Meet David Kantrowitz

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful David Kantrowitz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with David below.

David, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

I’ve learned that I’m happiest when I make time for personal projects. Creative careers can have ups and downs, but carving out time where you do the thing you love just for yourself can help remind you why you do it in the first place.
Even though I work digitally, my favorite ideas always start on paper. I like sitting somewhere comfortable away from my computer with just a pen and sketchbook. I just keep drawing whatever pops into my brain until I find something that I think is fun and worth exploring further. So many of my comics and projects are born out of mindless doodling.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

The professional work I’ve enjoyed the most tends to incorporate my background in comedy and writing. (I was an English major who fell in love with improv during college). I’ve created original work for Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Funny or Die, Buzzfeed, MAD Magazine, Exploding Kittens, and more.

Over the pandemic I really fell out of love with social media, and decided I’d no longer make any personal work purely for the sake of posting it online. Instead, I wanted to reclaim that time for larger projects, and that materialized in self-publishing my own comics and zines. My series “Sorry Thank You” (now in its third volume) is a collection of colorful comics printed on large-format newsprint, as if the reader is enjoying the Sunday funnies through the lens of one artist who loves experimenting with genres and visual styles. I sell them online, at local fests, through distros, and sometimes just mail them out to friends and acquaintances – whoever will take them! All of which has been super rewarding and a way more meaningful way to connect with people than throwing my work into the void of the internet.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Because I didn’t go to art school, I had to seek out resources for myself on the exact kind of cartoony art and illustration that I love. Doing this on my own time instilled a feeling that my education would never be done – in a good way. I’m happy to take a class as an adult if it’s something I’m curious about.

Speaking of classes: it’s become a well-trod cliche to say improv makes you better at collaboration. For me, taking comedy writing and performance classes also provided the tools to better pinpoint exactly what I find funny, interesting, or worth exploring.

I also greatly value my time working at the intersection of comedy and content at places like Funny or Die and Buzzfeed. The grind of creating something new every day and posting it online is a pretty incredible education in the delicate balancing act of wanting to do great work while also not being too precious about it. That’s content, baby!

My advice: do what you need to stay in love with your creative passions. And I say “passions” plural! Don’t feel like you need to drop one in order for the other to thrive. I’ve found they can actually work together in surprising ways.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

I found “Steal Like An Artist” by Austin Kleon exactly when I needed it the most, and revisit it pretty regularly. I’m probably guilty of stealing some of his nuggets in my previous responses here – which I’m sure would make Kleon proud. He has an entire chapter about how you should “write the book you want to read.” I feel like that’s a pretty good way of summing up my comics!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Clay Larsen took all the professional portraits – https://claylarsen.com/

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