A friend asked me recently how I come up with illustrations for the caption contests. These sketches are the beginnings of a few ideas for the cartoons (with lots of discarded ideas!). I don’t know that I have a set recipe for creating cartoons for caption contests, but I do have a few guidelines in mind. The picture itself should be funny or at least goofy or silly. I try to create pictures that I can quickly imagine what a good caption might be, right away. If that doesn’t happen, I’ll try something else. I scribble a lot of scratchy doodles, and when something silly emerges, I’ll see how easily captions might leap to mind. A good cartoon will be one that a viewer will immediately find amusing, and that inspires and generates a good variety of possible captions. Mostly, I just scribble until something good hits.

Don’t miss the LIVE DRAWING for the Grand Prize of 2012, when my cat chooses the winner! Stay tuned for actual video footage of my cat choosing the winner!!