Another Ride in the Wayback Machine!
4YourInfo Info
"I have often been asked how I came to write. The best answer is that I needed the money. When I started I was 35 and had failed in every enterprise I had ever attempted."
–Edgar Rice Burroughs, How I Wrote the Tarzan Books,
The Washington Post, October 27, 1929
While I’m no ERB, my professional writing career began similarly.
Way back in 1998, I started a career as a graphic designer for the Courier-Journal. I didn't go to college for design, and I'd never worked for a newspaper, but I had a couple of things going for me that set me apart from the competition: experience designing professional websites and experience using Photoshop. This know-how enabled me to work simultaneously for Creative Services and for the paper's new Internet Department. After weeks of a crazy schedule working for two departments on two different floors, both departments offered me a full-time position on the same day. Deciding between the two wasn’t easy, but ultimately Creative Services had more attractive hours and work. I had a family I wanted to see, and I also had a deep affinity for print.
In those days, the newspaper felt like a playground, and I was being paid to ride the equipment. In Creative Services, I designed a weekly newspaper feature called the 4YourInfo. Newspapers in Education, Ashland Oil, and Triton YUM! Brands sponsored the page, which middle schools used each Monday in their curriculum. I eschewed using clip art for the page and instead created custom illustrations, often drawing them by hand, scanning them in, and coloring them in Photoshop.
Soon after this I learned that a copywriter in our department contributed freelance articles to the 4YourInfo. I also discovered that it was one of the paper’s best paying writing gigs. Well, having a family to feed and being desperate for any opportunity to make a buck, I worked up the courage to ask its editor, Bill Wolfe, if he'd look at my writing samples. Rather than doing that, he simply gave me a list of topics and let me choose whichever I felt like writing!
So, suddenly, I was in the game and felt the pressure to perform. It took me several trips to the library to research my chosen topic, but I quickly turned in a shiny new article for him. Then, before I knew it, he returned it to me, covered in red. He assured me this was the typical routine and that he liked my writing. I guess I looked unconvinced because he then added that he liked that I wrote “simply.” When I laughed nervously, he further explained that he meant that as a compliment.
Whether I was designing or writing for him, Bill Wolfe was always exceptionally kind. I looked forward to his edits as a way to better learn the craft of writing. And, believe me, as nice as Bill was, the red never went away. Sometimes, I'd choose a topic from his list; sometimes, I'd pitch subjects of interest to me. This is how the Courier-Journal wound up with 4YourInfo pages about things like Star Wars: Episode One.
One creative experiment we did for the page leading up to Halloween was to do a rare three-part series on ghosts and ghost hunting. Each part of the series contained a fact-filled informative article, but alongside the article was also a fun, imaginative cartoon strip featuring two young ghost hunters. Writing, illustrating, and designing this series (and getting everything approved!) took an enormous effort, but I enjoyed every minute.
As much as I began writing for the money, it became more than that, which is good because while the money was decent, it never had a chance of making me rich. (Definitely not ERB rich! With the success of Tarzan, Burroughs would buy a 550-acre ranch, now known as Tarzana!) My "success" merely enabled me to pay my bills, which were threatening to become overdue.
Creating the 4YourInfo page was just a tiny part of my work in Creative Services. Most of my time was spent churning out one creative ad design after another to lure businesses away from some expensive ad agency (the hope being that their freed dollars would be spent on more ads with the C-J). Once, while designing an ad, I received a phone call from a young man claiming to be from Georgia who was terrified because he’d been bitten by a fire ant. I immediately got up from my desk and scanned the floor to see who was putting me on. But as it turned out, the call was legit. This youngster had found an old 4YourInfo article online I'd written about fire ants and somehow assumed I was an expert in the field and tracked me down in search of answers. Sadly, I had none. I barely recalled anything more than enjoying drawing the critters. Trying not to laugh, I referred him to his parents or the local doctor for help.
Next to the Fire Ant article, the other memorable page I did was about Edgar Rice Burroughs himself. Somehow, back then, I'd learned that the University of Louisville's Ekstrom Library housed the world's largest Edgar Rice Burroughs collection. Knowing Disney was about to release a new Tarzan animated film (you see how old I am!), I pitched interviewing the collection's curator and writing an article on Edgar Rice Burroughs to tie into the cartoon. Bill loved the Louisville connection and greenlighted the article. So lickety-split, I interviewed the guy, then wrote, designed, and illustrated the page. Even though, I’ve come a LONG way as both a designer and an illustrator since I created this back in July 1999, I still have a soft spot for it. As I've said in other articles, nothing beats the thrill of taking something you've conceived and bringing it into reality. This page, however, had the additional bonus of being accepted into the Edgar Rice Burroughs collection. I suppose the color proof is still housed there amid all the other writings and artifacts. If you're ever in Louisville, see if you can find it – and send me a photo!
One more note before I go: My former C-J editor, Bill Wolfe, now goes by William B. Wolfe and writes a fun middle-grade series entitled The Phantom Files. In the future, I look forward to reviewing it in this column. But don't wait for me! Buy the books now.
Til next time, Always Be Creating!
Bill