Is there life after visuals? Yes, says the Pilot’s Larry Printz
The Friday edition of Link featured a new free-lance illustrator whose work I enjoyed quite a bit — Larry Printz, who is also The Virginian-Pilot’s auto editor.
Larry joined the Pilot about a year-and-a-half ago, after spending 14 years as a graphic artist and then graphics editor of The (Allentown, Pa.) Morning Call.
Previously, Larry had worked as a cartoonist for the Bucks County (Pa.) Courier Times and the Doylestown (Pa.) Intelligencer. He redesigned each of those papers while he worked there.
Pilot auto editor Larry Printz.
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After years of graphics and editorial cartooning, Larry began dabbling in writing assignments in 1993. He started an auto review column for The Morning Call in 1995 and was eventually picked up by a syndicate.
He left the visuals side behind, however, when he jumped to The Pilot in 2006.
Larry agreed to answer a few questions for us about his career and about life after visuals:
Q. When did you get out of visuals? When you came to the Pilot? Or were you already firmly in the word side back in Allentown?
A. I was already on the word side in Allentown, which is where it started.
When I joined the Call in 1992, it had the sort of newsroom culture that allowed you to try other things apart from your job. Being a classically-trained pianist, I initially started writing about music. But soon I realized I should start writing about cars.
I like to get paid for having fun, and cartooning and driving are two things I like and like getting paid to do.
Larry and my daughter, Elizabeth, at a
big Virginia Beach car show, May 2006.
—Q. How did this migration take place? It was a gradual process?
A. It was gradual, over three years. But I interviewed an amazing number of entertainers, Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, Paul Anka, Nancy Wilson, Jacob Dylan, Kirsty MacColl, and Stan Freberg among others.
[The writing] migrated to cars slowly, but surely. Then two news events happened in our backyard and before long, it was a regular feature.
Q. What were the two events?
A. The introduction of the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable and a national meeting of the Austin-Healey club.
Q. You reported them?
A. Yes, then came back, wrote the story and designed the page.
Q. What was the most interesting music interview you had?
A. Burt Bacharach. Not just because of the length of his career, his extensive musical training, his extensive knowledge, but it turns out we’re related.
Music icons of the 1960s: Burt
Bacharach and Brian Wilson.
—Q. Brian Wilson struggles with mental health issues and has a long history of for giving poor — or, at least, peculiar — interviews. What was he like?
A. It depends whether he’s had his meds. I came away feeling guilty about it. This is a guy who gave so much; people want more. We should feel lucky he’s still with us making music.
Q. You had a background in writing or reporting before all this started, right? Surely you weren’t born with all those word-person skills…
A. Actually, prior to writing at The Morning Call, I had never written a story of any sort. My writing was limited to cartooning.
Larry’s section, Drive, appears in The Virginian-Pilot every Friday. That’s his column on the right; he usually writes the lead feature, as well. Which was the case this past Friday with a test drive of the new Smart car.
—Q. So you’re out of the visual side, forever. And then you move to the Virginian-Pilot — one of the nation’s more visual newspapers. Is that weird, or what?
A. Oh yeah. But I find that my experience on the visual side has helped structure my writing, since I can think of the layout before a word is written.
Q. You’re still a member of the National Cartoonists Society. Do you still attend their meetings? What’s it like to rub elbows with that bunch?
A. I’ve been a member since I was 23 and still attend meetings. It’s shockingly normal, except their jokes are funnier. And despite what you might think, no one talks in speech balloons.
Brenda Starr cartoonist Dale Messick.
She died in 2005.
—Q. What’s your favorite famous-cartoonist anecdote?
A. I have a million of them, but here’s one…
A few years ago, I saw Dale Messick, creator of Brenda Starr and the first successful female cartoonist. She was in her early 90s, and I found her in the hotel business office surfing the web. We exchanged pleasantries and agreed to chat later.
At a cocktail reception, she was asked if she had to do it all over again, would she go into Col. Patterson’s office at the Chicago Tribune and become a syndicated cartoonist. She said, “Hell no. I’d go to California and buy real estate.”
Larry gobbles down a Philly cheesesteak for a Virginian-Pilot “Taste test” feature earlier this year.
—Q. While rummaging around our system for photos of you, I found a shot of you eating what appears to be a Philly cheesesteak. What was that all about? Are you from Philly?
A. Born in Philly, home to such cartoonists as Ted Key (Hazel) and Robb Armstrong (Jump Start).
Q. What was it like growing up in a big city without professional sports?
A. Yo! That hurts.
A sample of Larry’s cartoon work in last week’s Link.
—Q. Do you miss art direction? Illustrating? Locator maps?
A. Since I am also editor of my section, I still indulge in a bit of art direction.
I do miss being a staff cartoonist, but still freelance.
I will never miss drawing another locator map, but I love it when I find one that’s particularly well executed.
Q. What advice can you give the rest of us designers and artists?
A. Words matter. A designer’s job is to amplify them without detracting from them.
A lesson I learned as a cartoonist is that the words matter more than the drawing. The drawing can be bad, but if the words are funny enough, it won’t matter. Looking at many comic strips today proves that point.
Thanks, Larry, for the interview. And best wishes for the continued success of the Drive section.
And hey, come on back to graphics whenever you get bored. I have some locator assignments waiting for you..
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Where is the best Philly Cheesesteak place located. Can I be emailed the results from pilot taste test. I would also like a list of past pilot taste test outings.
Thank you,
Barry E. Peebles