A Serious Look at the Funny Pages : Pop culture: At their annual convention, cartoonists saluted their art form--and told of the pain that often fuels it.

A cartoonists’ convention isn’t all laughs.

In fact, at one point last weekend, a gathering of some of the world’s funniest, most insightful people turned downright melancholic as famed comic-strip creators reminisced during a panel discussion about how they got started in the business.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Mike Peters described his dysfunctional family, his childhood unhappiness. “I also had an awful stutter,” said the creator of “Mother Goose and Grimm.”

“I’d hide away in my room, and do my cartoons,” said Peters. “As a kid, the only thing I could do well was cartoon.”

Sounding an even more lugubrious note, Lynn Johnston, author of “For Better or For Worse,” detailed a deep catalogue of angst, including a failed marriage, bouts of depression and suicidal fantasies. “I had really weird feelings,” she said.

Clearly, Johnston’s life has served as the wellspring for much of the real-world humor and drama that has made “For Better or For Worse”--carried by 1,600 daily and Sunday newspapers--among the most popular comic strips in the country. She has often provoked controversy with middle-class characters who deal with themes such as homosexuality, aging parents and eating disorders.

Said Jim Davis, the father of “Garfield”: “Writers and cartoonists are able to dredge up the awfullest memories of childhood. You write what you know.”

Still, it wasn’t all gloom at the tony Boca Raton Resort & Club as several hundred cartoonists, illustrators, animators and fans gathered for the 49th annual convention of the National Cartoonists Society and for the presentation of the Reuben Awards. The Reuben, the cartoonists’ version of the Oscar, is named after pioneer American cartoonist Rube Goldberg and given to the person voted outstanding cartoonist of the year.

This year’s Reuben went to Gary Larson, the creator of the wacky and recently retired “Far Side.” Garry Trudeau of “Doonesbury” was honored for best newspaper comic strip.

Holding the four-day convention in this manicured, seaside town on Florida’s east coast also served to spotlight the International Museum of Cartoon Art, which is under construction here in a downtown park. When it opens to the public early next year, the museum will house more than 130,00 original drawings, 10,000 books and hours of animated film.

Its 25 galleries will be dedicated to such themes as freedom and censorship, editorial cartoons and animation.

Equally important, according to museum founder Mort Walker, creator of “Beetle Bailey,” the museum will collect, preserve and exhibit cartoon drawings while recognizing the genre as a serious art form. “It’s an important mission,” Walker said. “Cartoons not only make readers laugh, they also reflect society’s concerns and values, and prompt readers to think and grow.”

Indeed, cartooning is an art form of popular culture that mirrors contemporary life while poking fun, irritating and educating. From early Greek and Egyptian artists who lampooned the gods, through the political satire of editorialist Thomas Nast, to the social commentary of Johnston, Trudeau and Dik Browne, cartoons have been a constant, if undervalued, reflection of every society.

The panel discussion devoted to four cartoonists’ beginnings proved to be a revelation on just how rooted in personal experience, both high and low, successful cartooning is.

Davis, whose wry feline alter ego has become a cultural and marketing phenomenon, said that after years of trying to imitate the styles of other cartoonists, “I started to listen to my own sense of humor.

“Garfield makes me laugh, and he makes others laugh. The more human-like I make Garfield, the more cat-like people perceive he is.”

And Peters, while chronicling a history of adolescent loneliness, also had the audience of some 300 people roaring with laughter as he recounted his troubles in school after he drew explicit pictures on the walls of the boys’ bathroom--and signed them.

Davis, Johnston and Peters, along with Jim Borgman, another Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and last year’s Reuben winner, all agreed that their ability to draw, discovered early and honed with near-obsession, provided them with a creative release and eventually a career.

“I don’t remember not cartooning,” said Davis. “It was something I could do to make my mother laugh, and the only way that I could express myself.”

Over the past 20 years, cartoonists have gone from giving their original drawings to anyone who asked for them to charging hundreds, even thousands, of dollars for daily strips. But with the establishment of the museum, Walker and others see cartoon art finally getting the respect it deserves.

“Cartoons are not only works of art; they are history, humor, philosophy, characters and language,” said Walker, who lives in Boca Raton.

“I look for universal truths, try to make an idea of it, and hope it will reflect the human condition. Do people see themselves in it? Does it have meaning? And if the cartoon ends up on somebody’s refrigerator, that’s the prize I’m looking for.”