Sunday Mailbag: Early Work?

Q: I’ve been enjoying your posting your early MAD work lately, but I’m wondering if you are ever hesitant to share some of your really early art? I have seen you be very critical of your earlier work, so it’s a little surprising you are so willing to share it. Just wondering.

A: Basically by the time I started working for MAD, I had reached a decent level of professionalism so I do not find any of it actively embarrassing. Sharing that stuff is no problem. However I am am still critical of it and see a lot of room for improvement in what I was doing 20 years ago. As for my REALLY early work I have no trouble mincing words… it was amateurish at best and downright bad at worst. It just was. I’m genuinely embarrassed by a lot of the work I did on projects like the “Married… with Children” comic for NOW Comics and my first few years doing magazine/freelance work. That said, I have no problem sharing that stuff because it is both humbling and uplifting. It’s humbling because I did do that work and it’s not very good, and it’s not a bad thing to be reminded of that. It’s uplifting because, while that stuff is embarrassing now it would be far more embarrassing to be doing that same level of work today. It’s gratifying to see how far I’ve come since I started this journey, and the humbling part reminds me I’ve still got a long way to go.

Want to see some truly bad work? Here’s a page from one of my first “Married… with Children” comics, circa 1990:

Really bad figure work. Bad perspective and background environments. Poor panel design. Really terrible facial construction. Looks like bad fan art.

Here’s my first ever published magazine illustration, circa 1991:

This piece was for MPLS/ST. Paul magazine and this guy was a local Minnesota politician who got in trouble for womanizing and other stuff. This was done in pencil and airbrush, with paint brush and colored pencil touches. It is amateurish beyond belief. Is that supposed to be a car behind him? Is his left arm broken? The figure of the lady on the right is so bad she looks like a Barbie doll that was melted in a microwave. Were these people’s fingers replaced by sausages? The guy has two different sized hands! I could go on and on. I can’t believe I ever got another job from MPLS/ST. Paul magazine and that publisher after turning this in, but I did.

Here’s a similar piece I did almost 20 years later in 2010, also a caricature of a politician with a car and a similar message:

Gee, can you see an improvement? Still in the 10 years since I did this piece I can see things I would do better here. The fingers are awkwardly done and he’s not really holding that flute glass. His shoulders and knees are too sharp, and the figure is stiffer than it could have been. The torso should be a higher… this looks like his hip is somehow sunken through the car roof. Maybe his ass is poking down through a sunroof? I would not make those mistakes today. Improvement, but room for more.

Embarrassing? You bet. But that early work was not bad because of a lack of effort. It was bad because my skills were still very raw and needed a lot of work and improvement. I always tell artists who ask me for advice on improving their work that, while you should never be 100% happy with where your skill level is as an artist, you should also not let yourself be paralyzed by self doubt and lack of self confidence. Be happy with what you are doing today as long as you are putting 100% effort into it. You just should not be happy if you are doing that same level of work tomorrow.

If I was not looking back at the work I did 30, 20, 10 or even 5 years ago and seeing things I could have done better that means I have stopped improving as an artist. Yes, It’s humbling to look at the really bad stuff from way back, but it also keeps you grounded. I still put 100% effort into my work today and am always looking to improve. I hope that 5 to 10 years from now I will look back at the work I am doing today and see things I could have done better, because that means I would have improved over those 5 to 10 years. That should always the goal, regardless of your experience or skill level. There’s always another level to get to.

Thanks to Toni S for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!