Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David DeGrand. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

David, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I never gave cartooning much thought until I was in the fifth grade. My art teacher assigned the class to write and draw a comic strip, and the combination of coming up with a funny idea and then drawing it just immediately clicked with me. The teacher thought it was really funny and encouraged me to do more. I then become obsessed with cartooning. I filled up sketchbooks with whatever weird art I felt like drawing, and kept writing and drawing comic strips. I eventually gathered up the nerve (with the help of my amazing mom) to take some samples of my cartoons to my small local newspaper to see if they would publish them. To my amazement they said yes, and not long after that I saw my work in print for the first time and it blew my mind. Right then is when I decided I HAD to figure out how to make cartooning a career. I was on the staff of my high school and college newspapers as a cartoonist, which was great as I was able to see my work in print on a regular basis. This helped me to see what works best in print and what doesn’t, which was a great way to learn. So I really owe my entire career to my fifth grade art teacher, Paula Ard!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a cartoonist, I’ve been lucky to have been able to do art for a number of different avenues. I’ve been a writer and artist for numerous comic books and magazines, including SpongeBob Comics, Mad Magazine, The Simpsons, Garfield, Uncle Grandpa and Rocko’s Modern Life. I’ve illustrated a number of children’s books including the Zombie Chasers series from HarperCollins, The World of Weird Animals series for Penguin Random House, Twisted Tongues from Workman Publishing and I recently finished illustrating a graphic novel called Snot Goblins which will be coming out in 2023 from First Second Books. One of the most fun projects I worked on was designing the animated series Death Hacks for Augenblick Studios.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

After I graduated from college with an art degree, I was pretty naive and felt that landing illustration and cartooning work would be a LOT easier than it was. I had won several illustration awards for drawings I had done for my college newspaper and had received great feedback from my art instructors, so I think I had a somewhat unrealistic view as to how the business actually was. I spent around ten years showing my portfolio around and getting rejections before finally landing my first big break with SpongeBob Comics and MAD Magazine shortly after. I should say that during those ten years, a lot of that time was wasted as I had the bad habit of not taking rejection well and would stop submitting to publications for a while. I was always constantly drawing and trying to improve, which is what I feel every artist should do, but I would take it personally what I shouldn’t have, and that would hold me back a lot. Once I finally realized this is just how the business is, I gained a lot more confidence which in turn led me to improve my art dramatically.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

It sounds incredibly corny but honestly the main thing I hope to accomplish with my art is to simply bring just a tiny bit more silliness into the world. If someone sees something weird or funny that I’ve drawn and it puts a smile on their face, then I consider that mission accomplished!

Drawing is also therapy for me, it’s the way I deal with and escape from the world. So I would be drawing regardless of it being my career, it’s an added bonus in that I’ve been able to earn a meager living from it. And of course, the drive to want to constantly be a better artist keeps me going as well. I’m rarely 100% happy with anything that I’ve drawn, but instead of getting upset or giving up I just move on to the next drawing and try to make it better.

Contact Info:

• Website: degrandland.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daviddegrand/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daviddegrand
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-degrand/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/daviddegrand