aaec

Sacramento Review

Over the past few days I gathered in Sacramento with editorial cartoonist colleagues at the annual conference of the AAEC (Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.) How wonderful it was to get together with old friends and make new ones.

Beyond the collegial atmosphere found in the cocktail lounges, there was a packed schedule of presentations from across the editorial cartoon spectrum.  Our friends in New Zealand were in full force led by Kiwi powerhouse Sharon Murdoch, and backed up by Rod Emmerson, Nigel Buchanan, and Toby Morris.

I turned 50 during the convention, and was presented this wonderful caricature drawn by the great Brian Gable of the Globe & Mail. It was followed by a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday by convention attendees!

We Canadians took to the podium, first by our godfather, Terry Mosher AKA Aislin, who extolled the virtues of the slate of Canuck cartoonists and our perspectives of the U.S.A. satirizing in the era of Donald Trump.

Yours truly, alongside ACC (Association of Canadian Cartoonists) President Wes Tyrell, presented a short documentary praising the importance of local cartoons. We included a slideshow featuring the need for regional cartoons, and as an example, the recent repeal of the sex-ed curriculum in Ontario was highlighted.

Ward Sutton, the true man behind the Onion’s parody editorial cartoonist Stan Kelly had the audience rolling with laughter with his genius cartoons and his rise to stardom.

Another highlight was a presentation entitled, “Evil Editors & Pandering Publishers”, by Rob Rogers, formerly of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The 25 year veteran of that newspaper was unceremoniously terminated after he refused to water down his criticism of the Trump administration. A series of his cartoons were spiked by editors leading to an ugly divorce and an insulting severance package. Rob, standing by his principles, has been suffering considerably, and while he knows the newspaper’s brand has received damage, he leaves many friends still working in the newsroom whom he wishes no ill-will.

A very emotional slide-show was presented by California graphic novel cartoonist Brian Fies who chronicled the tragedy of his home burning down during one of that state’s horrendous brush fires. “A Fire Story” is a compelling short documentary which won an Emmy Award. As Brian stated to our gathering, “it’s great to win an Emmy, but I’d rather have my old house back.”

AWARDS

Nicaraguan cartoonist Pedro Molina was presented with the Courage in Cartooning Award, on behalf of the CRNI (Cartoonists Rights Network International) by Malaysian editorial cartoonist Zunar. The Locher Award for aspiring editorial cartoonist went to the talented Charis Jackson Barrios of NYC. In recognition of those whose cartoons are rejected by editors, a competition ensues among members for the Golden Spike Award. This years’ recipient was Rob Rogers, for obvious reasons, and was awarded a giant golden spike. This year an inaugural award called “the Gable”, was issued by the ACC to an American cartoonist who embodies the most Canadian qualities in terms of world outlook. The 2018 recognition goes to Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes.  

The icing on the cake at the closing gala at this extraordinary convention was being awarded the 2018 George Townsend Award, or “Townsie”. Since 2015, the Association of Canadian Cartoonists has presented the George Townsend Award, named after the first Canadian cartoonist, to two members (one English, another French) of the association it deems to have created the best drawing of the year. I was presented this award for a cartoon I drew February 3, 2017, commenting on the saturation of news related to President Donald Trump. What a huge honour for which I am truly humbled.

Graeme MacKay and ACC President Wes Tyrell at the awards ceremony

Big thanks goes to my friend, and the host of this convention, Jack Ohman, the very talented editorial cartoonist at the Sacramento Bee (also the 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner!)  Much of the pull to bring our Canadian bodies down to the California capital was due to his charm, but also to the dynamic enthusiasm of Canada’s Association President Wes Tyrell, whose leadership has energized our group in such difficult times facing our craft. A big tip of the hat goes to these two gentlemen, and we look forward to the next joint gathering of our two associations in Ottawa in 2020.

October 22, 2007

DRAWN SWORDS
Best political cartoonists don’t hesitate to slash their subjects, author says
Sunday, October 21, 2007
By Bill Eichenberger | The Columbus Dispatch

Editorial cartoonist Art Young, who worked for several Chicago newspapers in the early 1900s, had a simple motto: “To have a life as a caricaturist of the kind whose pictures ‘never hurt’ is my idea of futility.” Cartoonists such as Young, unafraid to hurt, are the inspiration for Donald Dewey’s new book The Art of Ill Will: The Story of American Political Cartoons, which looks at the development of the form from the Colonial period through the present.

“If they don’t hurt,” Dewey wrote in a recent e-mail, “editorial cartoons are just taking up space in a paper that might be used more profitably for a McDonald’s ad. . . . The cartoonist who worries about ‘alienating consumers’ isn’t worth your time, my time or anybody else’s. Unfortunately, there are far too many of them around.”

Similarly, in Dewey’s estimation, “A cartoonist who isn’t partisan isn’t worth looking at. What’s the point otherwise?

“Many of the rules for cartooning stem from syndication and a greater reliance on generic themes so nobody feels left out in Oregon about a reference to Pennsylvania.

“The usual result is toothlessness. Syndication has made cartoonists richer at the expense of the relevance of the form.”

The Art of Ill Will features more than 200 illustrations, including Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 image of a snake cut into pieces with the caption “Join, or Die” — considered the country’s first editorial cartoon.

Q: Can editorial cartoons turn elections?

A: I think it’s been demonstrated fairly clearly that cartoonists don’t swing elections. Even the fabled story of Thomas Nast bringing down Boss Tweed is more romance than fact. What really brought down Tweed was a New York Times expose in which a bookkeeper from Tammany Hall traced the passage of dollars from taxpayers to private pockets. (And even with this, remember, Tweed was re-elected to his City Council position.)

Another glaring example is Richard Nixon — every political cartoonist’s favorite subject for mockery since he had been vice president. But despite that, he was elected to the White House twice.

Overall, you would simply have to say that political cartoonists are preaching to the choir, not least because of the newspapers they are working for. Somebody in New York who reads Newsday regularly is not going to be exposed to the right-wing frothings of a Post cartoonist, and vice versa.

Q: To what should cartoonists aspire?

A: I would hope it would be humor and originality at the service of political relevance. In the best of cases, their images can outlive a given political issue or social event — witness Nast on the Catholics in the New York City schools, (Bill) Mauldin on Lincoln’s statue after Kennedy’s assassination. These have as much power today as when they were done.

Q: Early political cartoons were wordy, with loads of texts accompanying the drawings. Was the move away from that convention a positive one?

A: In my opinion, they definitely improved with fewer words, and this was inevitable given the newer cartoon vehicles (daily and weekly publications) and the enhanced printing methods.

The most interesting thing about the transition was the growing community of symbols.

Q: Our political cartoons have been full of racial and ethnic stereotypes, haven’t they?

A: The starting point for any discussion of ethnic-racial stereotypes is that they are created by the prevailing power structure.

Let’s take a very common example: the Irish drunk. In the 19th century, the English were as alcoholic as the Irish. In fact, penny gin almost crippled the country — so much so that the broken pub hours were introduced to discourage drunken bodies clogging up the main thoroughfares of London and Liverpool.

Which isn’t to suggest that the Irish have never been known to drink. But when they came off steerage in New York in the 19th century, they walked into an Anglo-Scots society that controlled, among other things, the media. Suddenly, they were the epitome of the drunkard in word and picture. The fact that they were poor didn’t help, either.

July 24, 2007

One of the things I note about attending editorial cartoonist conventions is how the American ones tend to be segmented into vague factions — not unfriendly factions, but a few that seem to gather in social groups. They aren’t so noticeably divided by nationality, such as Canadians vs. Americans, right vs. left cartoonists, or the cross-hatchers vs. the photoshoppers. There is a clique of Alternative cartoonists who tend to stick to themselves. While they don’t say it at loud among mainstream newspaper editorial cartoonists I think the Alties view the products of the traditional big city cartoonist as generally lame, wishy washy in their politics, and predictable with their gags. The Alty cartoonist tends to be younger, angrier, they possess greater freedoms to express their opinions, and they tend to be from the left of the political spectrum. When they aren’t skewering Bush, Cheney, or some other right winger getting heat in the Liberal press they tackle issues that are often overlooked by the full time editorial cartoonists, like religion, feminism, racism and homosexuality. I enjoy following the Alty cartoonists, and while I may not agree with the approach of their cartoons or the point they’re arguing for, I respect their passion to tackle issues and politicians by using the liberties granted to them by their editors.

On the other hand there are those who don’t appreciate the editorial cartoon. I’m having a hard time wondering how someone can dismiss what I would call an art form going way back through history. Ivan Brunetti, a comic book artist writes on the Daily Crosshatch:

“…Another problematic genre is the political/editorial cartoon, with its facile and smug symbology, which often seems manipulative and insulting to the reader’s intelligence. The political value of comics (or art in general) is dubious at best, in my opinion. I have always said, “Political cartoons are the ass-end of the artform” (which is admittedly cruel of me). Political cartoons are often too reductive and lacking in nuance or subtlety. Occasionally, some heavy-handed or ham-fisted cartoon causes a great uproar. Well, if one sets out to offend a group of people with an image or cartoon, and one has a large forum, such as a newspaper, the cartoon will probably get a reaction. But I question the value of that. It seems like a little dance: someone draws something purposely to offend another, and then that person gets offended. Yeah, great.

Life and people, I believe, are a lot more complicated than that. It seems that (strictly) political cartoons can have one of two reactions: if you agree, you nod approvingly (but not really laugh), and if you disagree, you mutter something about the cartoonist being “an asshole” (and also not laugh). At best, the aim is to polarize people by relying on extreme viewpoints, and at worst, to pussyfoot around the issues for fear of actually offending somebody. Either way, everything is strictly in black and white terms, with no in-betweens, and I would much rather read a story about full, complex characters going about their lives. I think stories about human beings are still going to address political issues, if they deal with reality at all, but in an implicit rather than explicit (or worse, didactic) manner, thus generously and sympathetically allowing the reader to decide what to think. I guess one can argue that everything is political on some level, but then there really is no need to sledgehammer the reader’s head.”

Wonkette.com does a wonderful job of critiquing recent editorial cartoons. Wonderful, only because mine never get chosen.

July 13, 2007

Every year editorial cartoonists get together in the United States to celebrate, commiserate, or just totally avoid talking about the business of our craft. When I tell people about these conventions they often wonder out loud what we could possibly fill the hours talking about — ink brands? cross hatching? pen nibs? Invariably, the jokes turn to how a “cartoonist convention” is an eloquent way of referring to an elaborate drunken piss-up amongst doodlers. Yes, much alcohol is consumed, but no more than what would be downed at your average conference of journalists, accountants, or funeral directors. Everybody needs to blow off steam once in a while.

This year the Convention Itinerary was packed with all kinds of subjects which go beyond ink brands, cross-hatching and pen nibs. The position of on-staff editorial cartoonist is in decline, with one in our ranks suggesting that only 80 salaried cartoonists remain employed in the U.S. today compared with 2000 a century ago. Editorial Cartoonists in the U.S. are very concerned with their impending extinction, and at this year’s gathering they held townhall style meetings at the start and end to come up with solutions. Some cartoonists are figuring that in order to stay in the business of political satire they need to animate or go the way of the dodo.

Other topics included blogging, politics, cartooning on war, Dennis Kucinich, and cartoonist rights.

One of the really cool things I was able to do while visiting D.C. over the Fourth of July holiday was attend a dinner reception on the rooftop of the Canadian Embassy. Editorial Cartoonists were invited to dine on huge shrimp and caribou meat while rubbing shoulders with diplomats, commissioners, and other big wigs. I took my father inlaw to the event — that’s him, above left, nestled between former ABC News White House correspondent Andrea Mitchell and her husband Alan Greenspan, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman. The photo on the right shows me with Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson.

On the left is a photo of me with Arnold Roth, whose book Arnold’s Crazy Book of Science served as an inspiration for me to draw when I was a kid. On the right is me with Malcolm Mayes, cartoonist at the Edmonton-Journal, who distributes my cartoons with his partner Fran Seary through the Artizans Syndicate.

One of my cartoons (shown at the end of the centre wall) was part of a show at The Katzen Arts Center at American University. The title of the exhibit, Bush Leaguers: Cartoonists Take on the White House is a collection of 99 editorial cartoons and is slated to appear in Pittsburgh and then Columbus, Ohio.