The Chicagoland Cartoonists Cabal

I was checking out Andertoons Cartoon Blog the other day, something I was in the habit of doing at one point, but unfortunately got away from. Anyhoo, he had a great post about writing gag cartoons. I've written some gag cartoons, not a lot, but a few. My struggle with gag cartoons came in the fact that it became clear quite quickly that I'd have to have my head in a certain place to come up with those ideas, and unfortunately that was really messing with my ability to do my job. I would much rather be watching the world around me, soaking it in and making jokes about it, but I was too disconnected to do what they pay me for. So the post breaks down the thought process he goes through, scanning the business section for ideas, and the stream of consciousness that occurs from that to get him to the joke.
It reminded me how much I enjoyed working on gag cartoons, because when you get a jem, that feels so good. That said, and with work a little slow, I'm going to put this exercise to use, and see if I can't generate a few new ideas.
Oh, one other thing that I realized while on the Andertoons Blog. There is a "meet-up" of cartoonist in Chicago, well Shaumburg actually. There are a couple of great cartoonists in this group, with Anderson being just one. I would really love to get into this and meet these guys, but Shaumburg is about probably at least 1 hour away during rush hour, if not more. Still, there is a meeting on the first Wed. of May, and I'd really like to go, so I'm going to use that as a goal to work on some gag cartoons before then.


http://cartoonists.meetup.com/74/