Mauldin Exhibit & a Scolding for the Trib

Bill-Mauldin-Lincoln-Memorial ThumbThere’s a nice piece in today’s Chicago Tribune Magazine about Bill Mauldin.

There are so many great cartoonists past and present I have yet to delve into, and, sadly, Mauldin is still on my to-do list.

The good news is I there’s an exhibit of his work right here in Chi-town until the end of the year! It’s so rare that something like this is close to me that I’m positively giddy about it!

At the end of the Tribune piece, there’s a little thing that disturbs me, however:

The Chicago Tribune currently has no full-time editorial cartoonist on staff, not since the great Jeff MacNelly died at 52 in 2000. I showed some of Mauldin’s work to editorial page editor Bruce Dold. He smiled and said, “They don’t make ’em like MacNelly and Mauldin anymore.”

Would he hire Mauldin if he walked in the door today?

“In a second,” said Dold. “In a second.”

A note to the Trib:

While another Mauldin or MacNelly might never be, it shouldn’t take you six years to find another vital cartoon voice.

MacNelly left some big shoes to fill, but maybe we can find someone who can stuff some newspaper in the toes for a while?

Trib, baby, you know I love ya, but come on. You owe it to the cartoonists that helped make you great to get off your duff and hire someone already.

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I Love It When You Speak French!

Tom Richmond’s Batsuit blog got me thinking…

If you could dress up as one cartoon/comic character for Halloween, who would it be?

And don’t hold back – we don’t have to have the costume be practical or economical or, heck, even adhere to the laws of physics!

I’ll get things started.

I’d love to be Addams’ Gomez. Not the John Astin Gomez…

250Px-Gomez

…and certainly not the Raul Julia Gomez…

Addams319

but an honest to goodness Addams Gomez:

Gomez1

OK, everyone, now it’s your turn. Who would you want to be?

(BTW, I simply MUST get one of these t-shirts!)

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Follow That Cartoon (Part 6)

Welcome back to Follow That Cartoon! A series of entries in which I track the creation, submission, and, hopefully, the sale of this cartoon:

 Cartoon Blog 5922 1

OK, it’s been a while since my last entry, so let’s get caught up.

As you might remember this was rejected by Reader’s Digest, but it’s difficult to complain considering I have two in their November issue.

I did end up sending this to Harvard Business Review toward the end of August, but it’s been two months with no reply one way or another.

To be fair, there was a change in cartoon staff, and often it takes a bit to come to grips with the stacks and stacks of cartoons coming in. But I think 60 days is enough time for me to officially send it elsewhere.

Who’s the next lucky recipient you ask? Why my good friends at Good Housekeeping!

I put it on the top of the stack too!

I’ll letcha know what I hear…

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