Scott Shaw is a professional cartoonist. You have to get that from the start, because what you see on the surface can be deceptive (rather like tabasco sauce in a bland bottle).
I got to know Scott through Jim MacQuarrie, and through joining the Comic Arts Professional Society (they let me in on my writing credits, light though they are in comics at present — but that’s another story). Jim has always spoken highly of Scott, and that’s a huge recommendation in my book.
Scott is one of the few people I know who favors the flat-top buzz cut for a hair style. But it works for him. I saw him recently and his hair was the longest I’d ever seen it (maybe an inch), and it just felt wrong. Like many cartoonists, he favors Hawaiian shirts, and his most remarkable piece (to me) is one with red roses and white skulls on a black background. To continue his living study of incongruity, he used to work for Hanna-Barbera and is an expert at drawing their trademark characters.
All the professional stuff aside, Scott sets an example as a member of any community. He keeps track of elder colleagues in the cartooning world, and he motivates others to stay engaged. He’s a leader when there are calls for cartoonists to help at charity events for ailing kids. His heart genuinely goes out to those kids — whenever he speaks of such events afterward, you can see his eyes lighting up in remembering the delight a child had expressed on getting a drawing.
He seems to have cultivated a dead-pan demeanor, until his sense of humor starts bubbling up, and mischief tugs his smile out of hiding. His quick wit just waits to pounce on any conversational opening.
I admit, I don’t know Scott as well as I ought to. Compassionate, smart, funny, plugged into his family life – he’s definitely a person worth knowing, and I hope I continue to have that opportunity for a long time to come.
