Not something you want to hear your doctor say, but it works for cartoonists. Dave Coverly is creator of Speed Bump. This is Part 3, and here are an Intro, Part 1 and Part 2.
You’ve covered wanting to be a cartoonist, but when did you realize you actually could make money at it?
This question is also hard to answer really precisely, 
as it depends on what you consider making a living. Before we had kids, my freelance would have been enough to support just me, and my wife had a good job, so we were fine. Coincidentally, I became syndicated with Speed Bump the year my first daughter was born, so then we were also doing fine. Maybe the clearest moment of long-term security - the "hey, maybe I'm going to pull this off" moment - came when Gary Larson retired and suddenly Speed Bump went from "hopeful" to "established."
We really had a big jump in the number of papers that year. It's been cruising along smoothly ever since - not setting the world on fire, but not hanging on by our fingernails, either.
My ideal reader should get a kick out of the opening line.
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