CARTOONIST PROFILE

Bio

Garth German always wanted to be a cartoonist. So, after many fits and starts, he decided one day to just be a cartoonist. And his following grew from that, publishing online and finding his passions.

Garth was born in California, but grew up in Upstate New York, where he started cartooning primarily for himself and his friends. Garth attended Cornell University, where he published a daily comic strip, Climbing Ivy in the Cornell Daily Sun. In the Summer, Garth produced political and editorial cartoons published in the Penn State Daily Collegian. Garth also produced weekly cartoons for TheGlobe.com, an early online community; the cartoons formed the basis for the early branding for the website, which went on to have the largest single day gain in IPO history when the company went public, before it went bust as a poster child for the dotcom era.

After college, as it was the thing to do in the mid-90s, Garth moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to find real work. Life interceded in the cartooning, though Garth continued to publish weekly cartoons in the Top of the Net newsletter for the Retail Systems Alert Group, produce cartoons on heavy metal bands, and do lots of band posters and merch.

Garth fell in love with political and editorial cartooning with his self-published work, The Reality of My Surroundings, which is posted online 5-7 times per week. In 2022, Garth won the Grand Prize in the Homer C. Davenport International Cartoon Contest.

Garth’s cartoons have also appeared in two episodes of The Simpsons – once in the 2020 episode, Bart the Bad Guy, referencing a mash-up t-shirt design he did that caught the eye of The Simpsons executive producer and showrunner; and the second time during the end credits of the 2022 episode Not It!

Garth lives in San Francisco, very lucky to share his life with his wonderful wife, his two awesome kids, and their host of live-in pets. During the days he pays the bills as a management consultant.