About ...

From the introduction to the book "5 Years of Making It"

This cartoon strip "Making It" by Keith Robinson is ruining my life. Yeah, it seems innocent enough, making fun of little fads and trends and stuff. But you see, the characters are based on real people, and the character Christorpher J. Silverwood IV, MBA, is -- superficially -- based on me. When people meet me, they expect me to be a greedy, unscrupulous slime. Boy, does that frost a business negotiation.

In the beginning, I thought it was kind of cute. But back then, the cartoon appeared in only one paper -- the Hermosa Beach, California, Easy Reader -- 2,000 miles from Chicago, where I, and the people I work with, live.

In fact, it was supposed to be a one-time cartoon: "Making It At The Beach," in the August 15, 1985 issue. Then the editor asked Robinson if he could do a weekly life-at-the-beach comic. The series started September 12, and soon thereafter Christopher J. Silverwood IV, MBA, was born.

I guess Robinson needed someone to balance all the blond airhead water-soaked beach scum that think a stretch of sand is some sort of Eden, and for some reason he thought of me. Okay, yeah, I grew up in Southern California; Robinson and I both attended Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach. And yes, I blew out of there right after I got my MBA from USC and came to Chicago, where they know how to dress for dinner, where the bars stay open till four, and where killers are just killers and not ritualistic devil-worshipping vegetarians who are working on screenplays in their spare time. But where does Robinson get off portraying me as a selfish, opinionated cynic?

Still, as I said, no real harm done. The cartoon was safely 2,000 frequent-flyer miles away. But after a year, Robinson expanded the scope of "Making It" beyond the beach, taking on weightier subjects such as romance, business, politics, and which way the toilet paper should go. And that's when the trouble started. First, a New York publisher bought the rights to print a collection of the cartoons. Then a national syndicate signed on to distribute "Making It" to newspapers across the country.

So there I am, minding my own business, reading the Trib one morning. I turn the page and -- BAM! -- there's Robinson, spewing his vile, libelous venom.

That was December, 1987. Now, five years later, a day doesn't go by that I don't walk into someone's office and there's a "Making It" cartoon pinned to the wall with some funhouse-mirror version of my life. I have job stress, Silverwood gets an ulcer. I complain about my idiot co-workers, Silverwood lays off five hundred employees. I have a kid and name him Cyril, Silverwood has a kid and names him Cyril. It's like I'm the target of some bizarre cartoon stalker.

Once, being the sensitive guy that I am, I accompanied the wife to her lactation class. Of course, that showed up in a cartoon. Editors in Dallas and Los Angeles were so nervous about Silverwood's behavior watching breast-feeding slides, they yanked "Making It" from the Sunday funnies permanently. And who got blamed? Me. Woman editors...a man would've understood.

There are some good points. It's kind of cool that Silverwood is a CEO, since I've got about four hundred levels of brain-dead management above me. And Robinson does cartoons pretty regularly now for Playboy, which means I can pick up a copy and the wife can't say anything.

In closing, I do want to thank Robinson and his legal advisors for this chance to set the record straight. I just wanted all you regular "Making It" readers to know that while we may share a first name, a college degree, and a receding hairline, that soulless, money-grubbing Silverwood is not, repeat not, me.

Christopher J. ******** IV, MBA
Chicago, Illinois
June 1992

P.S. When do I get paid for this?