It's been a long time since I've been back to the old neighborhood, Open Salon, and I thought it would be nice to just revisit and share where I've been. At the risk of sounding like a braggart I will share what I think is a sweet success story from a site which I'm grateful to.

The beginning of my new career in cartooning coincided with the beginning of the birth of Open Salon. With the encouragement of the then editor, Kerry Lauerman, I used Open Salon as my drawing board. Kerry understood the value of visuals, any visuals, to attracting eyeballs and was posting people based on their potential to attract readers. As a result, I was enjoying a forum again after an absence from newspapers. This was tremendously generous and instrumental to my success now. I learned from the feedback and reactions of OSers readers. My craving for attention on OS developed my disclipline and I tried harder and harder to entertain the readers. I recently wrote Mr. Lauerman to personally thank him in his role in my receiving a nomination as 2011 Gag Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonist Society. I just returned from their award reception in Boston–I lost.

The highlight of my time on Open Salon were the cartoon caption contests. Hundreds of readers submitted their best punchlines to politically charged drawings at a time when every corner of OS was alive with the prospect of change and political involvement. It's not the same, but for old time's sake, for those who go back with me to those old days, my drawing is this week's cartoon caption contest in the new New Yorker.  

Today, I'm a regular for The New Yorker, Reade's Digest, Barron's, Wall Street Journal and others including the top publications in England like The Prospect, Spectator, The Oldie, Private Eye, etc. My written humor pieces now appear elsewhere, too, the most recent a feature about my midlife crisis published in The New York Times.

My reasons for leaving were both real and petty. 99% of my time here was joy. But the 1% downfall soured the experience. Many of my new friends (Ex., Liz Emrich) had left due to increasing hositilities between writers. My relationships got more intense and I started meeting some OSers in person while my pieces tha were bumped onto Salon's home page would garner death threats and racist slurs. I was spending way too much time on OS and got obsessive. I began work on a movie based on my book (which was supported very well here by my OS friends) but I was still spending way too much time on Open Salon that should have been spent on that project.

Then the new editors came in and they never choose my work as an EP and I stopped getting any covers–you have to watch what you wish for. At first I welcomed it as I was feeling like teacher's pet before. Months later my ego got the best of me and I pouted...I felt the new editors were ignoring my wonderfulness. But what really got me to pack my bags was the unfortunate invasion of spammers and the technical problems which followed.

Many dear friends I made on Open Salon I not only still keep in touch with but I work with as contributors for an online humor magazine I run called the Basement. Some of those still here include the very talented Gary Justis and Con Chapman.

So that's my story. To those who remember me, I hope you are well. To those who don't...hello, it's nice to meet you.