Portlandia to the Rescue

Let’s say hypothetically you were trying to get your first cartoon published. Let’s say there was a local newspaper and the head guy was crazy about bringing baseball to Portland. Would it not be wise to draw a cartoon that reflects that sentiment? It’s called playing to the room, people.
Now it happens I like baseball myself, but that’s just a fortunate circumstance. I’m not saying I’m crazy about bringing a team here but I do see the beauty in the game. I especially like the way it used to be, and how it put you in touch with the early days of the 1900s - years like 1927.
So I drew a pro-baseball cartoon and the Portland Tribune published it. I’m not implying Dwight Jaynes approved it himself but people working for him probably felt it was a pretty good bet that he’d like it. Whatever - I appreciated seeing it there, even in the black and white version. When I bought the scanner this past Sunday, I thought it would set a nice professional tone if I led off with my published cartoon. That way if anyone had a problem with it, they could address their ire to the Portland Tribune and leave me the hell alone.

The trouble with setting this professional tone was that I could not locate the baseball cartoon anywhere. So for my first color cartoon ever on the blog, I decided to use “Lewis and Clark on Jet Skis”, a cartoon so childish and poorly drawn, that if I had turned it in as a second grader, I would be required to repeat the school year. You live, you get burned.
To the people who decided to communicate this sentiment directly to me, I just say, “Okay, I got it.” You pick yourself up, you look in another drawer and there in an unmarked manila envelope is the baseball cartoon. And Dwight, if you ever do pull this off, and you need a marketing poster, contact me. Maybe this could even help with the campaign. I’m sure we can work something out. Let’s call it: “Baseball In Portland – Catch It.”