How One Cartoonist's Mind Works by T. McCracken   Step One in Becoming A Cartoonist: Fall on Your Head   The late Al Capp, creator of Li'l Abner, said you need two qualities to be a successful cartoonist. First, it helps to have been dropped on your head as a small child. Wow. If my parents had only known that they might not have been so horrified when I was two and fell down two flights of stairs and landed on my head.   Because of that fall--or maybe despite that fall--I constantly have absurd thoughts racing through my head at ungodly speeds in beat up space vehicles. I can't help but think of funny stuff . . . a real problem when you're trying to appear solemn at a funeral.   The second quality you need, according to Capp, is to have no desire, talent, or ability to do anything useful in life. That's me. Of all the things you can be in this country--a biologist, a doctor, a lawyer, a CPA, a dog walker, a porn star, and on and on--but, no, from the time I was eight I knew I wanted to be a cartoonist.   I think it's because anything can happen in a cartoon.   ANYTHING! *** Civil laws don't apply.  Natural laws don't apply. Animals and even single celled creatures have rational thought . . . sort of. People have irrational thoughts about amoebas.  1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 Next>>> How To Cartoon Cartoons That Can be seen a Page 1   Hunting Cartoon 5273: A game warden says to James Bond who's just shot a deer: "I'm sorry, Mr. Bond, but a license to kill does not include deer hunting out of season."   Physics Cartoon 7513: A man with a clipboard standing in the middle of an office where desks, chairs, files, etc. are flying all over the place. "The bankruptcy sale at the   Entropy Institute was going to more difficult than Dave thought it'd be." Relationship Cartoon 5171: An amoeba thinks: "If I bifurcate tonight, will I respect myself in the morning?"   Biology Cartoon 3674: A) A scientist looking in a microscope shouts, "Look, I've discovered a talking amoeba!" B) Something from the microscope says, "2+2=4, 5-4=1, 9/3=3" C) The second scientist smashes the microscope the other scientist, horrified asks, "Why did you do that!?" D) The second scientist says, "I wanted to get it before it multiplied." Want to use any of these cartoons? Want to get any of these cartoons on T-shirts & other stuff?   Cartoon Index   email   HOME of www.mchumor.com