Sometimes you just have to leap.
I’ll be showing the process of how I made a current Batman gag cartoon as I intertwine telling the story of traveling 640 miles from Missouri to North Carolina to learn how to draw cartoons.
Let’s begin.
On a cool September Missouri day in 2016, I was looking online for gag cartooning techniques. A curiosity had struck me after looking through my local library’s New Yorker magazine--full of black and white gags from a variety of artists. It was admirable to see how the artists laid out an entire story in one frame within a lightning shot glance. A gag cartoon is most often a single-panel cartoon that tells a visually humorous story within a frame, often times accompanied with a caption beneath it. They can be topical or timeless. Almost any genre of a situation can be made to fit a gag cartoon, but something stirred in me to know more about this art form.
Now I had been working as a professional animator for a few years by this point--mostly on Computer Animation-- which does not require much drawing. But I did have a strong desire to draw, and continued to practice on my own time.
I plucked a cartoonist from the ethos of the internet--Jack Cassady. I stumbled upon his website and work. While he was offering a couple online pre-packaged lessons that you could pay money for-- I wanted the real deal.
I wanted to be in the room where it was happening.
So I emailed him. Out of the blue. Cold.
He didn’t know me, and I didn’t know him. Just white hot courage taking a chance.
I asked him if he would ever be willing to teach me what he knows about cartooning--and I was happy to pay for his time.
A gag cartoon idea can always come from anywhere. Batman has been relevant for the past couple months. Even though he is a serious character, humor can get picked out of any situation. In the case of Batman, his pointy cape reminded me of an umbrella. A nice visual gag--Batman walking an old lady with his cape acting as a canopy. Nice! I quickly doodled this on a scrap piece of paper.
Ask, and you shall receive.
Jack replied back, flattered by the receipt of my email. As it turns out, Jack lived 9 miles from a place called Brasstown, North Carolina where a school called John C. Campbell Folk School was located. The school was and continues to be in a remote area in the mountains where adults can come to learn about woodcarving, blacksmithing, culinary cooking, basket weaving and much more. And it just so happened Jack would occasionally teach a cartooning class there. But he said it was just very limited basics class. Having looked at my previous portfolio of old drawings I had emailed him, he took a special interest in my curiosity as well as my strength in drawing.
Without hesitation, I booked a plane ticket to get to North Carolina in early January- only a few short months away.
After getting a rough idea on a scrap piece of paper, It is then time for me to roughly redraw the cartoon with better proportions and environments I want to see in the final gag. This is a great spot in the process to do research. In this case I looked up a couple Batman pics to make sure I was nailing his essence. I even had to quickly look up what a crosswalk walk sign looked like and bring my interpretation to the table.
Mountain air does the creative mind wonders.
Now, to get to this place I had to fly from St. Louis, Missouri to Atlanta, Georgia. I had hired a driver to take me from Atlanta to the North Carolina mountains where the school resided. It was about a 2 hour drive. We got further and further away from civilization.
Spooky?
Nah, it was still daytime. But my phone was not receiving service by the time we got there.
I met Jack the evening I got there, and we chatted about what he planned to teach me throughout the week. In the meantime, I had paid for a room that the school provided if anyone wanted to stay nearby the school. A little snug cabin facility in the mountains. All around the school were the different areas you could do woodcarving, basket weaving and blacksmithing. Buildings were really spread apart, so you would have to walk a dirt path to go to other buildings. Very scenic. Very nature filled.
My phone didn’t work but that mountain air sure did feel crisp.
A whirlwind week of learning.
Jack showed me EVERYTHING there was to know about cartooning. He would show me what type of paper he would use, the kinds of pens he could get good lines out of, what kinds of alcohol based markers he’d use to create tone, all the way to the special color paint washes he would use to brighten up a panel. He took me to his private art studio outside his home. It had its own bathroom and running water! Incredible.
And my goodness there were STACKS AND STACKS AND STACKS of finished cartoons everywhere around the studio. Some hanging on the walls, some in folders, some in binders, some rejected and crumpled on the floor. I was knee deep in a master cartoonist’s space.
Later int he week, he took me around the wooded paths through the folksy school to show that research is of the most importance.
He said “Levi, I want you to draw some quick ideas taking inspiration from the woodcarving classes, the blacksmithing classes, the cooking classes, and so on”
At first I was skeptical because my initial reaction was that I could just simply think of blacksmithing and just draw what I am thinking about. Not necessarily GO to the place where these things are happening.
He said, “No, go to the actual place to be inspired.”
Once I am happy with my rough drawing, I will do another pass and clean up all the lines. This is tricky because you don’t want to lose the life your rough drawing had. It still needs to feel good and avoid feeling flat as a drawing.
Breakthrough.
I took a small notepad and a stubby pencil with me. I entered the oven hot room of the blacksmiths. The place was much bigger than I had anticipated. Inside, I could see the fires being forged. The metal being tinked away by hammers. Grimy gloves were present. Dirty towels hung on racks. Sweat dripped down my forehead.
Black iron, everywhere.
Of course.
As soon as I was inside watching these craftsmen bend and forge iron--it hit me. The added sensation of sound, smell, and even people in a different room will bombard your head with new ideas about something you thought you already knew.
Jack saw the revelation on my face and nodded at my notebook in silence. I quickly scribbled out any funny humorous idea that was coming up related to blacksmithing.
We continued to do this all day with Jack taking me to all these different places and helping me find humor in anything. Any situation. Even a log in the woods!
The clean lines are laid out. Now its time for tone and color! This is the fun part. I just go in and color like any kid would in a coloring book. I like to keep things loose and organic. A watercolor essence is what I like most in my gag cartoons. It gives it a hand crafted flavor and feel. I place my darkest tones where I want the audience to first glance at. The eye will always catch the darkest tones first--keep that in mind as you draw a picture for an audience to see. And there you have it-- A Batman gag cartoon. A whole story told in one panel.
Sometimes you just need to make a mentor.
My week with Jack was incredible. I had the courage to just reach out to a perfect stranger and ask for something he had that I wanted--knowledge. And it certainly cemented a better seriousness and dedication into me after that week.
With my simple act of reaching out, I created a mentor for myself, plucked from the ethos of the internet, living in the mountains of North Carolina.
I flew back home to Missouri after those 7 days. Jack was over 70 years old when I met him. I was a young scrappy 28 year old. He has lived and continues to live a storied life. He taught me everything he knew about his trade and craft. A man giving from his past to a youth of the future. And I am excited to take what I learn from him and bring it forth into the future. Perhaps one day when I am as old as Jack, someone might reach out as well and simply ask----teach me what you know. I wouldn’t hesitate to give back as Jack gave back to me.
We all need mentors in our lives. When we can’t find them, then we just have to start making them.
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Note From Tongal: This blog is part of a series of Tongal Community-written blog posts that were originally sourced in the Tongal Blog Open Call Project. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Tongal. Read more Tongal Community-written posts here!
