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'Cartoon Guy' Draws Crowd

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By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 20, 2008

DADE CITY - Give Mark Mains a Sharpie and a piece of white paper, and he can draw your likeness in less than three minutes.

"If it's a good-looking woman, it may take a little longer," he said with a grin.

Known as "The Cartoon Guy," Mains will be at the Pasco County Fair this week, before heading to a gig in Daytona Beach.

In the coming months, he and his 22-foot mobile home will travel to fairs and other events in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, New York and Wisconsin, among other places.

"I just go wherever I can get a good gig," he said.

It's a lifestyle Mains, 48, of Alexandria, Ky., has grown accustomed to. He has been a cartoonist for 30 years and traveled full time for about the last five. This week marks his second year in Pasco.

He said he started doodling in school. While it was a hobby he enjoyed, it often got him into trouble.

"I'd draw pictures of the teachers, kind of making fun of them," he said.

Mains' fun-loving nature comes through in his work, which decorates the walls of his canopy, along with two of his favorite sayings: "Feed a starving artist" and "No sniffin' the markers."

Jim Ward, secretary of the Pasco County Fair Association, said he saw Mains at a fair in Winter Haven a couple of years ago and figured he would be a good addition in Pasco.

"I just thought it would bring something new" to the fair, Ward said. "I'm thrilled with him being here."

Mains said that he made enough money in Pasco last year to persuade him to return.

"It's more family-oriented," he said. "They don't sell beer, so you don't get the riffraff you normally get with the beer crowd. It's just friendlier here."

When it comes to drawing, Mains said he can do anything. He often designs signs and graphics for other vendors.

In Alexandria, he often works at birthday parties, corporate events and bar mitzvahs. Examples of his work can be found at www.thecartoonguyusa.com.

The hardest thing about traveling about eight months a year is that it's hard to maintain "a normal relationship."

"My last wife told me, 'If you're gonna go on the road, don't come back,'" he said. "We were married about six years. The funny thing is, she's the one who helped get me started doing this full time."

On opening day, Mains relaxed in a chair while he waited for the crowds.

If it's a good week, he said, he may go through 24 Sharpie markers.

After a few moments, a family approached.

"Drawing cartoons keeps you young," he said, as he uncapped a marker.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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