A Box Of Drawings
Cartoonists are often asked, “What do you do with all the drawings you do that are rejected, that don’t sell?” When asked, my response has always been something like,“I put them in a box, and forget about them.” While that may sound flippant, it is actually true. Years and years ago, I started trying to organize the rejected work by filing each drawing by subject. Fifteen years ago I did a piece about that “system” for The New Yorker’s website. All these years later it almost seems quaint (or silly) that I even had a system. What I’ve learned over time is that I never ever go back to those boxed drawings, I don’t revisit. When I interviewed Ed Koren last year we talked about revisiting old work:
Edward Koren: Do you rework drawings?
MM: No, I never do. I know a lot of people do that but I didn’t want to rely on that — I just want to move forward.
EK: Well, I confess I do. Sometimes I’m just empty — I don’t know what to do, so I’ll go back through my rejected roughs. Sometimes I rethink them, or have a new idea, or a new caption, or a new focus, or a quick change of emphasis, and by god, it works. I entirely rework it; I take the visual aspect of it and get inspired to go a different direction somehow, or I have something I’ve overheard or jotted down that just fits perfectly.
MM: It makes sense to do that. We’re doing all these drawings, and just because they’re rejected doesn’t mean they’re unsuccessful. I have a ton of drawings that were rejected that I love, and it’s heartbreaking, but that’s the life we live.
EK: It really is.
That discussion with Ed should’ve prompted me to go back and look through some work — just for the heck of it — but I never did. I believe, as I said to Ed, that I’m afraid it will turn into a habit for me (again: this is only how I feel — my colleagues certainly have their own takes on revisiting, and sometimes redoing old work).
Today’s post was inspired by a moment last night when I was sitting on the couch near my old work room. From where I was I could see a stack of bound volumes of Rolling Stone magazine, a box of oil paints, and some books on toys and Egyptian art and who knows what. All of that sat atop a plastic storage box of…old filed rejected drawings. I peered over at the box of drawings, and saw a folder marked Dining/Food/Bars ’08. Would it have been too much trouble to remove all that stuff piled on the box, and begin looking through 15 year old work? Apparently so.