Career Post: Cartoonist

A cartoonist is both a visual artist and a writer. They create comics (multiple panels) or cartoons (one image) that are usually humorous, satirical, or tell a story.

The path to becoming a cartoonist is varied. Like authors, cartoonists often need to create a comic first and get hired later. Some cartoonists produce a daily or weekly strip for a newspaper, such as Jim Davis's Garfield or Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes. More recently, people have posted online on Webtoon or Tumblr, such as Ngozi Ukazu's Check, Please! or Alice Oseman's Heartstopper. Popular online comics can be supported by crowdfunding, and can eventually be picked up by book publishers.

Most need to get published, hit deadlines, and appeal to enough people to make a profit. However, with freelancing and online self-publishing, these responsibilities are less necessary. Most cartoonists have a degree in illustration, fine arts, or visual arts. However, there are examples of artists without these degrees. Three schools that offer a specific degree in cartooning are SCAD (sequential art major/minor), MICA (sequential art minor) and CCA (BFA in comics). There are also schools that offer a more general illustration degree, such as RISD and VCU (yay!).