The One Before “The One”
Every New Yorker cartoonist remembers their first OK — that is, their first drawing sold to The New Yorker. For some of us, that first sale was a discomforting experience because the magazine decided to buy the drawing’s idea, and not the drawing itself. That was my experience in the summer of 1977 when this drawing’s idea was bought by the magazine…
..and then given to the long-time cartoonist, Whitney Darrow Jr.. His version, using my idea, was published in The New Yorker, December 26, 1977.
What’s always been interesting to me are the twists and turns that lead up to life’s big moments. For me, that OK in that summer, was the big moment after submitting to The New Yorker for about six or seven years. Not only was it my first OK, it was the first time I was ever paid for one of my drawings.
Occasionally, I’ll take out the sketchbook I worked in that July and look at “Isn’t that Telly Savalas?“ — the drawing I did immediately before I came up with “Nothing will ever happen to you.” Sometimes, when I turn the sketchbook page from the Telly drawing to the fortune teller drawing, I shudder just a bit.
