For a few months around 2005, I wanted to be a cartoonist for the New Yorker. This, I decided, was my true calling. It was going to be glorious. Fame. Fortune. Collectible anthologies. 

There was only one catch: Cartoonists can draw. 

Realizing this, I spent huge amounts of time trying to teach myself some vague semblance of motor skills, depth perception and hand-eye coordination. 

It was a losing battle. And the eraser industry made a fortune off the pursuit. 

Over time, I definitely improved. But getting to a finished drawing that didn’t look like the penmanship of a jittery six year old took ages. 

Before long, I got distracted by photography, humor writing, cooking, kayaking, and my other more instant-gratification oriented life passions. 

When I look back at some of these rough sketches, I’m happy to say that I still think they’re pretty good. Maybe someday I’ll get around to taking a drawing class, or at least taking up doodling during long meetings. 

In the meantime, here’s the promising beginnings of a temporarily stalled career in Cartooning. 

Most of these cartoons are not much more than rough napkin concepts. A select few made it to full pen and ink. And some (that I created for my job at Eisner Communications) were even drawn up by professional cartoonists for Agency holiday cards and a magazine campaign for one of our clients. 

Enjoy.

Here’s my original cartoon concept

And here it is drawn by New Yorker Cartoonist, Charles Barsotti for our client, STAR Systems.

Here’s the original concept

And here it is drawn by New Yorker Cartoonist, Mike Twohy for our agency’s holiday card. (This was in the middle of the “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” reality show craze)

Here’s another agency holiday card. My original doodle.

And the final illustration by the Art Director, Scott Margolis.