Hugh MacLeod fills a Gaping Void
by Al Getler
With a child on my lap, I have explained the concept of editorial cartoons three times in my life.
All three children are now smart, beautiful young women. All three understand that the mind of a person that tells a story in a small box, an editorial cartoonist in a newspaper, is a special mind. With limited space to make a point with meaningful and sometimes dark and sometimes sardonic humor, it takes the mind of a talented and experienced person.
Unfortunately newspapers have only a few good editorial cartoonists left. My friend Dave Granlund, though a freelance cartoonist, still appears in dozens of newspapers around the US. I love his work.
Hugh MacLeod is not a newspaper editorial cartoonist. Hugh MacLeod is an editorial cartoonist. Hugh MacLeod doesn’t have an editor. Thank God!
My Gaping Void
Without knowing it, I had a gaping void. There wasn’t someone to explain my life to me as a leader and an entrepreneur in a small illustrated box. Then I discovered Hugh MacLeod and all was good.
Hugh draws cartoons that hit me between the eyes. His website www.gapingvoid.com has a huge list of email subscribers. I am one of them. If I don’t get a gapingvoid.com email by time I go to bed, I get sad. I look forward to Hugh’s cartoons each day like my dogs look forward to their daily doggy treats. I wag my tail as I open the email from gapingvoid.com. I sit in the corner and sulk if Hugh misses a day.
After running through Hugh’s website, I just had to have him on a guest on Lead or be Led. I had to hear what drives this guy. I wanted to know how he discovered that he could capture the trials and troubles of business people in that small, illustrated box with room for a few words.
The answers are in the video. The interview is broken into two parts and today you can watch Part 1.
Once you are finished watching the interview, you will have your gaping void filled with Hugh’s humor.
To watch my interview with Hugh MacLeod on your mobile device, CLICK HERE.
Hugh MacLeod’s bio from www.gapingvoid.com
Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist, who makes his living mostly drawing “Cube Grenades” for clients and publishing fine art prints via the internet. His first book, “Ignore Everybody” is published by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin.
Also known for his ideas about how “Web 2.0? affects advertising and marketing, after a decade of working as an advertising copywriter, Hugh started blogging at gapingvoid.com in 2001. He first started off just publishing his cartoons, but as time wore on he started blogging about his other main interest i.e. marketing.
In 2004 he wrote “Ignore Everybody” and “The Hughtrain”, which both got widely read in the blogosphere, downloaded over million times in total.
In 2005 he scored his first major blog marketing success with EnglishCut.com, a blog he started with Savile Row tailor, Thomas Mahon. It tripled Thomas’ sales within six months.
Since mid-2006 Hugh has also been helping a small South African winery, Stormhoek “rise above the clutter” in the wine market by using Web 2.0 tools to get the word out. Sales have gone up fivefold since then, thanks to Hugh’s marketing efforts.
Since 2006 Hugh has been constantly engaged as a public speaker, giving talks in both Europe and the US, talking about Web 2.0 and the ramifications it has on business.
Al Getler has been publisher over daily and weekly newspapers in his 30 year career. At his last newspaper, he completely overhauled the approach to reporting the news to address the digital trend with his extremely talented team. He is also a popular motivational speaker who specializes in leadership issues. This article and image are cross-posted from his website.