Retro Cartoon Gag Panels
Cartoon Gag Panels I’ve Published Many Years Ago
I’ve entitled my old retro cartoons that have appeared in magazines in the past as “Retrosandich“. Single panels gag cartoons I was circulating many years ago, 10 years, back twenty and even thirty or more years ago as I discover them in the old cartoon file or cartoon morgue. It gets a bit interesting to see what magazines I was selling my work to, and which one had a specific need for a specific type of content or humor. As to how prolific I was, remained to be seen by those appropriate editors to who I was sending my material to!
Cartoons Submitted Were On A Variety Of Topics
Overall, I had published all types of cartoons that ranged from single panel farm cartoons and medical cartoons to gag panels that were published in weekly tabloids like the National Enquirer. Here is a cartoon I had accepted by The National Enquirer back in the 1980’s and if memory serves me correctly, it was Michele Cooke who was editing at the time, as their editorial offices were based in Lantana, Florida.
Retro Cartoons Like This Sample Are Self Explanatory
©cartoon not for reprint unless licensing fee negotiated
Like most magazine editors who considered cartoons at the time, looking through dozens if not hundreds of actual hard copy submissions must have been a chore. Getting even one of your cartoons considered, was actually an accomplishment…since many editors of the time were including notes in return submissions like “we liked this cartoon, but unfortunately it didn’t make the final round” so this acted as a form or encouragement to continue showing your creations!
Captionless Self Explanatory Gag Panels Tell Their Own Story
The cartoon here is one that was / is a part of my forte, the captionless cartoon. Captionaless gag panel cartoons can tell a story on their own, minus any kind of gagline underneath the image which is something that basically “sells” the overall cartoon. So imaging the captionless genre as being on a level all it’s own. It’s probably why I liked focusing on these kinds of cartoons in the first place. They are alot of fun and in most ways, are self-explanatory. Just keeping these types of images in front of editors helped me to associate my work better with each editor I showed my work to. This cartoon features people in a laundromat and one is using detergent marked “Dallas” and the other person pouring from a box marked “Dynasty” which were two of the most popular prime time television soap operas at the time. Considering the fact they were submitted to a publication like The National Enquirer which is a weekly entertainment tabloid, it was also a shoe -in that the cartoon would have some sort of appeal with their editorial board and would get accepted. And the cool part is, back in those days, they were one of the top markets for cartoons and had a circulation well into the millions.
