Q Toon: What's In a Name

On the last day of Pride Month, Matthew Vines, evangelical author of God and the Gay Christian, published an op-ed in the New York Times headlined "I'm Gay, Not Queer. It Matters." In the essay, he complains that use of the “queer” label has contributed to a decrease in support for the LGBTQ+ community, not only among conservatives, but among the public at large.

The word queer “carries an adversarial charge that ‘gay’ does not,” Vines writes. Furthermore, “because the word ‘queer’ can describe any departure from social norms, it becomes an open door through which almost anyone can walk. Polyamorous? Queer. Vaguely uncomfortable with gender expectations? Possibly queer, too.” 

The word had been an antigay slur when activists chanted "We're here, we're queer, get over it" at 1970's Pride marches.  The point was originally to defang the word; later, as the word "lesbigay" proved inadequately inclusive, some advocated for "queer" as a more pronounceable name than "LGBTQIAA2S..." Easier to remember, too.

Vines, by the way, used “L.G.B.T.Q.,” periods and all, three times throughout his op-ed. I don't think that is a N.Y.T. stylebook thing. A.F.A.I.K.

Certainly, Vines is not the only gay man uncomfortable identifying as queer. But then, not every guy in the LGBTQ+ community identifies as gay, either. Or homosexual, on the down low, Two Spirit, M4M, a Friend of Dorothy, Uranian, malakoi, or any other particular sexual proclivity off to the right of the + sign.

But to disregard the most visible, provocative members of our community is to forget that we didn't come as far as we have by meekly accepting police raids of our gathering places and homes; by having to lie to family, friends, employers, and government; or by dying alone and quietly as a cruel disease cut hundreds of thousands of us down in the prime of life.

The queers of ACT-UP and the Stonewall Inn "carrie[d] an adversarial charge," because they had to in order to move society forward.

Without them, Matthew Vines might still identify as a gay evangelical author. But quite likely an unpublished and unemployed one. 

Drawn During Dog Days

It has been a couple of months since I've featured my own cartoons in these weekly Graphical History Tours, so it's about time to rummage through my archives in search of my favorite August cartoons from years ending in three.

The summer pickings in some years are meager, so all of these have appeared here before.

UW-Parkside Ranger, Sept. 8, 1983

As it happens, I drew several cartoons in August of 1983 in spite of not having a place ready to publish them. But I really liked this one, so I submitted it when the student paper at University of Wisconsin-Parkside resumed publication in September.

August, 1993

I drew this cartoon for the University of Milwaukee student newspaper, the Post, in August of 1993. I had just returned home from having attended a church secretaries' convention in Minnesota during widespread disastrous flooding of the upper Mississippi River and its tributaries that summer. The bus from Minneapolis to St. Peter was diverted so often by washed-out roads that I ended up missing a TV reporter waiting to interview the only male secretary signed up to attend the convention.

Perhaps that missed interview was still on my mind as I started my cartoon, based on the timeworn criticism of people who rebuild in disaster zones.

Unfortunately, the Post didn't publish any issues that August, so the cartoon has only appeared on your humble scribbler's blog.

I suppose the latest home of the poor fellow starring in the cartoon might be on Maui. But really, with climate change, he'd be in danger living just about anywhere in the world.

You gotta wonder why we keep rebuilding on this planet.

Business Journal, Aug. 22, 2003

Moving on to lighter fare: The Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee had its editorial nose out of joint over a gloomy article in the New York Times about Milwaukee, which the Times characterized as being a decaying, crime-ridden small city with third-rate sports teams and no future.

The problem with criticizing the Times's assessment, however, is that crime and urban decay have indeed been significant problems for Milwaukee. The halcyon days of its Socialist mayors was followed by the Freeway Era, when superhighways bulldozed their ways through vibrant neighborhoods and promoted the flight of the Middle Class, high-paying jobs, and their accompanying tax base into the suburbs.

Milwaukee has since done a lot to revitalize its downtown, converting old factories and warehouses into attractive apartment and commercial buildings. But it still suffers from outstate hostility, exemplified by former Governor Tommy "Stick It To 'Em" Thompson, Scott Walker's Act 10, and this year's wrangling over state aid.

The four Racing Sausage mascots pictured in the cartoon, Italian, Polish, Hot Dog, and Bratwurst, have since been joined by Sr. Chorizo, reflecting most of the predominant ethnic groups in Milwaukee. (Is there any encased ground meat that could represent the Black community?)

While you can find Norwegians everywhere in the state of Wisconsin, we haven't been prominent — or assertive — enough to rate our own festival on the Summerfest grounds, and certainly not our own racing sausage.

I think I should have had the reporter ask "Which one of youse is the lutefisk," though.

Q Syndicate, August, 2013

I had been sending colorized cartoons to Q Syndicate for a year by August of 2013, but I decided that this reference to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho had to be in grayscale only.

The news story behind the cartoon was the ruling of the California Supreme Court rejecting an appeal by the antigay interest group ProtectMarriage. ProtectMarriage wanted the court to overturn an appeal court judge's ruling that the so-called Definition of Marriage Amendment passed by Proposition 8 in 2008 was unconstitutional.

Much as I dislike drawing buildings, I remain mostly pleased with how this cartoon turned out.

✍

I have to apologize here for a post consisting entirely of rerun material. (I can't even blame the writers' strike.)

But in fact-checking this post, I did run across some stuff that I have not posted before. I'm still hunting through my archives for the original artwork, and hope to have new reminiscences here next Saturday.

Q Toon: Disclaim to Fame

There being already far too many editorial cartoons depicting Congressnewbie-elect* George Santos (R-LI) with a Pinocchio schozzola, my take on the guy here is a reference to the printed disclaimers in television ads where they tell you all the reasons why you shouldn't take the advertiser at their word. The print is deliberately too tiny for you to read (they had to make it smaller as large-screen TVs became more affordable), and, just in case you're sitting up close to the screen, it's gone before you have a chance to read past half of the first line anyway.

I've deemed Mr. Santos worthy of a cartoon for the LGBTQ+ press on the basis of his being gay — what is known in LGBTQ+ circles as a homocon.

The "con" in that contraction is short for "conservative," not "congressman," "con artist" or "convict," but I concede that one could easily be considerably confused.

After his upset win in November, the New York Times revealed that a hell of a lot of what Santos said about himself has been lies. He claimed that his grandparents were survived the Holocaust as Ukrainian Jewish refugees from Belgium; they emigrated to Brazil well before the Nazis came to power. Santos has had to backtrack statements that he's Jewish; he now says that he meant to say he is "Jew-ish." Sources say that he is actually Cathol-ic.

He claimed to have earned a bachelors degree in economics and finance from Baruch College in 2010; the school has no record of it. 

He claimed to have founded an animal rescue charity that he ran from 2013 to 2018; it was never registered with the IRS. He claimed to have worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, which has come as a surprise to Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

Further playing into his purported real estate expertise, Santos claimed, as a landlord, he was hurt by Covid-19 related eviction protections given to renters. He went so far as saying he had not received nearly one year’s worth of rent on 13 properties. Yet, Santos did not list any properties on required financial disclosure forms, only one was mentioned—an apartment in Brazil. What makes this lie particularly spicy is the fact that The Times found that Santos actually faced multiple evictions as a renter, even being fined about $12,000 in a civil judgment.

He claimed to have earned $750,000 plus reaping $1 million to $5 million in dividends as the sole owner of a family firm, a situation that is murky at best. Whatever the firm did and who its clients were, nobody knows.

(I'm not prepared to include the discrepancy between Santos's tweets that his mother was a victim of the 9/11 attacks and that she died of cancer in December of 2016. Plenty of New Yorkers blame their subsequent cancers on the debris of the World Trade Center collapse, and I'm not a medical examiner.)

The fact that the fictitiocity of Mr. Santos's curriculum vitae hasn't come out until after his election may be one sorry result of the gutting of newsroom staffs everywhere. It isn't as if Santos were a complete unknown in 2022; he ran unsuccessfully for the same congressional seat in 2020.

His claims this time around had, moreover, been questioned in the North Shore Leader of Long Island back in September:

...when few others were covering Santos, about his “inexplicable rise” in reported net worth, from essentially nothing in 2020 to as much as $11 million two years later.

The North Shore Leader leans heavily Republican; its publisher is a three-time former candidate for that same congressional seat.

The Leader reluctantly endorsed Santos’s Democratic opponent the next month. “This newspaper would like to endorse a Republican,” it wrote, but Santos “is so bizarre, unprincipled and sketchy that we cannot,” adding, “He boasts like an insecure child — but he’s most likely just a fabulist — a fake.

Now, mendacity is almost a prerequisite for a political career. Joe Biden's 1988 presidential run foundered when he was caught cribbing a British politician's life story as his own. Bill Clinton lied about having sexual relations with an intern.

And of course, neither of them hold a candle to the Prince of Lies who befouled the Oval Office from 2017 to 2021, disgorging some 30,000+ whoppers as President.

Perhaps instead of televised debates between candidates, what this country really needs is requiring every candidate to appear on television, with the fact-checkers from Snopes, Poynter, Politifact, and (not or) FactCheck.org, to defend their prevarications.

With one of those big red X's across the screen and a loud buzzer blaring every time the candidate gives a wrong answer.

______________

* Mr. Santos cannot be sworn into office until after somebody has been elected Speaker of the House. As of this writing, there is no sign of there being a compromise candidate who is acceptable to both the oligarch and fascist wings of the Republican Party.

Accepting the Steve Brodner Challenge

There's a chance that you may see a lot of cartoonists posting cartoons just like this one this weekend.

This time, it's not yahtzee, what we call it when a bunch of cartoonists just happen to draw the same idea. This time, it's on purpose.

Trump did go golfing this Memorial Day weekend, after ordering flags to be flown at half staff in honor of the victims of the novel coronavirus.

And on Sunday, the New York Times devoted the entire front page plus two inside pages, to very brief excerpts from obituaries for about 1% of the nearly 100,000 U.S. victims of COVID-19.

100,000.

That's almost two Vietnam Wars in three months.

Thirty-three 9-11's.

25,000 Benghazis.

Leap Day Toons 1920

February 29 falls on a Saturday only once every 28 years; so in honor of this magical occasion, Siderealback Saturday presents a collection of editorial cartoons that happened to run on Sunday, February 29, 1920.

"There's No Law Against Running for President" by Don Herold in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 29, 1920

Humorist Don Herold was equally at home drawing full-fledged cartoons such as this one, or providing illustrations to his own humor columns. From September 29, 1918 to July 11, 1920, he syndicated a Sunday strip nationally while working at the Indianapolis Star. The Star had stopped running this strip a month before this cartoon appeared, suggesting that the series was self-syndicated.

"Standing Room Only" by Jay N. "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, February 29, 1920

"Ding" Darling also commented on the crowded field of presidential candidates that day. The eventual winner, Warren Harding, is somewhat hidden toward the back; in spite of Darling's Republican sympathies, the cartoonist never warmed to isolationist candidate Harding. Darling's "Nonpartisan Public," for some reason, seems to be the happiest person on the train.

"The Old Story" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 29, 1920

Speaking of trains: President Wilson had just signed legislation on February 28 returning the railroads, taken over by the government during the war, to private ownership.

"Here's Your Junk..." by Frederick Boyd Stevenson in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 29, 1920

Frederick Stevenson was another writer who dabbled in cartooning. I would differentiate him from Don Herold in that Herold did more than "dabble" in cartooning (but doesn't seem to have kept up any comic title for more than a few years at a time). Furthermore, Stevenson wasn't a humorist in his writing and lecturing at all; illustrating his full-page opinion pieces was often done by one of the Eagle's other artists.

"I Certainly Hate to See Him Go" by Clifford Berryman in Washington (D.C.) Evening Star, February 29, 1920

Interior Secretary Franklin Lane resigned effective at the end of February, so Clifford Berryman drew this fond send-off for him. Canadian-born Lane oversaw construction of the first Alaskan public railway; previous railroads in the territory were privately owned. He also saw a bill regulating oil and coal lands become law at end of his service, so it's somewhat ironic that he went on to work for the oil company that would be the center of the Teapot Dome scandal (although he died well before that scandal broke).

Another cabinet member to leave in February was Secretary of State Robert Lansing. Wilson was angered to learn that Lansing had urged Vice President Marshall to assume presidential duties after Wilson's stroke in September, 1919. It may or may not have been the First Lady who forced Lansing out of office, depending which historian you ask; either way, when Lansing offered his resignation on February 12, the President accepted it.

"Really a Most Remarkable Exhibition..." by Fred Morgan in Philadelphia Inquirer, February 29, 1920

The gravity of Wilson's condition was public knowledge by this time, and so were the reasons for Lansing's resignation. Still, President Wilson must have been healthy enough for a stalwart Republican cartoonist like Fred Morgan to safely criticize the President's "egotism" and "autocracy" as he skated away with Uncle Sam's "U.S. People's Prerogative" hat. The hole in the ice is labeled "League of Nations."

"Proof of Life After Death" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, February 29, 1920

John McCutcheon comments on New Jersey's new, anti-Prohibition Governor, Democrat Edward Edwards. Edwards and his cohorts bring a pulmotor to John Barleycorn's grave and strain to listen for signs of life: "What Does He Say?" asks an aide. Edwards reports, "He says he wants to get into politics."

"Posing for the Allies" by Edwin Marcus in New York Times, February 29, 1920

Turning to foreign affairs: cartoonists had finally figured out what Vladimir Lenin looked like. The New York Times cartoonist put Lenin and Trotsky in this parody of Raphael's putti cherubs. Hidden behind their facade are "Loot," "World Revolution," and a dead female.

"Gasoline Alley" by Frank O. King in Chicago Tribune, February 29, 1920

As long as we're here, I'll take note that by this point, Frank King's "Gasoline Alley" had become a stand-alone comic strip, now independent of his full-page "The Rectangle" feature. "The Rectangle" was discontinued two weeks earlier, along with Sundays' separate editorial section, which it had fronted. "Gasoline Alley" hadn't yet migrated to the color comics section of the Tribune, running instead across the top of page 13, section 7, the start of the Automobile news and advertising pages.

Dashing Through to 1920

It's Sledback Saturday at Bergetoons, and with an election year right around the corner, it's time to check out who's running for president in 1920.

"The First Snow of the Season" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Sun, December, 1919

In December, 1919, The Republican Party selected Chicago as the site for their national convention in June. There was no shortage of Republicans angling for their party's presidential nomination. These first three cartoons include one past president — William Howard Taft — and three future presidents — Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, and the 1920 winner, Warren Harding. At the moment, in December of 1919, the favorite according to conventional wisdom was General Leonard Wood, who appears in the forefront in these three cartoons.

"The Early Bird" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, December, 1919

Other Republican contenders in these cartoons include Senators Hiram Johnson of California, Miles Poindexter of Washington, William Borah of Idaho and Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts; and Governors William C. Sproul of Pennsylvania and Gov. Frank Lowden of Illinois.

Cy Hungerford adds Democrats Sen. Atlee Pomerene of Ohio, former Ambassador to Germany James Gerard, and former Treasury Secretary William MacAdoo in his cartoon. Can you guess which one of them won the Democratic nomination?

"The Line at the Ticket Window..." by J.N. "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, December 17, 1919

Okay, that was a trick question. But I will have to return to the Democrats another day.

Instead, here's a quick run-through of the major issues candidates in both parties would address:

"Jump" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, by December 20, 1919

First and foremost among issues of the day was the High Cost of Living, which was commonly abbreviated "H.C.L." in cartoons and newspapers of the time. ("H.C.L." virtually disappeared from cartoons and newspapers in December for some reason* — pressure from holiday advertisers perhaps? — even though cartoons critical of profiteers did not.)

I neglected to explain the acronym a few weeks ago when I posted a John McCutcheon cartoon depicting "H.C.L." as a woman at Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving dinner. One reader's first thought was that McCutcheon was depicting Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in drag, a connection I had missed and which I doubt ever occurred to McCutcheon, either.

"The Closed Shop" by Edwin Marcus in New York Times, ca. November, 1919

If profiteers caught some of the blame for the High Cost of Living, few cartoonists expressed any sympathy for workers doing anything collectively to catch up with it. Coalmen, railroad shop workers, food producers, steel workers and the Boston police were among some 3,600 strikes declared in 1919, and were roundly condemned by all but the socialist press. Even the New York Times smeared "strikers" as "labor radicals" deaf to "Reason."

"Where Do We Go From Here?" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 15, 1919

Turning now to foreign policy: negotiations between the Democratic administration and the Republican Congress over the Versailles Peace Accord and League of Nations completely broke down. With neither side willing to compromise, the issue was sure to remain on the table throughout the 1920 campaign.

"The Mexican Merry-Go-Round" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, December, 1919

A rash of kidnappings for ransom of U.S. citizens by Pancho Villa's rebels returned U.S.-Mexican relations to the front burner. Villistas demanded $150,000 ransom for the release of a U.S. consular official; other kidnap victims included oilmen and cattle ranchers.

"Put Up the Bars" by Fred O. Seibel in Knickerbocker Press, November, 1919

Finally, immigration was another hot-button issue — not so much against Mexicans, but rather against leftist agitators from eastern and central Europe, and especially Italy. Cartoonists, as well as other journalists, politicians, and the Attorney General, drew no distinction between communists, socialists, anarchists, and union leaders. Dangers real and imagined made immigrants, who up to this point could come to America at will (except for the Chinese), increasingly suspect and unpopular.
_________
* P.S.: I found one.

"The Weapon and Point of Attack" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, December 18, 1919

I'm 100% positive that McCutcheon and his editors were not accusing Henry Cabot Lodge of burglary.

Gamely Opposing Peace

"Startling News" by Albert Reid in Rutland (VT) Herald (?), July, 1919

I had meant to post these cartoons from July, 1919 a few weeks ago, but more current events got in the way. So here we go with Settleback Saturday.

President Woodrow Wilson returned from Europe to the U.S. to persuade Congress to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and officially end World War I. He ran into stiff opposition from the Republican majority in the Senate; the GOP had begun agitating against the treaty almost as soon as the guns fell silent.

Cartoons Magazine credited the above cartoon to Vermont's Rutland Herald, but according to Kansaspedia, cartoonist Albert T. Reid established his career at the Kansas City Journal, leaving Kansas in 1919 to become Director of Pictorial Publicity for the 1920 Republican campaign. I suppose he could have done so while also drawing editorial cartoons for the Herald, but most cartoonists today would consider that a conflict of interest.

"No European Trip Is Quite Complete..." by Jay "Ding" Darling in New York Journal, July 8, 1919

Another staunch Republican cartoonist, "Ding" Darling, broke with his party over the peace treaty. Darling had many differences with the Wilson administration, but was fully behind the idea of a League of Nations so that nations could resolve disputes without resorting to force of arms.

"See America First" by R.O. Evans in Baltimore American, June/July, 1919

One of the main Republican criticisms of President Wilson is that he spent too much time preoccupied with foreign affairs, to the detriment of domestic tranquility. Railroad employee unions, denied the right to strike during the war, were now pressing to have their pent-up demands met; other industries experienced similar pressures. Evans included immigration in his cloud of smoke, although many of the people Real Americans wanted to send home back then are the ancestors of people who now chant "Send them back!" at Trump rallies.

"The President's Message Today" by John McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, July 10, 1919

The Chicago Tribune's John McCutcheon was another reliable Republican voice. Here he poses three questions to President Wilson, who was to address Congress that day to urge ratification of the Paris treaty.

"The Lion Shall Lie Down with the Lamb" by John "Ding" Darling in New York Journal, July 12, 1919

If Darling's cartoon gently ribbing all sides earlier in the week didn't make clear where is sentiments lay, his characterization of the treaty and opposition to it as a lamb and a pride of lions make it obvious. He leaves the Democratic president looking a bit of a fool, but under these circumstances, how much good is one whip, really?

"Strange Bedfellows" by Edwin Marcus in New York Times, July, 1919

Once upon a time, dear reader, the New York Times did indeed run editorial cartoons, even in the domestic edition. Edwin Marcus didn't have to worry about this cartoon being condemned as anti-German or anti-Bolshevik, which it was, or antigay, which was a concept nobody had conceived of yet. Marcus would keep his job for another 30+ years.

"The Undesirable Offspring" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, July, 1919

Opponents of ratification found some traction by highlighting its granting of much of China's Shantung (Shandong) peninsula to Japan. As mentioned here before, China and Japan both sided with the Entente Powers against the Central Powers in World War I; China had leased the Shandong territories to Germany in 1897. The Japanese army evicted the Germans, and Japan insisted upon retaining control of the territory as part of any peace treaty, Wilson's ideas of popular sovereignty be damned.

"Which, of Course..." by John "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, July 19, 1919

Treaty supporter "Ding" Darling had to admit that acceding to the Japanese demands was less than ideal, shrugging and drawing a "But What Can You Do?" cartoon. Not one of his better works.

"League-alizing a Felony" by John McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, July 17, 1919

The issue was much better suited to treaty skeptics like John McCutcheon, regardless of whether they would ordinarily have had much interest in, let alone sympathy for, Chinese affairs.

Uncaptioned, by Elmer.A. Bushnell for Central Press Association, July, 1919

Much as the Versailles Treaty sowed the seeds of World War II in Europe, the U.S. and Japan were about to resume their pre-war rivalry for influence throughout the Pacific.

"Why Not Look at the Doughnut..." by W. Clyde Spencer in Omaha World Herald, July, 1919

A few cartoonists tried to argue that the Shandong issue was merely a distraction from the primary issue of assuring world peace. I suppose another cartoonist might have depicted the treaty not as a doughnut, but as Swiss cheese, or a tattered rag, depending how strenuously he opposed ratification.

"A Yellow Streak" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, July, 1919

"Yellow streak" and "Yellow peril" were well-established but unrelated phrases in 1919; perhaps Grover Page had both of them in mind in captioning this cartoon. I bring that up only because Page didn't go with the also well-established trope of depicting an elephant frightened by a mouse. I would be surprised if the Courier-Journal splurged on some yellow streak lines for this cartoon, but I suppose it's not completely out of the realm of possibility.

Toon: Older and Greyer

The New York Times announced over the weekend that its international edition (formerly the International Herald Tribune) would no longer print editorial cartoons, thus adding Patrick Chappatte and Heng Kim Song to the ranks of unemployed editorial cartoonists. (Chappatte responds here.)

The Times is not alone in kicking its editorial cartoonists to the curb. Just last month, Gatehouse Media fired the Columbus Dispatch's Nate Beeler, Savannah Morning News's Mark Streeter, and Augusta Chronicle's Rick McKee. Once, we roamed the plains in great numbers, but now, there are only some two dozen full-time employed editorial cartoonists left.

In the first half of the 20th Century, the domestic edition of the Times had its own cartoonist in Edwin Marcus; from 2011 to 2016, the Sunday Times featured a cartoon by Brian McFadden after its editors decided to cancel a weekly round-up of four or five cartoons by syndicated editorial cartoonists.

Otherwise, the Old Grey Lady eschewed cartoons. No comics page. No editorial cartoons. The editors clearly didn't understand them, didn't respect them, and didn't like them.

Yet somehow, the Pulitzer prize committee awarded the Times the prize for editorial cartooning last year, in a move that left every editorial cartoonist in the western hemisphere gobsmacked.

Meanwhile, Chappatte's cartoons, in the international edition since 2001, won the Overseas Press Club of America’s Thomas Nast Award for best cartoons on international affairs in 2011, 2015 and 2019. But then, this past April, some anonymous editor decided to run a cartoon by a Portuguese cartoonist that depicted a blind, yarmulke-wearing Donald Trump being led by a guide dachshund with Bibi Netanyahu's face and a Star of David dangling from its collar. Many were offended by the cartoon, and the Times apologized for printing it.

So now the Times is citing that Portuguese cartoon as the reason why it will never print editorial cartoons again. (As Canadian journalist Jeet Heer tweeted, "NY Times prints one awful cartoon & now decides to stop running cartoons. By this logic, the paper should have shut down after its 2002-2003 WMD reporting.") American editorial cartoonists, still smarting over the cancelling of the Sunday round-up, are up in arms.

My above cartoon is based on a cartoon by the great Homer Davenport, which I have variously seen with the caption "No Honest Men Need Fear Cartoons" and "They Never Liked Cartoons." The former is probably more authentic, but the latter speaks to the editorial attitude of the New York Times.

For anyone who needs the refresher course, here's a quick explanation of Davenport's cartoon. On the left is New York City's Democratic Commissioner of Public Works William M. "Boss" Tweed, whose corrupt dealings in the 1870's were the subject of a great deal of investigative reporting, and the cartoons in Harper's Weekly of Thomas Nast. Tweed remarked that "I don't care so much what the papers say about me. My constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures!"

Tried and convicted for stealing untold millions from the public coffers, he fled to Spain, but people recognized him because of Nast's cartoons. He was returned to the U.S. and died in jail a couple years later.

The other guy in Davenport's cartoon is Thomas Platt, the Republican leader of the New York State Senate in the 1890's. Upset by Davenport's cartoons in William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, Platt had back-bencher Timothy Ellsworth put forth a bill in 1897 to prohibit publication of a person’s portrait or caricature without his/her consent, with penalties of up to $1,000 in fines and a year in prison. The Ellsworth Anti-Cartoon Bill passed in the State Senate, but died without a vote in the House.

Finally, the guy on the right in my cartoon is current New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger. I suppose I could have put any of the Times editors in his place, or, better still, an Old Grey Lady.

As much of a cliché as the newspaper's nickname may be, I don't think I've ever seen an actual depiction of what that Old Grey Lady is supposed to look like. That includes this week's flurry of cartoons by my fellow ink-stained wretches.*

Call it a lost opportunity to personify the Times.

And our times are running out.
________
* Update: The Old Grey Lady shows up in the June 12 cartoon by the wonderful Pat Bagley here.

2015 in Review, Part 2

Here's my annual shot of headlines from the year just past:

You probably will need to click on the photo to embiggenificate enough to read most of the headlines; the Wall Street Journal and New York Times almost never print huge banner headlines, but their headlines more thoroughly explained events better than the other newspapers in my area.

What's with the WSJ printing election results so close to the fold, anyway?

As always, I have to exercise a lot of editorial judgment in putting this collage together. With so many gun-propelled mass murders in the U.S., I could have chosen San Bernardino over Charleston, or perhaps Waco or Roseburg, or the constant violence in Chicago; none is necessarily more representative than the others.

I ended up not including the magazine covers of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders or Ben Carson in favor of a cover that featured eight other presidential candidates, two three of whom have already dropped out of the race. If  Time magazine had used Steve Brodner's caricature of Trump as a hot-air balloon on its cover, maybe I'd have used that instead.

2013 in review

At the close of every year for the last four decades, I've taken a picture of newspaper headlines from the year gone by. These pictures originally served as a sort of bookmark in my photo albums, back when using rolls of film limited the number of pictures I'd take, and I'd put every photo into an album.

I don't do that with my thousands of digital photos, but I've kept up the habit of taking these headline photos. Here's to 2013:

You can click on the photo to embiggenify it; even then, that New York Times headline about the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1964 is pretty tiny.

In closing, if your 2013 has been in any way less than you had hoped, I wish you a happier and brighter new year.

New York Times Weekly Cartoon Contest

The Sunday New York Times has just announced its new editorial cartoon contest! It has invited 80 top editorial cartoonists in the country to send in a completed editorial cartoon every Friday by 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The Times editors will select one cartoon to run in that Sunday's paper and award the winner a $250 prize.

The Times will require that it retain exclusive rights to the winning cartoon, meaning that it cannot be syndicated to other newspapers or magazines, or appear in books, or, presumably, be submitted to the Pulitzer committee. The 79 losing cartoonists will get bupkus for their efforts, but on the bright side, they don't have to pay an entry fee.

I'm not one of the select few cartoonists to receive the invitation to try to draw for the Times (remind me to cry over that later), so I don't have any personal stake in the righteous indignation of pretty much the entirety of my profession. Tom Richmond explains why we cartoonists have our panties in a knot over this:

"[T]he people who received this letter and were invited to participate are professional editorial cartoonists who are among the best in the business. They are being asked to work on spec, something that no creative professional should be asked to do, and the rate being offered is roughly 1/3 what exclusive printing rights should be going for."

 The kerfuffle probably mystifies those in the general public and the Huffington Post who think editorial cartoonists should be happy to draw for "exposure" alone. I've tried that -- my cartoons for the now defunct Racine Post were for exposure alone, and a lot of good that done me. I write this blog for exposure; ditto. (But then, I spend considerably less time on this blog than on cartooning, so there.)

I've got a couple of sunken lengths of sidewalk in front of my house. As soon as I find a contractor willing to fix my sidewalk for "exposure," I'll reconsider my lack of enthusiasm for cartooning jobs that pay in that precious commodity.

From the Vault: Meaty Issues

If I were really, really, really, really optimistic, I could save this cartoon for Game 7 of the National League playoffs. But unless the Brewers manage to overcome their hitting and pitching slump, I'm afraid Milwaukee's racing sausages have had their last run in the nationally televised sun for the year. But having included lefse in yesterday's cartoon, I thought I'd haul out this one to continue the theme of Norwegian cuisine.

This 2003 cartoon (predating the chorizo guy) was drawn to accompany a Milwaukee Business Journal editorial critical of a New York Times article which had portrayed Milwaukee as a decaying, crime-filled rust belt wasteland with third-rate sports teams and no future. I guess the Times also mentioned the racing sausages. The BJ editorial sniffed that the Times reporter didn't know whereof he wrote.