It Was Bliss Meeting Harry!

In addition to showing you this week's Morning Edition cartoon by Harry Bliss, I bring you this story, direct from a giddy Mitch Wertlieb:

How many people get to say they met the guy who drew him into a cartoon? Well, this past weekend I had the distinct pleasure of finally meeting Harry Bliss, the wonderful cartoonist who has been drawing a number of Morning Edition panels featuring yours truly doing things that help folks wake up each morning (whether they want to or not!) with VPR.

The back story here is twofold:

1) I am a cartoon fanatic. I grew up reading Marvel comic books (Daredevil was my favorite), and still believe political cartoons are among the greatest of America's satirical art forms. I also can't get enough of comic strips like "Doonesbury," "Zippy the Pinhead," and of course, I still read "Peanuts." If I wasn't in radio my dream job would be cartooning (which may make many cartoonists do a spit-take and yell "WHY???"), but it's true. The biggest obstacle is that I can't draw worth a lick, which sort of gets in the way of being good at cartooning.

2) Harry Bliss is actually my neighbor, but until this past weekend, we'd never met (I knew where he lived but was too shy to do the "drop-in" to introduce myself.). So even though it was great to hear Harry would be drawing cartoon images of me, I felt it was also somewhat absurd that we'd never met face to face.

But as fate would have it I was hanging out with my daughter Gretchen and my wife Erin last Sunday, enjoying the glorious early spring weather, when Harry came walking by with his girlfriend and his dog. I'd seen pictures of him and was pretty sure it was him. I whispered this information to Erin, who promptly punched me in the shoulder and said "Go say 'hi!'", which, with some nervousness, I did.

Harry could not have been more gracious and friendly. I told him I was a big fan, he said he thought the same of me (I blushed), we made introductions all around, and a pleasant time was had by all. Now I know I can drop by his house and shoot the breeze, and I can say I'm friends with a famous cartoonist!

And fortunately when I said goodbye, I resisted the urge to blurt out "See you in the funny papers!"

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