In every art form, there are elite titles.

In acting, there’s the EGOTs—short for actors who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. On a side note, there are some interesting notes for awards. Maybe we should have the Mildred awards, or perhaps Hortense?

In book writing, we have the New York Times bestsellers. No, I’m nowhere near that level, and given some of the policies of that paper, it might be a good thing I’m not. I could be considered a Shawano Leader bestseller, but that’s mainly because the competition is very slim. The only other author with the paper retired a year ago, so now I’m at the top of the heap.

When it comes to poetry, there are poet laureates. These poets receive their titles by various organizations and entities with the purpose of spreading the love of poetry to the world. However, the laureate title is temporary, usually only for a year or two, but the prestige that comes during and after the term is amazing.

Now, Wisconsin has decided to take the “laureate” title and apply it to cartoonists. The Museum of Wisconsin Art named Paul Noth from Milwaukee as the state’s first cartoonist laureate, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

Noth has drawn more than 400 cartoons for the New Yorker. One particularly noteworthy cartoon that he created in 2010 has some sheep in a meadow looking at a campaign sign of a wolf wearing a suit that says, “I’m going to eat you.” One of the sheep says, “He tells it like it is.”

Noth’s interview with WPR noted that he was reading cartoons and drawing them since childhood. There was a comics section in the newspaper called the Green Sheet that Noth said he looked at daily.

I remember constantly wanting to read the comics page whenever I encountered a newspaper lying somewhere. Forget the murders and the grift and little Susie getting a blue ribbon at the county fair. I wanted to be entertained.

Ironically, newspapers would find a way to get me interested in the aforementioned things and reporting them to the community. I tried my hand at drawing, but I was never very good.

It worked for Noth, though. Even though he was creating 10 cartoons a week and feeling lucky if he sold one, he found his way to success as he found a way to focus and refine his options by doing single-panel cartoons.

Noth also has a technique he calls the bad idea notebook, a concept he’s using this summer in cartooning workshops for kids. Having something with “bad ideas” written on the front, according to Noth, frees artists to doodle as many pictures as they can think of, and in the process find ones that might be worth developing and molding into something awesome.

Cartoons serve as short stories, occasionally serialized short stories in the lives of made up people. I tend to write longer stories, but cartoons also allow to live vicariously through others. However, those stories require someone with an artistic hand. I can imagine the stories in my head, but I can’t guide my hand to illustrate them.

Still, I would have to say that drawn cartoons and comics have helped me to expand my imagination. Just like picture books, anything that’s drawn can help us to dream up stories and fill in the blanks beyond what the original image shows us. I wonder what kind of writer I would be if I hadn’t grown up around cartoons like Peanuts or Garfield.

Cartoons not only give us amusement, though. Many times they make us think. Think back to Noth’s cartoon with the wolf and the sheep. It makes you realize that so many of us are willing to end up in the belly of the beast, just so long as we think said beast is being square with us.

I imagine that Paul Noth will have an interesting year ahead of him, not only sharing his joy for cartooning but also inspiring the next generation of cartoonists. In a time where everything’s been computerized, it’s refreshing to see one art form where the movement of a hand can create something out of nothing.

Hail to the cartoonist laureate, and long may his humorous and overexaggerated banner wave.