James Michaels

James Michaels has been drawing cartoons for as long as he can remember – and that’s a long time!

Even as a small child, his awareness of the ironic characteristics of human nature has been visible in his irresistible urge to draw cartoons of what he observed. At the age of four or five, drawing a smiling man on the inside front cover flap of his parent’s new encyclopedia with the man’s left arm extended beyond the edge of the page. He then drew that extended arm with two lines, page after page after page, until reaching the inside back cover with a waving hand. It was not as appreciated as he would have liked, but, hey, a kids gotta create!

Early on in his adult career, he did editorial cartoon illustrations for a major midwestern newspaper.

During his mid-career, he did varied cartoon illustrations for New York publishers, and the Weekly Reader books in Middletown, CT. He did a series of six how-to-draw books for Weekly Reader, including Drawing Cartoons, from which the Drawing Cartoons book is loosely derived.

Taking a break from detailing the ironies of life’s creatures through cartoons, in his later career, he attained the position of a Senior Design Manager at New York’s MTA in their corporate headquarters. If you’ve ever been on the New York subway, you can appreciate the endless supply of ironic characteristics of human nature to be observed!

A couple of decades later, he has returned to his original love of drawing cartoons through teaming up with his writer son to illustrate children’s books with a social message.