There’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.
Technorati Tags: cartooning, cartoonists, cartoons, editorial cartoons, magazines, original art
Well, if they wanted to hire an editorial cartoonist, they would've hired one by now.
The fact is that this postion at a major daily paper is no longer considered important.
One Illinois-based award-winning editorial cartoonist was just let got from his job, according to the AAEC site at http://editorialcartoonists.com/
I quote it below. And (to use Tom Spurgeon's words at ComicsReporter.com) ask, WHERE'S THE BOTTOM?
ANOTHER Cartoonist Position Eliminated
Last week Scott Nychay reported that his job as an editorial cartoonist and graphic designer was eliminated by the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
Nychay, who was a finalist for the 2006 Fischetti Award, had been with the company nearly eight years.
In addition to the Fischetti nod, Nychay had won four straight first place Illinois Press Association Awards and published two books of his work while at the Herald. He also noted he had raised $50,000 for victims of Hurricane Katrina and tsunami victims with cartoon prints readers purchased.
As to what he was going to do now, Nychay told the Notebook, "As of right now its still too soon. I put everything I had into my career so its going to take some time to clear my head."
UGh… This stuff just pisses me off…