Cartoonist

When Christopher Weyant studied at Gettysburg College in ’89, he did not expect that he would eventually publish cartoons in The New Yorker and The Boston Globe.

Weyant grew up in New Jersey. When he studied at Gettysburg College, majoring in political science and economics.

At that time, his goal was to become a lawyer, so he completed a semester program in Washington and studied constitutional law at American University while he was there. He also did an internship with the New Jersey prosecutor. Thanks to this experience, he realized that the law is not for him.

During his training, events such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall occurred.

Weyant said that studying political science at the time was particularly exciting, and explained that he participated in protests on campus. He and some of his peers created a “slum” right outside Penn Hall when he attended politics classes in sub-Saharan Africa to address apartheid in South Africa. Some of them took turns sleeping in it and cooking.

After graduation, he worked in the press service of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

“It was a great and fulfilling career, and I could have stayed there probably forever,” he said, “but I was 27 years old, and the whole time I was there, I thought I was craving something different in terms of art.”

He saved up money and gave himself eighteen months to try political cartoons as a job and decide whether to continue doing them after a year and a half.

After working on cartoons for NBC (the Television Network), he began presenting The New Yorker in 1998 before working at The Hill as their cartoonist for 15 or 16 years. He now works as a cartoonist for The Boston Globe and The New Yorker.

Regarding his work with The New Yorker, he said, “Working for The New Yorker as a cartoonist is one of the highest achievements you can get as a cartoonist.”… It’s a lot of pressure. This is a huge number of failures… We sent ten cartoons a week, some of which could be sold, most often none were sold, and then you had to come back the next week with ten more cartoons.”

He said that many people quit cartoonists because of rejections, and this requires a lot of dedication.

In September, Weyant received the Ruben Award in the category “Cartoonist of the Year”. Together with his wife, he has also published a series of illustrated children’s books, starting with “You’re (Not)Small” and most recently “It’s (Not)Enough”

Reference: gettysburgian.com, 2018