I took a self-publishing class a few years ago in Holt, Michigan. The instructor, Rich Baldwin, found out I was a cartoonist and asked me to draw some cartoons for a website he had at the time. Rich, like me, is hearing impaired and wears hearing aids. Some of the cartoons were about misunderstandings caused by the “close, but no cigar” world of the hearing impaired. If you live with a hearing impaired person, you know what I mean.
I drew this cartoon for him after his comment about people that start speaking very loudly when they see you are wearing hearing aids… regardless of the fact your hearing might be completely normal with the hearing aids.
Rich is a wonderful author and even a better person. On his website, “Jocosity Cartoons” (no longer active), he had three categories of cartoons: Hearing impaired jokes, Catholic jokes and a Miscellaneous section for cartoons that didn’t fit in the first two categories. Since Rich is very active in the Catholic Church and also an advocate for the hearing impaired, he had lots of ideas… good ones. A lot of the cartoon ideas he got were from the same place I get my ideas… REAL LIFE. I was lucky enough to get the pleasure of drawing his ideas. I hope, with his permission, to showcase some of them in future blogs. Knowing the story behind the cartoon is sometimes better than the cartoon itself… and, believe me, there are stories!
Check out his website and buy one (or, more) of his books. He’s a great writer and if you get the chance to meet him in person, you’ll see why he’s one of my favorite people. Judging by his new website, he’s going to add Children’s books to the long list of books he’s written. Knowing him, they’ll be great!… Hmmmm… Wonder if he needs any cartoons for those books?
Related articles
- Do I Need a Hearing Aid? (everydayhealth.com)