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Hi, I'm Johanna Ferreira, content

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director of PopSugar Juntos. Juntos

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to support from Prime, there's so much

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month. From conversations with the Latina minds

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exclusive interviews with some of the biggest

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amazon.com/Prime to get more of whatever

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and get all of our latest

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coverage at popsugar.com/Juntos. Con amo, Johanna.

0:47

Hey, this is Scott Galloway, author, professor, entrepreneur,

0:49

and most importantly, host of the Prop G

0:51

Podcast. We got a special series running on

0:54

right now called The Future of Work where

0:56

I answer all your questions on, surprise, The

0:58

Future of Work. Questions including

1:01

what are we missing when we work remotely

1:03

or how do we handle work-life balance when

1:05

a major opportunity comes knocking. From

1:07

the provocative to the technical, we're offering

1:10

insights you won't want to miss. So

1:12

tune into The Future of Work, a

1:14

Prop G Pod special sponsored by Canva.

1:17

You can find it on the Prop G Pod wherever

1:19

you get your podcasts. I

1:27

left home early in

1:29

life to pursue a

1:32

car attorney and I was

1:34

actually living in a really rough

1:37

neighborhood in New York, really rough.

1:40

And I still did my sketches. I was

1:42

doing freelance artwork and doing

1:45

it sort of regularly. And

1:47

I didn't really speak to anyone. I didn't hang

1:49

out. I just came home and I drove. By

1:53

the time Ray Billingsley was in his twenties,

1:56

He was already a very successful cartoonist.

2:00

Ranked professionally when he was only twelve

2:02

years old. Now.

2:04

What he really wanted which has his

2:06

own daily comic strip. Every

2:09

year since about a to sixteen let's

2:11

say. I. Used to do what I

2:13

call the major work each year. And.

2:15

That was during the sketches of

2:18

six weeks, so. Strips.

2:20

Of. For. Com a trip for

2:22

proposed strip. And are most

2:25

of them met with rejection. But.

2:27

Er. If this was the

2:29

strange night it was back in June.

2:31

I remember. Ah, I

2:34

happen to have like a loon. Juri. Of

2:37

these little animated characters they will

2:39

like to little black kids and

2:41

one was wearing a hat. And

2:44

allow one was obviously to move

2:46

brother and without turning on the

2:49

life. I reach for sketch pad

2:51

and I happen to just draw

2:53

these little characters just iran them

2:56

very. Primitively

2:58

are in a dark and that

3:00

I'm way back to vet. Ah

3:03

when I a rose that next

3:05

morning I looked at the sketches

3:07

and there was curve isn't very.

3:11

Well as newly this on to something. And

3:14

I started developing an odd

3:16

they started writing know all

3:18

Gags I I've got a

3:20

feel for their personalities almost

3:23

right away and of they

3:25

start writing at the gags

3:27

for me. Is

3:29

someone should never have read Curtis.

3:32

How the to describe it to them? Ah,

3:36

let's see, in a nutshell, I'm.

3:39

It's about the trials and

3:41

tribulations, the joys and ups

3:43

and downs. Of. A

3:46

black family. That. Lives in the

3:48

inner city. Seem. To the eyes

3:50

of an eleven year old for. Curtis.

3:54

He was the older brother. There.

3:56

Was a. Good

3:59

luck. Syrian, Kurdish look like

4:01

and what they were. How.

4:03

Policy Prose house is baseball

4:05

cap. It's always backwards. On.

4:08

The he weighs a shirt under his sweater

4:10

the sticks out. And. He

4:12

rosa ca support is geez Now mind you

4:14

that came out and eighty eight. And

4:17

not before. Everyone

4:19

had adopted that I'm. Used

4:22

to be a shirt. tuck are used to tuck

4:24

your shirt in your pants. And. You

4:26

can't sit just right so you didn't have the

4:29

coffin. And. You or your

4:31

head straight ahead. Usually. Have some

4:33

avoid a have that was is usually

4:35

meant they were troublemaker that was a

4:37

the A. Few. You

4:39

are like assassin pioneer. He didn't.

4:41

He vs it. Yeah, And our lap. His.

4:44

Arm. And then are other

4:46

characters start popping up. They.

4:49

Just all started coming one by one.

4:52

Way to Curtis and dairy parents

4:54

Greg and Day and Wilkins. He

4:57

decided to father worked at the Dnc

4:59

and smoked a lot. something Curtis had

5:01

given the hard time about. Any

5:04

decided that the parents met dancing on

5:07

the So Salty. What's.

5:10

So special to you about this idea

5:12

of. Of Curtis. Axel

5:15

he is. It just felt regular to me ago.

5:18

The only thing that was really special was that.

5:20

Ah, He was a all black cats.

5:23

And. I mean and other scripts you

5:25

might see a year old, one black

5:27

character or something that. And

5:30

they didn't really dwell too much

5:32

into the personality the characters work that

5:34

song, they. Just stood around. In

5:37

brown face. But. I'm.

5:39

Mine. Was the first one that really

5:42

twelve and two. These

5:44

characters with please had some black

5:46

says before like loose are. Often

5:49

Brunswick branded and said Sera gave

5:51

us is because Quincy. But.

5:53

I'm. they more or less

5:55

touch lightly on to some the things

5:58

i want to get into We

6:00

all depict city scenes, but I wanted

6:02

to make sure everyone knew

6:05

this was a gritty, inner-city

6:07

kid. And things

6:09

aren't always so pretty. So,

6:12

I mean, it wasn't special special, not to

6:14

me. It was just me doing

6:17

what I do. It was me being

6:19

me, talking about what I know. Ray

6:23

Billingsley's comic strip, Curtis, debuted

6:26

35 years ago. And

6:29

since then, Curtis has appeared

6:31

in newspapers all over the country,

6:34

every day. I'm

6:36

CB Judge, and this is Love.

6:50

Ray Billingsley grew up in Harlem with

6:53

his parents, brother, and sister. He

6:55

remembers he started drawing because his brother,

6:58

who was older, liked to draw. And

7:00

he wanted to be like him. He

7:03

was into fine art, actually. And

7:05

he could draw portraits and landscapes, and

7:07

he was very good at it. And

7:10

the whole thing of it was, I think I

7:12

was trying to emulate him, because

7:15

his drawing material was always

7:17

around. And I would just

7:19

pick up on some of it. But I

7:21

could not draw portraits like he did. So,

7:24

I gravitated towards the silly

7:26

drawing, the cartoony. She

7:39

was the very first person who

7:41

actually saw that

7:44

I had a talent, and

7:46

that she encouraged my parents to

7:48

encourage me to do it.

7:50

I mean, that was third grade, and

7:54

that's where it started. I got

7:56

to the point where I could draw anything I could

7:58

see. And... When

8:01

I was 12 years old, I

8:03

was in my sixth grade art class and

8:06

it was wintertime. We had

8:08

an art project of

8:11

constructing an 18-foot tall

8:13

aluminum can Christmas tree. It was

8:16

for recycling. I slipped off

8:18

to the side and I pulled out my little

8:20

pad and I was sketching. There

8:23

was a little media coverage and there were

8:25

some news people here and there. While

8:29

I was sitting off to the side, I

8:31

was approached by a woman and

8:33

she asked to see what I was doing. So I showed

8:35

her to her and she asked if she could take it

8:37

and I said, sure, no problem. Then

8:40

Monday came around and

8:43

the same woman called my home.

8:47

Come to find out she was an

8:49

editor for a magazine called Kids Magazine.

8:53

She wanted to hire Ray to draw

8:55

some illustrations. My mother

8:57

took me down and I did

8:59

these sketches for which I got $5 apiece. Five

9:03

dollars. I

9:05

learned that people will pay you for

9:08

cartooning. They

9:10

liked the cartoon so much, they

9:13

actually hired me as a staff

9:15

artist. How old were you? I

9:18

was 12. I was

9:20

12 years old when this started.

9:24

It was 1969. What

9:27

did your parents think when you told them that

9:29

you had gotten yourself a job? Well,

9:32

they liked it actually. My

9:34

father, not so much. He

9:37

really didn't think cartooning was a good

9:40

career for a black person.

9:43

You know, but the

9:46

more he tried to discourage me from doing

9:48

it, the more I did it because I

9:50

was making money and I didn't

9:53

have to depend on him anymore. And

9:56

because of that, my

9:58

father and I, we really loved that. really weren't

10:00

that close. Why

10:02

didn't he think it was a good profession

10:04

for a black person? Well, you

10:07

got to remember, he comes from a whole

10:09

different time. And back

10:11

then, you know, black men could basically

10:13

just do later. That's

10:16

about it. I mean, you know,

10:18

you couldn't go into hospitals. There were so

10:20

many things because of, you know, the prejudice.

10:23

And that's what he grew up under. I

10:26

came up, I was born in the 50s, and

10:28

things were still a little bit rough. I

10:32

was part of the busing movement.

10:35

I was sent to a school where there

10:37

was like four blacks in the entire

10:39

grade and everybody else was white. Race

10:42

as a kid, he was quiet and mostly

10:44

kept to himself. So

10:47

I went to school during the day. And

10:50

then right after school, I had to show up

10:52

for work down at

10:54

these offices, just learning

10:57

the ins and outs of magazines. I

10:59

was only able to work up

11:02

to four hours a day because

11:04

of the child labor laws.

11:07

You know, you couldn't get a

11:09

kid that young to work any longer

11:11

than four hours. I mean, I was up to it,

11:13

but I couldn't do it. So

11:16

school would end and then you would get

11:19

yourself down to the office? No.

11:22

Luckily, Kids Magazine

11:24

did this for me. That was really helpful.

11:28

There would be a car waiting outside the school

11:31

and they would take me downtown

11:33

every day. You know, so in a

11:35

way... That's a big... He must have been

11:38

pretty popular. No, not really.

11:41

It was really something else. But I

11:44

sort of adapted to it kind of quickly. I

11:47

think being at that age, I don't

11:49

know, maybe I was too young to really know what

11:52

was going on. Race

11:55

as by the time he was 16 or 17, he

11:57

started thinking about what was next. He

12:01

worked freelance jobs, drawing art

12:03

for playbills, brochures, VHS box

12:05

covers. At one

12:07

point, he illustrated a series of greeting

12:10

cards that became very popular in

12:12

Europe. Were

12:14

you always, were you drawing in color

12:16

or was it sometimes black and white?

12:20

Most times it was black and white. Unless

12:23

it's a color job, my

12:25

mind thinks about black and white. I

12:27

think about how stunning a

12:29

picture I could make or just

12:32

how graphic it could be. It

12:34

has to be something that really attracts the eye.

12:37

Adding color to it, it just adds

12:39

to it. But it's like

12:42

I told some young people even

12:44

today, adding color

12:46

to a weak drawing doesn't

12:49

make it a stronger drawing. It's just

12:51

a weak drawing in color. Ray

12:54

enrolled in a BFA program in cartooning

12:56

at the School of Visual Arts. He

12:59

got a full scholarship. After

13:02

college, he worked at Walt Disney Studios and

13:05

learned how to draw in the Disney style. But

13:08

pretty soon, he got an opportunity. He

13:10

couldn't pass up. Tell

13:13

me about Looking Fine. What was it about? Looking

13:16

Fine was actually my first syndicated

13:19

strip. A lot of

13:21

people don't remember that because that was like 1980. It

13:26

was about a group of black kids

13:28

who were also in their 20s. I

13:33

was talking about a lot of things that they say

13:35

were taboo. I

13:37

thought about it this way. Gary

13:40

Trudeau, who does Dunesbury, he

13:42

was doing it. Gary Trudeau's

13:44

comic strip, Dunesbury, was first published

13:47

in 1970. It

13:50

was different from most other comic strips in the

13:52

newspaper. In one

13:54

storyline, a character came out as gay.

13:57

In another, a character accused Richard...

14:00

Nixon's attorney general of being

14:02

involved in Watergate. You

14:04

know, he was doing a lot of

14:06

subjects that, uh, you don't really see

14:08

in strips, so

14:11

I thought I would do it, but only with a

14:13

black cat. And

14:15

that made some editors

14:18

unnerved. Uh,

14:20

I might speak about, um, drugs

14:23

or police

14:25

brutality, something like that. And

14:28

let's face it, there were no black

14:31

editors at that time. So,

14:33

um, we sort

14:35

of went back and forth for a couple of

14:38

years. And even my syndicate

14:40

then didn't really understand,

14:42

uh, the point I was

14:44

trying to make. And

14:47

at one point, uh, getting towards the

14:49

end, they suggested that

14:51

my black family in the

14:53

strip adopt a white character.

14:57

And that's when I said, Oh my God, you really don't get

14:59

it. I said that that

15:02

doesn't work. So, um,

15:05

I walked away from the strip. I

15:08

didn't want to do it with them anymore because

15:10

they had to catch up. Looking

15:13

fine ran from 1980 to 1982. I

15:17

mean, I had a lot of lifehearted joking

15:20

and stuff about it, but since they were

15:23

black kids in their twenties, it

15:25

unnerved some people. I, I find

15:27

out, um, doing Curtis,

15:30

he, since he's 12 years old,

15:33

I can basically have them talk about

15:35

the same things, but

15:37

their children, their

15:40

children saying, so it's, it's

15:42

coming not from a thing of experience,

15:45

but more of a thing of innocence. So,

15:48

uh, it makes it so that I can get away

15:50

with it, but it's basically the

15:52

same thing. But

15:55

was it, was it frustrating and for

15:57

you to see what, you know, Gary J. Trudeau

16:00

was doing, but for some reason because you

16:02

were trying to do this with black characters,

16:04

it wasn't okay now. Oh, yeah. And

16:07

I mean, it's still frustrating to today. And other

16:10

cartoonists often bring it up to me

16:13

where they say, Ray,

16:15

you would have been in a

16:18

thousand papers if Curtis was white.

16:20

And I said, you know, I understand things like

16:22

that. But I said, I have

16:24

to stay true to my own nature. After

16:29

Looking Fine stopped, I

16:31

went back to freelancing. And all the

16:33

time, it was a few years, all

16:36

I did was study. I studied the

16:38

strips, I studied the industry. And

16:41

I sort of saw just

16:44

what sort of personalities they were looking for.

16:46

And working

16:48

with kids is almost

16:51

a non-miss subject.

16:53

That's why so many people work

16:55

with students. That's why it was Dennis the Menace

16:57

and Family Circus and Peanuts. You

17:00

know, when you adapt children to

17:02

anything, the

17:04

audience is much more acceptable.

17:07

So I knew even with a black character, if

17:09

I shrunk them down and made them a

17:12

somewhat cute kid, but somewhat

17:14

mischievous, I knew that

17:16

would appeal to people. Besides

17:19

Curtis and Barry, who are based on

17:21

Ray's relationship with his own brother, other

17:24

characters Ray developed were also inspired by

17:26

people he knew in real life. There

17:30

was a girl Curtis had a crush on,

17:32

Michelle. She didn't like him back. But

17:36

there was another girl, Chutney, who did

17:38

like Curtis, even though he just

17:40

saw her as a friend. Michelle

17:42

was based on a girl

17:45

I really liked. And

17:48

she was no good for me. She

17:50

really wasn't. And there

17:52

was a Chutney, also

17:55

this girl who liked me. And

17:57

I didn't really like her because

18:00

I was liking Michelle. There

18:02

was Curtis' friend, Gunck, and

18:04

two bullies named Derek and Onion. Ray

18:08

named Curtis' teacher, Mrs. Nelson,

18:11

after his own third grade teacher, who'd

18:13

been the first person to really encourage

18:15

his art. You know,

18:18

without her, none

18:20

of this probably would have happened. He

18:22

based another character on a barber he used to

18:25

go to. Gunther. He

18:28

was actually different because, like I say, he

18:30

started in 88 and

18:32

everyone was wearing afros and, you

18:34

know, curls and everything. And

18:38

I had him as the first bald person. Now

18:41

men were trying not to do bald at

18:44

that time. Now everyone, you

18:46

know, going bald. It

18:49

was sort of like going to a dermatologist

18:51

with acne to go to

18:53

a father's bald. So

18:56

he was making a statement. Once

18:59

he had the characters in place, Ray

19:01

started mapping out ideas for months and

19:03

months of comic strips. Before

19:06

he pitched it to anyone, he wanted to make sure

19:08

it was going to work. You'd

19:11

be surprised when people are drawing

19:13

and writing, they start

19:15

falling apart by like a third

19:17

week. They have an idea,

19:20

but it's not as strong as they think. I've

19:24

had something all along that I should

19:26

go through. When doing strips, I

19:28

had to get a full year's worth

19:31

of work. I had to get

19:33

365 ideas

19:36

before I actually went to pencil

19:38

and put them in the paper and all that.

19:41

Because if I couldn't get a year's worth

19:44

of ideas, then it wasn't worth

19:46

it. And it wasn't strong enough. After

19:49

he'd come up with 365 ideas, he submitted his pitch for

19:51

Curtis. And

19:57

it just so happens that I

19:59

lucked out. Like up with his wouldn't

20:01

need a half of the taking. An

20:03

odd you know my states from there.

20:10

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20:23

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and get all of our latest coverage

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at Pop singer.com/himself when I'm on. So

22:09

hundred. Curtis.

22:14

As one of the first nationally syndicated. Comic

22:16

strips with a mostly blood test.

22:19

It debuted in newspapers. In Nineteen

22:21

Eighty Eight. Are actually Curtis in

22:24

suits and came out and same year. Spotless.

22:27

the first ever. Curtis.

22:30

Comic. Strip about. Your.

22:32

See the very first one or even

22:34

Skyn in the classroom with he was

22:36

on? Mrs. Nelson

22:38

was asked off screen. And.

22:41

She was telling him on you

22:43

know the rules are Mr. Wilkins.

22:45

Are. If you're not

22:47

one wicket on your head. You.

22:49

Can't wear sheets of About attack

22:52

and he happened A pointer to

22:54

Harvey said you don't include wigs.

22:59

Go to last last panel he was

23:01

there from the principal's office was he

23:03

sent them trade away. How

23:06

is it the first? Stripper ceased.

23:10

Fortunately, It was a hit

23:12

right away when they when syndicate

23:14

was outselling it I met with

23:16

some back. Last of people remember

23:18

me from look at five and

23:21

they say oh well you know

23:23

who's going to be more angry

23:25

stuff and I had to convince

23:27

the leveson totally different and on

23:29

I had some people. Saying

23:32

that able controversial and if it

23:34

was mean prentice yet then since

23:36

it was a black strip up

23:38

poor black strip. Some

23:40

of the editors got nervous. But

23:43

by the interests are fierce criticism.

23:45

more than one hundred and seventy

23:47

five newspapers across the country. Process

23:52

from from start to

23:55

sense. Oh. Let's

23:57

see, I'm. daily strips

23:59

take me about two hours

24:01

a piece to do from

24:04

penciling to ink, about two hours,

24:07

maybe three. And I

24:10

always ink the sketches first

24:12

without doing the dialogue. I

24:15

always do the dialogue last because I might

24:17

change my mind in what the character

24:19

is saying. So I have to leave that blank. And

24:22

with Sunday, Sunday pages take a

24:25

lot more effort. And

24:27

they may be about eight hours

24:30

in total. So I'm sitting down for

24:32

a full day. And it's funny,

24:34

when I'm doing this stuff, once I'm really

24:36

into it, it's

24:38

like everything turns off. I'm

24:41

not hungry. I

24:43

drink very little. Before

24:46

I know it, I mean, it's nighttime.

24:48

And I'm calling it quits for the

24:50

night. Time just flies by. It

24:52

just goes by. I'm that

24:54

engrossed in it. At

24:57

night, I am so happy just

24:59

to go to bed because

25:01

that means I can just rest for a

25:03

while. And even then, sometimes

25:05

I have those nights where I'm plagued with

25:08

ideas and my mind doesn't

25:10

turn off. And I have

25:12

to get up and at least write it down. Over

25:16

the years, little things have changed.

25:19

For example, Barry, Curtis' brother who's

25:21

incredibly smart, skipped a few grades.

25:25

But lots of things have stayed the same. One

25:28

of the things about comics in

25:30

general is that whatever clothes

25:33

they are originated with, they're sort of

25:35

stuffed with. So

25:37

I've made little changes. Curtis used to

25:39

have a much bigger hat. And

25:42

I just got tired of doing it. So

25:44

I made him a hat that contoured more

25:46

with his head. And I think

25:49

it's a better design. So I got

25:51

a little pushback at first. But then people

25:54

sort of character was the same. So, you know,

25:57

they're stuck with me. Now...

26:00

We have, through history,

26:03

had strips where the characters actually

26:05

age and they start out as

26:07

kids and they become much older and in

26:10

some cases the characters even die. But

26:14

I didn't really want to think about Curtis as

26:16

being 18 years old and going

26:19

through a real different set of

26:21

problems. I didn't want him

26:23

to be, say,

26:25

like the victim of police brutality

26:27

or gang problems,

26:30

things that affect a

26:32

lot of black men when they get

26:34

older. So I like

26:36

doing Curtis as an 11 year old because

26:40

I just don't have to tackle some

26:42

of those hard things. He

26:44

can still talk about, you know, droughts

26:47

or some sort of stop

26:49

and frisk, things like that. But

26:53

it's seen by the eyes of a

26:55

child, so it's different. In

26:57

one strip, Gunther the barber and a friend

26:59

took a wrong turn and ended

27:01

up in a different neighborhood. The

27:04

friend made a reference to how much more quickly

27:06

the police showed up in that

27:08

neighborhood. In

27:10

another, when police officers were acquitted for

27:13

beating Rodney King in 1992 and

27:15

riots broke out, Ray addressed it.

27:19

He had Curtis's father tell him about other

27:21

riots that happened when he was younger. Ray

27:25

also makes references to gentrification

27:28

and in 2020 he was one of

27:30

the first cartoonists to incorporate the pandemic into

27:33

a strip. I

27:35

had Mr. Nelson get COVID and

27:38

I went on a series of strips where Curtis

27:41

really showed how much he really cared about

27:43

her. And it's

27:45

strange because the fans let me really know how

27:47

much they cared about her because

27:50

they were almost threatening me. I

27:52

better not let anything happen to Mrs.

27:54

Nelson, you know, or else. At

27:58

the time, nobody was was talking

28:00

about COVID, no one. And

28:03

I said, this is too important

28:05

a subject not to

28:07

talk about. So I didn't

28:11

do it so much from the

28:13

standpoint of how it's affecting

28:15

the world. It was more how

28:17

it was affecting this one family and

28:20

how they were stuck in the house and

28:22

stuck with each other, how tempers flared.

28:26

It went that sort of way. Race

28:29

as in general, it's tricky to

28:31

involve storylines about current events since

28:33

he has to work on strips that won't come out

28:35

right away. I

28:38

did one thing that was major

28:40

where I predicted something and that was

28:43

with President Obama. I

28:45

did a series of strips where Curtis

28:48

and Barry went to DC

28:50

to see Obama

28:52

being inaugurated. Well, Winnie, and

28:55

he hadn't won yet. And

28:57

I said, oh my goodness, if he doesn't win,

29:01

I'm really up the creek. I'm gonna have

29:03

to break my back trying to put him

29:05

replacing his strips, but he

29:07

won. A

29:11

lot of the strips are just Curtis and his

29:13

father talking. Curtis asking

29:15

his father questions. The

29:17

two of them watching TV together. Curtis

29:19

pulling pranks on his father, like

29:21

putting six tablespoons of sugar into

29:23

his coffee. Do

29:26

you feel like there are ways that you can

29:28

live through your characters? Thinking

29:31

about Curtis's relationship with

29:33

his father. Oh yeah, I

29:36

do that all the time. I

29:39

think in a way, it's a way for me

29:41

to release a lot of

29:43

tension because I

29:45

grew up my whole life thinking certain ways

29:47

like about my father. So

29:50

I think what happens

29:52

when doing Curtis's

29:54

relationship with his father, it's

29:57

more like the relationship I

29:59

wish. I had for my father.

30:04

In one strip, Curtis tells his father that

30:06

he feels like he can talk about anything

30:08

with him. His

30:10

father replied, My

30:12

father and I didn't relate like we do, Curtis.

30:15

He also said, I went out of

30:17

my way not to upset him, and I spent a lot of

30:20

time in my room. Ray

30:23

says his dynamic with his own father was

30:25

sort of like this. Sometimes

30:27

he'd be watching TV with his brother and sister,

30:29

and then their father would come home from

30:31

work and immediately take over the

30:33

TV. Ray would go to

30:35

his room and stay out of the way. And

30:39

once he left home, he and

30:42

his father didn't have much of a relationship. They

30:45

didn't speak for years. And

30:48

then Ray learned that his father

30:51

had been diagnosed with leukemia. And

30:54

my father, he

30:57

got leukemia, and

30:59

he was in the hospital, and he was

31:01

about to pass. And

31:04

I was sitting there with him, and he

31:07

was asleep. And all

31:09

of a sudden, I felt something touch my hand, and

31:11

I looked down, and he was holding my

31:13

hand. We'll

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running on right now called the Future

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technical were offering insides you won't want

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to miss. so tune into the Future

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of Works or Property Pod special sponsored

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a proxy part Where ever you that

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your podcasts. Me:

33:32

Billingsley father died from leukemia

33:34

in eighty ninety. And

33:36

like everybody does, you saw going

33:39

to their personal things. And

33:41

we find this big box in the back

33:43

of his closet. They. Overlap in

33:45

saw going to it. And

33:48

what was in five was surprising.

33:50

It was. Copies. And

33:52

clips of interviews and. Everything.

33:55

That you know he can get his hands on that

33:58

I had of. From. different

34:00

magazines or advertisements, things

34:02

like that. He had kept the

34:04

copy of everything. So

34:08

in his way, I guess he

34:11

was sort of proud, but he

34:13

came from that generation that men

34:17

couldn't talk about it. So

34:21

it wasn't until he died that I found out that

34:23

he did have some sort of interest. I

34:26

wish we could have

34:29

spoken. There was a whole part

34:32

of life that he

34:34

knew nothing about me. And I

34:38

didn't know much about him. So

34:40

it just would have been nice. I lived

34:43

that through Curtis. How

34:49

do you want people to feel when they're

34:51

reading Curtis? I

34:54

want them to feel a joy in seeing

34:58

how life can be tough,

35:00

but it can be nice also. How

35:03

family can be sweet and

35:06

also judgmental. I want

35:08

to make that connection to

35:14

the people that I

35:16

don't have ordinarily. I'm very

35:19

much a solitary person. And

35:22

it's funny because around certain situations,

35:24

I am kind of awkward. And

35:27

it's because I'm not around people much.

35:30

I haven't been around people much. So

35:34

I like people to get

35:37

some sort of togetherness out of it.

35:42

Every year, one cartoonist is selected

35:44

to win the Rubin Award, voted

35:47

on by members of the National

35:49

Cartoonist Society. And

35:52

in 2021, Ray became the

35:54

first black cartoonist to win

35:56

the award. Thank

35:59

you. been a professional cartoonist for

36:01

over 50 years, and

36:04

he's been drawing for even longer than that.

36:07

He says he can't imagine ever

36:10

stopping. Art

36:12

is just something that's so

36:15

connected to you that you

36:18

cannot put it down. I

36:22

even know artists who, once

36:24

they're even out of the public eye,

36:27

they still maintain their drawing in

36:30

some form. Most

36:32

artists I know,

36:34

they usually work on their

36:37

properties until they can't hold a

36:39

pen anymore. Schultz

36:41

had to stop because his hands started

36:44

shaking. Another

36:46

friend of mine, I think he

36:49

passed last year at 102, and he was still drawing.

36:57

It's a blessing and a curse. It's what

36:59

you will always do, which

37:02

is why, especially when doing the strip,

37:04

you have to really choose characters

37:07

and situations that you really

37:09

love doing because you will

37:12

be with them for a long time.

37:16

Do you ever feel like you're going to run out of

37:18

ideas? Well, not so far. That's

37:21

what I'm really happy about because

37:23

mankind is a trip. They

37:27

just give me all sorts of material

37:30

to actually work from. The

37:34

characters keep writing ideas, and

37:36

there'll be times when I come and sit at

37:38

the drawing board and I'm looking at that blank

37:40

piece of paper, and I

37:43

say, okay, Barry, come

37:45

on to work. What are you going to do or

37:48

I'll say, so Michelle, what are you

37:50

up to today? I just

37:52

think about them for a while, and believe it or

37:54

not, they show up. They show up

37:56

for work. This

38:10

love is created by Lauren Spohrer

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We got a special series running on right

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