I freelanced for the Long Island Voice, the erstwhile sister publication to the Village Voice, from about 1997 to 1999. It was fun while it lasted. The editors there were fun people to work with and generally a good bunch of people.
I contributed news & feature stories, as well as some cartoons and illustrations. I even provided a cover illustration for the paper's road rage issue. It took three or four passes before the editor accepted it because the first few drawings were too "insane."
I'd fax over a drawing and he'd call me back, laughing hysterically, "That's tooooo crazy!! Tone it down!! Tone it down!! We're not looking to scare people to death."
You know you have something when the editor of an alternative weekly is telling you to tone it down. Because my wife and I moved, I had to throw away the first few drafts. Now I really regret throwing those away.
When my oldest daughter, who was about two at the time, saw the cover, she was frightened. I hid the covers and pretty much stopped drawing at that point. Maybe my drawings were too crazy after all. There were other reasons why I stopped, but I won't get into that now.
I'm drawing again, so hide your children.
Perhaps the funniest time at the Voice was when the editor-in-chief was away on vacation and music editor called, asking me to provide an illustration for an unflattering piece he was writing on the Spice Girls.
This was a dream assignment-- I can ridicule the Spice Girls and the height of their hype??? Life is good! Any cartoonist in the country would have drooled over this chance. I remember asking the music editor, "Can I go to town?" Meaning, of course, no holding back. "Yes. Go to town." So I did, although I did hold back a little.
When the editor returned from vacation, he jovially hollared at me. "What's with you? I go away on vacation and you sneak a drawing like that past me?"
I think he thought it was funny, like I was shooting spitballs in the class while there was a substitute teacher. But I also think he may have been a bit nervous about the possibility of a law suit or something.
Bishopsgate and the Death of All You Hold Sacred
I'll add more when I get more time.
