Help me find this blog entry(?) by a regretful, semitalented cartoonist.

November 12, 2014 5:05 AM

Many years ago, I read a blog entry or the like by a person who followed his dream to be a cartoonist, despite not being very talented, and regretted his decision. Help me find it!

I don't remember many details. I don't know if it was a single blog entry, or a series of entries, or the whole content of the site. What I do remember is that it was on his own site, not a group site like reddit or whathaveyou. As a kid he was OK at drawing. Better than his peers, but not wonderful. Because he was better than other kids, and liked drawing, he was encouraged to follow his dream and become a professional artist (cartoonist? comic book artist? illustrator?). He went to art school became a pro. Unfortunately, as an adult, he realized that he just wasn't that good, and there were too many people that were way better than him, and he found little work. He regretted his decision to become an artist. Does this ring any bells for anyone?

posted by Bugbread to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Maybe this interview with Michael Kupperman:

Question: What made you want to be a cartoonist?

Michael Kupperman: I took a really circular route into comics. I went to school for fine art, which in retrospect is one of those decisions that just confuses me. But I just had no idea what was involved in any kind of artistic production. So I did that and then I kind of, you know, hung around doing drawings for a couple of years and I started doing comics for a Zine that was being done out of Williamsburg called Hodags and Hodaddys and it was Xerox with a laminated cover and, you know, was handed out to all my friends and neighbors and I started doing stuff for that and, you know, the response I got convinced me that maybe this was something I should follow. So, you know, because I liked getting a response. So I got into it and then a couple of years later, I started doing illustration as well....

Question: What was your biggest career mistake?

Michael Kupperman: Oh, there have been so many career mistakes in my career, sometimes it seems like it's nothing but. I would say going into comics at all is a profound mistake and anything that follows that is just compounding it. But you know, now I'm stuck with it. As they say in the Godfather, "This is the life that I chose."

Question: What advice do you have for aspiring cartoonists?

Michael Kupperman: My advice to any young aspiring cartoonist would be to gain some other skills, you know, to have some other things you can fall back on or rely for income. But again, any younger artist is probably going to know computers and marketing, which are really the two things you need to know.

posted by John Cohen at 6:16 AM on November 12, 2014

Response by poster: Though that's along the right lines, I doubt that's the guy (unless fortune really took an upswing in the intervening years). The person I'm thinking of was definitely not that successful. Also, even if it were Kupperman, the thing I'm thinking of wasn't that interview (it was just him writing, not being interviewed by someone).
posted by Bugbread at 6:29 AM on November 12, 2014

This maybe?
posted by natteringnabob at 7:00 AM on November 12, 2014

Response by poster: Nope, the person I'm thinking of never really got successful (or, at least, they weren't successful as of the time I read the site).
posted by Bugbread at 7:04 AM on November 12, 2014

Are you maybe thinking of this article by Rachel Nabors? "Why 'Do What You Love' is Bad Career Advice."
posted by Narrative Priorities at 7:56 AM on November 12, 2014

It's much more recent than you're saying, but it got linked around quite a bit and seemed worth suggesting, just in case.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 7:57 AM on November 12, 2014

NP, that was the piece suggested (and rejected) in the response before yours.

Looking back a few years, I thought that Drew Weing kinda flamed out from doing his Journal Comic, but he did come back and I can't find the post I'm thinking of, so it might not have been him...
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:17 AM on November 12, 2014

InkTank?
posted by Buttons Bellbottom at 8:39 AM on November 12, 2014

Response by poster: Sorry, none of those, as far as I can tell.
posted by Bugbread at 2:27 PM on November 12, 2014