The Unified Theory of Mister Pitts #8

My Mother Prepares Me to Meet the Editor (and the World)

I told my mom I wanted to submit my comics to the newspaper, and she made it happen. I don’t know how. She may have just called and asked, she may have known someone at the paper, either scenario is plausible. Amarillo was a big small town, and my mother was active in the community. She knew people. Again though, she might have just called and asked to speak to the editor.

I didn’t know anything about the business of being a newspaper cartoonist. I didn’t know what syndication was or how it worked. I just knew I wanted to have a daily comic strip in the newspaper like my hero Charles Schulz, and I thought I had what it took.

Everything about this endeavor, and this day, was exciting to me. I loved drawing the comics, I loved getting dressed for the interview, putting on a tie. I loved going into the Globe-News building in downtown Amarillo, TX. The building itself was a solid office building of the mid-century, lots of brick and marble. It still stands, unused these days, as the paper has moved its offices to another, much smaller space now. And the printing is done elsewhere now too. It used to all happen right in this one big exciting place. But that was when a small city newspaper was still a very big deal.