I Didn’t Get Rich and Famous, but I Never Had to Work at a Job

         The first word I learned to spell was BOP. Popeye was always bopping some big brute that needed bopping. Then I went to school and learned to read the newspaper comics without asking Dad to do it for me. When I was fourteen years old, I sent $10 to The Landon School of Cartooning mail order course, and decided to become a rich and famous comic strip cartoonist. You can be anything you want to be, right? Well, you can TRY to be anything.

         I had a career from 1956 to 1990 as a greeting card cartoonist for Hallmark and American Greetings, worked for two years writing for animated TV cartoon shows and comic books, and sold some cartoons to magazines and newspapers. When I retired from American Greetings in 1990, I drew a comic strip titled Wally’s Woods, and a single panel cartoon feature I have named Outdoors. These features appeared in a few small newspapers, but did not make me rich and famous. They are now available as Amazon kindle books.  

         And while in retirement I have written and illustrated some children’s books published by Star Bright Books and Nightingale Books. The Lucky Generation: 1930 to 2030...If We Are Lucky, published by Vanguard Press, is a sort of autobiography and a collection of short humor stories.

         I also self-published some books that are collections of cartoons and short stories. These are out of print now, but used copies can be found on Amazon. Go to Amazon Books and search “Dean Norman” as author if you are curious.