My current one saved my life a year ago this past April with two stents.  Three of my four main heart arteries had blown out; and the only one holding things together was one that was put in a stent back in 2001.

I had gone to the hospital because edema had set in and I noticed my feet swelling.  I thought I’d get a diuretic and go home the next day. It was not to be. It required two separate procedures.

Now every 6 months, I go see (“Surfer Dude”). That is what my wife calls him (my cardiologist) as he is young, good looking and always tanned and in good shape and wore a pooka shell neclace in both surgeries; a bit discomforting at 1st but I adjusted.  A little over a year later, today, he did an EKG and checked my weight, blood pressure etc.  Everything was perfect. I explained to him that my wife Lee has been watching out for my health prodding me to eat better and exercise more. I go hiking with her every other day. I drink 1/2 gallon of our “magic 2000 year old thermal water” every other day.  I eat salads, sushi, and other health foods.  Salt has virtually disappeared from my diet.

But my blog is not about heart disease and I rarely bring it up.  But its been a little over a year and but for the grace of God I have cheated death yet again.  Don’t get me started on all my near-death experiences…there have been quite a few more than the two heart attacks; most having to do with accidents, etc.  I am a klutz as well.

Today, I wore one of my cartoon caps to Surfer Dude’s Office. I think I’ve worn it there before but he never brought it up. He was rather chatty today and aske me where I got it. I told him the story of Londons Times Cartoons and gave him one of my business cards and then asked me if I had any medical cartoons. I assured him I do (in fact probably several hundred). That’s what happens to your psyche when you are klutzy all your life and later end up with heart disease.  But I digress.

I have always heart that attitude is half the battle and taking care of oneself is the other half. I am a nonsmoker and nondrinker.  Lee and I hike 2-4+ miles depending and they are mountain miles which means you can just about double that as far as the aerobic value of it.  Plus the miles are in the middle of the most beautiful National Park in America, Hot Springs National Park, which, like the water, is very healing.  It is impossible to be suspicious of a turtle, silly to feel hatred toward frolicking squirrels, and impossible to be angry at an affectionate mockingbird who is following you just for a collaborative melody. In other words it is a safe healing place.  And I’ll be damned if more often than not, I can look at all the beautiful wildlife and flora which surrounds us, and an idea for a cartoon doesn’t pop up. So I keep a pen and paper in my pocket on every hike (though that is not why I go).

My hope is to encourage everyone, especially younger people to take care of themselves *now*; in other words it is never too early to prevent heart disease. Eat right.  If you smoke, stop. If you’ve stopped and started back, not to worry. Stop again, and again, and again. It is that important. For many it takes 10+ times. It will finally make sense as you learn to re-enjoy the taste of fresh air.

Look at your diet.  Simple is better. Fresh fruit and veggies.   Less or no salt.  The lower the sodium the better.     Exercise!!!  If you are immobile you can still exercise.  You can learn tai chi on the Internet.  Lee & I do Tai Chi before every hike.

I hope I don’t sound preachy.  If you are reading this, chances are you are probably a Londons Times Cartoon & Gifts fan and I’d like you to be with us a long time.  Plus to be honest, I don’t want you to have to go through what I’ve gone through because you truly don’t have to. It is a choice.  Seems complex but it is simple.  Choose to be healthy.  That does not mean perfect; it means conscious of healthy things vs unhealthy things from food to emotions to exercise to career.  Choose what feels healthy and the younger the start, the faster habit becomes lifestyle.  Cheers, Rick London

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Rick London is a writer, entrepreneur, designer, and outdoorsman.  He founded Londons Times Cartoons & Funny Gifts which have been the #1 offbeat webcomics & gifts on the Internet (MSN & Google ranked) since 2005.  He has founded numerous online shops which feature his cartoon images and also others which are unique fashion such as the worlds only love quote shoes, Shoes That Amuse, and ShoeShies.com, Sushi Shoes & Gifts.

Every time an important anniversary arrives one tends to reflect. Especially when they get older and more forgetful like me, and appreciate the moments we  *can* reflect and it is at least semi-accurate.  Today is one of those days.  My wife Lee and I were so busy last year putting together our 13th anniversary book, a whole year went by and we were just getting it off the ground.  But March 19th, 2011 was our 14th anniversary. I remember working with a local artist when I still lived in my hometown of Hattiesburg, Ms named Richard Larson.  He understood my warped sense of humor and writing well, and since he was a fun guy to work with, and his last name was “Larson” (same as my favorite cartoonist ever “Gary Larson”), I figured it was “fate”.   Richard was from a small-town nearby named Picayune, Ms. We worked well together for about  a year or so.

      Like all creative endeavors, we had our differences, but we did profit from our creative endeavor.   I was the concept/creator and writer, and Richard the artist.  My vision of Londons Times would be offbeat, but not in cartoon style art; more of a combination of fine art and cartoons, and in color.  Richard did not like this idea and rebelled for about four months.  He finally decided to give it a try and within 3 months we sold the rights to 12 images to a San Diego T-shirt firm for $10,000.  They were all in color but I was kind enough not to say “I told you so”.  He wouldn’t have minded anyway. We’d both been starving artists and writers for so long; getting  $5000 each was like winning the lottery.  I was sure we had won it.

    Then I remembered that man plans, God laughs.  I had written another thousand or so cartoons, and Richard’s wife became pregnant.  Not only that, but she was a stable nurse who found him a job at a small local bank. It was either her and the baby and the bank job, or the iffy cartoons.  I understood completely and, though sad, I tried to keep my head up. I asked friends what I should do, and every one of them said (not in the same wording) “Throw in the towel, and consider it an interesting experience, and go find a 9-5 coat and tie job”.  I remember the feeling of nausea coming over me. I had done that for many years in jobs I didn’t hate. Hate is too mild a word. I despised them. I abhorred them. I needed them to support my artistic venture.

     By the end of that year Richard and I had created about 200 cartoons together and made one very nice sale.  We also had a very good time doing it.   I was sure we could get a book contract for a compilation cartoon book but every NYC agent we wrote sent back a polite form letter. The fact that the timing was not right for them to consider us “was no reflection as to the validity of our work”.  Then one came that was personal. It was one of those same form letters from a very large New York agent that said, “That’s all I need…another failed cartoonist”.  I could feel that sinking feeling. I wanted to throw the letter in the trash so as to pretend it never was written. In my heart of hearts,  I felt she was right. She’d seen a lot more than me.  But wait.  We’d created 200 cartoons.  But now I had no artist/partner but I had a free website from a firm called “Hostway” with more free pop-up ads than I had cartoons.

I didn’t know a lot about the Internet, was not working, just writing cartoons and living in a tin shed (I’m not kidding).  I read a book called “Internet For Dummies” and learned as much as I could.  Keep in mind this was 1997.  There was no Google, no blogging, no social media, really not a lot but Yahoo! and forums. On Yahoo! I was able to locate some of the top cartoonists in the world (Including Charles Schulz).  Over the next few months I talked on the phone to Charles “Sparky” Schulz, Leigh Rubin, Dave Coverly, and Jon McPherson. I learned all I could.  I put up ads on forums in searh of cartoonists. I left no-holds barred and wrote nearly 2000 more cartoonists nonstop.   At one time I was assigning them to 12 different illustrators who were now on my creative team from Russia to Ohio and every place in between.  Suddenly, very slowly, we were building an inventory. 

In 2001, I had about 4000 cartoons up. The way I stayed alive was bartering our skills to small and large businesses who were beginning to use cartoons on their web sites and humorous logos, etc.  I bartered everything from organic grass fed beef, emu, fishing tackle, vitamins and herbs, sporting equipment, clothing etc.  The illustrators would take either a part of the barter or I would pay them the wholesale value of it. Most took the barter which was better for me too.    The only market out there other than barter was publishing and syndication. We were “way too different” for newspaper syndication, so mainly college textbook and trade magazines kept us going.

In September of that year came my major heart attack.  I was forced to stop the cartooning  (doctors orders) but I didn’t listen. Not only did I keep going full-speed ahead, I enrolled in college full time to learn business; and in particular business online.  It was a great experience but for the most part I let the cartoons go. I left the website up, and “took orders” from webmasters and textbook publishers but mainly studied, and enjoyed the natural beauty of my new home, Hot Springs, Arkansas with my favorite dog ever, a bearded collie/polish lowland sheedog mix “Thor”.

Three years passed and I began receiving emails and phone calls from churches, synagogues, charities, schools, and all sorts of nonprofits wanting signed copies of our cartoons for their auctions and fundraisers. I thought it was a joke until one a friend asked me if I’d checked our Google ranking lately. I had not. I was the #1 ranked offbeat cartoon on the Internet.  I was “stoked”. I started writing cartoons like I had in  my young early days which was not quite as easy because now I was studying like a banshee (Just how do banshees study anyway).   I found yet more new illustrators.

Now there was Google, social media, POD (Print On Demand), Online Branding, article marketing, bookmarking and all kids of other goodies we didn’t have early on.  I learned to use them all.

Suddenly I had close to 5000 cartoons, a book (thanks to my wife Lee’s publishing and designing skills that she learned while building her designer gift shop Lee Hiller Designs and her nature/wildlife blog  Hike Our Planet, and nearly 1/4 million products in five online shops such as funny tees, funny cards, funny mugs and many other products. Even funny doggie sweaters.  I also branched out and learned how to digitally design shoes and launched Shoes That Amuse in 2007 which are the world’s only famous love quote shoes.  AP Wire and USA Today did a story on it. It features shoes with graphics of famous authors, philosophers, etc and their famous love quotes.   I have also branched out into love quote tees, bags, mugs and the like.

To some it was all an “overnight success”. I assure you it was not even close to that.  I was confronted with dangerous situations that I know I would never do again.  I did what I had to do to survive. I never knew in a million years it might be a well known cartoon, much less the #1 ranked on the Internet.  All that was beyond my control and decisions made by others.  But I am grateful to “those others” for recognizing and liking the work that I do.

Now I get to also have fun and take off for a  mountain hike with my wife Lee whenever I feel like it.    I get to do at age 56 what I never thought I’d ever get to do. I am a full-time tourist if I want to be. Though Lee would probably say I’m still a bit of a workaholic, I’m nothing like I was ten years ago. I have mellowed out a lot and I enjoy the creative process. I don’t think much about deadlines. I create when I get the urge to create. Life is actually fun for perhaps the first time ever.  Maybe it takes what it takes for that to happen.

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Rick London is a writer, cartoonist, designer, and musician.  He is the founder of the #1 ranked offbeat cartoons on the Internet, Londons Times. He also founded many funny gift shops such as Rick London Shops,  Rick London Collection, Rick LondonWear and LTSuperstore.com.  He loves hiking, wildlife and nature, and playing the guitar (but not very well). His goal is to take guitar and singing lessons this summer.

Some Recent Londons Times Cartoons (Click Thumbnail To Enlarge)