‘Rubes’ cartoonist publishes new book sharing secrets on creativity and humor

As one of San Luis Obispo County’s most well-known artists prepares to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his work, he’s pulling back the curtain on the creative process.

Leigh Rubin, author of the long-running comic strip “Rubes,” is no stranger to publishing, having produced more than a dozen collections of his work, but his 20th book is something different entirely.

“Think Like a Cartoonist: A Celebration of Humor and Creativity” examines the creative process from a wide range of perspectives, from the “Rubes” creator’s advice on handling rejection to a novelist’s tips on writer’s block.

“I’ve got rocket scientists, geologists, soldiers, bankers, artists, CHP officers, disc jockeys,” Rubin said. “All sorts of people, and a number of people from the Central Coast.”

Rubin said the new book is a chance for readers to find creativity and inspiration anywhere in their life.

“Every story is so different, but all of them have the common thread of creativity and, and for lack of a better term, thinking outside the box,” Rubin said.

‘Delightfully entertaining’ stories are filled with advice

Rubin said he got the idea to write a book on how to engage with the creative process after being appointed the cartoonist-in-residence at New York’s Rochester Institute of Technology in 2018.

In that role, he speaks to students across all fields about creativity and how to foster it and eventually pitched the idea of a book summarizing some of his advice to RIT Press, the university’s publishing house, he said.

“I wanted to do something useful that students — and actually anybody — could use, more than a cartoon collection,” Rubin said. “I wanted to do a book about my thoughts on the creative process and examples of it and where ideas come from.”

Rubin said across his four-decade career in cartooning, one of the most common questions he’s asked is how he comes up with a cartoon strip for every day of the year.

He said the spark behind each strip doesn’t always come from the same place, as every piece of creative work requires the creator to find a new way to rise to the occasion.

“(Finding creativity) is not always a problem — it can be seeing something new in a new light,” Rubin said. “There’s a great story about an artist in (the book) who saw some stain from some raspberries on a napkin, and it was very inspirational.”

Originally, Rubin considered hiring a writer or journalist to conduct interviews with the contributors featured in the book, before ultimately deciding to do it himself.

With that decision came a difference in who would be featured in the book, he said.

“It was suggested, ‘Why don’t you reach out to celebrities?’ and I’m thinking, celebrities already get a ton of attention,” Rubin said. “I thought, wouldn’t it be much cooler if I reached out to only people that I knew personally, from many years ago up to the present, to see how they would have done this?”

As it happens, creativity can take many shapes.

Rubin reached out to around 150 people for the book — friends, family and colleagues — with the goal of getting a well-rounded view of each person’s creative process.

Each story written by Rubin’s 45 contributors is short, running at just two to four pages, but they’re tightly focused on delivering a specific message, Rubin said.

One story came from Rick Rittenburg, a friend of Rubin’s who had earned a degree in geology but wound up interviewing for a job at a Harley Davidson dealership out of necessity.

The story shares how Rittenburg was able to selectively apply his expertise and faked it until he made it, ultimately winning the job.

During the interviewing process, Rubin was able to reconnect with old friends and acquaintances, which he said was one of the most fun aspects of writing the book.

All told, Rubin said it took around four years to compile, write and release the book, which was published in October.

“Often, the stories were delightfully entertaining,” Rubin wrote in the book’s introduction. “But more important, their anecdotes were applicable, instructive, enlightening, and, most of all, they were examples of how seeing the world imaginatively produced pleasing results.”

“Think Like a Cartoonist: A Celebration of Humor and Creativity” is available for purchase at RIT Press and Amazon.