Failure™ Magazine

F + Minus = Success

New Failure-Oriented Comic Strip Makes the Grade.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Life

The letter “F” and the “minus” symbol don’t normally represent success, but the combination of the two is looking awfully good on Tony Carrillo’s résumé. Carrillo, a 24-year-old cartoonist from Tempe, Arizona, is the creator of “F Minus,” a new random-joke, single-panel cartoon coming soon to a newspaper near you.

As one might guess, “F Minus” celebrates failure by making light of life’s little indignities. “Everyone in my comic is either a failure or stupid or just kind of a loser,” begins Carrillo. “If they were being graded in life they would get an F-.”

Ironically, Carrillo never dreamed of becoming a professional cartoonist. He stumbled into drawing cartoons out of financial necessity. As an underclassman at Arizona State University (ASU) he came across an ad in the student newspaper, The State Press, looking for a cartoonist. “The ad said, ‘Can you draw—even just a little bit?’” recalls Carrillo. “It sounded like a fun job and I needed the money so I drew three little cartoons and sent them in. They hired me over the phone and I’ve been doing cartoons ever since.”

Looking back, Carrillo realizes his early efforts were less than inspiring. “They were not very good. I admit that,” he says. “I had almost no cartooning experience and everything I had done before was classical drawing or portraiture. So when I started out all my drawings were too detailed. When they were reduced for the paper they disappeared,” he says with a laugh.

Carrillo simplified his style and soon developed a cult following among ASU students. In November 2004 he entered his work in the inaugural “mtvU Strips” contest, which offered a tantalizing grand prize: A six-month development deal with United Feature Syndicate, home to such comic strips as “Peanuts,” “Dilbert,” and “Get Fuzzy.” To his delight, Carrillo won the contest, which was judged by mtvu.com users, as well as renowned comic artists like Scott Adams (“Dilbert”) and David Rees (“Get Your War On”).

Suddenly, Carrillo found himself working alongside United’s Jake Morrissey, longtime editor of such cartoons as “The Far Side” and “Calvin and Hobbes.” According to Carrillo, spending six months with Morrissey was invaluable, noting, “You can’t get a degree in cartooning and there aren’t many cartoonists with whom you can discuss things. And even if you can track them down they tend to stay in their houses and never come out,” he quips.

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