This Day in Drabble History: June 17th, 18th & 19th (Why Cartoonists Shouldn't Take Vacations)
1982, 1990, 1996, 2009, 2020
Hi everybody!
I just came back from a brief vacation. Even though I was only away from my drawing board for 8 days, I have the same problem after any vacation: I walk around my studio wondering how I ever thought of cartoons before my vacation. It’s so strange. It always takes a few days to get my mind back where it belongs.
One would think that I might come back with ideas scribbled all over the place. I wish! For me it never seems to work that way. It’s a bit scary to tell the truth.
So what do I do?
Find my old spiral notebooks that I’ve saved over the years. I jot ideas in them. When I use an idea in a strip, I rip the out page. What’s left are unused ideas. Some of them seem are pretty good. Why didn’t I use them earlier? Who knows? Maybe I couldn’t think of a good punchline for the gag and looking at the idea years later helps.
If I still have no good ideas, just draw an idea that I’m not crazy about. Usually I’ll be able to improve it along the way, but even if I can’t, just getting back to work helps.
Don’t stress about it. The mind eventually returns to normal (or abnormal in my case.)
Our vintage strips for today…
June 17, 1982
June 17, 1996
June 17, 2009
