When you go into cartooning, you do it for a few reasons. One, you want to get your art out there. Two, you want to get paid for the art you’re putting out there. Three, you build a reputation for yourself in some form or another. And four, you typically draw because you’re not a very good writer.

I’ve had the pleasure of working for The Prospector for five years now, and am willing to go so far as to say it’s been one of, if not the, defining experience of my stay at UTEP. Between the wonderful people I’ve had a chance to meet, the words of love and encouragement from people who have enjoyed my cartoons, and the fact that  I get paid for something I would totally do for free, it’s been almost nothing but a great time.

I say “almost” because there have been rocky times, to say the least.

With my actual major being in metallurgical and material sciences engineering, there have been serious time-management problems when having to juggle two major projects and cranking out a color cartoon about the latest border crisis.

If that wasn’t enough, there have been times when a cartoon, specifically the infamous “Oklahoma” cartoon, has gotten me death threats. Not just death threats on the newspaper’s Facebook page either—Facebook death threats are a dime a dozen—but actual gangs of large, pissed off guys have shown up to the newspaper office asking if I was there. Thankfully, I was taking a test when this happened.

As strange as it sounds, these are my favorite kind of situations to deal with at the newspaper. When I first started here, the editor-in-chief at the time told me, “If we’re getting hate-mail that means people are reading it.” Ever since then, bizarrely it’s been the feedback-free cartoons that bothered me the most. These days, however, feedback-free cartoons seem to be the usual run of the day, but I’ve grown to be okay with that.

As I enter the final stretch of my time here at UTEP, I just hope that I can deliver a few more memorable cartoons and hopefully not be beaten up by a group of pissed off football players for making another cartoon about a game loss.

Blake Lanham may be reached at [email protected].