The salesman

So, I've decided to become a travelling salesman. Actually, just a part time salesman. I'm getting the feeling that its very necessary at this point to promote my cartoon "Cafe con Leche." This week I'm planning on making a few stops to local papers and pitch my cartoon. I figure a little face time won't hurt. Now, I guess I have to work on my pitch.

Indianapolis Star and The (Tampa) Sentinel Bulletin

Long overdue shout-outs. These were the first newspapers to pick up my strip "Cafe Con Leche." I've been getting some very positive responses from the Indy Star. I get a few emails per month regarding CCL from local readers. And with the Florida Sentinel-Bulletin, I finally get a presence in my own state, not to mention the African-American community. So kudos to both papers. In this difficult time where newspaper revenues are shrinking along with comic pages, its good to see some of them are still willing to take a chance on a new feature.

Exhausted

Wow! You just don't know how much energy a full-time job plus drawing 14 cartoons per week can drain out of a person. I'm feeling really good about the progression of both cartoons at this time, but severely lacking energy for anything else. The good news is that I think that I'm all caught up on cartoons, which means that I can take a short break at the end of the week.

My Birthday

Since today is my birthday, I've decided to take a day off from cartooning. People think that I should be freaking out or something just because I turned 39, (1 year from doomsday they say). Well, I'm looking forward to next year and continuing to grow as a person and as a cartoonist.

Congrats to Keith!!

Shout out to Keith Knight for winning the Harvey Award for Best Syndicated strip. Couldn't have happened to a better cartoonist. He's been doing his thing for quite a while.

Making progress

Just wanted to report that I recently did an interview with a local Tampa area African-American weekly newspaper called the Florida Sentinel Bulletin. Things went really well, so well that they decided to pick up both of my features. That's an avenue that I hadn't tried before.
Also, I had a very nice conversation with editor of the St. Petersburg Times Features section. I was very encouraged to learn how much he likes cartoons. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Running Latino gag

As a salute to the Latino community, I've created a running gag. Whenever Maria reads the paper, the name of that newspaper will reflect an actual newspaper in Latin America or Latino newspapers in the USA. I'm making it a running gag. Expect to see La Opinion, Clarin, El Universal, Reforma, O Globo etc. on the masthead.

Together (at last)

Not sure if you saw this, but last Sunday began the convergence of my two cartoons "Working It Out" and "Cafe con Leche." Trey, one of the main characters of "CCL" apperared in the Monday Sept. 3rd Labor Day edition of "WIO" with the lead character Mr. Jamison. I'm planning on doing more of this kind of thing in the future.

I'm Baaaaack!

It's been a while since my last blog entry, but I'm back. I have been in the middle of a transition period, now all the dust has settled. I just bought a fancy new drafting table and I now have a new art studio in South Tampa. Hopefully I can get a ton of cartooning done.