I have worked in many large corporations. I have yet to see anyone with the business instincts of cartoonist Rick London. He started with nothing, he knew nothing of the world of cartooning, and within ten years in it, he was and is at the top. This is how he did it.

Rick had a good bit of experience in corporate America before starting. He was keenly aware that most professions had trade magazines and this was virtually an untapped market. Most were low budgeted and could not afford an inhouse cartoonist, and were willing to pay a small amount for a monthly or quarterly cartoon. Rick provided it. He made a hundred calls a day to publishers. Out of that hundred, he would generally sell one or two cartoons. He was building a portfolio and enough money to keep the lights on.

Rick knew it would be no bed of roses. He prepared himself for a hard time and a hard time it was. For awhile he was virtually homeless working out of an abandoned warehouse where he had a phone line, and cold running water out of a sink in which to bathe. He did not let these invconveiences stop him. He was like a tank. He made calls to publishers and sold cartoons. If the publisher had no budget, Rick would create a win-win barter. He traded cartoons for everything from clothing to nutrition. I've never seen such survivor instinct.

Rick had not fished in years though he always loved fishing. His maternal grandfather Marcus London taught him to fish when he was four. He had stopped as an adult, but when he learned he could barter his fishing-related cartoons for tackle, he was at it again. He has a great many cartoons that are related to fishing. They appear on websites and in fishing journals worldwide. He had started this project in the late 1990's. He was then a "nobody" as he liked to say. The fishing tackle he bartered for, this time, was not for fun, but to eat. He would dig for worms and catch grasshoppers and go to a nearby pond or river and not return home until he had enough for a meal. He reminded me of Henry David Thoreau.

Though he still enjoys the negotiation process of bartering, he does so less than when he started. He started out of need. Now he is the one solicited by publishers and authors who need his work. He had vision when he created his cartoons into categories that would fit into trade journals and business websites. He knew what he was doing when others thought he was a little "mad".

Rick started his cartoon in the days before Google, social networking, blogging, ppc, and all the other goodies that make it much easier to get one's project known. When those entities hit the Internet, he was right up there with the big-dogs learning and absorbing all that he could.

I am hard-pressed to find someone who is so committed to a project. A day does not go by that he does not do some article marketing, blogging, revamping his ppc campaign, and even finds time to write new cartoons. At age fifty-three, his mind is sharper than a teenager, and that is not an embellishment. It is almost a phenomena.

Rick London was born and raised in south Ms, not the delta, which is the northern area of Mississippi that brought us such talent as the delta which brought us William Faulkner, Elvis, Grisham, Eudora Welty, Willie Morris, Morgan Freeman, B.B. King, and others. Rick is an enigma from that part of the state. He has invented and reinvented himself a number of times until he says "I finally got it right, I think". I'll never forget working with Rick. He is one special soul.

I don't see Rick anymore as we have both moved on and are on other sides of the country. He was like a dad to me. He was trustworthy and kind. And he was very very smart. I still stay in touch via email and he always answers as soon as he can. I order products from his stores which have hundreds of thousands of cartoon collectibles, funny tshirts, things for the office, and all kinds of gifts. I love that man and the work that he has done. And the fact that he started it all with just a thought, virtually not a penny to his name. An amazing story, it truly is.

About the Author, Alexa Ferotina:

Rick London has the largest offbeat Internet's Top Cartoon Site on the Internet and several cartoon gift shops Rick London's Marketing Secret: From Nothing To Internet's Top Cartoonist And E-Tailer. Web directory.