Click on each topic below for a visual:
Click on each topic below for a visual:
Someone once complained to Harold Ross, legendary editor of The New Yorker, "Why do you use the drawings of a fifth-rate cartoonist like James Thurber?"
Ross jumped to Thurber's defense and snapped, "Third rate."
Thurber's imagination, of course, brings the unexpected
to cartoons, and he is a key example of a writer who also has visual skills.
When we write, we try to create word-pictures and to make phrases snap,
crackle, and pop so that readers can hear what we are describing.
If you are curious about the visual-verbal link, here are a few writers
and artists who have used both creative areas:
There's a definite connection between writing and drawing, particularly of editorial cartoons. During World War II, young Bill Maudlin won the hearts of soldiers by depicting their hardships honestly and humorously in his "Willie and Joe" cartoons. (General Patton loathed the cartoons since they depicted Willie, Joe, and other soldiers as muddy and unkempt. Soldiers who were plodding or marching through the mud loved them.) When the war ended, he wanted to become an editorial cartoonist. However, he discovered he needed an education in order to be effective; consequently, he enrolled in college, acquired a decent education (and material for his editorial page cartoons), and went on to a Pulitzer Prize-winning career.
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