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Mike Luckovich received the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1995. He cartoons for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, where he's worked since 1989, and is syndicated through a large number of publications, including Newsweek and the New York Times. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1982 and after starting his career as a life-insurance salesman, entered the field of cartooning with positions in North Carolina and Louisiana prior to settling down in Atlanta. He has a wife and four children.
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(Introductory conversation; PH describes project and ML expresses enthusiasm)
PH: To get started, it'd be great just to hear about your first full-time job out of college or graduate school, and what your thinking was as you went into that job.
ML: In college - I graduated in 1982 from the University of Washington - and right before I graduated, I sent out 300 resumes along with cartoons to papers all over the country, both big and small papers. So I just waited for the offers to come in, but no one wanted to hire me. Editorial cartooning is a very tough field to break into. I think you probably have a better chance of becoming a professional baseball player than an editorial cartoonist. There just aren't that many doing it, and once you get started, you don't want to stop doing it, because it's fun, so people juts keep going and going, and there's not many openings.
So I sent all these resumes out, and I couldn't get a job. A friend of mine said, "Hey, my dad's got a company. You ought to come work for us." But he didn't describe the company, so I went to a meeting, and they spent a long time talking about the thing. It wasn't until an hour or two into it that I finally found out it was selling life insurance to union members.
So it was just, I'm not really a salesperson, but I had nothing else going on, and I was living in the state of Washington, so we'd travel to various little towns all across Washington state trying to sell union members life insurance, and it was, it was miserable. You didn't get paid anything - only if you sold a policy. It was all just on commission. But we were paying for the dumpy motels we were staying on, so it was a lot of pressure. Plus I was about to get married, so I - It was really tough.
So I did that for a couple of years, and eventually, "Editor and Publisher", which is sort of a magazine for the newspaper industry - I had subscribed to that, and I saw an ad for an editorial cartoonist. So I sent all my stuff out, and as I was selling this life insurance, as I was driving from house to house, I would keep on the passenger seat of my Ford Pinto, I'd keep the page open in Editor and Publisher that had that ad for the cartoonist, just hoping I'd get it. It turned out it was a paper in Greenville, South Carolina. So they interviewed me, and that's where I got my first job, in 1984.
PH: How long had you been studying the - or, not studying, but selling the life insurance?
ML: Two years. So I was one of the old men in the agency by then, because people just drop out of that. It's really tough to make a living at.
PH: Right, interesting. So you were basically ready to get out of there as soon as possible.
ML: Oh, yeah! I just had no other option when I got out of school. I needed to do something, and that job was there, and I couldn't get a job as an editorial cartoonist.
PH: So then, when you took that first job as a cartoonist, what was that like?
ML: Oh, jeez, I was just so darned happy to have gotten it. My wife and I drove from Seattle to Greenville, South Carolina. We had grown up in a large, progressive city, and this was a small city that wasn't progressive. So it was sort of a, it was culture shock, but at least I had my foot in the door, and 9 months after I got the job, the paper in New Orleans called me and asked me if I was interested.
PH: And what do you think it was that made that happen so quickly? How did the people in New Orleans notice you?
ML: Jeez, I don't remember. I was sending my stuff out to the various publications like the New York Times and Newsweek, and they had started to print my cartoons.
PH: Oh, okay. So you were doing that even as you were working in Greenville?
ML: Yeah. Yeah.
PH: Just out of curiosity, what was motivating that?
ML: Just to get my stuff out there, and in the back of my mind, I was really hoping to get out of Greenville, because we didn't really like it too much. It was just a great place to get started. Like I said, the field is so small that that was a first step. I was just trying my hardest to take another step. When that job opened up, I got that job, and was there for 4 years, and then went here to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and that was in '89.
PH: As you were going through that period in the early years, did you have any ambitions, any thought as to where things were going to go?
ML: No, I just knew that the thing that I love to do, editorial cartooning - that's all I wanted to do. So when I got the job as a life insurance salesman, I felt a little bit down about that, but it didn't - but on the weekends, when I wasn't selling insurance, I was drawing editorial cartoons and just giving them free to a suburban paper outside of Seattle, just so that I was still doing it and had a ready supply in case a job did open up.
It was a little bit frustrating, because I wasn't doing what I wanted to be doing right away, but I just had this hope that something was going to happen. I didn't want to fail at that.
PH: What was it that made you love cartooning so much, even to do it on the weekends and nights and that kind of thing?
ML: It was just something that I had been born to do, really. In elementary school, I was drawing cartoons of the teachers, as I was - My dad, we were transferred around a lot, so that was the first thing I'd do. I'd come into a new class and draw the teacher and pass it around to the other kids in class, and that was sort of a way to make friends. So this was something - like I said, I'm not really good at anything else, and I just really wanted to do that, and especially when I got a job as a life insurance salesman, I thought, "I can't - I can't do this" for any longer than I did it, that two years that I did it. It just about drove me nuts. Like I said, as I drove around in my Pinto, which was the car I had at the time, and had that ad open in Editor and Publisher, even though I hadn't officially gotten the thing, I just knew, jeez, I was close to getting a job as a cartoonist.
PH: Was this something that was intensely in your mind day to day, or was it something like every few weeks or months, you would think about it, but otherwise, you were just going through the daily grind with the insurance?
ML: Well, I was going through the daily grind with the insurance, but it was also a thing that was constantly on my mind. I would look at newspapers from around the country, or Newsweek, which was printing cartoons, and I'd think to myself, "You know, I think I'm better than that person there, and that person has a job," and so I'd think, "Man, I just have to redouble my efforts and just keep, just keep doing cartoons on my own, and hopefully something's going to open up." And so it eventually did.
PH: That's just a very impressive tale of perseverance and kind of hope, I guess.
ML: Oh, yeah.
PH: It sounds like your wife was fairly supportive, as well.
ML: Right, right. She was. She had great confidence that I would eventually get a job, and it was just something - It wasn't, it's not like I thought, "Boy, I'm really persevering here." It was just like, "Well, I'm doing this life insurance. I've got to get a job as an editorial cartoonist, and that's what I'm going to do." I never really thought of it as making a huge effort. It was just always in my mind, that that's what I'm doing, and this is something I've got to do until I can get a job [in cartooning]. I was just so happy that I had something in my life like cartooning that I knew that that's what I wanted to do. It would've been harder for me if I hadn't had a goal, and if I hadn't had something I was really interested in. Then that would've been tough, but to have something in mind, and then to just keep thinking, well - I felt that I was in control in that I could keep getting better, and I could keep doing it on my own, and that eventually, I would have to get a job, because I would just keep getting better, and eventually, someone would want to hire me.
PH: Was there anyone else besides your wife, other peers or mentors who sort of helped your development?
ML: No, not really. (chuckles) It was all just -
PH: Pretty lonely?
ML: No, it wasn't lonely. Again, it wasn't anything that I really thought about. I would get home and start looking in the paper for cartoon ideas, and at that point, I was spending - I would spend 8 hours, sometimes drawing into the middle of the night, trying to get a drawing just the way I wanted it. Even though I wasn't getting paid for it, I just wanted to have it the best that I could.
You know, it's - nothing has really changed. That was back in '82-84 that I was trying to get that job, but I still feel the same way today. I still want to do the best that I can, and I sit every day and my deadline is 5:30, and I sit every day and work right up until that deadline, coming up with ideas, trying to come up with an idea that's better than the one that I currently have. So it's just - you know, I'm not like that with much else in my life. I'm just trying so hard every day to do the best job that I can. Because I enjoy it so much, I really feel fortunate to be doing it.
PH: That's interesting. What do you think is keeping you so focused? It seems like you've achieved a lot of success, and yet you still have that same burning passion you did years ago? Is it just - What is it - Is there anything besides that love of cartooning?
ML: (Pauses) I'm competitive. I want to be the best, and so I'm competitive that way. But I'm mainly competitive with myself. I always think, gosh, I can do better than what I'm doing. So it's that competitiveness that I have with myself, trying to push myself harder, that really keeps me interested and makes the job interesting, and a challenge.
PH: Interesting. Okay. When you mention the times that you've stayed up 8 hours at night, working on a cartoon, have you ever found work-life to be a challenge? It sounds like - Has it fit pretty well?
ML: You know, it's, well - spending the 8 hours a night - That was before I'd gotten a job, that was when I was just a new, when I was selling life insurance, and I would come home on the weekends and spend that time in the middle of the night working.
Now, I've really got a great setup. I usually, I really know my highs and lows during the day. I'm not really a morning person, so I usually don't get in here until, the earliest is usually around 11:30. Then I have lunch. So that's the first thing I do. But, and I tend to come up with ideas later in the afternoon, but I'm a very - I draw very quickly. I don't pencil anything in before I draw. I just ink right on the drawing board. So that saves me a lot of time.
So as far as - There's some days - we have 4 children now - there's some days when I miss dinners because I'm having a tough day, but normally, my job probably gives me more time with my family than most jobs.
PH: That's great. And then, looking back on that early stage in your career, were there any particular axioms or epigrams, little pieces of philosophy that you tried to use to follow?
ML: No, I never - It was almost, it was almost - I consciously was pursuing this, but it was never like, "Okay, -" I never thought to myself, "I have to follow this rule," or something. It was all self-motivated, and again, it wasn't like I spent a lot of time thinking about it. I just knew this was what I needed to do.
It was very simple, almost primitive. I have to keep drawing and drawing and drawing in case a job opens up, and when that job opens up, I'm going to send them stuff. My first job at the Greenville News, I applied to them, and sent cartoons, but what I also did is, every few days, I would send them fresh batches of cartoons, so they could see, as the news was occurring that week, what I was working on. It's just this drive I had to - I guess I just didn't want to fail. Failure would've been really - I just couldn't have taken failure. I got frustrated that it wasn't happening quicker, but I just knew this was what I had to do to achieve that goal of getting a job.
PH: Sure. The other thing in summarizing here is, do you remember any forks in the road, any points at which you might've turned away from your dream, where you were thinking about maybe not pursuing cartooning any further?
ML: I don't think there was ever a time that I didn't consider pursuing it, but there were times when there would be an opening somewhere, at some paper somewhere, and they would hire a cartoonist who was already established and working at a, somewhere else or something. So there were times when I would think, "Jeez, this is so danged frustrating." But there was never a time when I thought, "Well, this isn't going to work."
PH: Sure. You just always knew that you would persevere?
ML: Well -
PH: How did you deal with that disappointment, for example? When it wouldn't work out, on occasion?
ML: Well, again, the only way that I could control that was to keep drawing, and getting better, and I guess my thought was, "I'm going to keep - No matter what I'm doing, as long as I'm selling this life insurance, or whatever other crummy job I'm doing, I'm going to keep drawing and get so good that I will be the very best, and someone will have to hire me." I guess that was my feeling, because that was the only thing I could control was my, was the type of cartooning I was doing. By doing it, you get better, and so it was just a constructive way for me to feel like, "Well, I don't have a job now, but eventually, I've got to have one, because I'm going to keep getting better."
PH: That's great. So in summary, do you have any lessons or thoughts to offer to young people who are getting started today?
ML: Are you talking about in general, about any job, or about cartooning?
PH: I guess in general, but obviously you know cartooning best, so if there are things about cartooning that you want to speak to to be a little bit more authentic, and then we can try to generalize -
ML: I guess I'd probably rather talk in general. I guess if a young person out there has something they want to do, then they should just - If they can't do it right away, don't let that be an obstacle. Pursue what you're going to do when you're not working at the temporary job you've gotten. Take something so that you can live, but at the same time, keep pursuing your other goal, and eventually, if you work hard and you - So many times, it's tough to, it is tough. You get down and you get a feeling, "Oh, this is never going to happen to me." But if you can just kind of think, "You know what? I can make this happen."
Of course, you also have to be realistic. When it comes to something like cartooning, you have to be able to look at what you're doing and look at what's out there, established cartoonists, and think, "Am I doing as well or better than what I'm seeing out there?" So you have to be realistic with yourself. I often have young people come into my office, and they've done a couple of crappy drawings of Snoopy, and they think - they ask me, "Am I good enough to be a cartoonist?" Well, that's not, that's not - you're not putting out much effort. You really have to put out the effort, and you have to be honest with yourself. But if you feel like you're good at something, not matter what it is, and that's what you want to do, then I really think you'll eventually get to do it, if you just keep pursuing it, and you don't become so frustrated that you give up.
The one thing life insurance taught me is that you have to go through a lot of no's before you get a yes. If you can kind of look at the rejection as bringing you closer and closer to your goal, to that yes that you're looking for, then you can use those rejections. They can almost become a positive towards what you're trying to accomplish. But if you're - if you let the no, if you get one or two no's, and you think, "I can't go on," well, then, you'll never reach your goal. You just have to get past that stuff. So much of this stuff is just mental. No one likes to be rejected, but that's really part of obtaining the job that you want.
PH: Great, this has been very helpful. I really appreciate you sharing this info...
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