“I’ve always tried to find someone who could help me draw my cartoon ideas,” Cocozzoli said. “I’ve put signs up, and I was getting quite frustrated as hundreds of these things started to pile up.”
Fed up, Cocozzoli turned to Craigslist, placing an ad for a cartoonist to work with. Raghav answered his plea, and the two began working together shortly after.

Cocozzoli said the first step to making the cartoons is having an idea good enough to pursue.

“They just kind of spring into my head,” Cocozzoli said. “I’m kind of a wordsmith, you could say. I work in the library, so I’m surrounded by books that could spark ideas … I have an obsession with words.… It’s just inside me.”

Once he had the ideas, Cocozzoli met up with Sundar to make the idea a reality.

“I would draw these little stick figures on sheets of paper or note cards, and then work with Raghav here in the library after work and show him the drawing and say, ‘This is what I’m going for,’” Cocozzoli said. “Eventually, after a couple times, the cartoon was done and we moved onto the next set of five … It was kind of intensive, but he was serious about getting it right.”

Within nine months, Cocozzoli and Sundar created a publication called “Don’t Paint Over The Paneling!,” which includes about 40 cartoons.

“It’s kind of a funny book,” Cocozzoli said. “Nothing too heavy, nothing sexual or political; just observations of everyday life.”

Assistant professor of South Asian Art Karin Zitzewitz said art has the ability to tell stories in a way that written word cannot.

“There is evidence from around the world that cartoons are extraordinarily effective politically,” she said. “There is a real debate about whether that effect comes from their combination of words and images, or because of their complexities of tone and use of humor. Cartoons seem to have a unique political role to play.”

Journalism freshman Kate Susko said the visual appeal of cartoons can bring the point across better than other forms of expression.
“Cartoons can get a point across because not only are people easily attracted to drawings, but it is also easier to remember a funny joke or saying,” she said. “The point of view on a topic will stick with an audience.”

Cocozzoli said he wants to continue making cartoons. “Don’t Paint Over The Paneling!” currently is available at EVERYbody Reads, 2019 E. Michigan Ave., in Lansing.