I developed an interest in cartoons in the late 50's primarily because of The New Yorker Magazine and Johnny Hart's B. C. strip. I howled at all of their efforts. In the 60's it was Mad Magazine, in the 70's National Lampoon. Then The Lockhorns, Hagar, Ziggy. And, of course, The Far Side.

It occured to me years later that a cartoon (especially the single frame type) was a high art form. A cartoon (a terrible name for a high art form) was and is a very effective device for allowing the creator to (a) discover a truth and (b) to comment on it - simultaneously. Political cartoons are a good example. A cartoon can be with a caption or without a caption. Charles Addams' unicorns standing on an island while Noah's arc sails into the distance without them exemplifies the latter. No words are needed.

I believe a cartoon is "a cynical celebration of our own weaknesses, misconceptions, and foibles, forever affixed to a piece of paper over which we chuckle, wanting to believe we're personally better than that, but, in the end, realizing we really aren't. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but incongruity is what makes us laugh.

Woody Allen wrote in Deconstructing Harry: "The most beautiful words in the English language are not "I love you" but rather "It's benign!" Humor is born from the TRUTH no matter how ugly it is. And laughter is the result when we recognize that TRUTH. People like to laugh. You like to laugh.

And when I think of things that make me laugh, I do cartoons. I do them because I must. It's that simple.

Life cracks me up!