Even though I had hours of academic marketing classes, and cartoonist Rick London, my former boss had none, his killer marketing instincts could have rewritten the textbooks. He is no guru, in fact, is anti-guru. He doesn't write ebooks or exploit those who know less. He tells it like it is. He approached cartooning knowing nothing about the business. He learned it as he went.

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.

Since Rick was living hand-to-mouth at the time, if the answer was "no, we don't have the budget" which it often was, Rick would offer the cartoon as a barter for a product or service to run the cartoon in their catalogs, websites, or other publications. This worked at least 50% of the time, and Rick was able to barter the cartoon images for everything from fishing tackle to food. Food was his main goal at the start because at times, he was not eating, simply working day and night. Until this day, he has a four year running barter with one natural food company where he receives a huge box of natural food and vitamins in trade for a single black and white cartoon that is published on their hard copy mail-out catalog

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 sometimes feel like if I look up "commitment"in Webster's, Rick's pic will be there. He wakes up and he is drinking coffee and working. It is habit. He does not drive to an office. He does it all in his living room, yet every move he makes creates jobs for people all over the world from manufacturers to artists to affiliate marketers to publishers. He has a mind that is very creative and unique. I have learned a great deal from him.

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.