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  The idea of cartooning as a profession had been a very strong desire of mine starting way back in fourth grade, about 1971.  I was an addicted doodler, follower and copier of comics in the paper and some more cartoony comic books, like PLOP!.  I would spend hours researching and reading everything I could find about cartooning.  While in high school I must of read every back issue of Writers Digest, a magazine available in my school library, that had an article about cartooning in the back of every issue. I drew regularly, was on the school paper staff as cartoonist, almost every project I did in four years of art classes had a cartoon feel and I even tried a submission to the syndicates.  This all waned as college loomed on the horizon.  I was never encouraged by my parents to purse the cartooning further.  Now in their defense they may not of realized my dream.  Not sure how they could of missed it, but I really don't remember them ever asking or suggesting graphic art or other art pursuits.  So off to college I went.  I'm not in possession of my freshman year notebooks so I'm not sure if I continued to doodle while studying, but I'm certain I didn't spend my free time drawing.  There was drinking and fun to be had.  So between attending classes, attempting to study and my three hours daily in the weight room (a story for another day), cartooning took a back seat.  

Life got complicated for the next 10 years.  In and out of college, working, building a career as a fledgling final stage Baby Boomer, I don't recall ever really thinking about cartooning much.  Then 
a couple of times in the 1990's, once in 1994 and once in 1997, I got the itch to pursue cartooning full time.

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