Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Cravens.
Hi Greg, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I wanted to learn to read so that I would know what Charlie Brown was saying. Print cartoons were all over the place, and accessible any time (unlike TV cartoons waaaay back in the dark ages. Saturday Morning or nothing at all). So between newspaper comic strips, the book collections thereof, MAD magazine, and comic books, I decided I wanted to draw pictures with word balloons. Got my photo in the newspaper at 14 for drawing caricatures (Thanks again, MAD magazine) at art festivals and had a comic strip printed for a few weeks in a weekly paper (which folded. NOT my fault!). Got in the papers again at 16 for doing a Lord Of The Rings mural in my room (Thanks, Ralph Bakshi and Rankin Bass). I worked as a caricature artist at a theme park at 17 and 18. From there, it was just a matter of deciding on a school to go to where I could learn enough cartooning and art to make it all work. Airbrushed T-shirts on demand to pay for college. Got a Graphic Design degree, worked as a screen printer’s art department for four years, then went freelance. Turns out, Advertising agencies pay money to people who can concept, sketch, draw and color quickly and when asked. Sprinkled into the next thirty years were (literally) tons of advertising cartoons of all descriptions, comic book work, teaching cartooning, Editorial cartoons, even more caricatures, thousands of T-shirt designs, and twenty-odd years (and counting) of syndicated comic strips (The Buckets) and online comics (Hubriscomics.com). There’s more stuff, plus a life mixed in there. Basically, if it’s cartooning of some kind, I’ve done it -or something very closely related. I should also point out that I currently sit on the Board of the National Cartoonists Society (est 1946). The highest honor of my career.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Times change. I grew up in a world of newspapers and magazines. Some of the classes that I took at the University were becoming obsolete as I took them- I think I was in one of the last classes to ever use a waxing machine and do physical paste-ups of advertising layouts. The Mac Lab (where Apple computers were being used) at the University was created during my final semester. Computers would change nearly everything about the way I worked, and since they were showing up at the very end of my education, it was a game of catch-up after that.
Then, of course, the Internet happened. Suddenly, the whole game changed. And AI has come along. The chances to be creative and do amazing art for money spring from different places now. There used to be gatekeepers- publishers, syndicates, agencies… without their approval and help, it was very hard to get your cartooning out to a public that might or might not see it. That was the challenge before. NOW, the challenge is to do quality work and make any kind of living from it by scattering it around the internet. More venues, but fewer chances to earn from them.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a cartoonist, in the broadest sense. I’ve known cartoonists who sold gag cartoons to magazines, and that was it. I’ve known cartoonists who worked for greeting card printers, and that was it. I didn’t want to specialize in a single product or a single cartooning style. I’ve met young people who only work in a Manga cartoon style. When asked for something else, they won’t or can’t swap around styles to match what a potential client wants. I’m proud that I’ve made a career out of bits of every kind of cartooning I can grab and tinker with. Some people see my newspaper strip, and assume that’s all I do- or worse, all I could do even if I wanted something else. I like all the Something Else. Keeps it fresh and exciting and challenging.
What makes you happy?
Yikes. In the same way that anyone can be obsessive about something, I’m obsessed with making another cartoon. That’s my instinct and my drive, and that’s what I do. They say that being happy is achieved when you address all the chattering to-do lists that your brain makes for you. When you’ve stilled enough of those yammering voices, you can be Happy. Most of the voices in my head want another chance at drawing another interesting picture. So- obsessively drawing cartoons makes me happy
Pricing:
- Party Caricatures- $135 per hour
- Children’s books- $600 per page
- Training Modules (big job these days) Gotta quote it.
- Murals like at the Peabody- Gotta quote that. Whattaya looking for?
- Advertising cartoons- email for a quote.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cravenscartoonist.com
