How Internet Cartoonist Rick London Made It To The Top
Alexa Ferotina
The way that Rick London crafted and organized Londons Times Cartoons and it's peripheral shops was a brilliant move in my mind, as a marketing major. Though Rick was not formally educated at the time of launching the venture, he had an instinctive sixth sense of knowing what was missing in the cartoon world.
Rick had a good bit of experience in corporate America before starting. He was keenly aware that most professions had trade magazines and this was virtually an untapped market. Most were low budgeted and could not afford an inhouse cartoonist, and were willing to pay a small amount for a monthly or quarterly cartoon. Rick provided it. He made a hundred calls a day to publishers. Out of that hundred, he would generally sell one or two cartoons. He was building a portfolio and enough money to keep the lights on.
Since Rick was living hand-to-mouth at the time, if the answer was "no, we don't have the budget" which it often was, Rick would offer the cartoon as a barter for a product or service to run the cartoon in their catalogs, websites, or other publications. This worked at least 50% of the time, and Rick was able to barter the cartoon images for everything from fishing tackle to food. Food was his main goal at the start because at times, he was not eating, simply working day and night. Until this day, he has a four year running barter with one natural food company where he receives a huge box of natural food and vitamins in trade for a single black and white cartoon that is published on their hard copy mail-out catalog
Rick had not fished in years though he always loved fishing. His maternal grandfather Marcus London taught him to fish when he was four. He had stopped as an adult, but when he learned he could barter his fishing-related cartoons for tackle, he was at it again. He has a great many cartoons that are related to fishing. They appear on websites and in fishing journals worldwide. He had started this project in the late 1990's. He was then a "nobody" as he liked to say. The fishing tackle he bartered for, this time, was not for fun, but to eat. He would dig for worms and catch grasshoppers and go to a nearby pond or river and not return home until he had enough for a meal. He reminded me of Henry David Thoreau.
Though he still enjoys the negotiation process of bartering, he does so less than when he started. He started out of need. Now he is the one solicited by publishers and authors who need his work. He had vision when he created his cartoons into categories that would fit into trade journals and business websites. He knew what he was doing when others thought he was a little "mad".
The Internet was changing rapidly in the late 1990's but not fast enough. There were some search engines and banner ads and that was about it. It was still not the easiest place for a cartoonist to make a name for himself. Rick consistently tried to become syndicated into newspapers but he felt certain it would not happen. His cartoons were not suited for them. He said one day the Internet will be the place. I did not believe him at the time but he proved me wrong. He could never do in newspapers what he has done on the Internet. His contribution has been monumental and many have found work (from manufacturers to dropshippers to artists) because of his marketing ideas, and continue to.
I sometimes feel like if I look up "commitment"in Webster's, Rick's pic will be there. He wakes up and he is drinking coffee and working. It is habit. He does not drive to an office. He does it all in his living room, yet every move he makes creates jobs for people all over the world from manufacturers to artists to affiliate marketers to publishers. He has a mind that is very creative and unique. I have learned a great deal from him.
Though he is from Mississippi originally (where I met him), he is not from that part of Mississippi that is known to produce such genius; the delta which brought us William Faulkner, Elvis, Grisham, Willie Morris, Morgan Freeman, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and so many others.
I do not see him anymore but communicate via email. He is sharp as ever and bubbling with enthusiasm. He loves his work and does it so well. I remember him not being understood there. Some thought he was a bit too eccentric. He was not. He was regular marketing "wiz kid" that just happened to be interested in a not so "status quo" product, cartooning and humor gifts. He is by far, to me, the funniest cartoonist who ever lived, and I always give his products from his stores as gifts on any occasion. It's been almost a decade since I've seen Rick. I would love to spend just one evening with him picking his brain now.
Rick London has the largest offbeat Internet's Top Cartoon Site on the Internet and several cartoon gifts and collectibles http://www.londonstime.su) Rick London's Marketing Secret: From Nothing To Internet's Top Cartoonist And E-Tailer, and
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