I stood in line, my heart thumping in my chest, though I wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone. The last eight or so hours of my life as well as countless others had been leading up to this moment. I thought about the cartoons I was being judged for, my illustration of Elon Musk’s head on the body of a parasitic worm (affectionately titled ‘Elminth Musk) and then the one I drew that morning called mental health day dream where a kid dreams up a beach day away from school (with sand volleyball players). I thought about how they were too stupid or inappropriate for school to be picked, but I couldn’t help but laugh about it as I waited.

I got these serious judges to look at drawings of bloodlusting defacto politicians and beach time bikini girls in a formal setting. But my thoughts were shattered when the announcer said my name. Second place. That silver medal dangled around my neck as I stood on the stage, smiling ear to ear, and for once I didn’t have to feign a smile. If I didn’t have my teeth clenched and my cheeks so scrunched my brain probably would have slipped through my mouth and my heart out my ass. I won runner up in the editorial cartooning category for State Journalism 2025 (as well as state champion headline writer).

I really hated being on the school newspaper. I initially joined because I liked writing and thought publishing work sounded exciting—but when I got on, I was disappointed because I wasn’t really interested in the writing style or the things I was writing about. Though, in retrospect, I should have expected that. My only interest in journalistic writing was the writing of Hunter S. Thompson and his works such as “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” or “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.” Though I knew my advisor wouldn’t publish an article where I took peyote at a tennis game or something like that.

I didn’t write about anything that really interested me. I let the end define the means, which was getting a good grade, so I played by the books and flew under the radar. The only thing I really enjoyed was a comic strip I created called “I Trilobite” which was supposed to be kind of a Charlie Brown ripoff about a high school kid and his pet trilobite and it was to be published in the print edition (physical copy version of the newspaper). But as much as I liked it, my initial strategy for producing said cartoons was stressful and time consuming.

GUIDE TO DRAWING COMICS BY AN IDIOT:
1. Write out a script for the strip and plan out all jokes and dialogue as well as number of panels before drawing the damned thing
2. Draw a little sketch of the action in each panel and make sure to have different angles and focal points to make it interesting
3. Sketch cartoon on a big sheet of drawing paper
4. Trace sketch onto a piece of drawing board using a number two pencil and light box
5. Pencil lines with drawing pen
6. Erase the stray pencil lines for finished product
7. Take a photo of the comic on my phone and increase the black point to help the lines pop

It would take me seven to eight hours to draw one comic strip from start to finish, usually the night before they were due as I was drawing and writing an article. Sometimes I would be up till three in the morning putting the finishing touches on these. But they were my favorite thing about newspapers so I kept doing it. My cartoons started to bleed into my stories themselves. I would draw my own graphics or images for the stories if they were about something abstract or not easily photographed. I was planning on quitting but forgot to and ultimately decided that it would be more work to break it to everybody that I was done than it would be to stick around.

I went into my second year of newspaper with the idea that I was only going to write and draw what I felt like writing and drawing about. With that attitude, I felt like I really came into my own. I was writing stories about vampires, rock bands, prison, and hot dog eating contests, and loving it. I no longer cared about getting a good grade so much as learning about the subjects I was researching and then writing about them. Cartooning became much more enjoyable for me when it became a much smaller portion of my personal life and I developed a new process.

GUIDE TO DRAWING CARTOONS BY AN EXPERIENCED IDIOT:
1. Come up with an idea and write the script
2. Draw the cartoon on a piece of watercolor paper
3. Trace the drawing with a brush pen
4. Color the image using a super cheap water color pallet.
5. Scan the image onto the computer

I also found that the deeper internal struggle of not feeling like an artist or journalist disappeared. Not just because I got runner up in cartooning but I made peace with myself in the new process and frame of mind. I decided that it doesn’t matter what my art style looks like or how well my colors pop, or how much practice I’ve done, it’s all about coming up with an exciting idea and then executing it to the best of my ability.

I was shocked when I won a medal at state. I was never drawing to compete and never really considered myself better than anyone else–it was always just something that I liked to do that I was moderately good at.

I let my means define the end. I also learned that just being technically skilled or knowledgeable doesn’t make anyone inherently better than anyone else. It’s all about application. Having passion and faith in what you do so long as you like it, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. The Oracle comics team lived with me and it will probably die with me but if another cartoonist, artist, or creative in general comes along I wish them the same fortunes and insights I have received. My time on the newspaper has been life changing, not physically but mentally and morale wise for sure.