When I think of what a professional is, I naturally think of people with high degrees and important jobs. Jobs that, if done poorly, lead to serious consequences. Brain surgeons, accountants, and major league pitchers, to name a few.
It’s hard for me to think of exactly what it means to be a professional cartoonist. When it comes to cartooning, all of my typical associations with the concept of professionalism goes right out the window. First of all, most cartoonists I know of don’t typically wear a suit and tie when they sit down at the ol’ drawing table. In fact, my daily wardrobe could consistently be considered “unprofessional” by even the most lenient definitions.
Secondly, since art and humor tend to be fairly subjective, it’s hard to gauge what makes one cartoonist’s work any more professional than another’s. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, has confessed to being a fairly weak artist. Lots of people can draw better than him, but does that make him any less of a professional?
Another benchmark that one could use to distinguish professional status is being paid for one’s work. Well, I got paid for some cartoons I drew when I was in grade school – was I a professional way back then? Or does it have to be a full-time job? Does one have to be making a living at it? If a doctor takes a year sabbatical to donate her services in the mission field, is she still considered a professional?
All that being said, I think I have finally figured out what being a professional means to me. I have been battling a persistent cold for the past thirteen days. I thought I was approaching some sort of a world record, until my doctor told me yesterday that this type of cold could last for up to four or five weeks. Four or five weeks? (Now that’s a professional cold.) I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of time in a horizontal position, sleeping, sweating, aching, and coughing up pieces of what I’m sure were vital organs. I’ve had to postpone a handful of speaking engagements and meetings. Needless to say, I haven’t been able to get much done. And I’ve discovered that the most annoying thing about being sick is that the world doesn’t shut down with you. The phone keeps ringing, e-mail keeps piling up, and people keep demanding things from you.
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I am starting to feel a bit better now, but it’s hard to tell how much the prescribed narcotics have to do with my current state of well-being. Even though I have abandoned many things on my to-do list the last two weeks, I have continued the daily responsibilities associated with Kim & Jason. I have updated the site while in a near-comatose state and inked comic strips in between naps. I have even kept up my writing schedule, which has been the most difficult accomplishment. It’s hard enough trying to muster up an appetite, let alone be funny enough to pull usable material out of thin air. But I muscled through, and to the outside world that reads Kim & Jason, there will be no signs that I’ve been pretty much MIA the last two weeks. (Although I cannot guarantee the strips that will run the last week of April will win any humor awards.)
I imagine myself as Cal Ripken, Jr., the baseball player who set the major league record for most consecutive games played. Now I think that’s an appropriate comparison because drawing comic strips and playing baseball games seem like equally unimportant things in the grand scheme of things. Certainly, the world would not end if Kim & Jason went on hiatus for a few weeks. Actually, most people probably wouldn’t notice. But if someone were to ask me why I bothered to keep up on Kim & Jason while I’ve been under the weather, the only real answer I can come up with is, “Because I’m a professional.”
Whatever that means.