I have been drawing cartoons since childhood. Only until 2023 have I realized it was one of my super powers and have begun drawing them professionally with gag cartoons, which I began submitting to the New Yorker magazine on a regular basis.
Rub Me the Wrong Way was one of the first cartoons I submitted to the New Yorker. I believe the first cartoon was Yard Sale. I thought that Rub Me the Wrong Way would be the perfect fit for the magazine. Apparently, I was wrong. I guess it is still not New York enough.
That did not stop me from submitting more cartoons, but, still, the rejections came.
The one thing that I do not like about the New Yorker magazine is that they want to be the first to publish your cartoon. If you publish it somewhere else, even on your own website, they will not accept it.
Well, cartoons like Rub Me the Wrong Way were not meant to be homeless on my hard drive. They are meant to be shared, to make people laugh, to brighten up their day. Why punish the cartoon or the folks who could be enjoying them?
That is when I decided to turned to TikTok against my will.
On TikTok, although the platform is ideal for short videos, 15 seconds or less, I posted my cartoons on the platform anyways. For a while surprisingly, my cartoons performed pretty well, well, as well as can be expected on a platform that favors videos and not still, one-panel cartoons. In the first week, I averaged 500 views per cartoon—enough that I believed in a month I would have received 100,000 views!
I had received 700 views on Rub Me the Wrong Wrong within a week after I had posted it, but the celebration was short lived.
There is a dark side to the platform.
The TikTok virgin that I was, I had made one mistake—I allowed TikTok to choose the background music for my cartoons.
The background music that TikTok had chosen for Rub Me the Wrong Wrong was infected with the F-word. In fact, the song was centered around sex. Four beats to a measure. Well, this song was more like four F-words to a measure.
I could not live with that. I had no choice. I took the cartoon down; with it went its views.
I investigated my channel.
It turned out that a lot of my other cartoons were also infected with the F-word or music I had not chosen. I took them down as well—at least 20% of the videos were infected with unacceptable music. TikTok, as popular as the platform is, can have bad taste in music.
Actually, I was not even aware that you could choose and add background music until a family member informed me.
TikTok, I discovered, has a library of music. If you know what music you are looking for, you will most likely find it. I enjoy jazz and classical music; both work well for the gag cartoons I draw and the jokes I tell.
Still, I guess there was a price to pay for taking down cartoons. Suddenly, my cartoons, the newer ones, were not receiving more than 300 views. I had had enough. I deleted my TikTok account.
What I did not know is that all during this period of TikTok pitfalls, I had forgotten that I had an Instagram account, which was not receiving many views. Of course, I had not posted anything on it in years either. The account was just there, inactive.
I began posting cartoons on Instagram. About a month later, one of my cartoons, No Trespassing, approached 1,000 views. I know. I know. 1,000 views is not a lot, but it was for me. I had made what I call the 1k Club!
Lately, in the last month or two, I have been hitting 1,000 views more regularly on Instagram. This also includes dad jokes that I write and tell through seven-second videos, which are also on my TikTok page. I first post to TikTok then to Instagram, with captions. Whether or not captions make any difference in views like TikTok claims, I do not know.
Now, not all of my cartoons and jokes on TikTok and Instagram make the 1k Club, but I can live with that.
What I discovered, though on TikTok is that two of my gag cartoons reached 1,000 views. One is approaching 4,000 views, and the other 2,000 views, which I am grateful. I wonder why, though they are in the 1k Club. Maybe because they are made for adults.
I guess platforms like TikTok and Instagram come with growing pains and learning curves. Growing a successful platform takes time, not just a month or so but years. It takes time. If you have a niche the algorithm will find you. You are an acquired taste, I guess.