As a 17-year-old senior at Wm. J. Palmer High School, Kirk sold one of the first cartoons he ever drew to SKI Magazine.
Even though he tried, and tried and tried again, he never sold another cartoon to any magazine again—ever!
What’s worse: the ski cartoon was never published.
He tried his hand at editorial cartooning by securing an internship at the Boulder Daily Camera. His editorial cartoons have appeared in the Lamar Tri-State Daily News, the Pikes Peak Journal, the Cheyenne Edition, the Colorado Springs Sun and the Colorado Springs Independent.
Kirk submitted over a dozen concepts for comic strips. This involved drawing 24 to 42 daily and Sunday comic strips and mailing them off to newspaper syndications for their consideration.
Kirk draws more than 15 original greeting cards annually for friends and family.
Kirk’s cartooning process has evolved from pen and ink drawings on Bristol board to an Apple Pencil and Procreate app on an iPad Pro. While there are no longer physical originals, this app provides the platform for diverse drawing styles. Kirk also dabbles in painting with watercolors and acrylic paints.
Kirk has supported his cartooning avocation through a variety of jobs and entrepreneurial ventures, including grocery stores, restaurants, pizzerias and his own sub shop, culminating—so far—in a 32-year career as a self-employed tile setter. Some of his former sandwich customers at the USAFA became tile customers and some of those customers are now readers of The Maverick Observer.
The misogyny displayed in this cartoon is beyond disgusting. We do need humor in our lives, but this cartoon is just embarrassing. Why not show a male council member? None of them…and most have been there many years, have gotten nothing accomplished. But instead you attack the woman on council who’s only been serving for one year and who displays all the traits good legislators should possess: a collaborative spirit and a willingness to cooperate and compromise. Disgusting.