When a drawing doesn't come out right it's because I haven't figured out where the joke is. Not that every drawing has a joke, but every drawing has a point. At least it should have. And you figure out where the point is.
Looking back I realize I had the perfect family background to become the political cartoonist that I became. My father was stupid, insensitive, and cruel, thereby making me distrustful of all authority. On the other hand, I had a warm, supportive and encouraging mother, which made me want to fix the world.
I was always nervous, always scared. That's stayed with me my whole life. I think it's all our genes. We're all stuck with ourselves. I wish I were calm. Never get scared, always calm, but that's not me. I panic easily.
I always get scared doing a job. To this day, I start every job thinking, I really can't do this. And what I do when I'm insecure is I tighten up. If you work through the night you can do anything.
I love being convincing. I love when a gesture is convincing and I love doing research for a picture. If you're telling a story you need a background. Just like a novelist needs background information to make a story interesting, I think an artist needs it for a picture too.
Like every young man growing up in the puritanical Eisenhower 1950s, I had a hell of a time getting laid. I suppose that's why I was always intrigued by, and terribly envious of men who had no trouble at all in bedding a vast variety of desirable women.
The big problem for comic art is you don't want to overwork it. If a drawing is overworked it isn't funny. It's the spontaneity that keeps a work fresh and funny. If they can see how hard you work, if they can see the beads of sweat, it's no good. I always try to make it look easy.
My one failing as an artist is that I depend on reference material to perhaps a greater extent than I should. Delacroix said that if you can draw a man falling out of a window and have the drawing finished before he hits the ground then you're a real artist. I wasn't that kind of artist.
We all wish we were better. I wish I were a better artist, wish I were a kinder person, wish I were all kinds of things. But we're stuck with ourselves. I have good friends. And that in itself convinces me that I deserve to live.
