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January 31, 2004
Jimmy Margulies,
of the New Jersey Record, wrote the peice below to add his insights
to my January 24th blog entry giving
advice to aspiring cartoonists. Jimmy has some good ideas and
a more positive outlook than I do. Visit
Jimmy's cartoons here. E-mail
Jimmy.
JIMMY MARGULIES' ADVICE FOR ASPIRING EDITORIAL CARTOONISTS
Cagle's blog recently featured a response to the many inquiries
he receives about getting a job as an editorial cartoonist. He
answered the broad categories of questions he receives, and I
wanted to add some thoughts to one of them... the individual
who seriously wants to get into this business either after college,
or at some point later in their career.
Because of the difficulties in getting into this business, the
decision to become an editorial cartoonist cannot be a casual
one. It requires an obsessive desire to succeed, and the persistence
to see it through, despite the likelihood of rejection and other
such frustration and difficulty. So if that has not discouraged
you, read on.
Making it in this field requires not just the talent necessary,
but also the ability to hold the goal of a job in your sights,
regardless of the obstacles you must overcome. Persistance does
pay off.
 Approaching a newspaper
to get a job as an editorial cartoonist, the foremost thing I
can suggest is LOCAL CARTOONS. Newspapers want local content,
and they cannot get local cartoons from syndicates. Local cartoons
do not necessarily mean critizing an advertiser who is the publisher's
golfing buddy, local cartoons can mean statewide issues. Whatever,
this is the strongest argument you can make as to why a paper
should hire you.
Back in the nineteen seventies, Brian Basset snagged a job at
the Seattle Times by coming into town, setting up shop at a friend's
pad, and drawing a week of local cartoons which he brought in
to show. With the Internet, you can follow the news of a paper
you target online without having to physically be in the town,
and then send the paper your efforts. a great site is American
Journalism Reviews, www. ajr.org, which has a link to every daily
paper in the country which publishes online. But it is always
better to show up in person.
Sending examples of your work by mail is one approach, but face
time speaks louder about your interest and ambition. Call the
editor, editorial page editor, managing editor, art director,
or anyone else at the paper who will agree to see you. Once inside
the building, if they are impressed with your work, ask to see
someone else higher up, if they don't offer first. You may have
to travel a distance to do this, but getting a job requires time
and effort.
It is usually thought that only large papers can have their own
cartoonist. For the most part this is the case, but not always.
The Tallahassee Democrat, 49,000 circulation created a big stir
when it hired Doug
Marlette. Other small papers with cartoonists include The
Rome News-Tribune in Georgia (Mike
Lester) with a 17,000 circulation, The Fredericksburg FreeLance
Star, at 47,000 where Clay
Jones works, Chris
Britt's paper, The Springfield State Journal Register, at
57,000, and The Bangor Daily News, at 63,000 where George Danby
works. So don't write off the possiblity of approaching a paper
of this size--it does not hurt to ask.
Another type of paper to target are those in state capitols,
which don't have a cartoonist. An essential resource for this
job hunt in The
Editor and Publisher Yearbook. Part 1 of this two part annual
directory lists every daily paper with names, phone numbers,
circulation number, etc. Theoretically, papers in state capitals
feel more of a responsibility to cover state politics, and having
local cartoons would bolster that coverage.
Sometimes the job hunt requires the proverbial foot in the door
that can lead to bigger and better things. IF a job offer is
not immediately forthcoming, you can offer one local cartoon
a week, or cartoons as the issues dictate, just to get published
regularly. Even if your local paper already has a cartoonist,
there is a good chance this person has a syndication obligation
which prevents them from doing a lot of local stuff. If this
is handled tactfully, your work can co-exist with the established
cartoonist. I know that in Phoenix, Brian
Farrington has a deal like this where Steve
Benson reigns supreme, and in San Diego, Pam Winters contributes
although Steve
Breen is the cartoonist mainstay.
I have also suggested to people who have asked for advice to
set up their own state cartoon syndication, based upon what I
have done in New Jersey. Admittedly, having a base at a newspaper
as I do,does offer an advantage, but I must emphasize that part
of the reason this was a very easy sale to make was the great
desire for local content. Offer papers one or two cartoons a
week regularly for a modest fee ( $5 a week for small papers,
$10 a week for medium papers, And $15 or more for the larger
ones) This allows papers to publish your work, without having
to pay a full salary, and at least gets your work to appear regularly.
I am confident the success I have had doing this in New Jersey
can be duplicated elsewhere.
Try to keep abreast of the newspaper business, through Editor
and Publisher magazine, and if you see mention of a personnel
change at a paper, that is a good opening to approach them. Write
to the new editor, editorial page editor, etc.
Many newspapers are published by chains. While an individual
paper may think it is not big enough to have their own cartoonist,
why not share the efforts of one cartoonist among their various
holdings? Something else to try.
One more thought. When people say "no" ... not all
rejections are the same. If someone says no because they don't
have the budget now, but would like to have a cartoonist, that
means you should tactfully keep in touch, by sending new updates
of your work. The "no" is not for all time. Things
change. Don't be easily deterred.
While I cannot guarantee that any of this will work, the harder
you try, the luckier you get.
Jimmy
Margulies
January 29, 2004
Chris Slane is a freelance illustrator and editorial cartoonist
in New Zealand. In today's blog, Chris share's some freelancer
wisdom that he learned the hard way. Visit
Chris' cartoons here. E-Mail
Chris.
WHAT THEY SAY AND WHAT THEY MEAN
...
The life of a freelance cartoonist is often varied and challenging.
Most clients treat cartoonists with respect and professionalism.
However, occasionally you encounter the complete philistine-
someone who thinks all artists should suffer for their art and
are only too willing to help you achieve that end. These clients
from hell can be spotted before the commission is accepted if
you look out for the warning signs; certain phrases will often
give them away. I have come to treasure these howlers over the
years and, with the help of friends, I have collected them into
a list for easy reference. Other cartoonists will recognize many
of the following, but if you know any new ones, I would love
to hear them. Enjoy.
Chris Slane
chris@slane.co.nz
 What
clients say to cartoonists and what they really mean ...
"It's a charity job."
Everyone else gets paid except you -the printer, plate-maker,
professional fundraiser, even the delivery boy.
"It will be good exposure
for you."
Like selling matches out in the snow.
"You will be able to make
the fee shortfall up on the next job."
But not from us, we'll avoid you after this.
"It will only be used on
the net."
Where it will sit for years and get downloaded by thousands
of people for free.
"It's for educational purposes."
We're trying to teach you a lesson here.
"It looks fantastic but
we want a few changes."
The office secretary has doodled something and we want
it to look like that.
 "Our
magazine is not a commercial publication".
It sells 40,000 copies per week but still doesn't want
to pay for talent.
"Just do something quick."
But if it isn't fantastic expect us to criticize the hell
out of it.
"Just do something simple."
Any moron could do it, that's why we picked you.
"I can't pay much."
But I don't want it to look cheap.
"We'll get back to you."
We've found a homeless person who will do the job for a
bottle of meths.
"Can you start asap?"
We've left this job till the last moment, but now it's
your problem.
"We need it fast, time is
running out."
We've had the job for 3 weeks but the office secretary's
nephew spent those last three weeks drawing and coloring in something
that the boss hates.
"Will the charge be lower
-as the cartoons will only be used inside the company?"
She doesn't mention that the company has 100,000 employees
worldwide.
 "Don't spend
too much time on it."
Work all night on it but only charge me for 5 minutes.
"It could mean on-going work for you."
If you like cleaning toilets selling peanuts life as an
indentured laborer.
"I would be more than happy to send a copy as a token of
our gratitude".
A useful paperweight for all your unpaid bills.
"Due to a downturn in the
rural sector, we are forced to discontinue using your cartoons
in our newspaper."
Rather than give up my fat bonus this year, you will be
a sacrificial goat.
"Do you actually earn an
living doing cartoons?"
Shouldn't you be starving in a garret?
"The cheque is in the email."
Virtually.
January 27, 2004
There was an interesting blurb in the New
York Times this morning. Syrian cartoonist, Raed Khalil won
an award from a United Nations cartoon competition, and then
refused to accept the award because it was named
after cartoonist, Ranan Lurie. The award has raised some
eyebrows in the editorial cartoonists community because it comes
with a whopping $10,000 prize and because it is named after,
and promoted by Lurie, who is a prodigious self -marketer. Most
awards are named after an organization or named in memory of
someone who is dead, this one is named after an active, working
cartoonist.
The Times quotes Khalil as saying, "As a matter of principle,
I refuse to accept an award linked to a Zionist Israeli no matter
under whose patronage it was. There is no honor in it for me."
Lurie is an American citizen who immigrated from Israel. The
cartoon depicted two men, separated by a river, watering a plant
that links both sides. Click here to see the cartoon. Khalil said
the cartoon was about "peace and love in the world,"
however, "it is not about peace between Syria and Israel."
The Times fails to note that this cartoon was not the grand prize
winner in the competition. Khalil didn't give up any cash prize
in refusing the award which was only an "honorable mention."
It would be interesting to know if Khalil entered the Lurie contest
himself.
I suppose Khalil would refuse a Reuben Award too (named after
Jewish American cartoonist Rube Goldberg), if it didn't come
with a cash prize.
January
24, 2004
CAGLE'S ADVICE FOR ASPIRING
CARTOONISTS
Every day I get e-mails
from aspiring cartoonists, asking me for advice on how they can
get started as an editorial cartoonist. I thought I would write
about this in the blog, and ask everyone who writes to take a
look at this blog entry for an answer. I used to respond to all
of the e-mails, but now there are too many; I'm overwhelmed.
I apologize for this impersonal response.
 I get five categories of letters,
1.) Letters from parents who
want to encourage their talented children.
2.) Letters from college cartoonists
wanting to know how to get a job as an editorial cartoonist.
3.) Letters from cartoonists
who are working in other areas of cartooning and who are interested
in becoming an editorial cartoonist
4.) Letters from part time editorial
cartoonists, who want to know how to become syndicated and land
a job at a major paper.
5.) And I get letters from people
who acknowledge that they can't draw, but they want to write
cartoons that someone else will draw for them. I don't know of
any editorial cartoonists who work with gag writers, but telling
that to these writers only makes them more insistent that there
must be a cartoonist who will want to work with them. Often the
writers will give samples of their ideas, which typically involve
drawing crowd scenes, or rooms full of caricatures and labels.
One writer touted his idea which involved drawing clashing armies
with a sky full of helicopters.
My first advice is for the aspiring
writers of editorial cartoons. There is no opportunity for you
in this profession. I'm sorry. Please write something else.
Most of the cartoonists, who
e-mail me, include samples of their work, or their children's
work. Most of them want to have their cartoons appear on our
site. All of them ultimately want to find a traditional, full
time job as an editorial cartoonist at a daily newspaper.
Most of the samples I receive
are not of professional quality. The cartoons are hurried, or
they are overworked. The sample images are often poorly scanned
as huge files, or they are in strange file formats, or they have
a dark gray tone throughout. Often the aspiring cartoonists will
apologize for their scans or their drawings. Sometimes the aspiring
cartoonists use a variety of fonts instead of hand lettering
their cartoons. They make grammatical errors. They make mistakes
common to beginning artists that are easiest to see in drawings
of hands and eyes. Compositions are poor. Gags are trite or wordy.
The cartoonists often ask me for general advice.
Surprisingly, many of the e-mails
come from arrogant amateurs or part time cartoonists, who insist
that their work is great and who feel that they deserve a spot
on our site as some kind of professional entitlement. If I deny
them a slot on our site, I am somehow insulting them by denying
their legitimacy as a professional. They complain that I hold
grudges against them by continually refusing to allow their work
onto the site. Sometimes they will cite particular cartoons or
cartoonists, declaring, "My work is better than that guy's
work." These cartoonists will write to me over and over.
When I don't respond, these semi-pro cartoonists often assume
that I haven't read their emails, and they will write again and
again, sending different samples or making different pitches
or using different names.
Sometimes these arrogant semi-pros
will complain that the profession is "fixed" and that
"you have to know the right people to get work." I
remember one e-mail that started with, "I draw better than
you do but I can't get my work printed. Your work is printed
everywhere. What's your secret?" Another one wrote, "I
know this business is a big club, I draw better than the guys
on your site, how do I get into the club?"
The arrogant semi-pros are easy
to ignore, but the sincere requests from hopeful amateurs can
be difficult to respond to. I get letters from college students
who draw for their school newspapers and who would like to find
a job as a cartoonist when they get out of school.
Of-course, it is possible to
make a decent living as an editorial cartoonist; all of the cartoonists
on our site are living examples of that. What are the chances
of success in a profession where there are about one hundred
full time jobs in America? A basketball player has a better chance
of getting into the NBA which has more than three hundred jobs,
and there is more turnover as playing careers in the NBA are
relatively short --editorial cartoonists tend to draw for a lifetime,
until they drop dead.
Maybe a better example would
be TV stars. There are more than a hundred TV stars, and there
is a lot of turnover in TV stars. It is likely that an actor
won't end up being a star, but will work part time as an actor
and work full time at another job that pays the bills. It is
the same for cartoonists. The main differences are that actors
have a better chance of becoming TV stars and TV stars make a
lot more money than successful editorial cartoonists.
The number of available jobs
for editorial cartoonists is shrinking. When a job disappears,
the cartoonist will often continue working in syndication or
as a freelancer, while looking for another position. Also, cartoonists
are always looking to move up to a new, larger paper. When a
major newspaper announces a job opening, the paper is flooded
with resumes from seasoned professionals.
Can a college student compete
with the pros for a scarce job with a major paper? Yes! Two award
winning college cartoonists who landed jobs in recent years are
Eric Devericks with the Seattle
Times and Patrick
O'Connor with the Los Angeles Daily News. A few years earlier,
Drew Sheneman
moved from being an award winning college cartoonist into a hotly
contested job at the Newark Star Ledger in New Jersey. I can't
think of any other recent examples to give comfort to the hundreds
of people who write to me.
A majority of American editorial
cartoonists have worked as editorial cartoonists for their entire
careers, starting out as college cartoonists and eventually moving
into a newspaper job. The problem is that it takes some years
for a college cartoonist to polish his work as a pro, and with
polished professionals competing for the same positions at fewer
newspapers these days, the college cartoonists rarely find an
opportunity.
Is it necessary to have a newspaper
job? There are many examples of cartoonists who work only in
syndication. Bill
Schorr used to draw for the New York Daily News, the Kansas
City Star and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Paul
Conrad was the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist for the
Los Angeles Times. Sandy
Huffaker was one of the nation's top cartoon illustrators
in the 1970's and '80's. Monte
Wolverton is a regular in Mad Magazine who draws a syndicated
weekly. Scott
Bateman draws for King Features and has never had a newspaper
job. Ann
telnaes won a Pulitzer Prize drawing only for syndication.
Other examples on our site are freelancers Kirk
Anderson (formerly of the St. Paul Pioneer Press) and Milt Priggee
(formerly of the Spokane [WA] Spokesman-Review). Most of the
artists who freelance or who draw only for syndication had a
newspaper job when they first built their client lists. I can't
think of any editorial cartoonist who started his career by being
syndicated, before working for a publication of some sort.
How about the internet? The Hogan's Alley article below, by Steve Greenberg
lists all of the successful, web based editorial cartoonists
I know, except for Bob
Gorrell, who draws for AOL News and used to work for the
Richmond Times Dispatch, where he built a client list in syndication.
Yes, it can be done, but every example is listed here (please
don't write to me to say that I missed somebody, the idea is
that there are not many).
It is easy to get editors to
take a moment to glance at cartoons. By comparison, actors and
writers have a difficult time convincing people to consider them
for a gig. To review the work of a writer, a publisher must devote
time and effort to reading. To review the work of an actor it
takes time sitting through an audition. Reviewing the work of
a cartoonist can be done at a glance --love it or hate it --
decide right away. A cartoonist's problem isn't in getting people
to look. I think the culture of writers seeps into the mindset
of cartoonists --the idea that, "if I am persistent, maybe
I'll wear the producer down and he'll finally read my script."
My advice on how to get into
the editorial cartooning profession boils down to this: do great
work, make sure that the editors see it (they will look at what
you send to them, although they may not respond). Show that you
are easy to work with, that you are reliable and flexible. Show
that your work is consistently excellent. Expect low pay. Be
willing to relocate. Enter student award competitions. Work in
other areas of cartooning. Be patient.
Don't be arrogant. Nobody owes
you anything, not even a polite response. Understand the odds
of getting a job. Have reasonable expectations. Draw because
you love to draw, not to make a living --if you make a living
at it, that's great, but don't draw for that reason. Understand
that there is no "club," your success comes as a result
of your talents, your efforts and happenstance.
If you are writing about how
to support your talented child, understand that most cartoonists
are passionate about their work. Your child should want to draw
all the time. No one decides to become a cartoonist, they just
are cartoonists. Most cartoonists grew up with comic books.
Take your child to comic book conventions. Make opportunities
available for him to do his art and to associate with like minded
friends. Praise and value your child's artwork and expose him
to other areas of art. Pick a college with a strong liberal arts
program and an excellent newspaper.
And when I don't respond to your
e-mail, understand that I simply get too much e-mail. I wish
you all success.
 January
22, 2004
Our site is the online home of Hogan's Alley
Magazine. Any of our loyal readers who haven't read Hogan's
Alley should run out to a Borders or Barnes & Noble and
pick one up. Hogan's Alley is a great read
for editorial cartoon and comic strip fans.
A regular feature in Hogan's Alley is Steve Greenberg's
column about editorial cartoons. Steve
has written about political cartoonists on the web for the upcoming
issue, and the fine folks at Hogan's Alley
have allowed me to post Steve's
article below.
DIGITAL CARTOONING BY STEVE
GREENBERG
Editorial cartooning as a career used to be a fairly straightforward
proposition: You found a newspaper and drew for it. Increasingly,
though, cartoonists are unable to find that forum in print. The
near-extinction of competing daily newspapers has eliminated
countless jobs, real and potential. Corporate consolidation has
led to a bottom-line and risk-adverse mentality that does not
appreciate controversial staffers--such as editorial cartoonists--who
might cause reader cancellations. And cheap syndicated material
leaves far fewer newspapers willing to pay salary plus benefits
for a staffer when they can buy Jim Borgman or Mike Ramirez cartoons
for $15 or $25 a week, even if they sacrifice having local cartoons.
So what's an editorial cartoonist to do, when no newspaper will
offer a job and few will use freelance work or pay more than
a pittance for it?
The answer nowadays, of course, is to go online. The Internet
is almost limitless, and anybody can post pretty much anything.
So even if you have nowhere to be published, you can be "published"
on the Web.
Of course, the catch is that there may be no money in it. In
fact, you have to pay for your Internet bandwidth use and your
Internet service provider, plus your software and maybe phone
use. And just because your work is available doesn't mean anyone
will look at it.
But a few editorial cartoonists are making a decent showing on
the Web and--in rare cases--even making a living from it.
Mark Fiore in San Francisco
is probably the reigning king of the Web among editorial cartoonists.
He sells his animated cartoons to a number of Internet publications,
including the Mother Jones and Village Voice sites,
and his work features sound, music and interactivity. Even more
impressive, he's actually making a living from it, enough to
afford a San Francisco apartment with a view and to forgo other
assignments.
 Four
years ago, he was self-syndicating his print cartoons around
California, supplementing that income with Web page design, educational
game design and other freelancing. During a stint of game design,
he worked with tech people and gradually learned Macromedia Flash,
the software of choice for Web animation with sound (bypassing
the simpler GIF animations that one sees in moving banner ads
on websites that repeat motions in a loop). From there, he began
to add interactive elements--such as political cartoons posing
as games that require the viewer to click a button to choose
the next action--and sound, including music, canned sound effects
and his own voice.
The animations began to win him attention, including postings
on the San Francisco Chronicle's site. The absence of
much competition helped land his cartoons on other websites and
even persuaded the print edition of the nearby San Jose Mercury
News to hire him as its staff editorial cartoonist, a position
that lasted six months. Upon leaving the Merc he returned
to the Chronicle's site and expanded his roster of clients,
concentrating full-time on his animations. His last print cartoon
was in spring 2002. In May 2003 he won his second straight award
for New Media from the National Cartoonists Society.
I asked him what made him so successful. "A lot of it is
luck," he said. "And there aren't that many people
who know how to draw, know politics and know the computer."
 Of
course, another approach is to let others do the technical computer
work. Don Asmussen, another San Francisco transplant, is perhaps
Fiore's main competitor for online animated editorial cartoons.
Asmussen, who began as an illustrator for the San Francisco Examiner
and then created "The San Francisco Comic Strip" to
compete with a local strip in the Chronicle, expanded
into Flash animation with the popular "Like, News"
features for MondoMedia. Episodes of "Like, News" are
relatively long--two minutes--parodies of celebrity interviews,
and Asmussen throws in wild, edgy twists and sudden segues into
movie parodies. A team of as many as a dozen people creates them,
although Asmussen co-writes the scripts and does the key art
frames.
Now with the San Francisco Chronicle, Asmussen got a good
deal of attention for a wildly funny Al
Qaeda Employee Recruiting Video for MondoMedia. For the
Recruiting Video, he did the script and main drawings,
while others did the animation.
If Fiore is the king of editorial
cartoon animation, Bill Mitchell may be the field's pioneer.
His GIF animations have appeared since 1997 on the All Politics
section of CNN, possibly making him the first to animate his
editorials. Formerly a print cartoonist with the Potomac News
and then the Rochester Newspapers group, he learned about the
online world during a 1994 fellowship year in journalism at the
University of Southern California.
 "During
that fellowship I was shown the Internet and immediately thought
I saw where the future of political cartooning lay," Mitchell
said. "I got my first online gig working for the legendary
editor, Jim Bellows, when he hired me for his online newsroom
at Excite.com. While with Excite.com, Tribune Media picked my
cartoons up for syndication but it became clear that they really
didn't know how to sell Web-specific content to websites. I got
out of that contract thinking that I could do a better job myself."
 Mitchell
approached CNN.com in 1997 and began a relationship with it.
Mitchell's cartoons are more low-tech than Fiore's and Asmussen's,
with no sound and limited, looping animation (he dreads the idea
of needing to deal with sound, he said). By using the GIF format,
any visitor to the site can see his work; by contrast, viewing
Flash animation requires downloading and installing an application.
Mitchell's cartoons fall into two types: Most are GIF animations
that cycle and repeat, some with several moving elements, others
limited to blinking eyes or a changing word balloon. The other
cartoons are interactive "mouseovers," where moving
the cursor over a static image brings up an alternate image that
delivers the punch line.
Besides forgoing the fancier Flash work, Mitchell's style is
also distinctive for its "cut-paper" look, with caricatured
heads barely attached to smaller bodies, and each piece casting
its own shadow. "I developed a flip-book style of animation
and the cut-paper look to keep the files as small as possible,"
he said. "Who thinks that waiting 30 or 60 or 240 seconds
for a cartoon to download--a cartoon which should be understood
by the viewer in a matter of a few seconds--makes any sense at
all?"
 Scott
Bateman is a Portland, Ore.-based cartoonist who does print
cartoons--without a newspaper--that King Features Syndicate nonetheless
distributes as part of its "Best & Wittiest" package.
In addition to these and a graphic novel, he also produces some
of the funniest Flash animations around. His simple outline style
lends itself quite well to animation, and his use of bright,
unreal color and sound loops, along with narratives in his own
voice, are quite effective. Many of his online pieces were his
apolitical "True Story" animations, but recently he
has done a series promoting the presidential candidacy of Dennis
Kucinich.
He is also currently producing a monthly series of animated films
for the kids' section of a large company's website, "which
probably means I've been one of the few people getting paid to
do freelance animated films on the Net," he pointed out
with some accuracy.
Bateman's animation training came in a traditional way: "I
took some old-timey, draw-every-frame animation classes in the
early '90s. I loved doing that type of animation, but at that
point it couldn't be much more than a spendy and time-consuming
hobby . . . then Flash came along. It rocked, being able to do
an animated movie right on my computer and then immediately putting
it up on the Net where people could see it."
Although he is still more of
a print cartoonist, he is committed to the online work. "I
love making the animations!" he says. "Since
I've been working with Flash for several years now, I've developed
all sorts of shortcuts and can, if pressed, make a 60-second
film with sound and music in a day. But I prefer to spread the
work out over three or four days, a few hours a day, so I can
keep my mind fresh--a lot of the small details in my animations
I actually come up with on the spot, and my brain gets too tired
to think of those things as I enter say, Hour Eight."
Among non-animators, Daryl Cagle
has become well known for his cartoon website cagle.com, which
has featured some of the artists in this column (and also is
the home to the online edition of Hogan's
Alley). But he has also become one of the most successful
online editorial cartoonists, working with the online magazine
Slate, itself owned by Microsoft.
Cagle had worked as a cartoon illustrator for about 20 years,
drawing cartoons for books, magazines and products, as well as
being a toy inventor. In 1995 he started a syndicated panel for
Tribune Media Services called "TRUE!" which
ran, among other places, in Midweek, a large weekly in
Hawaii. Midweek was changing design formats and Cagle
was invited to draw local editorial cartoons for them, which
he did from his Los Angeles home. He was then hired away by Gannett's
Honolulu Advertiser.
During that time, Slate became interested in his "Professional
Cartoonists Index Site" because it had grown to be the most
popular cartoon site on the Web, and because Slate felt
the site's content--political cartoons--was a good fit. After
the Advertiser cut Cagle to trim costs, he continued to
work only with Slate. "The new Slate byline
and the freedom from local cartoons turned out to be a career
boost for me," Cagle said.
Despite being exclusively online now, Cagle draws and formats
his cartoons to be reprinted in newspapers, although Slate
is his publisher of record. So while many print cartoonists are
reprinted online, Cagle goes the reverse route, reprinting his
online cartoons in newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times
and the Washington Post's weekly magazine. He also runs
his own independent syndicate that distributes his cartoons,
along with the work of eighteen other cartoonists and two columnists,
to more than 800 newspapers in English and Spanish.
 Sage
Stossel is a young woman
whose cartoons you likely haven't seen in print. She's a senior
editor for The Atlantic Monthly's online edition, and
shortly after landing there out of Harvard--where she'd done
a comic strip titled Jody for the student newspaper--she
proposed adding some cartooning to the site. "I was in the
right place at the right time, because the site was so new that
they were still looking for content and were open to suggestions
from the staff. I proposed doing an editorial cartoon."
She's been doing non-animated cartoons for the Atlantic
since 1996, but hadn't always done one every week. "When
I first started, I would just do one whenever an idea happened
to occur to me--I wouldn't wrack my brain trying to think something
up if I didn't happen to be struck by an idea," she said.
"As a result, I would sometimes end up doing two in one
week, and other times it could be two or three weeks between
cartoons. After a while, though, I started to put more pressure
on myself to come up with ideas more consistently."
Her work does not appear in the magazine's print edition. "I'd
love to do cartoons for the print edition of the Atlantic,
but the cartoons the magazine runs are by very eminent cartoonists
and illustrators like Pat Oliphant and Ed Sorel, who are way
out of my league," she said. Still, Stossel's work has occasionally
been reprinted in print, online and even on CNN Headline News.
Visit
Sage's site here.
 Louis
Dunn is a newcomer to Flash animation. Dunn works with animator
and fellow San Francisco resident Steve Campbell. For so many
of these cartoonists (and even for this columnist, who dabbled
in GIF animation while in the Bay area), the San Francisco connection
is not just chance: The Bay area--and its subset Silicon Valley--is
the heart of the computer culture. It's also where much of the
software was developed and where instruction and assistance are
widely available.
Dunn's Forever
Dada is the animated form of his Cafe Dada feature
and appears on Cagle's site and the Progressive Populist site.
Cafe Dada was a regular weekly cartoon for the San Francisco
Bay Guardian, dealing with progressive political issues
and topical city themes. Dunn stays busy as a freelance illustrator,
graphic designer, art director and occasional editorial cartoonist.
He also produces non-animated local Web cartoons for BeniciaNews.com,
did online work for the University of California-Berkeley and
does drawings for magazines and newspapers including the Los
Angeles Times.
"When I do Forever
Dada I'm certainly an editorial cartoonist," Dunn
said. "I guess I really consider myself an artist that's
politically involved. Forever
Dada has come about because Steve and I are quite alarmed
about what has been happening in this country. [This feature]
is sort of a combination of civic duty and community service,
the way I see it. And entertainment."
So what size audience do online
cartoons get? Stossel, whose work runs under the title Sage,
Ink, said her cartoons get about 2,000 hits in the first
week they're posted. "They keep getting hits after the first
week, but the number decreases," she said. Bateman doesn't
know: "I don't really have a handle on how many people see
my animations--I mean, it wouldn't be hard to go look at the
stats on my damn website once in a while, but I don't really
bother." Dunn doesn't know either, but his animation work
is new. Slate's Cagle gets an audience that "numbers
in the millions each month, mostly coming from schools. Even
so, I think the print audience is larger on a daily basis."
Fiore estimates he gets 10,000 visitors a day to his site, and
Mitchell says he gets "hundreds of thousands three times
a week."
Is online cartooning a viable option for cartoonists? After all,
not many make appreciable money from it. How do cartoonists find
it, creatively and financially? Is there a future in it?
"The way the media is going, I don't see a future at a newspaper
for me," Bateman said. Cagle agrees: "Newspaper jobs
are disappearing fast and talented editorial cartoonists are
like fish, flopping on shore as the lake dries up."
Bateman said that cartoonists are only beginning to tap the Internet's
creative potential. "Economically, well, things have been
terrible for the Net since the big crash," he said. "But
I think the Net's slowly coming back around now. On his website,
Scott McCloud (author of Understanding Comics and a prophet
of website cartooning) has been championing a new technology
based on micropayments, "charging, say, a quarter or a dollar
to look at cartoons or pages from a graphic novel, and that's
a potentially exciting development. "I think my future for
the next few years is going to be a combination of the Internet
and traditional publishing, feeding off each other somehow,"
McCloud added. "It's getting exciting again out there now
that e-commerce is so damn easy."
Dunn said that if he were reliant only on revenue from online
cartooning, "my family and I would be living on the street.
One hopes that this wouldn't always be the case. As far as a
viable creative path, of course it is quite satisfying to tell
a good story and make some interesting drawings." Does he
see a future in this medium? "As far as the future, who
can say?" Dunn said. "But I do plan on drawing up to
the Last Gasp. So to speak."
Fiore has mixed feelings about being in the online world. He's
successful at it, but said he misses print. "There is definitely
a little bit of sadness that I can't play in all the reindeer
games," he said. "I don't want to stay only in a 'New
Media' ghetto. There are things you can do in print that you
just can't do online."
Mitchell also misses print. "I always wanted to be a black-and-white
political cartoonist; I never wanted to leave print," he
said. "But political cartooning is a dying art in this country.
The opportunities for this art to grow, it seems to me, exist
only online." He likes the Net's wider audience, much greater
reader feedback and the ability to work from anywhere in the
world (he works from his home in Idaho).
Conversely, Stossel likes being an online cartoonist. "I
didn't specifically set out to be an online cartoonist, but I've
found that it definitely has its good points," she said.
"I like the fact that I don't have to be limited by specific
size and shape constraints every week, and I can use color when
I want to, or I can have people scroll or click to see another
part of the cartoon. It's also nice that the audience can be
anyone, anywhere. Mainly, though, I just really love to do cartoons,
and I'm glad to have found a place to do them. "
Cagle finds more freedom online. "I enjoy many creative
benefits by working for a website rather than a newspaper. The
people at Slate are wonderful editors who are happy with
what I do and let me draw what I want. Because I have a national
and world audience at Slate, I can spend all of my drawing
time doing cartoons that work in syndication, unlike most cartoonists
who spend a lot of time on local cartoons."
"Also, I don't suffer the same obligations of a typical
cartoonist who must draw a cartoon about the news event of the
day for his local newspaper audience," he added. "If
I had a home newspaper I would feel obligated to draw on the
story of the day, even if all of the other cartoonists were drawing
the same thing. If I don't have a good cartoon to draw [online]
on a topic, I don't have to draw."
As for the Web's potential, Cagle is a bit pessimistic. "The
Internet conveniently redistributes content that is created elsewhere.
There was a lot of new cartoon content on the Web in 1999 when
many cartoonists found jobs working for websites. No more. If
there is a trend it is that there is less and less quality original
content created for the Web." He sees more personal potential
in his larger print readership: "I plan to find my job security
in a large list of syndicated clients who each pay little for
cartoons. I could lose some papers, but I won't be laid off."
And the future for cartoons on the Net?
"The Web makes it easy for readers to see all they want
about niche topics," said Cagle. "It may be that in
the future, cartoonists will draw for smaller and smaller groups
of fans on narrower and narrower topics for less money. We'll
be doing $10 cartoons about milk bottles for www.milkbottlecollector.com."
Steve
Greenberg is an editorial cartoonist and artist now with
the Ventura County Star and previously with newspapers
in Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco. His e-mail address
is steve@greenberg-art.com.
January 21, 2003
Ever wonder how a cartoon finds
it's way on to the editorial page? Editors subscribe to syndication
services that deliver perhaps twenty cartoons a day onto an editor's
desk. Editors cherry pick one or two cartoons each day from a
wide selection. A cartoonist may be syndicated to a hundred newspapers,
but only a handful of his subscribing papers may print any particular
cartoon, just because there are so many choices.
Cam Cardow of the Ottawa Citizen drew this cartoon about President Bush's
State of the Union Address a few days early --before the speech,
Editors had it on their desks when they were planning ahead for
what they would print this morning, the day after the address.
Most other cartoonists waited to draw their cartoon until after
they heard the speech --that was too late! The editors had to
listen to the speech, and they had to stay up late last night
to write about it --but they didn't have to stay up late to pick
a cartoon, they did that a couple of days earlier when they received
Cam's cartoon.
The result of a good cartoon
and early delivery was that this cartoon was reprinted more widely
than any other cartoon I can recall. All of which leads to this
advice on how to be a successful editorial cartoonist: figure
out what is going to happen two or three days in the future,
and draw it now.
January 20, 2004
I should do a better job of announcing new cartoonists when I
add them to the site. We have five great new ones that I would
like to introduce to our readers. The first is Etta Hulme of
the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I often get complaints that there
are not enough women who are editorial cartoonists, with Etta
on the site we now have the three women who are the most widely
syndicated, mainstream, daily political cartoonists (Ann telnaes
and Signe Wilkinson are the other two). Etta used to be a regular
on our site, and we lost her for a couple of years, I'm delighted
to have her back. She worked at Disney many years ago, and I
see the influence remains in her work. I think she's great. You can e-mail Etta here.
And visit
her cartoon archive here --although there are not many cartoons
in the archive yet.
 Next on our newby list is Peter Bromhead.
Peter is a longtime cartoonist who freelances for two national
newspapers New Zealand. the Dominion-Post Wellington and Sunday-Star
Times in Auckland. Peter was the editorial cartoonist for the
now defunct Auckland Star. He also freelances magazine cartoons
for a variety of publications in Australia and New Zealand. Peter
invites readers to visit his "crappy" web site at bromheadcartoons.com. |
 Next
on the list is John Darkow. I first got to know John's work when
he was nationally syndicated as the daily cartoonist for the
San Antionio Light, back when San Antonio was a two newspaper
town. The Light closed shop and now John works for his home town
newspaper, the Columbia Daily Tribune in Illinois. John is a
great cartoonist and he deserves more attention. |
January 18, 2004
MORE MULLETS
My buddies, Steve and Rick, who write the comic strip, "Mullets," have been deluged
with your kind emails. They are sorting them into batches from
different states and sending them to editors, urging the editors
to run their strip. I have posted a whole new collection, and
I think we have posted all of the Mullets strips that have appeared
in newspapers so far. Come take
another look, and send another email! The strip below is
a funny one, and most cartoonists will recognize it as an inside
joke, depicting Mell Lazarus, who draws the strip "Momma,"
and his wife, Sally.
 FLAMING BRITNEY SPEARS!
Oops, it seems that our own Sandy
Huffaker has done it again! His cartoon about Britney
Spears has made a lot of people angry. Here is a taste from
our e-mail box and the Cagle
Fray ...
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 9:41 AM
I'm a 17 year old Muslim girl and I was really offended by the
Britney cartoon i saw on the web site. I don't wear a hijab (head
covering) or jilbab (long cloak) but some of my friends do, and
if I did, I wouldn't want you insulting my decision to wear it.
Next time you want to insult some famous person, think about
who else you may be insulting in the process. ps- in the Muslim
religion, women are not required to cover their faces.
Mona M
I really did not enjoy your Britney
comic that features her entirely covered in a burqa as a symbol
of her conversion of Islam. The burqa is not traditional Islamic
garb for females, but the manifestation of an oppressive Islamic
regime that subjugated women in the name of religion. Needless
to say, the burqa is not traditional Islamic dress, and as a
Muslim female I am deeply offended that you would use what a
Muslim woman would regard as female suffering at the hands of
extremists as fodder for your strikingly un-amusing cartoon.
To add insult to injury, the cartoon is not in the least bit
amusing! The Britney in your caricature bears no resemblance
to the pop star, and the drawing is something one might expect
from a middle school student (most of whom have enough of a grip
on what actually constitutes humor to have created an actual
punch line in the offensive joke). My recommendation to you is
to actually understand the honorable religion that you futilely
attempt to poke fun at, take an art class or two, and maybe attend
a comedy show or two and see if you can't get a handle on the
elusive "humor" that is usually standard in most comics
Sarah Dhere
University of Virginia
Hello Sandy,
While you may or may not have meant your Britney Spears cartoon
(before and after conversion to Islam cartoon) to be an insult
to Islam or maybe to Britney - I, as a Muslima who observes
Islamic dress by choice, liked the cartoon. You did call it a
message to her - and I think that the message was a correct one
- for our Islamic dress gives us respect and dignity. In Islam,
the woman is not on display for merchandising - she is a thinking
and valuable part of the human race who should not lower and
disgrace herself by putting her worth into enhanced sexual features
and movements as eye candy for those who have no interest in
her worth as a human being nor her soul. So, thank you for that
cartoon. It really brightened my day!
Lamyaa Hashim
Subject: Britney converts to Islam cartoon is racist
From: Bubba_jr
Date: Jan 18 2004 5:38PM
Please be aware that the comic of Britney Spears converting
to Islam is very demeaning, and racist, and should not be placed
on your website. I understand that it is meant only as a joke,
and that it is meant to be taken lightly, but the humor fails
when even non-Muslims find it racially motivated.
Subject: britney spears
From: think_about_it
Date: Jan 18 2004 10:27AM
First, Britney made a mockery of the sanctity of marriage.
Marriage is meant to be taken seriously; it's a life-long commitment
- not a 55-hour romp. Second, ya don't s'pose that it was a publicity
stunt, do ya? Didn't she recently start a tour or have a cd come
out? Wouldn't that be a case of perfect "random" timing?
As for people who don't feel cartoons are appropriate for Britney's
"mistake", have you ever heard of free speech? Maybe
you should go in for a physical similar to Britney's . . .
Subject: This is for Britney Cartoons..
From: Britney123
Date: Jan 17 2004 2:54PM
get a life.. everyone makes mistakes and you have no place
to draw stupid little cartoons about it.
January 12, 2004
Good news ... Al
Jazeera reports that Moroccan publisher Ali Lmrabet was released
from prison after serving eight months of a three year sentence
for "insulting the King" with satirical articles and
editorial cartoons. Lmrabet received a royal pardon, as part
of a new initiative to sift through some six thousand cases of
suspected "disappearances" or torture at the hands
of the Moroccan police. We have linked earlier reports of Lmrabet's
imprisonment in the blog.
The New York Times has an article
that re-examines the story of John Sherffius' resignation from
the St. Louis Post Dispatch. The Times' story retreads Michael
Miner's article in the Chicago Reader but offers a few, more
blunt statements from the Post Dispatch's new editor, Ellen Soeteber.
The Times quotes Post Dispatch
staff members as saying that Sherffius' resignation came as a
culmination of many disagreements with Soeteber over what she
viewed as excessive criticism of President Bush and the Republicans
in the cartoons. The article describes Soeteber micro-managing
the cartoons to make them more "balanced." She is quoted
as taking her editing philosophy from the paper's "platform"
which is engraved in a plaque on the wall, saying,
"I take very seriously the
words that we will be 'drastically independent' of any political
party,'' she said. "The platform commands us to be nonpartisan.
We are the only daily in St. Louis,'' she added, "so we
have an important role to play in the leadership of the region.''
When asked why she accepted (Sherffius') resignation, Ms. Soeteber
said: "He seemed to have his mind made up. It was wholly
his decision.''
John continues to freelance three
cartoons a week, and we feature his updating cartoons on our
site. He hasn't made any comments about his tenure with the Post
Dispatch except to say that it was time for him to leave. John
has been quite a gentleman about the whole incident. Again, thanks
to the Comics Journal
blog for the links.
January 9, 2004
YAHTZEE!
It is not unusual to find political cartoonists drawing the same
idea at the same time. On my site I call it a "Yahtzee"
when five or more cartoonists draw the same gag. Cartoonists
often complain about "groupthink" and plagiarism, some
say "great minds think alike," but I think it is more
than that. There is a type of cartoon, a type of gag, and a type
of thinking that editors have come to prefer. Editors prefer
cartoons that are like jokes in a Jay Leno monologue, putting
together disparate news items into a funny gag, that doesn't
present a strong point of view, but makes the reader chuckle.
There is a famous story of college
students doing an experiment on their psychology professor who
liked to walk around the room while giving his lectures. When
the professor walked to the right side of the room, the students
paid more attention; when the professor moved to the left side
of the room, the students appeared disinterested; they shuffled
their papers and looked away. Soon, without knowing it, the professor
was unconsciously trained to give his lectures while standing
still, squeezed into the corner at the right side of the room.
So it is with editors and cartoonists. The "groupthink"
comes on the part of the editors, and the cartoonists are all
squeezed into the same corner of the room. One culprit to blame
is Newsweek Magazine, whose high profile choices of light, gag
cartoons lead the editorial groupthink and trivialize our art
form. I call it the "Newsweekization" of our profession.
It is no surprise that cartoonists, who are all squeezed into
the same little corner that editors prefer, would come up with
the same gag, at the same time, in response to the same news.
We had a great example this week with the Mar Rover and Osama
Bin Ladin. Before our site came along, only a handful of cartoonists
and editors would notice Yahtzees --now I put them together so
they are obvious. I think a little well meaning nudge for the
cartoonists is good once in a while. Check
out the Mars Rover and Osama Yahtzee here.
January 6th, 2004
I'm back! It is gratifying that
so many people noticed when the BLOG stopped updating. I took
a BLOG hiatus.
Those of you who subscribe to
our newsletter know that my BLOG is pretty much the same as my
newsletter. The newsletter has a huge audience, much larger than
the audience for the BLOG. The folks at Microsoft who manage
the mailing list took two weeks off for the holidays and asked
me to submit those two weeks of newsletters in advance. I'm lucky
that no major news broke during those two weeks. Now the newsletter
is back, and the BLOG is back. The newsletter folks at Microsoft
are back at work. All is well. Don't worry.
Steve McGarry and Rick Stromoski
have gotten hundreds of nice emails in support of MULLETS.
They got about a dozen emails that were not very supportive,
but they accidentally deleted those. Sorry. Many thanks to everyone
who wrote.
We have a big new collection
of MAD COW cartoons
that have generated some interesting, angry e-mail, from vegans
and from people who think the cartoons are insensitive to people
and animals with the disease. I'm sometimes surprised to see
what issues push people's buttons. Here is a taste from our e-mail
box and the Cagle Fray
I don't get it. What does mad cow disease that originated from
Canada to the U.S. has to do with Bush, Mr. Liberal?
Eve Everett
Too Funny!!
I'm still laughing, through my carrot sticks.
Rael Nidess, M.D.
Marshall, TX
USA
Obviously, you've never experienced
a loved one dying from Creutztfeld-Jakob Disease, the human form
of Mad Cow Disease. Luckily, my father lasted only a short while
after being diagnosed eight years ago. Many victims can last
up to five years, with loved ones helpless to alleviate the agony
while watching a person's brain literally disintegrate. We will
never know how he contacted the disease, but it was determined
that he more than likely obtained it while being a POW during
the Korean War. How does that affect his offspring? We all just
have to wait and see. Unfortunately, funding for research is
almost non existent, and research volunteers are a rare commodity.
Once airborne, this disease is supposedly highly contagious (i.e.
brain biopsies are performed by volunteer neurosurgeons). I suggest
people like you become more educated about this devastating disease
prior to creating jokes.
Ellen M. Baumgarten
RICHARD BRADY & ASSOCIATES
Subject: MAD COW
From: TRUKA
Date: Jan 6 2004 8:29AM
I am certain that nobody in America made jokes about 7/11.
So if you think that "mad cow "jokes are funny, spare
a thought for people like me , who watched their son die from
this disease.
For me mad cow IS 7/11
Profile:
Subject: RE: MAD
COW
From: fredf
Date: Jan 6 2004 8:38AM
You must be British, maybe. They say there was only one case
in America, a young woman who died very badly but mercifully
quickly. I can at least understand it must be painful for you.
BTW, you mean 9/11, not 7/11.
Subject: RE: MAD COW
From: TRUKA
Date: Jan 6 2004 10:25AM
you are right in your assumption, and thanks for the correction(how
on earth could I get that wrong)
Subject: RE: MAD COW
From: SpeechGal
Date: Jan 6 2004 9:39AM
I agree with you. I think its disgusting that someone would
try to take advantage of the situation we are in with mad cow.
With all that happens in the world, why must we always target
the bad to make fun of?
At the same time of trying to get a "cheap laugh" you
fail to sympathize with those who have lost loved ones to this
horrific disease. I too have lost a loved one several years ago
to mad cow. God Bless those who are suffering because of it.
And may god be with the writers who have no heart.
Subject: Mad Cow
From: lvk14
Date: Jan 6 2004 7:46AM
I enjoy humorous things, but making jokes about Mad Cow Disease
is going too far.
The animals suffer, those who earn a living with beef are seeing
their profits go down, and the public is scared to consume beef.
There are real humorous items to draw cartoons from, so find
them.....
Subject: RE: Mad Cow
From: fredf
Date: Jan 6 2004 8:15AM
One reason to make fun of Mad Cow is to simply lessen our
"jittery" fear of it. It's therapeutic.
Once you start legislating
what is and is not funny, you water down your ability to express
humor.
Make a checklist. Tree is funny. Pope is not. Cars are funny.
Bush is not. Bill Clinton is funny. Hillary is not. You look
funny. I don't. Slipping on a banana peel is not funny because
it makes fun of a person's incompetence and because it is abusive
to bananas.
I too have sympathy for the
cattlemen. You know they are taking it on the chin for something
they could not see coming and arguably were innocent of.
I'll grant this much. Mad
cow jokes are not entirely tasteful, but a huge portion of popular
culture is not tasteful, so that criticism is made weak and insignificant.
A cartoon has to be glaringly crass and lacking in redemption
to fail simply on bad taste. Most cartoons fail for other reasons,
of which bad taste is just one factor.
I posted our annual Year
in Review cartoon collection for 2003. I did a "Best
Cartoons of the Year" collection in 2001 and I caught plenty
of grief from the cartoonists, who all wondered why I didn't
pick their cartoon for the best of the year. Some complained
loudly that I picked a cartoon that matched a cartoon they had
drawn first. I got the message and I don't presume to pick the
best cartoons now ... at least I don't trumpet when I'm picking
the "best" cartoons. Now that I pick a dozen cartoonists
and do a "Year in Review," I get complaints from cartoonists
about why their cartoons aren't included in the "Year in
Review."
I can't win.
The Comics Journal BLOG does an excellent job of finding every bit of
cartoon news that turns up anywhere on the web. They found these
interesting stories on political cartoonists who are being persecuted
...
IFEX,
the International Freedom of Expession eXchange, reports
on two reporters in Algeria who were given two month, suspended
jail sentences for protesting the jailing of editorial cartoonist
Mohammed Benchicou and an editor, Ali Dilem. Read more about
Dilem here,
from Reporters Sans Frontiers.
Amnesty
International reports on Moroccan journalist, Ali Lmrabet,
who is imprisoned partially because he printed political cartoons
that offended the Moroccan government. Lmrabet, who is on a hunger
strike, was the editor of two satirical magazines that Moroccan
authorities banned. Amnesty writes:
Ali Lmrabet is ... serving
a three-year prison sentence, handed down on appeal on 17 June
2003. He was convicted on charges of insulting King Mohamed VI,
"undermining the monarchy" and "threatening the
integrity of the national territory" on the basis of several
articles, cartoons and a photo-montage which had appeared in
his newspapers. These included an article featuring extracts
of an interview, already published in a Spanish newspaper, with
a former Moroccan political prisoner advocating the right to
self-determination for Sahrawis in Western Sahara; and a cartoon
commenting on the parliamentary approval of the budget for the
royal household. He was also fined 20,000 dirhams (approximately
2,000 US dollars) and a ban was imposed on his newspapers.
An article at foreignaffairs.org explains why an editor in Saudi Arabia
was fired, partly because of a political cartoon that wasn't
acceptable to the Saudi authorities.
One cartoon in particular
enraged the religious establishment. It depicted a suicide bomber
wearing a belt of dynamite next to a cleric wearing a belt of
fatwas. The caption read, "Those who issue fatwas and manifestos
inciting terror are themselves terrorists."
We never read a story about a
Cuban cartoonist being jailed for drawing a cartoon about Castro
--no Cuban would even think of drawing a cartoon depicting Castro.
I find it interesting that these stories about persecuted cartoonists
typically focus on Arab countries. Most cartoonists who work
in courtries, with non-democratic, authoritarian governments,
are well trained not to draw cartoons about their own governments.
Perhaps cartoonists in Arab countries are starting to chafe at
the restraints they are forced to endure.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE DECEMBER 2003,
CAGLE WEB LOG
| Artwork
© each artist. The Professional Cartoonists Index is ©Daryl
Cagle. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. |
|
Last
I have another new cartoonist, Steve Ferchaud who freelances
editorial cartoons for his hometown newspaper in Chico California.
John is an active illustrator,