Flannery O'Connor's first published works were her cartoons, appearing in her high school newspaper, the Peabody Palladium. By the end of 1941, the Palladium reported that O'Connor had written and illustrated three books about geese: Mistaken Identity, Elmo, and Gertrude, which went unpublished. The article also mentions O'Connor's decorated school notebook, painted with oils and covered with cellophane. At the same time, she was also designing and selling handmade lapel pins at a local store in Milledgeville.
O'Connor's career as a cartoonist continued at Georgia State College for Women, appearing as early as October 1942 in the college newspaper, The Colonnade. O'Connor's cartoons slyly capture humorous views of campus life, school performances, social activities, studying, and coexisting with the U.S. Navy WAVES.
While at GSCW, her cartoons appeared in almost every college publication. In 1944, O'Connor was appointed Art Editor of the college yearbook, the Spectrum, designing numerous cartoons for the 1944-1945 yearbook, including the inside covers depicting campus scenes. In 1944, O'Connor also submitted cartoons to The New Yorker, but the magazine declined to publish them. (CW 1240)
Many of O'Connor's cartoons were linoleum-block prints. Linoleum-block printing involves cutting or etching an image onto a linoleum sheet. In O'Connor's case, she attached the linoleum to a piece of wood, applied a solid color of ink to the linoleum cutting, and printed the image onto a piece of paper. The cartoon appears as a b&w image in the final publication.
O'Connor's interest in creating cartoons continued after leaving home in 1945 to pursue a graduate degree in writing at the University of Iowa. Among O'Connor's first courses at The University of Iowa were two classes in advanced drawing. She hoped to support her writing by selling cartoons to national publications. However, when unable to sell any of her cartoons, she devoted all her energy to writing.