Political Cartoonist

RL started his adult career with no contacts, no ‘old boys’ network, virtually no friends or money. “Everything materialized from my 10 fingers.”

FAMILY BACKGROUND

RL’s father was an accountant. His mother was an office manager for a utility company. 

CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER

“I was always good at drawing, even at age 4” said RL. “It gave me an overwhelming tool and the appetite to maintain and develop it.” 

A school newspaper printed one of his cartoons when he was 10. 

SCHOOL DAYS COMBINED WITH MILITARY SERVICE

Before RL graduated from high school, he faked his age by producing phony documents and alleging that he was old enough to enlist in the military without parental permission. He trained to become a fighter pilot but was dismissed when he ‘buzzed’ a beach, flying so low that a lifeguard dived in the water from his paddleboard to avoid the plane. That momentary, fun stunt could not be tolerated by military discipline, so RL lost his flying opportunity but was still required to complete the term of his initial, military enlistment. 

Upon discharge from the military, RL decided to finish and graduate from high school. 

RANDOM OPPORTUNITY LEADS TO A CAREER

While still in the military, RL was injured by a grenade. “By chance, I had a pencil and some paper in the hospital, so I drew. If I had a violin there, I might have become a great violinist.”

Editor’s note – RL’s art talent and the way he was able to transfer his drawing skills to illustrate a political message, attracted the interest of newspapers and magazines, long before the invention of the internet, where political cartooning can still be found.

FIRST ADULT, FULL-TIME JOB CONTINUES A CAREER INTEREST

Though RL had fulfilled the term of his military enlistment, his link to the military was not entirely over, as his first full-time, adult job was as a cartoonist with an Air Force magazine. Later, RL became the political cartoonist for a newspaper that had published his first cartoon when he was a teenager, before the newspaper became the country’s largest circulation daily. 

CAREER SATISFACTION

RL used drawings to demonstrate that “the pen may be mightier than the sword.” His cartoons gave voice to his strongly held political opinions; he believed that the images in his cartoons conveyed even greater impact than photography. “Even if it is the most sophisticated camera in the world, it will never be able to capture the person more accurately than the artist or the cartoonist who knows how to point out true character.”