Welcome to our first of hopefully many Rejection Fridays. It sounds bleak, I know, but trust me, it’s not.
You see, any cartoonist, however skilled and talented he or she may be, gets rejected. You simply don’t sell every cartoon you draw. There are many reasons for this. Sometimes, the cartoon you submit just isn’t right for the publication to which you are submitting. You won’t sell a cartoon about bowling to a fishing magazine (but if you do, I’d be interested to see how exactly they are fishing.) Other times, you have a cartoon like this:
No one is buying a cartoon like this.
And unfortunately, sometimes the editor just doesn’t particularly like the cartoon. Your friends may like it, your family may like it, strangers who stop you on the street and somehow know who you are may like it, but at the end of the day, they aren’t the ones making executive decisions at a magazine (usually a good thing.)
Getting rejected is part of the game. Cartoonists know they aren’t being personally rejected; rather, it’s the cartoon into which they’ve poured their heart and soul that is being thrown to the side of the road.
So it’s all good.
Anyway, here is a cartoon that hasn’t quite made it all the way. Is it because it just wasn’t a good fit? Is it because it isn’t funny in the slightest? Only history will tell.
Enjoy.
And in case this wasn’t dumb enough, here’s one last cartoon for good measure.
For every cartoon a cartoonist sells to a magazine or newspaper, he or she has had dozens of others rejected. The trick is focusing on what you sell, not what you don’t. And you know what they say…
It only takes one.
-Steinberg
” it only takes one” ? doesnt make sense
So I’m confused. Was each cowboy arguing that he had the funniest mustache or were they accusing each other of having funny mustaches?
I think they are accusing each other of having funny mustaches…although I don’t quite remember what I intended…
You’re way too hard on yourself – the first one is borderline hilarious. If you wanna be a tough critic, i’ll call it merely funny.
I don’t get it!
The first one actually made me laugh out loud at my desk.