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that’s not FUNNY! Jack Pittman makes a living as a cartoonist through talent and persistence by JOEL HAAS photography by WHITNEY ATKINS
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ou’ve probably seen his work—but it’s likely you don’t know his name. One of the most successful cartoonists in America and abroad has been working in Raleigh for almost 40 years, but he doesn’t have a comic strip or a licensed superhero. Instead, Jack Pittman has built his international reputation as an outstanding commercial cartoonist. People of (ahem) a certain age will remember “Draw Me” ads on match-
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book covers and in the backs of comic books and magazines. The Art Instruction School, a correspondence school, promised a grand prize of a five-year-long monthly cartoon course with all materials for their annual contest. Pittman won the grand prize. The mail-order company never expected he would last the whole course—but they didn’t know Jack. Pittman received his Art Graduation Certificate by mail in 1974, the same
week he graduated summa cum laude from North Carolina State University with a degree in Environmental Architecture. Three months later, Pittman quit his first and only architecture job. “The most boring job in the world,” he says. He wanted to make his living drawing and selling cartoons. But Pittman encountered a problem: nobody bought his cartoons. He kept the post office busy for months, sending
