About Mack
James McGee was born in
Brooklyn NY at the tender
age of 0. He later
developed an artistic
ability, that is unparalleled
& not in the good way.
Come with me on this
journey of self discovery,
and I promise not to speak
in the first person again.
Hey folks, just a few words about how I developed or more accurately am developing my comic strips. In the Early 90's my brother & I started a soon to be doomed t-shirt business. The Internet wasn't around so for advertising we spent a cool 1000 bucks to be in a very small want ad in the back of an anniversary issue of Rolling Stone. We produced 100's of T-shirts & sold about 5. They're still in my closet. Don't get too excited they’re done on Microsoft paint. Microsoft paint from the early 90's...yeah I'll post a pic of one up soon. Well one or a couple of t-shirts centered around a lil sneaky alien & the main shirt was, "Abducted by aliens & all I got was this crumby t-shirt." After the biz failed I put my pencil down, a habit I do form time to time, and stopped drawing. In the Mid 90's I got tired of the restaurant business & decided that I could draw a daily cartoon panel. I worked for a year on my time off between college & work, printed them out & sent them to like 15 to twenty different syndicates…I waited. 6 months to a year later I got the slow progression of rejection form letters.
The syndicates get 10,000 submissions a year competing for 40 strip slots in a paper, so they can’t send you a personalized letter saying things like, doesn’t appeal to broad audience, lettering is bad, drawing is bad, no character development. All of these I know now are the reasons the original concept was rejected. I cringe at the originals now. At that time I had sat down & thought of over 2000 one liners, zingers, and comic panel ideas. But I shelved them all. I stopped drawing for another 7 years and once again when I was bored with my career path I started the comics again. This time I reworked the originals, and sent them to newspapers directly, half way through the process I got hung up on a girl or two (not at the same time) & forgot the notion. The ones I sent I never heard back from.
The internet provided me with several websites to display my work & get honest critique, Drunk Duck, Battle comic, and of course myspace. The issue I have with the first two is that they and other like them are predominantly inhabited by the artists & get little traffic from the audience/customer. So I pulled them all to protect the idea & humor. Over the last 3 years I have been drawing like crazy. I have about 500+ drawings on a hard drive, and I believe like with most things practice helps a LOT. I also believe that the portrait drawings I have done have helped me develop the cartoons into more three dimensional beings.
Now since the medium of print is dying off rather than go through the entire syndication process again, I have created this site as a canvas for my cartoons. In the beginning you will see much of the old stuff. But as the months progress look for strips, humor and much more !!!!
Thank you for taking the time to read a little about my cartoon journey & I hope you enjoy the site, tell a friend.
Jim “Mack” McGee
James McGee was born in
Brooklyn NY at the tender
age of 0. He later
developed an artistic
ability, that is unparalleled
& not in the good way.
Come with me on this
journey of self discovery,
and I promise not to speak
in the first person again.
Hey folks, just a few words about how I developed or more accurately am developing my comic strips. In the Early 90's my brother & I started a soon to ...
More
This gallery contains 10 pictures, click a picture to view a larger size.
(c) 2024 Mack McGee
Hey Mack! It's great to see you here. Let me know if you need any help. ~ Loved the bio and artwork. Good luck on your journey...we'll be watching! ~ Welcome to Jacketflap :0)