Draw on your funny side! Great girl cartoons and art advice.

Mary Lawton

Here's some great advice for pursuing the cartoon dream from Mary, creator of the very popular "In The Wild" cartoon in New Moon Girls. Mary lives in Texas and continues to create cartoons and other art.

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My first memory of making a cartoon was in 4th grade. I drew these little bug/bird characters and one friend loved them so much that she grabbed them and showed them to the teacher, who was also impressed! That made me feel good. I was not a perfect student, but I always loved art and because I got such positive feedback when I drew pictures, it felt natural to keep doing it. I come from a family of funny people. My siblings and I were always laughing and joking at everything, and my sense of humor began to come out on paper. When I was in my twenties, I got serious about cartooning and began learning about publishing them. I took classes in illustration, cartooning, and took plenty of figure drawing classes. Pretty soon I was publishing a lot and making a good living at it.

One of the hard things about being a cartoonist is getting rejection from editors. I got hundreds and hundreds of rejections when I was starting out in the 1980s. You send your work to magazines, syndicates, or papers, and you'll probably get a fair amount of "we are not interested at this time ... " for a while. But then you start to publish, and if you are lucky, you get a fan base! Knowing there are people out there who really like what you do gives you encouragement to keep on going. Another thing that helps is hanging out with other artists who do what you do, or appreciate it. Cartooning can be an isolating career, but it's easier if you have buddies to laugh with and feel supported.

With so many magazines stopping publication now, and newspapers shrinking to the size of leaflets, cartoonists have a harder time making a living. Cartoonists are finding other ways to market themselves, often through the internet, and different ways to publish cartoons are being created all the time. Keep drawing every day, keep thinking funny thoughts, and soon you'll be on your way to calling yourself a published cartoonist. People will always want to look at cartoons, and cartoonists can't be stopped!

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If you like drawing and laughing, cartooning's for you! We got some great cartoons when we asked girls to submit their funny works. It was hard to choose; here are just a few. Check back at NewMoon.com to see more fab girl funnies featured on our homepage! We also tracked down well-loved New Moon Girl cartoonists Emily Kawachi, who created "Cat Tails," and Mary Lawton, who created "In the Wild." See what they're up to now and get some great cartooning advice!