When You Meet Someone You Admire
A successful cartoonist and a viral Twitter (X) post.
Substack lets you record your voice while reading a post, so I’m trying it. You can click on the button above and read along with me. If you like this feature, let me know in the comments, and I’ll record myself more often.
Thanks!
It Helps to be in The Game
For many years, I’ve wanted to meet cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, the creator of the syndicated comic strip La Cucaracha.
Last Saturday, I finally got the chance.
Together with my cartoonist friends in the Southbay Comickers drawing group, we shared a table at the PLCAF comic book convention at the South San Francisco Library, selling our books, zines, and stickers.
I knew Lalo would be there (he’s one of the featured presenters), but I was pleasantly surprised when I suddenly looked up while putting out my books.
Lalo’s table was directly across from ours. He was basically sitting in my face.
If I got too scared and wanted to make an excuse not to meet him—like, I’m too busy, I had no time to leave the table and walk around—it wouldn’t work in this case.
Yeah, I was nervous, but the universe was clearly yelling at me, “We’re literally placing this opportunity in your hands. You better take it!”
Why should I be so nervous? He’s just another cartoonist, right? Anyone who visits this convention can walk up to his table and meet him.
True. But he’s a big inspiration, and I wish I could work at his level.
Unlike me, Lalo’s comic strip is nationally syndicated in newspapers. He also recently started working in animation, helping as a cultural consultant and writer for the animated TV show on Nickelodeon, The Casagrandes. In fact, he also co-wrote The Casagrandes Movie that just came out on Netflix (it’s a lot of fun, you should watch it).
So, I had a teeny bit of anxiety wrapped around my desire to say hello to him. Since we’re both in the same field of Cartooning, I figured I could make myself stand out a little more than the average fan.
We might see each other again or work together in the future. You never know.
Think of a Shared Interest or Connection
Of course, we’re both cartoonists (even though Lalo’s a lot more successful than I am), but we love to draw and make people laugh. I wanted to have something to share with him besides the standard, “I’m a big fan of your work.”
I remembered my editor, Shena Wolf, at Andrews McMeel when I was actively drawing new Little Fried Chicken and Sushi strips for GoComics. She often mentioned it was fun editing Lalo’s La Cucaracha comics. She was so happy a person of color could have a voice on the comics page because it’s so rare.
For him, she had to read every strip and work on actual editing because it was going into newspapers daily. For me, because my strip was only published online, she was always there when I had questions or needed help with storyline ideas.
When I worked on my website's original Fried Chicken and Sushi strips, I didn’t have anyone with comic strip experience to bounce ideas off of.
I felt all alone.
Getting help with my Little Fried Chicken and Sushi comics from someone who worked with top cartoonists for years was extraordinary. I learned a lot and appreciate Shena for taking the time to help me grow.
I had my connections in mind and waited about an hour or so after setting up to go over and introduce myself. Lalo was surprised (probably that the tall black guy across from him knew who his editor was and was a fellow cartoonist) but gracious and warm as we shook hands and talked about how cool working with Shena was.
He also shared how different writing for animation is because so many people come in after your initial script and add to it or change it over time. You have other writers and then storyboard artists who put in their jokes and little details to each sequence in a movie. He felt like it became a much better end product because of all the experienced artists adding to the project.
I didn’t want to take up too much of his time, so I thanked him and took three steps back to my table across from him. At the end of the day, I returned to ask for a selfie.
I joked that I wanted visual proof that we met!
If you’re just learning about the work of Lalo Alcaraz, here’s a little intro about his comic strip, which I pulled off of GoComics.
“La Cucaracha is a unique strip that provides a view of the world through the sharp, satiric lens of its young Latino characters and the fertile mind of acclaimed creator Lalo Alcaraz.
Growing up on the U.S./Mexico border gave Lalo a dual outlook on life. He’s not "Mexican" enough for his relatives in Mexico and not "American" enough for some in the U.S.A. It’s this double-edged Spanglish attitude that fuels this jalapeño-biting satirical observations in his daily comic strip, La Cucaracha.”
You can read it online every day or check your local paper. If it’s not in there, write in or demand they add it! Lalo’s a great guy who’s not afraid to share his opinions and make readers think about race relations and politics.
We need more cartoonists like him out here in the comics world.
A Twitter (X) Post Finally Took Off!
All I did was caricature writer R.L. Stine of the Goosebumps books and post it on Twitter (making sure to tag his name). Then he replied, and it spread like crazy!
Well, actually, that’s not all I did. I’ve been posting once a day on Twitter (X) for over a month now. That kind of consistency makes it easier for you to have a chance at a post getting a lot of attention. I also love how you can directly reach the writers and artists if they (or their assistants) are active on the platform.
Did the R.L. Stine post really go “viral,” though?
It didn’t get millions of views. Only about five thousand, but to me, it’s the first time anything I’ve posted got that much attention.
Did it attract a lot of new followers for me?
Nope.
What about a slew of new Substack subscribers?
Nada.
It was mainly cool to get a response from R.L. Stine and feel the thrill of something finally being shared with a larger audience—bigger than the usual 50-200 people I reach. Does this mean I have to caricature more famous authors?
Perhaps.
One thing I will continue to do is write Twitter posts and multiple threads several times per week and see if I can build more of an audience over the next six months. In the past, I would only post on Twitter when I had a new comic or something quick and funny to say. I’ve heard other creators talk about the power of getting attention for their newsletters and books through consistency there, so let’s see how it goes.
If you’d like to follow and see the art and drawing videos I share, please CLICK HERE to subscribe to @khalidbirdsong on my Twitter page.
If you’re looking to buy my FC&S comic strip book collections:
Here’s Book 1- Livin’ In Japan Ain’t Easy
And Book 2- Livin’ In Japan Still Ain’t Easy
Known Lalo for years. Admire both of you! So glad you met.
This is great! Love that Stein replied (and shared).
He's old pals with Sam Viviano, the longtime Art Director at MAD (Of course, to Sam he's just "My old pal, Bob who wrote some great books you might have heard of.") I was obsessed with Goosebumps as a kid.