Yesterday I attended the Small Press Expo (SPXPO) in Bethesda. I was only able to stay for a few hours, but I got to see a lot of old friends and meet a couple new people. All-in-all, it was a good day.
The highlight of the day was meeting Roz Chast. I'm a big New Yorker cartoon junkie, so meeting her was a huge honor. She even said she'd visit my website! (Ms. Chast, if you do stop by, I'm really sorry I didn't have a proper business card on me. So embarrassing!)
Anyway, when I was there, I told Ms. Chast the story of how I started out as a cartoonist. Have I told you this story?
(Warning. This is a longer version than what I told at SPXPO, because I didn't want to be more boring than I already was.)
When I was about 22, I was just out of college and working at a job I hated. One day at lunch, one of my co-workers asked "If you could do any job in the world, what would it be?" Although it may sound strange, this is a question I had never thought about before.
The answer, of course, was cartooning.
I began to do research on how I could become a cartoonist, which led me to information on how to submit work to the the New Yorker. I quickly did 10 (bad) cartoons and mailed them off.
I got rejected.
I did 10 more, and again, rejection. Then 10 more. Same result. During this time, I had created a portfolio of 30-50 New Yorker-style cartoons.
I remember being at the grocery store and waiting in line (nice segue, right? It'll make sense in a minute) and I saw the front page of my local newspaper. The cartoonist for the paper had passed away. That night, I gathered my favorite cartoons and mailed them to the paper. This is how The Aegis and The Record hired me as the new cartoonist.
Anyway, after meeting Roz yesterday and another New Yorker cartoonist of the summer, I think I'm going to start submitting stuff again. Maybe they won't buy a cartoon, but you never know what good might come of it!
Showing posts with label The New Yorker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The New Yorker. Show all posts
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Everyone's going bananas over this ape thing!
Well, this is a blog about cartooning and my opinions and sometimes politics, so I guess I would be remiss if I didn't say something about the NY Post monkey cartoon.
If you haven't had the misfortune of seeing it, here it is:
A lot of people are pissed off about this cartoon, because they feel like it's racist. I can definitely see how it can be intepreted it that way, but I seriously doubt that was the cartoonist's intention. (Granted, Delonas doesn't have the greatest track record.)
That's not to say the cartoonist should get off the hook. I understand that when you're working under a tight deadline, you might not have the time to sit and consider every possible way a cartoon can be interpreted, and since you're dealing with images and not words, things can very easily be misunderstood. But for something like this, when it's very obvious that people (not to be confused with politicians, haha) are hurt and offended by what you've done, it's not good enough to sit there and say "Well, you're stupid because you don't understand my cartoon and I'm not a racist and that's not what I meant and blah, blah, blah." You need to apologize. And you need to be sincere about it.
I don't agree that Delonas should get fired, but that's mostly because I doubt that the Post would hire a new cartoonist to take his place. I think this is a great example of how powerful and important cartoons can be. It saddens me that someone who is fortunate enough to have a staff editorial cartoonist position would be so careless with his work, but like I said, mistakes happen. I'm also bothered by the fact that whenever a cartoonist or a cartoon gets in the news, it's because of something negative. And never that edgy, thought-provoking negative that cartoonists strive for.
It annoyed me so much when the Obama New Yorker cover got so much attention.
Since when is the New Yorker the go-to place for political cartoons? Satire just isn't their thing. So many people called it failed-satire, but I think it just wasn't the right venue for that kind of commentary. Had that been the cover of MAD Magazine, it would be a totally different story. I don't think the cartoon itself was bad, I just think it was a weird choice for a New Yorker cover.
The NY Post monkey cartoon IS failed satire. I get the concept, it wasn't particularly clever or funny, so just apologize for doing a stupid cartoon.
That being said, I wish people would write to their papers and praise good cartoons. Maybe instead of coming off as a liability, cartoons could once again be seen as an asset. Imagine that!
If you haven't had the misfortune of seeing it, here it is:
A lot of people are pissed off about this cartoon, because they feel like it's racist. I can definitely see how it can be intepreted it that way, but I seriously doubt that was the cartoonist's intention. (Granted, Delonas doesn't have the greatest track record.)
That's not to say the cartoonist should get off the hook. I understand that when you're working under a tight deadline, you might not have the time to sit and consider every possible way a cartoon can be interpreted, and since you're dealing with images and not words, things can very easily be misunderstood. But for something like this, when it's very obvious that people (not to be confused with politicians, haha) are hurt and offended by what you've done, it's not good enough to sit there and say "Well, you're stupid because you don't understand my cartoon and I'm not a racist and that's not what I meant and blah, blah, blah." You need to apologize. And you need to be sincere about it.
I don't agree that Delonas should get fired, but that's mostly because I doubt that the Post would hire a new cartoonist to take his place. I think this is a great example of how powerful and important cartoons can be. It saddens me that someone who is fortunate enough to have a staff editorial cartoonist position would be so careless with his work, but like I said, mistakes happen. I'm also bothered by the fact that whenever a cartoonist or a cartoon gets in the news, it's because of something negative. And never that edgy, thought-provoking negative that cartoonists strive for.
It annoyed me so much when the Obama New Yorker cover got so much attention.
Since when is the New Yorker the go-to place for political cartoons? Satire just isn't their thing. So many people called it failed-satire, but I think it just wasn't the right venue for that kind of commentary. Had that been the cover of MAD Magazine, it would be a totally different story. I don't think the cartoon itself was bad, I just think it was a weird choice for a New Yorker cover.
The NY Post monkey cartoon IS failed satire. I get the concept, it wasn't particularly clever or funny, so just apologize for doing a stupid cartoon.
That being said, I wish people would write to their papers and praise good cartoons. Maybe instead of coming off as a liability, cartoons could once again be seen as an asset. Imagine that!
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