In the beginning...

This is the one that started it all.

As a sixteen-year-old kid in high school, I spent a lot of time drawing cartoons. I decided to send a batch in to The New Era just to see what would happen. After all, they offered to pay good money for ideas they used, and I was in need of good money. And for a sixteen-year-old, any kind of money is good money.

I’m not sure exactly how it transpired, but my girlfriend at the time (Valerie) called up the folks at the magazine and arranged for the two of us to meet with one of the artists to get some pointers. So one day after school, she drove us downtown in her blue Chevy Nova and we went to meet with Bro. Whittaker in his office at the Church Office Building.

Bro. Whittaker was very kind — but I was scared to death! After all, this was the big white tower at 50 East North Temple, and I was meeting with a real artist to talk about my cartoons. He asked me about myself, cartoonists I liked, what my future plans were. He also showed us around the production room. He was encouraging and gave me some tips. It was way cool.

I lost track of how many cartoons and cartoon ideas I sold to The New Era, but there were a lot. Those cartoons contributed quite a bit to my mission account. And Valerie may have gotten some better quality dates out of the deal, too.