When 97 year old Martin Filchock moved with his wife to East Tennessee in 1975, he had already put in a lengthy career as a freelance cartoonist. But interestingly enough, Filchock has managed to reach his career peak in his golden years, over 75 years after his career began.

In the future, Filchock hopes to be recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest active freelance cartoonist.
On the way to his many successes in the cartoon world, Filchock has submitted work to countless publications. Filchock has also drawn “Check and Double Check,” a puzzle that has appeared in Highlights for Children magazine for the last 40 years.

Filchock says he was initially inspired because of his love of drawing, a skill he began to develop at an early age.
“Every kid has the ability to draw whenever he is young,” explains Filchock, who grew up near Pittsburgh during the Great Depression, “but not every kid sticks with it.”

Soon Filchock regularly began to win drawing competitions in local newspapers. Those early competitions not only earned him a box of candy every week, but also laid the foundation of confidence that has kept him in the career he loves so dearly for decades.
As a teenager and young adult, Filchock worked grueling, long hours for a railroad company, an experience that he says led him to make the leap to full-time cartoonist.

“I used to see kids my age having a ball,” says Filchock of that time in his life. “That is why I decided that instead of working 10 hours a day on a railroad I’d rather do something where I’d be my own boss.”
Since that realization, Filchock has yet to look back. After serving the United States in World War II, he returned to America and began one of the most impressive runs in cartooning history. For example, Filchock created “The Amazing Mighty-Man” character, as well as developed many comic book “superheroes” for Centaur Publications. As a result, Filchock has become a widely respected and publicized freelance cartoonist. He has been featured in hundreds of magazines and newspapers, as well as on radio spots.

Filchock, who now lives in Rogersville with his five dogs, will turn 98 in January. The freelance cartoonist says he has no plans to stop working anytime soon.
“I want to do this until I can’t do it anymore,” says Filchock. “I am still very active. Shoot, my driver’s license doesn’t even expire until I turn 100!”

The key to a long lasting career, says Filchock, is to “pace yourself.”
“Over the years I watched a number of my friends burn out and leave the business,” he explains. “They were workaholics. All they do is work. Then, before you know it, they’re dead.”