Here’s a cause that’s near and dear to my heart: editorial cartooning. Chris Lamb writes in the Editor and Publisher magazine about how editorial cartoonists are being killed by meek newspaper editors.
Editorial cartooning is an art form. I have long admired how a stroke of a pen can cut through columns of newsprint to the essense of an issue. That little box can pack quite a wallop. Its strength comes from expressing an opinion: something that is verboten in the rest of journalism.
My high school heroes were Jeff MacNelly, Bill Watterson, Gary Larson, and Mike Peters. Once I stalked MacNelly around the store where I worked until I got the nerve to get his autograph (he graciously complied). In an alternate universe, I still draw cartoons. So it makes me mad to read how cartoonists are left with no choice but to quit over the silly concessions they are asked to make.
Maybe I will dust off my drawing skills, before the great drawings that made people care about the news are only a distant memory.
My father works with Mike Peters at the Dayton Daily News in Ohio where I grew up. I’ve met him several times. He’s a great guy and a remarkable talent.
I’ve always thought you could tell a lot about a paper by their editorial cartoons. It is a shame that economics and more importantly rampant political correctness are sending these icons of free speech the way of the dinosaur.
-blizzog
Can I get a Mike Peters autograph to add to my collection? Can I? Huh? Can I? Huh? Can I? Can I? Oh pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!