Who is Rick London & Londons Times Cartoons
Rick London Founder Londons Times Cartoons
The story of Londons Times Cartoons & Gifts is an interesting one (at least Rick London’s relatives occasionally tell him so). Rick launched the cartoon in an abandoned metal rural Ms. warehouse in 1997 with a few hundred dollars and only fair artistic skills. He learned the cartooning business “on the job” and recruited illustrators to work with him rendering his ideas and concepts and London also wrote the captions and marketed the cartoons to publishers.
It was not easy as at the time the Internet was mostly forums, email and Yahoo! He also used the phone often to learn from cartoonists who had mastered the business. With little cash, the group operated lean and mean and bartered there way around the Internet and received goods and services in exchange for humor writing and cartoons.
By January 2005, Londons Times had become Google’s #1 ranked offbeat cartoon and MSN’s #1 ranked in May 2008. It remains #1 on both search engines as of this writing (December 2010). By 2006, London decided to find manufacturers for what was now an inventor of over 4000 cartoons. One manufacturer decided to take on Londons Times and creates over 100,000 unique products, called LTSuperstore.com (Londons Times Superstore). Purchases are made through the store or through their hundreds of associate sites on Amazon.com. London then opened four other shops which added another approximate 100,000 unique items to their inventory.
He even launched the world’s first “famous love quote shoes” which caught the attention of APWire and USA Today (which gave them the thumbs up). The shop is called ShoesThatAmuse.com. It features famous love quotes on the quarter panels and a graphic of the famous person who penned them on the upper side of the shoe. London has added love quote gifts, tees, cards, etc. as well.
Rick London Shops is our niche’ boutique shop which offers a myriad of gifts and collectibles that usually don’t feature cartoon images such as throw pillows, beer steins, journals etc., but also our regulars like tees, cards, mugs etc. We even offer a complete line of clothing with each cartoon image. A gift sure to please anyway, or a valuable collectible, drop by today. www.RickLondonShops.com
Rick London’s wife Lee Hiller-London often works with him and has created videos of the cartoons, re-designs of his website, etc. She is a professional wildlife/nature photographer and designer who created Lee Hiller Designs in 2009 www.LeeHiller.com and Nature photography blog Hike Our Planet www.HikeOurPlanet.com
Londons Times Cartoons has contributed some unique history to the cartooning business:
A. The world’s 1st and only offbeat cartoon 100% organic cotton tees printed with totally nontoxic soy dye www.RickLondonOrganicTees.com
B. The first U.S. postage stamps, Ipads, Iphones, U.S. Keds, and more showcasing offbeat cartoons http://www.RickLondonCollection.com
C. The only offbeat cartoon ever to appear on the front page of a NYSE Corporation KIWW (Kathy Ireland Worldwide) Ms. Ireland showcased it for almost a month at the top front page of her www.KathyIreland.com web site.
D. Immediately after 9/11 Londons Times founded CAT (Cartoonists Against Terrorism) to benefit the families of fallen heroes (URL here). A shop will open in 2011 in the Zazzle Giving program. 25 cartoonists worldwide contributed to the cause.
G. The 1st and only offbeat cartoon boutique gift shop: http://www.RickLondonShops.com
I. Invented the 1st and only cartoon gourmet coffee gift basket (includes imported fresh beans), cartoon coffee mug, cartoon coasters etc. www.LTSuperstore.com
J. The only cartoon to be a Christmas card by the Roy Orbison family and in their museum archive. Also the first and only cartoons to be featured in the permanent Mayo Clinic Library (2 of them) where they remain.
K. Is the only offbeat cartoon to stay #1 on the major search engines for 5 years luring over 8.7 million visitors from Jan 2005-Dec2010.