I launched Londons Times Cartoons from a tin shed in rural Mississippi outside my hometown of Hattiesburg. The community was certain I had lost my mind and nobody would sell or rent to me. I was about 43 years old, with fair artistic skills, and was determined (to start this comic). My assets included less than $300, a few garbage bags of clothes, a beat up IBM clone 286, and a stray rescue dog named “Thor”. Oh and a book called “Internet For Dummies”. It was 1997 and I was a late bloomer. I went to work. Needless to say there were obstacles. I slept in a sleeping bag on a concrete floor. I bathed in a sink with cold water only. Family lived within 2 miles from me in a luxury neighborhood but were too embarrassed to talk or visit. On Christmas they dropped 3 cans of rotted Campbell’s Tomato Soup and left it at the door.
My friends who owned the shed installed power and a phone. I paid. I recruited a team of illustrators who could render my concepts and I wrote the captions. Regardless of obstacles, I worked. Whether I ate or not, Thor did. I bartered my way through the Internet and learned it that way. I added humor and cartoons to sites in exchange for good and services I needed.
By 1999, I left my hellhole of a hometown and moved to beautiful Hot Springs, Ar. If people think environment doesn’t make a difference, they’ve never left their comfort zone. Hot Springs is a small but cosmopolitan town which values the arts, nature, animals, and nature, every bit as much if not more so than commerce. I fell in love with it the day I arrived, and that has not changed.
I returned to college at age 45 at Western Governors University majoring in Business Information Technology. It was a wonderful experience. By 2005, Google had ranked Londons Times Cartoons the #1 ranked offbeat cartoon and funny gifts on the Internet. At my stores I sell funny tees, funny cards, funny mugs, and so much more. I also launched the world’s first and only shoe store to sell famous love quotation shoes. It was written up in USA Today and on AP Wire.
Londons Times Cartoons has appeared in many publications and now over 200,000 licensed products. Recently it appeared on the front page of The Jerusalem Post for a month. We sent two Mayo Clinic medical cartoons to the Mayo Clinic Library at their request. We sent a cartoon of Roy Orbison to his widow Barbara for their private collection in Nashville.
Our main offbeat cartoons site boasts over 5000 color webcomics and I never thought in a million years it would turn out like this, but it proves what happens when people stay dedicated and work hard.
My wife Lee Hiller-London has been with me for several years offering encouragement and support which can make a big difference and I love her dearly for that. She takes me hiking on her nature hikes and it rejuvenates me for yet another round of creative work. She is an amazing nature/wildlife photographer who has her own nature blog and wildlife & nature gift shop (She Designs All Her Merchandise).
We are getting a cat or two soon. And that’s our life. Welcome to it.
