MATTAPOISETT — Cartoonist and author Rick Stromoski enjoys giving presentations to older audiences — that way he can get away with more risque jokes.

And the audience who joined him on Thursday, April 20 at the Mattapoisett Council on Aging was all smiles as Stromoski led them through his life as a comic artist and illustrator.

Stromoski took an interest in drawing from a young age, and after working a number of odd-jobs as a young man, broke into the world of illustrations.

“I learned everything I possibly could, I read every magazine … I started applying these things and I started selling gag comics,” he said.

According to Stromoski, the first check he received for a comic came from Hustler Magazine.

“It wasn’t a dirty cartoon,” said Stromoski, describing a single-panel comic about a newscaster with a booger on his shirt. “The check stub said ‘booger’ on it, which was perfect, I [didn’t] cash it, it was only $7.50.”

Stromoski pointed to the artists of Mad Magazine as some of his influences.

“The best thing about Mad Magazine was that there were 10 to 12 different cartoonists in every issue and they all drew differently,” he said. “I was fascinated by that. I not only read [Mad Magazine], I studied it.”

His most recent syndicated comic strip “Soup to Nutz,” ran for 18 years in newspapers across the county.

According to Stromoski, the characters in “Soup to Nutz” became “like family” to him over the years.

But even though Stromoski found success in the comic-strip business, he would “never recommend young people go into [newspaper] comics,” due to the decline of print media and a change in the business practices of comic syndication services.

“I had no growth in the last 10 years of my strip,” he said. “There’s no growth in comics … you see very little changes in comics pages these days.”

Instead, Stromoski made a shift to graphic novels, which are long-form comics that have grown in popularity.

“Graphic novels are the fastest growing part of our industry. Kids read these in a day and they want another one” said Stromoski. “I know three syndicated cartoonists that have ended their strips because they wanted to [focus] on these books.”

One of Stromoski’s graphic novel series called “Schnozzer & Tatertoes,” follows two cartoon dogs named Schnozzer and Tatertoes as they go on silly adventures.

Stromoski’s newest entry in the “Schnozzer & Tatertoes” series is “Take a Hike,” where the dogs go on an adventure through the woods.

In addition to penning graphic novels, Stromoski teaches and runs workshops at libraries and community centers across New England.

Classes focus on different themes where kids draw animals, monsters or superheroes.

“When I teach the classes, I don’t focus on the end product,” he said. “It’s not about the finished drawing — the joy comes from the actual doing of it … I tell these kids … we’re just here to have fun.”