Thanks to you both. I have static image files in a separate folder that I open, like in attached screenshot. These would be in JPEG or in TIFF format that I originally formatted in Photoshop....so can I add strokes or paths to images I open like this?

Thanking you for this valuable info and feedback. I am including yet another screenshot I made in my antique Photoshop 6.0 for your reference, and basically wondering then, I CAN live trace an existing simple black and white line image like the one in my screenshot here? I don't want to tackle drawing with a mouse...an impossibility for me (not to mention boring, tedious, time consuming and frustrating). I am old school and put pen to papaer and have illstrated and cartooned in this manner since I was 5 years old. Even drawing with a stylus on a tablet while looking at a screen just doesn't do it for me. I can draw cartoons freehandedly using a sharpie marker, a rapidograph tech pen, a Hunt Crowquill or Speedball B-6 dipping in an ink bottle - but that drawing with a mouse? No way. I do operate my own image licensing database of cartoons and get requests for using them in books, newsletters, calendars, powerpoint, apparel, print advertising and more. I also have regular clients who assign work on a monthly basis. I also provide web designers and webmasters with a daily auto-updating web cartoon which appears on sites around the globe. That being said, special requests come in like the one to create 20 custom "static" images to be put into animation by a client and that client works with an animator who requests if "his contact" (me) can render existing images in LIVE TRACE....thus my dilemma.
In simple terms, can I taske each simple black & white line art image (like in screenshot here) and render it in LIVE TRACE without having to go into tracing it by hand manually or drawing over it with a mouse etc.? I've been reading up on it so am getting a feel that you can open images and apply this to them....am I misinterpreting anything different on this? THANKS AGAIN!

Doug: Much appreciated! I need to search more aggressively for detailed links to tutorials etc. for "live trace". Ideally then, it looks like I can definitely open existing images and apply LT without having to do anything manually.....i.e., mouse-tracing etc.! It's not easy getting work, even though you may have a well laid out plan, online portfolio etc., you need to promote yourself....which is what I am doing but of course, laying out money and making financial sacrifices in other areas. For instance, I have a page coming up in next January's distrubution of the annual Directory Of Illustration <-----check out my single page. Wish me luck, I'll need it. Btw, I downloaded the trial version of AI....there are only 20 days left and I have this animation project popping back up in February....without having to buying it, can I basically cancel and resume my trial for later? That program is $600 when I looked at the price and have spent thousands recently promoting myself....no pay yet for this animation job and probably not until spring, so am kind of cutting back for a while....especially with these holidays upon us.

OK, now I am wondering. You mean if I "live trace" a specific image in AI, it will turn out looking "choppy"? Or "segmented" in some way? In essence, once live trace were to be applied to an image like the samples I've shown in my screen shots here, they look blurred you mean?

Thanks for these insights. Actually those samples I showed were shaded halftones to enhance them for the initial presentation pitch that the client was using to make his sales pitch to the insurance company in NYC with.
Final art would be created using basic line art like in this additional screenshot. I created this using a Sharpie, scanned it into Photoshop at 300DPI and saved as high resolution JPEG.So essentially, if I try auto-trace, can you provide anything in advance I should be aware of? Or where to initially prepare this "test" image? Thanks again.

HaHa! Lookit....I did do some experimenting....see how it turned out....looks like his left pupil went ka-flooey, lost it. So basically to not have that happen, I'd refine my settings like you say here I think. Really, I appreciated this info! I did a google search for "live trace + adobe illustrator" and a link popped up with a tutorial (looked like for an older version tho). Hope you like your custom cartoon (haha!)