cartoonnoise blog

My name is Guy Bowen. I’m a Creative Director/graphic designer to pay the bills and a cartoonist to have fun.

I started drawing cartoons when I was in early grade school. I would copy my brother’s drawings. He was only one year older, but a wonderful artist. We would draw weird cartoons together, passing a single sheet of paper back and fourth, adding to it each time. It was great fun and one of my fondest memories. Sadly, my brother passed away when I was 13, he only 14. He was always a better artist than I and I often wonder how good he would have been.

Inspired by MAD Magazine and others of the sort, I continued to draw cartoons throughout school. I even had a weekly cartoon in the local paper for the small Iowa town where I grew up.

Later on in high school I decided I wanted to go to an art school for my college education (even though I did not take art in high school because the art teacher was so restrictive).

I studied graphic design, graduated college, got a job as an art director, changed jobs a few times and eventually (after many years) started my own graphic design company (Bowen Creative Company). Along the way there was a family, a house and a dog added. During all this time, I very rarely did any cartooning. Then something magical happened: my two wonderful daughters grew to around the same age I was when I started drawing my first cartoons. I started showing them silly little doodles and drawings which always brought a smile. So I started sending cartoons to school with their lunches once in a while. The girls would tell me other kids would gather around them at lunch to see if they had a cartoon! After a while, I would “hear about it” on the days I did not include one in the lunch!

Which brings us to present day. It’s just the two daughters and I now (they are with their mom on weekends) and I’m on my forth year of “Lunch Box Cartoons”. I get up an hour or so before I wake the girls and draw them each a cartoon for the day and hide it in their lunch or day planner… everyday. Or at least most.

Friends and family kept saying I should “do something” with my cartooning. So, I though I would give it a shot! I will try to post everyday or so, but I know when I get busy (with “pay the bills” type of work) it may be hard to keep up. So keep checking back!

I hope you enjoy my work. It truly is a passion. I love to see my daughter’s reactions, as well as others. So please leave me comments, spread the word, and let’s have some fun.

Thanks,