All this for a lame joke?

I had the pleasure of visiting with fellow cartoonist Arie Van De Graaff (aka, the Ward Cartoonist) and his family the other day as they hosted my family for lunch. We talked shop, we shared favorite jokes, we told mission stories. We talked about works in progress (we both have a couple of cool projects in the pipeline). And the food was outstanding — and abundant — as well!

One of the nicest things we talked about, however, was how we as a group of cartoonists support and encourage each other. We've promoted each other's books, we worked together on telling the Nativity story in cartoons, and we met together (via Zoom) with the Church magazines when they changed format. We celebrate each others' successes.

It would be easy to consider ourselves rivals in cutthroat competition for what is definitely a niche market. But that seems the antithesis of what LDS cartoonists should do. I'm honored to rub shoulders with such outstanding people!

Pictured here are: Summer Bird, me, Arie Van De Graaff, and Ryan Stoker. Don't know who the MC is!