Today’s old A&J is from 2014. Seems like yesterday, doesn’t it? I think cartooning is eerily analogous to hitting in baseball. If a baseball player hits the ball successfully 30 percent of the time he comes to the plate, he is a superior hitter. This would hold true even if every hit were a single. If a player hits home runs at a rate above average, he might hit successfully 25 percent of the time or less and still be considered a valued hitter. The rare batter who averages 40 percent over a season is a player of historic proportion. It almost never happens. I think those numbers come close to what a comic strip artist can reasonably expect. Of course, success is a little more subjective in cartooning. As in baseball, a cartoonist will whiff a lot, but there’s one big difference. The cartoonist will be standing on the bag after every turn at bat but will anyone be in the stands applauding, or watching at all? I am speaking here for myself; other cartoonists might see it differently. I think if I can be proud of one out of three cartoons I do, a batting average of .333, I’m doing well. To be proud of half of them (.500) is tremendous! That and better is possible over a week or two, as in baseball, but to sustain it over time? Very difficult. More often than not, I just try not to look foolish striking out.
