It takes a while to fully develop your own cartooning style when you're a kid.

You spend a great deal of time copying your favorite cartoonists and your work shows their influence until you get really comfortable with your own stuff.

My favorite cartoonists were Willard Mullin, Bill Mauldin and Hank Ketcham. I learned something from all of them.

Willard Mullin said there is nothing wrong in copying another artist's work as long as you do so to simply learn why they do something you like.

I have seen the High School cartoons of Hank Ketcham, Mullin and Milton Canniff. Only Mullin's work was outstanding. As a teenager I believe my work might have been better than Canniff's and Ketchams at the same age, but the difference was they went on to become great cartoonists. After my school years I did very little art work.

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