the blog spout: Artistic Memoirees © 2008 stevens The 60's

The 60's...As you might have known..

Boy they sure do go, on don't they!

After Graduation, I headed to NYC to look for work,

and also to have a little fun.

I was full of myself, and thought the world was waiting for me.. Wrong !!

I dropped into the Mad Magazine offices, with my portfolio under my arm.

Great artwork from High School. I was a star pupil of the Arts, in High School,

I was ready to show the world I had arrived.

Believe it or not, I walked into the offices of Mad Magazine,

without an appointment.

I was invited in, I met Nick Meglin, the Co- editor,

I unfolded my black cardboard case,, a gift from my Uncle Fred,

and waited for his reaction. There was silence,

Then, after a long pause, he said

"I can draw better than you,

and they don't let me draw for the magazine" .

More silence.... Deafening Silence.

Fumbling, I wrapped up my artwork, placed it into my portfolio.

I thanked him for his time, and walked out of the office,

stepped into the elevator, and deflated myself towards the street.

I don't regret the time spent, it was valuable.

Nick, was correct, I was truly a novice,and had a long journey ahead of me.

The choice was mine to quit, or continue... I chose to continue.

What I did learn from this lesson , was, that you can reach the right people,

and, that it is then your choice to continue or feel defeated when you hear negative criticism

To find more about Mad magazine,Check out the official web site, www.dccomics.com/mad ,with subscription information,message boards, and archives.

I took the train to NYC every day to look for a job.

I'd look in the Sunday NY Times,

for Art jobs, but without the education,

or experience, the quest was pointless.

I dropped into , I believe it was a newspaper called ,The Journal American.

They had, what was known as a bull pen,

in the office of the newspaper.

Why I went there , escapes me now.

I imagine because I was young, I was treated nicely.

I was shown around the office. I met a gentleman, who was actually working on a comic strip. His name was Frank Fletcher. He saw I had great interest in the comics, and stopped drawing, and sat down to talk to me , and explain a little bit about Newspaper Syndication. It was fascinating. I can almost remember how the office looked, so antiquated

by todays standards, but it was a special moment, a memorable experience. I wish I could remember more.

I googled Frank Fletcher and located some information at Lambiek.net. it is a foreign web site which has wonderful information about so many cartoonist. If you enjoy old cartoons, or are interested in cartooning, I would recommend you taking a visit.

Going on the train for an hour, to look for work every day, becomes depressing, and boring,

NYC has so much to offer, so every couple of days I had some fun, I forgot about job hunting.

I would go to TV show tapings for Jeopardy, the Match Game and The Merv Griffin Show, and a few others.. I became a regular.

I would hang around the NBC studios, and pretend to be somebody,.

Heck, I was dressed up in a nice suit and tie, and I was always there ,saying hello to everyone. I acted like I was in authority. Now remember, this was 1965. Believe it or not, I would take the elevator up , as I had done seeing the TV tapings, and go off on my own. I would walk down the halls of the Johnny Carson studio, and actually look in onto the stage. This was early in the day, so there was no one there. I even popped into a Soap Opera TV show, of course, that was a mistake. I headed out of there quickly, and decided not to tempt province ever again,

but what a kick !!

You could never do this today,

I was young, and curious, and lucky, and it was 42 years ago.

So it was back to job hunting.

One more story, it's art related, sort of.

My father worked as a salesman, and one of the other salesman ,

in his company,overheard my dad mention that I wanted to be an artist.

That evening, my dad told me that I had an appointment in NYC,

to meet an artist, to discuss possible art positions.

I was ecstatic, I couldn't wait.

The next morning I took my usual train ride to NYC, took a subway, downtown.

Looked at the paper, to check the address, and came to the apartment.

I rang the bell, I got off the elevator, knocked on the door. Someone peered through a push away peep hole. The door was opened. I introduced myself to a rather beautiful woman.

She told me to sit on the couch, and we'll be right with you. In the corner of the newspaper strewn living room, was an

old man hunched over a drawing board, paying no attention to me at all.

The attractive young woman, says, come this way, I enter a bedroom. Well, not exactly a bedroom. There was a crummy bed with a sheet on it, and not much else in the room.

The attractive girl, starts to take her clothes off. She says, well what are you waiting for...

I'm standing, fully dressed in a business suit ,in a shell of a bed room, with an attractive

brunette, in her bra ,and panties, and I say, " I'm here to show my artwork to .......

whereupon, she breaks out laughing, gets dressed, goes in

to the other room, and tells the other 3 girls the story, whereupon they break into a louder laughter. The artist lifts his head,

takes a quick look at my cardboard portfolio of art. Then closes it up, and says, I'm sorry kid, but there is no position available at this time. I stand there as the laughter begins anew.

My dad , nor I ever spoke of the episode.

Attending (SVA) the School of Visual Arts , the Cartoon Workshop

was a lot of fun. A wonderful way to end a day, after working in the mail room.

Yep, that was my first job, out of High School. What a cliche....

My parents felt that I needed a better education, so I enrolled in SVA full time.

I began their Summer Sessions, in 1966, to catch up.

When I attended SVA i 1966, it was a non-credited school,

but all the instructors were professional artists

That being true, there credentials were all of the highest caliber.

The SVA instructors were the top professionals in each field ,

a who who list of professionalism.

SVA has been an a credited school for many years,