How better to spend one's 20th anniversary as a full-time editorial cartoonist than with other inkslingers, faux superheroes and pop-culture icons, past and present?
Actually, it was only a coincidence that I recently found myself in San Diego to take part in an editorial cartooning panel at Comic-Con 20 years to the day of having joined the Omaha World-Herald.
As a first-timer, I knew that Comic-Con attracted its share of costumed fans, not to mention actors peddling their autographs. Certainly, if you're a collector of original cartoon art, there's no better place to go.
What I hadn't counted on was how much Comic-Con has evolved into a mecca for all things pop culture. Peddling a new zombie video game? Got a new sci-fi movie or genre TV show to promote? Roll out the red carpet.
So while my mind swirled with images of strange monsters, and rumors of a Johnny Depp appearance, I headed off to my panel discussion, reflecting not only on my career but also on the changes that have come to cartooning.
Twenty years' worth of cartoons. Considering I draw six cartoons per week and taking into account vacations, that's a total of — well, you do the math.
Suffice it to say, I've survived my share of deadlines. And while the nature of the deadline never changes — it's always there, lurking behind you, breathing down your neck — much else has evolved during that time.
For one thing, my work now appears in color each day, a thought that would have seemed blasphemous to the eye of a traditional newspaper reader in 1989 — including mine.
At Comic-Con, our panel consisted of five editorial cartoonists and one animator. (Roughly only 70 full-time editorial cartoonists remain in the United States.) To add a tone of gravity to our panel, no one in the audience showed up dressed as his or her favorite political characters.
We were asked about the creative process and the political filters by which we come up with ideas. Praise the newspaper gods! People who want to know about editorial cartooning! And they're dressed like — readers!
Over the years, I've been called everything from a “right-wing fascist” to a “member of the liberal elite.” Sometimes in the same day.
As a self-described “passionate centrist,” I would, of course, reject any of the clichéd red-versus-blue monikers. That's not to say that there haven't been times — many times — when my work has landed distinctly on one side of the aisle or the other.
But this relates to a point a member of the audience made — that he was sick of the divisiveness in politics and in cartooning. I agreed with him and told him so, and he seemed pleased that someone from the “media” would concur.
Too often, political issues are far more complex than right versus left. Too often, there's a third way, or perhaps a fourth way, of viewing a particular issue.
Maybe it's just the collective strain of all those deadlines over the years that has fogged my vision, but I like to think that I've always maintained that independent spirit and that my cartoons, even while taking their shots and poking criticism, have been fair-minded and have been based on fact, not hatred. To wit, I don't mind you as a person — in fact, you're probably a swell person — I just don't like what you've done, stand for, etc.
And when the subject of how cartoonists choose their topics came up, one panelist suggested that we are at the mercy of what we are given, again, by the media. Perhaps.
However, I countered that I often seek out topics and issues that aren't always played up in the public sphere. I like to sometimes go digging around for issues that not everyone is talking about.
As a cartoonist, have I failed from time to time? It is, as they say, a learning process. And every day that I settle in among newspapers and scraps of sketches at my drawing table, I like to think that perhaps today I'll finally draw The. Perfect. Cartoon. It hasn't happened yet, but I'll keep trying.
I still draw with pen and ink. On paper. And those color cartoons? They're the product of paints and brushes, not a computer program.
Not that I'm computer-phobic. I just prefer the feel of the brush and the paper against my hand. At the end of the day, there's something satisfying about scrubbing off that day's palette from my fingers.
Maybe it's a tactile thing. Or perhaps it's a reminder that my work isn't just of brain but also of body. That it requires not just hours of reading and thinking but also the physical act of sketching, inking, splattering paint and turning my drawing table into a Jackson Pollock knockoff.
But while color is a nice addition to my graphic arsenal, it's the concept, the point, that has always been paramount to me. How best can I convey an idea in a fair manner, one that is based in truth, without unnecessarily hurting anyone but certainly without pulling punches?
I hope editorial cartooning is still relevant in 20 years. I hope the profession hasn't been completely overrun by, say, video gaming and other high-tech gizmos.
It's not that I would mind 3-D, interactive cartoons, ones where the readers — or viewers — determine the punch line. It's just that I'm not sure I'm prepared to turn in my ink pen for a game controller. Or a pill you swallow that allows you to experience the cartoon in your head.
Call me a traditionalist.
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
