Borgman finds his voice
Jim Borgman first felt the exhilaration of having other people see his artwork when he was 5 years old.
The Cincinnati native, who would go on to illustrate the award-winning “Zits” cartoons, submitted a drawing to “The Uncle Al Show” as a kindergartner.
“They would hold up drawings that kids did and sent in, and I was always mesmerized by that,” he said of the former children’s TV program.
“I sent in my stuff and I saw my crayon drawing there on ‘Uncle Al’... It was a moment for me,” he added. “That little thrill that you get – maybe we all have it in our own version – what it would be like to have other people see our stuff.”
Borgman fell in love with political cartoons by reading them in The Cincinnati Enquirer. He also loved classic comic strips like “Peanuts,” “Pogo” and “Calvin and Hobbes.” While attending Kenyon College in Ohio, a friend “connected the dots” for Borgman, showing him that he could make a career out of art.
Borgman began drawing weekly cartoons for the school newspaper, where the thrill of others seeing his work grew.
“I’m not a person who seeks the spotlight in any other way but through my drawings,” he said. “I was excited to be in people’s conversations.”
On to a bigger stage
A week after graduating from college, Borgman started as The Enquirer’s editorial cartoonist.
“I was scared to death,” he remembered. “I had been drawing for this little college newspaper . ... Now I’m on stage in front of a major metropolitan newspaper audience.”
Borgman brought with him a portfolio of 12-15 sketches, which he doubled in his first two weeks at The Enquirer.
“It was a thrilling and scary start, but people were patient,” he said. “Cincinnatians are kind by nature, I think, and forgiving. I guess people saw someone paying attention to their town and trying to draw something lighthearted and thought-provoking about their world.”
Borgman said he began to feel more confident in his cartoons by 1980.
“I felt like I knew what the inside of homes looked like,” he explained. “I’d grown up there, and I’d moved around the city quite a bit. So, I had a feel for just how life looked through those windows. I think people picked up on that. “
One cartoon that epitomized this feeling for Borgman was of the Cincinnati Bengals’ tiger mascot sitting dominantly on a football field. Borgman’s “Next” cartoon became a symbol of the Bengals’ 1988-89 Super Bowl run.
“It kind of became iconic, and it was everywhere the rest of that season,” he said. “Suddenly it just felt like, ‘OK, we’re really connected here.’ ”