History

I started cartooning… well, ever since I can remember. Being born on April Fool’s day was a sure sign. When I was 18 years old I landed my first regular freelance job as cartoonist for a local weekly newspaper and I’ve been working neurotically on these silly little drawings ever since. Cartooning is great because it’s such a pure outlet for aggression.. if you come home at the end of a very bad day you can make a violent drawing and somehow things are okay again, even if only in small measure.

The comic strip I’ve worked on the most is my panel “Cartertoons” (formerly “Funny Files”),  which I began writing and drawing in the summer of 1989. It has appeared in a variety of magazines, newspapers, and web sites. I also work on and off doing other comics, and I frequently paint abstract/pop paintings that relate to the cartoon form. Below you will find more info about the stuff I’ve done and contact information as well.

Click Here to Read Jon’s Words of Wisdom

Methodology and Materials

I have been using the iPad Pro 12.9″ since it came out. I currently use the M1 iPad Pro with Apple Pencil 2. I draw my cartoons on the iPad as I had traditionally done for the most part. I put down pencils first with a non-repro blue pencil brush layer on Procreate. I then ink in my speech balloons on another layer and ink my main artwork on it’s own layer. I color all art on a separate layer as well.  I then use Airdrop and move the file over to my M1 iMac desktop and finish other elements in Affinity Photo 2. In Affinity I just add a few finishing touches to the art, like lettering with some of my favorite fonts, applying any filters I might use, and adding the copyright tag and then saving each cartoon to different directories to be sent to various publications and my website. That’s a very simplified version of how I create on the iPad and in the near future I plan to upload some videos showing this process.

For those interested, here is my pre-digital methodology: I have numerous sketchbooks filled with ideas that I refer to when creating an original cartoon panel – and I’m always filling up a new sketchbook, too.  After I select a cartoon I like from a book I draw it in finished form in a pre printed panel.  I work on a Mac and my latest panel design was created in Adobe Illustrator.  I have my panel designs printed and shipped to my studio, usually 250 sheets at a time.  These printed cartoon panels measure approximately 7″ across by 9″ high and are printed on 2-ply bristol vellum sheets.  I draw the cartoons in these panels using Faber-Castell technical pens with varying nib sizes, as well as traditional technical ink pens with a B-6 nib and Speedball Super Black india ink. After finishing the drawings in the panels I scan the line art into Adobe Photoshop and process the cartoons adding color and halftones, reduce the cartoon size, and add copyright tags.  They are then ready to be sent to clients digitally and by snail-mail.

Past and Present Clients

Newspapers

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Hagerstown Exponent, The Richmond Graphic, Calls Freak (Australia), Cartoon Cavalcade, The Richmond Palladium-Item, Winchester News-Gazette, Indianapolis Weekender, The Indiana Daily Student, The Rensselaer Republican, The Du Quoin Evening Call, The Other Paper (Columbus, Ohio), SanJose Spartan Daily, The Comic Press News, King Features Syndicate (The New Breed), Tribune Media’s College Press Service, Laf!, Humor Times, Funny Times, The Weekly News (UK)

Magazines

Accenti, Accounting Today, American Legion Magazine, Boys’ Life, Cartoon Comedy Club, Chess Life For Kids, Dragon Magazine, The East Bay Monthly, FIRST magazine, The Joker Monthly, Journal of Court Reporting, The Journal of Silly, Kappan, Medical Economics, Oncology, Philosophy Now, Physicians Practice, Prospect, Reader’s Digest, Reflex Magazine,  Satire Quarterly, Saturday Evening Post, Snicker, Tropical Fish Hobbyist, Woman’s World,

Books

Artist Market, 1996 Edition.
Latte Laughs (Design One, Bellevue, WA), 1996.
Understanding Psychology (McGraw-Hill), 2000.
Funny Files, E-book series (Jambooks), 2000.
Taking Your Pet to the Vet (ECW Press), 2001.
How to Landscape Your Yard Without Knowing a Damn Thing About Trees and Shrubs, (Forte Publishing), 2003.
Funny Files: A Collection of Cartoons by Jon Carter (Page Free Publishing), 2003.
The Queen of Persia (Shazak Productions), 2003.
Out of Egypt (Shazak Productions), 2004.
Miracle Lights (Shazak Productions), 2004.
Poker Talk (Cardoza Publishing), 2005.
Nincompoop, 2013

Greeting Cards

Greeting Card Universe, Kalan LP, NobleWorks Cards, Twizler Greetings, Paper Bound Greetings

Corporate Clients

5000Fish, Inc, Air Park, inc., Carl Eduard Schünemann Publishing, Cashel Consulting, Cengage Learning, Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC, CSR, Dana Corporation, Exceltra, inc., Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Fujitsu, Hardy Diagnostics, Hothouse Communications, Institute for Healthcare Advancement, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Macmillan Higher Education, Pearson, New York University, Ready Reading Glasses,inc., Speaking Results, inc., Sunnybrook Research Institute, Whitewater Community Broadcasting, Zions Bank

Digital Work

Cartoons included in program E-mail Impact (Appian Software, 1994); paintings selected by juried exhibition for inclusion in Best Contemporary Art CD-Rom (1995 & 1996 Editions, Art Communication International); The Crayon House, United Business Media

Web Sites

These web sites regularly publish my cartoons, or offer them for licensing:
AllAnalytics | Cartertoons Comx Box Blog | CartoonStock | Corban One Source | DiabetesMine | Diagnosic Imaging | Future Cities | Humor Times | Light Reading | Lil’ Games | Modern Analyst | NC Buy | ObGyn.net | Pics 4 Fun | Physicians Practice | Psychiatric Times | SaaS In The Enterprise | Tom’s IT Pro | Vector Art

Newspaper and Television Interviews

WCTV, Richmond, IN: Focus on the Arts, Feb.1996(cameo), Mar. 1998(15 min. interview).
America’s Talking Network: National interview (approx. 20 min.) with Lee Salem (UPS), Mar. 26, 1996.
WDTN, Dayton, OH: Regional interview, Sept. 19, 1996.

Exhibits

Whitewater Valley Annual Art Exhibition, 1992.
One Man Show, Indiana University East Art Gallery, 1996.
European Cartoon Biennial Exhibition, Belgium, 1999.
International Biennial of Humour & Satire, Gabrovo, Bulgaria, 1999.
Indiana Cartoonists, Nettle Creek Cultural Center, Oct. 2007.
Toonpool.com Underground Exhibit, Berlin, Germany, June 2009.
Best of Toonpool, Izmir, Turkey, Oct. 2010