To learn more about Bliss cartoons, Bored Panda reached out to Harry who kindly answered our questions. We asked the artist to share some insights into his creative process and how he finds inspiration for his humorous ideas. Harry shared: “I find my inspiration from simply living. Most of my cartoons are generated from my life experiences. Yesterday I nearly broke my neck chainsawing a tree limb down on my property. This near-death stupidity will most definitely be a cartoon in the next month or so.”
Harry tends to find humor in everyday life, no matter how dark things can get. Maybe that is one of the reasons the artist’s work got picked for several The New Yorker magazine covers. However, creating cover art for such an iconic magazine doesn’t come without challenges.
“I don’t submit as many cover ideas as I once did. My daily cartoon Bliss keeps me busy. But every now and again I will send my New Yorker editor an idea that is always appreciated and often liked, but ultimately rejected. The most difficult thing about the covers is you never know if your art is going to run until you see it on the newsstand. Anything can happen. I’ve had covers that were supposed to appear a week after they were finished and they ended up never running or running two or three years later. This can be frustrating, but over the years I have learned to compartmentalize the frustration and move on to other work,” wrote Harry.
Harry’s cartoons often tackle societal absurdities with a sharp wit. We asked the artist to share how he strikes a balance between humor and social commentary in his work.
“Honestly, I don’t think about the content of my cartoons. I simply draw things or situations that I like to draw and hope that my readers enjoy the work. I think when you start thinking about your audience, and trying to please your readers, you run into problems. I’ve always felt that the best work comes from the creator's unique take on the world regardless of any audience. I love drawing landscapes in my cartoons. I feel a deep affinity for nature, especially trees. I don’t know why this is, perhaps ingesting psychedelics? Injecting nature into my work is something I find myself doing more and more. Also, my work has gone from sardonic to prophetic or cute… I’m softening as I grow older. Also, I put a lot of dogs in my cartoons… Probably too many,” explained Harry.
Cartooning is often seen as a form of visual storytelling. We asked Harry to elaborate on how he approaches storytelling in his one-panel cartoons. Harry replied: “I see my drawings as a piece of a longer narrative. I’ve always tried to make my work seem as though the reader is dropping in on a longer narrative - a narrative leading up to the art, and the narrative continues after the art. The reader is simply dropping in on the story. Sometimes, I will stare at one of my drawings, a drawing of a magnificent oak tree in the woods with a dog and a man walking together, but it’s not a cartoon yet. I’ll stare at this drawing and imagine that the man is saying something to the dog and that’s where ideas start to flow for me.”
Many aspiring cartoonists look up to Harry’s work and success. So we asked the artist to share some advice for his aspiring audience members on how to become successful cartoonists or illustrators in today's competitive media landscape.
“My advice to anyone is to find joy in the process, and not worry about success. This is not an easy thing to do, especially today in the social media landscape. People often see others finding success and they get discouraged or frustrated. Maybe they’ll try some style that is more popular so they can become more popular with readers, but this is a mistake. You must stay true to yourself… at all costs, you must stick with your own unique process, even if you end up poor working at a toll booth for the rest of your life. This is the risk you take to be an artist, to do the thing that brings you joy for the rest of your life. When I was in my late 20s, I was on welfare. I was poor, but I continued with my process, head down, oblivious to what success could be. I was in my mid-30s before I started making real money and was able to quit my job in restaurants. Young people today need to slow down. It takes years or decades to master your process. I found everything I needed in my process and that continues to this day. If I become unhappy with my process, I’ll quit cartooning and get a job bartending. Bartending is a great job. I used to be a bartender and I miss it,” wrote Harry.
And lastly, Harry added: “My last piece of advice for your readers is to be kind to one another. If you have any extra money, give it to your local dog shelter.”
