{"id":23860,"date":"2022-12-14T10:17:49","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T15:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/?p=23860"},"modified":"2022-12-14T10:18:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T15:18:04","slug":"my-interview-with-k-love-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/my-interview-with-k-love-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"My interview with K-Love Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Later today, Richard Hunt of K-Love Radio is scheduled to call me for an interview.\u00a0 Yesterday he sent me a list of questions he probably will ask.\u00a0 I’ve given these some thought, and decided to post them here.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

WHO OR WHAT FIRST INFLUENCED YOU TO THINK ABOUT CARTOONING?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve loved the newspaper comics since I was a preschooler.\u00a0 My dad, a coal miner in Alabama and West Virginia, always subscribed to the daily newspaper no matter where we lived.\u00a0 As far as I recollect, of the six children, I was the only one who read the comics every day.\u00a0 Two or three of them I loved dearly: Dick Tracy and Oaky Doaks come to mind.<\/p>\n

I UNDERSTAND YOU VISITED CHURCHES AND DREW CUSTOM IMAGES OF PEOPLE.\u00a0 WHY?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Churches invite me.\u00a0 I’ll be doing this tomorrow in Demopolis, Alabama, at the monthly seniors meeting at First Baptist.\u00a0 I’ll get there at 10:30 (after a three hour drive) and sketch everyone, then bring a Christmas devotional.\u00a0 Afterwards, we’ll have lunch then drive home.\u00a0 Long day but great fun.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last weekend, I drew for the two hours prior to each of our church’s four presentations of its CAROLS program.\u00a0 Must have done a couple of hundred, but I never make any attempt to count them.<\/p>\n

REGARDING CARTOONS, WHAT CAN THEY OFFER WHICH THE PRINTED WORD CANNOT?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nothing.\u00a0 But they’re easier to read and often slip up on you with a great point when you were least expecting it.\u00a0 But I’m a strong believer in the printed word, having blogged on our website for some 20 years, and have published a number of books (on grief, growing old, deacons, prayer, healthy church, hearing from God, and pastoring).<\/p>\n

HOW DO YOU ‘IMAGINE’ WHAT CHARACTER YOU’RE GOING TO DRAW?\u00a0 DO YOU SEE IT IN YOUR MIND?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, it’s much more haphazard than that for me.\u00a0 Often, I’ll sketch a face or body and realize this person is angry or puzzled or doing something and work around that. But it’s rare that I set out to draw a specific character doing a particular thing.<\/p>\n

WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?<\/strong><\/p>\n

From reading, listening, praying, sitting in church, and reading other cartoons.\u00a0 The only reason I have subscribed to The New Yorker magazine–it ain’t cheap!–for many years is they have these great cartoons, many of which will often give me ideas.\u00a0 Cartoonists, you may be interested to know, borrow ideas from one another all the time, so it’s not plagiarism.<\/p>\n

Often I’ll draw a situation without a clue what is going on or what they people are saying.\u00a0 I’ll add that to a stack of similar drawings that have no caption, and sometimes go through them asking “what are you saying?” or “what’s going on here?”\u00a0 And once in a while I will post one of those drawings on Facebook, telling my friends that “I don’t have a clue what’ he’s saying.\u00a0 Help!”\u00a0 An hour later I’ll check and will have 40 or 50 suggestions.<\/p>\n

DO YOU BELIEVE GOD HAS EVER GIVEN YOU A SPECIFIC MISSION FOR A CARTOON?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not that I can remember.\u00a0 But I will tell you that I frequently pray about the cartooning.\u00a0 Basically, I pray two things: Help me to do this well and Use it to encourage people.<\/p>\n

DO YOU LIKE TO POINT OUT STRUGGLES PASTORS AND FAMILIES GO THROUGH?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I do that all the time, particularly pastors and their families.\u00a0 Many years ago I made a vow to the Lord that we would do three things:\u00a0 live simply, give generously, and encourage pastors.<\/p>\n

YOU TAKE ON STEREOTYPES.\u00a0 YOU’RE NOT AFRAID TO POKE FUN AT THE CHURCH AND BELIEVERS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

God’s people have a great sense of humor.\u00a0 And the mature ones know they deserve being kidded.\u00a0 — Many years ago, when I was young and trying to draw cartoons for religious publications, my cartoons had a barb in them.\u00a0 Their humor was sharp and sometimes painful, and editors would (wisely) not use them. Over the years I learned to take the edge off and sweeten them up.<\/p>\n

DO\u00a0 YOU HOPE PEOPLE WILL RETHINK THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF SOMETHING FROM READING A CARTOON?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I do.\u00a0 I’ve done cartoons on racism, hypocrisy, materialism, and ignorance of the Word, in the hope that someone would get the point.<\/p>\n

IN THE WORLD OF CARTOONS AND EDITORIAL CARTOONS, WHO DO YOU ADMIRE?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pretty much all of them, but my all-time favorite was Dick Moores who did the Gasoline Alley<\/em> comic strip for the last 30 years of his life (he died in 1986).\u00a0 Prior to that he worked for Chester Gould in his 20’s drawing Dick Tracy, then in his 30’s worked on the Disney comic books.\u00a0 Funny story.\u00a0 In 1979, I was in his studio in North Carolina.\u00a0 He told me that one of his jobs had been adding that distinctive Walt Disney signature to the artwork.\u00a0 I noticed he had an autographed photo of Disney framed on his wall.\u00a0 I said, “Did you ever know Walt Disney personally?”\u00a0 “No,” he said, “but two years ago we had a gathering of cartoonists who used to work for him, and I saw a stack of these photographs off to one side. So I took one and autographed it to myself.”<\/p>\n

The way we met was interesting.\u00a0 I’d written a letter to the newspaper syndicate which handled the Gasoline Alley<\/em> strip complimenting Mr. Moore on his incredible art.\u00a0 It was simply wonderful.\u00a0 So, I got a personal note from the man thanking me. That was something special.\u00a0 (He told me later he would spend a full day doing the art for one strip.)\u00a0 Then, one Saturday morning I came home from an early meeting and my wife said, “You’re not going to believe who called you this morning.\u00a0 Dick Moores called from North Carolina.”\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 When I returned his call, he said, “I’m about to marry two characters in the strip.\u00a0 It’s been so long since I’ve been to a wedding, which side do they stand on?” I told him.\u00a0 He said, “Do they still say Til Death Do Us Part?”\u00a0 I assured him they did.\u00a0 He sent me a photocopy of that strip which is framed and hanging right in front of me.\u00a0 It’s as close as I’ve ever come to marrying characters in a comic strip.<\/p>\n

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON CHARLES SCHULZ AND PEANUTS?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Total admiration.\u00a0 He was amazing.\u00a0 And soooo highly respected by the other cartoonists.\u00a0 In the early 1980s when I joined the National Cartoonist Society, he gave me an original Peanuts cartoon with Snoopy and Woodstock.\u00a0 It’s frame and stowed away somewhere safe.\u00a0 They tell me he used to sell original strips for $1,000 each.<\/p>\n

YOU’RE IN YOUR 80S NOW AND STILL CARTOONING.\u00a0 WHY?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh man.\u00a0 Because I love it, because I still can, and because there are still editors who want to run my stuff.\u00a0 I am so blessed that my hands are still steady and my eyesight good and I can still do this.\u00a0 One of the fun things about being a cartoonist is you send someone a note and they frame it.\u00a0 How good is that?<\/p>\n

SOMEONE LISTENING MAY NOT HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS BUT LOVES CARTOONS.\u00a0 WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO THEM ABOUT THE SAVIOR?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would say, “My friend, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are living beneath your privilege.\u00a0 There is a whole ‘nother world just waiting for you to discover.”<\/p>\n

Where to start?\u00a0 I would get into the Gospel of John and live there until I had it settled and knew the Lord Jesus personally.\u00a0 This Gospel is the richest, a mother lode of truth, a treasure chest of insights about the Lord Jesus.\u00a0 I would sit down and read all 21 chapters through at one sitting.\u00a0 You can do that in an hour or two.\u00a0 And then, I’d start all over, reading it slowly, thinking about it, and going back and reading a chapter again.\u00a0 And when I finished that, I’d read it again.\u00a0 You’ll see more the third or fourth time through than you did the first time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Later today, Richard Hunt of K-Love Radio is scheduled to call me for an interview.\u00a0 Yesterday he sent me a list of questions he probably will ask.\u00a0 I’ve given these some thought, and decided to post them here.\u00a0 WHO OR … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-50-year-perspective-on-ministry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23860"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23865,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860\/revisions\/23865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}