Philip Witte, ’83, Shares Journey from Lawyer to Cartoonist
He’s Got Jokes: Former insurance litigator spent decades juggling work, family and cartooning
Philip Witte started writing and drawing cartoons at the age of 8, thanks to a heavy dose of Mad magazine. By the time he was in high school, Witte, who would often be found scribbling cartoons in the back of the classroom, was described in his yearbook as the “class cartoonist,” he says. He sold his first cartoon at 15.
But how many high school doodlers actually make it as professional cartoonists? And at what cost? Witte decided he needed to grow up and drop the cartoonist act.
He attended Princeton University and started focusing on more serious writing, studying creative writing with Joyce Carol Oates. He had a few articles published in the Washington Post and considered becoming a journalist.
Witte was conflicted. He loved cartoons, humor and writing, but he didn’t want to be a starving artist. So he decided to go to law school at the University of Chicago.
“I could write and I had analytical abilities, so I thought law school would be a good idea,” he says. “I can’t say it was a pleasant experience, though.”
It definitely was not as pleasant as sitting in an artist’s studio dreaming of cartoons.
Read more at ABA Journal