June 14th, 2014

The Cartoon Bug

by Sandra Bell-Lundy

    It’s taken me a while to get caught up and back to normal since I got home from the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards weekend in San Diego!  My talk went well…at least that’s what everyone told me.  Then again…there’s one heck of a lot of drinking going on during the weekend so who can say for sure? 🙂  But the whole weekend was fantastic…well organized, interesting and fun.  It ‘s so great to get together with my cartooning friends in person instead of via internet or telephone! Tom Richmond and his wife, Anna outdid themselves making sure everything ran smoothly.  On the final night of the weekend, we had dinner on the Midway. Pretty hard to beat that!

So…if you’re wondering about the little cartoon above…that’s my very first syndicated comic.  Note the date of Feb. 16, 1973…and my age…13…actually I think I may have been 14.  Anyway, I’ll save you the trouble of doing the math…that makes me 56.  And I look exactly the same except my hair is shorter…and dyed to hide the grey.

“The Cartoon Bug” was a syndicated feature that paid ten dollars if they selected your comic submission.  They printed your photo and gave a short critique.  I was pretty thrilled when they sent me notice that my cartoon had been selected.  Note the hat on the little boy with the yo-yo…that’s my Jughead influence from the Archie comic books.

Humble beginnings, for sure!