April 17, 2008

My boss declared with amazement this morning that a whole day went by and he didn’t hear one single complaint about yesterday’s cartoon as shown above. It’s the same boss who, early in his role as the Spec’s editorial page balked at running a relatively tame cartoon I drew around the death of Pope John Paul II. The incident of its spiking even got the attention of the author David Wallis, who included it in his 2006 book entitled “Killed Cartoons“.

Anyway, a colleague here suggested the reason I’m not getting feedback on the red shoe cartoon is because most of the area’s defensive Roman Catholics are in the midst of their pilgrimages to Washington D.C. and New York City. However, it seems the newspapers I syndicate are taking a pass on running.

I just received one letter of outrage:

As much as I am a fan of Graeme MacKay’s political cartoons I do feel that this one is pushing the boundaries as far as is possible without inciting riots la Danish cartoons negatively portraying Mohammad.

I am certainly no George W. Bush sympathizer but depicting him as the devil does seem to be pushing those aforementioned boundaries. Furthermore, the cartoon also paints the Prada-wearing Pope in a negative light. As the cartoon certainly seems to be a reference to the hit movie The Devil Wears Prada, are we to assume MacKay sees both men as instruments of darkness? As a Catholic, this cartoon deeply offends me and I hope in the future MacKay thinks twice before attacking the spiritual leader of one billion people.

Marco Fortino, Hamilton