Although Hugh Kilpatrick III’s background is in architecture, one of his favorite pastimes has always putting a smile on the faces of others, particularly by developing and drawing cartoon panels.
So after retiring from his original field, Kilpatrick – who lives with his wife in Northport, Alabama – decided to pursue a full-time career as a cartoonist. With some advice and encouragement, Kilpatrick started with two cartoon panels and a website, which was launched last year and now features many of his hand-drawn panels.
“I love cartooning; I always have,” said Kilpatrick, who comes to Petal from time to time to visit his daughter. “When I was in Pensacola (Florida), I was the editor of an architectural newsletter in our chapter … and I also did a cartoon panel.
“I just loved that; I would do it at First Baptist Church in Pensacola, where I was saved, and I did the church work posters. I have just always enjoyed drawing and cartooning. When I retired (from architecture), I just decided ‘now is the time for me to jump into this with both hands.”
Kilpatrick’s single-panel cartoons, which can be found online at www.hughkilpatrickcartoonist.com and in some publications throughout his area, focus on light humor, rather than on political or caustic topics.
One series of cartoons, titled “Biblically Speaking,” features religious topics with biblical figures, regular people and bible verses. One cartoon in the series, titled “Noah’s Dilemma,” shows Noah reading “The Ark Plan” and saying, ‘Hmmm… wonder what a cubit is?’”
“(Sometimes) I insert myself as a snarky person giving a little editorial comment about the panel,” Kilpatrick said. “Plus, I insert a biblical verse.
“I was brought up Catholic, and we would read the Bible, but some of my Catholic family, I send these to them, and they say, ‘Gosh, Hugh, you’re making me get The Bible out and research some of these verses.’ I say, ‘well, that’s probably not a bad thing.’ It’s all in good fun, but that does have a secondary purpose.”
Another series, called “Hugh’s Views,” also is published in Northport Living Magazine and usually features one theme per month.
“Like for Thanksgiving, I’d do something kind of ‘Thanskgiving-y’ and for January I’ll do something for the first of the year,” Kilpatrick said. “I try to tie it in to the genre or the topic of the issue that month.”
For example, one Thanksgiving panel features a turkey with a “wish list” that runs down such items as deaf hunters, poor shots, chicken dinners and dull axes.
Kilpatrick was born in Bessemer, Alabama and grew up in Hueytown, which is approximately 10 miles outside of Birmingham and 30 miles away from his current home. He completed high school in Hueytown before attending Auburn University, where he graduated with a degree in architectural design.
Kilpatrick worked as an architect for 18 years in Pensacola and in 1991 became campus architect at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He retired from the field 10 years ago and was performing volunteer work when he received a publication in the mail and reached out to it staff to enquire about running a cartoon.
“They were interested, so I did that, and then I started beating the bushes, and I contacted the Alabama Baptist publication, which is out of Birmingham,” Kilpatrick said. “I had a meeting with the editor there, and she liked my work, and that made me feel good, so I’m doing a bunch of stuff for her.
“Then I contacted (an official) over in Tupelo at American Family Association, and they have American Family News, which is an online (publication) … and they said they’d carry mine on weekends, so I started doing that. Another client of mine is the University of Alabama alumni magazine; it comes out every quarter, and I just did a whole year, which is four issues, and I’m starting on my second year of four issues.”
Although the time it takes Kilpatrick to complete a cartoon varies, he can usually complete two in a day – although sometimes it takes longer to come up with an idea than to actually draw the panels.
“Once I get an idea, it takes a couple of hours, maybe three hours or so,” Kilpatrick said. “I do it in (Microsoft) Word, and then I convert it to PDF and then I send it in electronically to different people. But I start with pencil and paper – I’ve got a drawing board over here – and you get your idea, sketch it up and start doing overlays and tweak it.
“Then you scan it, put it on the computer and do the final coloring. I keep it simple – black and white with a touch of color here and there – but the main thing is to get the humor right. I run it by my wife because she’s my first source of vetting.”
As of now, Kilpatrick is working to get his cartoons to more publications, including those in Mississippi and the Hattiesburg area.
“I called the Baptist Association over in Mississippi (to see if they’d be interested),” he said. “I’d like to get over in the Mississippi area, because that’s where my daughter resides and I thought it would be neat for her to see some of my stuff.
“I’m interested in any kind of publication, to try to get my work in there. My goal is to just put smiles on peoples’ faces – that’s all. It’s just such a heavy world, with all this craziness going around, and if somebody can just smile and chuckle maybe, I’ve succeeded.”
