Category: Cartoonists

Another Editorial Cartoonist Gone

andertoons2 Comments

Curtis

Fellow Chicago area cartoonist Stacy Curtis was unceremoniously escorted out of his job at the NWI Times yesterday.

Curtis was allowed only his car keys, coat and what he brought in with him that day. This weekend he’ll be allowed back under the supervision of two managers to collect any other personal belongings.

LIke Kirk Anderson’s before him, I guarantee this paper spends more on executive office plant watering services than it did on Curtis’ insightful local perspective.

In an era where readership is down and graphic novels sales continue to rise you’d figure the whole damn paper would be told in cartoons!

Honestly maybe it’s for the best. The newspaper in general is slowly dying, and although this will sound callous, maybe it’s better to get out now.

I was “reorganized” out of a job a few years ago and it allowed me the opportunity to refocus and really get down to my life’s work. (I’d like to clarify that this in no way gives any credit to the dirtbag management who actually hired someone to let me go.)

My advice to Stacy is to take the weekend and wallow in it. It sucks. A lot! Then, Monday morning, sit down at your desk, draw some more amazing stuff, work the phones and create your legacy. You’ve got the chops man, screw the NWI Times.

Later – E&P had this to say…

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Mike Lynch’s Blog

andertoons1 Comment

992Web Color-2

I’m very pleased to announce another great cartoon blog in the making!

My cartoon compatriot, my brother in bristol board, my… guy I’m close to in a gag related metaphor, Mike Lynch, has launched his MySpace blog with all sorts of good cartoon chat.

There’s a Krazy Kat mystery, a look inside gag cartooning, and a big orange cartoon-related cat that’s actually entertaining!

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I Continue To Ask That You Kiss My Ass

andertoons

Calvin And Hobbes Comics Cartoons Freecomputer Desktopwallpaper 1280

Back in October there were plenty of reviews of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. Most of them were your garden variety “Watterson is a genius” stuff, and Mark Luce’s review for The Kansas City Star (no longer available online) was no different, other than this quote that really ticked me off…

“Watterson uses the lowest of culture (comics) for decidedly intellectual dialogue.”

So I told Luce to kiss my ass. Done and done. Or so I thought…

Today I received this email from Mr. Luce:

Mr. Anderson,

I came across your dismantling of my review while PDFing my old review to a colleague. While I have no truck with criticism, I do, frankly, not like being told to kiss someone’s ass.

My comment on cartoons being the lowest of culture is not a reflection on my hatred of comics, it is rather a reflection of reality.

When I teach the graphic novel of Kafka’s Metamporphosis (Kuyper), I speak at length about the difference between highbrow and lowbrow. This is not a differentiation that I created, but rather one that exists whatever we feel about comics. Imagine trying to explain to parents who demanded to know why their kids were reading comic books to get an idea of where I am coming from.

My hunch is that if you had actually read my review you would see how much I adore cartoons, cartooning, illustration, whatever you want to call it. The review was about the magic of cartoons and being a kid, my goal not to trash comics but to celebrate them.

I have seen your work before, and I like it. But next time you ask someone to kiss your ass and link to a web site for their job, I ask that you fully read the review.

Thanks and best of luck.

Mark Luce

ps I like your first name.

(You know, I wasn’t going to give this any more blog time, but this is almost too easy.)

Dear Mr. Luce,

To those parent complaining about their children reading comic books, I’d refer them to this article from The Christian Science Monitor. I think it’s a fair look at the genre in education.

I also disagree again with comics being inherently “lowbrow,” or the “lowest of culture”, perceived reality of the book review literati though it may be. What about Lichtenstein? (Personally, I consider “Fear Factor” the cultural bottom.)

OK, I’m biased. I’m tired of cartoons being crapped all over, and this latest Danish thing isn’t helping. But if you’re looking for an apology, you’re not getting it.

Yours in low culture,

Mark Anderson

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Oliphant on Them Dam’ Mohammad Pictures

andertoons

Po060213

There’s a wonderful article in the Trib today by Pat Oliphant regarding the current Danish cartoon debacle.

…the initial reaction in the political cartooning community to what some see as a blatant, brave exercise of free speech in a free press in a free society was somewhat breathless admiration, so unused are we to seeing in newspapers such unfettered, politically incorrect use of this art. But what will the reaction be to all this among the high priests and prophets of the Counters of the Beans?

If there is any reaction, it will most likely be to make even more difficult the work of the cartoonist who has things to say and wishes to make a critical, legitimate and salient point, and make more remote the possibility of that point’s ever being seen in print. As the euphoria fades, we may be left the winners of a Pyrrhic victory.

Good lord the man’s well spoken!

I’m not going to comment on this whole thing as volumes upon volumes have already been heaped by men and women smarter and more eloquent than myself, but I never thought I would wish cartoons weren’t in the news so much.

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