxes of slides from scratch.*

*In prosecution of my work ethic, I can’t wait to re-use them.