AFTER FOUR YEARS of cartooning at Harvard, I've discovered that many people are acquainted with me by my cartoons alone. They see my initials next to drawings in the Crimson or Lampoon and think they know me. When such people meet me for the first time, they are often surprised that I do not have bulging eyes, tangled hair, extra fingers or huge feet. They expect me to be a living Budnitz cartoon, with a heavy black outline all around and my initials in my armpit.

I am writing this piece to clear up such misconceptions, to separate myself from my art. I want to unveil the person behind the cartoons. To this end, I am going to answer those questions people most often ask me.

Where are you from?

I was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia.

What's your concentration?

It's a joint concentration: English and VES.

Where do you get your ideas?

I get them out of my head.

Who are your favorite artists and cartoonists?

I like political cartoonists like Doug Marlette and Mike Lukovitch. One of my favorite illustrators is Maurice Sendak, the man who wrote and illustrated the children's book, Where the Wild Things Are. I read an interview in which Sendak said the wild things in the story had been inspired by relatives from his childhood. He explained how when he was a child, these very old, frightening relatives with beady eyes and hair in their noses would come to visit for dinner. They would lean very close to him and say things like, "You're so cute I could just eat you up." They looked so threatening that the young Sendak was afraid they actually would.

Is that how you get the ideas for your characters? Do you have a really ugly, deformed family?

Hey, watch who you're calling ugly, dogface.

Graphics Who else? Judy R. Budnitz

Are you always so defensive?

I am a sensitive artist. You cannot understand me with your mediocre mind.