Lynn Johnston on how she got her start in cartooning

LYNN JOHNSTON: ...there was an ad in the paper for a medical artist at McMaster University, and they were simply looking for someone who could do charts and graphs for medical students. Black-and-white diazo slides, illustrations for lectures, things like that... So they hired me and another guy who could draw quite well, and they put us into medical school along with about 20 brand-new medical students who were being trained in an exceptional way. They were completing a four-year course in two years. So a lot of the stuff was already done for them. All the dissections were completely done -ー it wasn't like they had to do the dissections. So I took a detailed anatomical course so I could illustrate and label the dissections, I did the most unbelievable stuff for five years. I did reconstructive plastic surgery, genetics, growth and development of the fetus, I worked with people as they were having angiograms, I animated a whole kidney biopsy...it was a real serious medical professional's job I had. And in my spare time I would do posters for the university. It was wonderful, because at home, I had this terrible marriage; things were falling apart there. One of the doctors in epidemiology and biostatistics had a dad who was cartoonist. He said, "I've seen your posters around the school,” and he asked me to do some cartoon art to illustrate his lectures. I did them, and it was so much fun! Dave Sackett was a delight to work with. The other doctors were infuriated, though. They thought it was making fun of their profession, but the students who looked at these cartoons memorized the information 100 percent quicker than the students who didn't! And they did an analysis of the cartoon work versus the plain diazo slides, and suddenly I did nothing but cartoon art for the university! I was no longer doing the detailed anatomical and surgical work. I did that freelance at home, and I started a little freelance commercial art studio where I branched out and developed a huge clientele.