Sunday was a huge day for me. I hear stories about how Stephan Pastis got his start due to the support of established cartoonists Charles M. Schulz and Scott Adams. Stephen had a chance meeting (actually I believe Stephan was doing some stalking) with Charles M. Schulz which helped him get picked up and syndicated. I figured maybe if I impressed Stephan enough, he may become a champion of my comic strip and my lifelong dream.

Stephan had an autograph signing here in Houston this past Sunday and I leaped at my opportunity. I had only two minutes with Stephan and I was nervous as heck. I drew up a mash up of our characters and presented it to him. He seemed genuinely appreciative of my gift. I put a business card in there and told him I was on Comics Sherpa. I asked him to check out my strip. Will he actually do so? Who knows. What I do know is that I made the attempt and I am so happy I did. I seriously doubt anything becomes of this meeting, or if in two weeks he will even recall me giving this to him.

Man, I look at that photo and I look like a giant! Stephen wasn’t small… I must really be huge. I look like I am freaking nine feet tall. Maybe I should have been a pro wrestler. I would have had a better chance becoming the next Hulk Hogan than I would ever stand a chance of being a syndicated cartoonist. Plus I am a wimp. I bet Stephan would whoop my butt in a steel cage match. I do think I would win a hardcore match mainly because I have watched a lot of ECW matches. Man, I am going on a tangent again.

So, I worked up a really cool drawing for Stephan Pastis. I wanted to do something that would make him laugh. It did not work. He was impressed with it… but he did not laugh. Bummer. I showed a few people the drawing and they also did not laugh. Hmmm, maybe I should have worked up a few more ideas. Dang it. Oh well, it served its purpose… That being to entice Stephan Pastis to check out my comic strip.

The signing was at a Houston Middle School. I left my phone number on the business card I left for Stephan with the drawing. The goal of course was to get Stephan to fall in love with my comic strip and hopefully inspire Stephan to back my run at syndication. A syndicated cartoonist backing me and my dream would be amazing. It is so freaking hard to get syndicated. I have been trying for twenty years on and off. Syndicates wouldn’t even respond to me with a form letter for years. I have never to this day received a response from The Washington Post or King Features. Never getting a response from those two syndicates has really hurt my confidence over the years. 

The good news is that I got actual letters back from Creators and Universal UClick last year. These were not form letters. Each had suggestions for me and my comic strip. I have addressed the issues and will now present new submissions in two weeks. I strongly feel this is the final submission for me. If one of them bites, I will be so happy. If not, this will be the sign that I need to move on after five long years and develop a new comic strip.

I am never going to give up. I will be a cartoonist in at least 500 newspapers one day. It may be soon… it may be another 30 years from now…. though I doubt it. Not sure I’ll be able to draw once I get THAT old. I’ll be lucky if I am still eating solid food.

The next few months are huge. I don’t expect any response for months… maybe six months. Once the submissions are out I will finally have time to breathe a little easier and work on some new projects for my comic strip, Charmy’s Army. I have so many cool things planned. I just need to find a way to make a living at this dream of mine. Imagine how much material I could crank out if I did this full time.

– Davy