While digging out the drawing by Garry Trudeau that I scanned and uploaded for yesterday’s entry, I came across this caricature of me done by Joe Papin, famed courtroom sketch artist for the New York Daily News. And since I’ve mentioned in the past that I’d share other caricatures of me, in addition to the Jack Davis image which I sometimes use as my icon, it seems like the right time to post this.

I was visiting Bill Kresse at the paper’s 42nd Street offices just before heading off to begin as a freshman at SUNY Buffalo in January of 1973. (That odd starting date is due to my graduating high school early, in January instead of June.) I had become friendly with Bill thanks to a school tour several years earlier.

A number of Daily News cartoonists drew me going-away cards, including George Ward, whose artwork I’ve already shared with you. At the time, I wanted to be a newspaper columnist in the Pete Hamill/Jimmy Breslin mode, walking the streets and writing about whatever I happened to find there.

Joe’s scribbled comment at the bottom of his caricature advises me to stay strong:

Always remember: You are entering a field in which the working ethic has sadly become, “Better a living dog, than a dead lion!” With hard work, perseverance, and a great deal of luck, you can help change this! Excelsior!!

I guess I never fulfilled whatever journalistic promise Joe saw in me, but at least I got a neat portrait out of it. Sorry about that, Joe, wherever you are!