This Week's Sneak Peek

The saga continues:

The editorial cartoon is not a traditional outlet for long form story telling, but it's not unheard of. Bill Sanders, for example, devoted a week of cartoons to a continuing story about a couple of student protesters. Harold Talburt made a series of "Klampaigning" cartoons during the 1924 election, adding a new participant to a fanciful campaign parade each day.

The Pulitzer board would add "Doonesbury" and "Bloom County" as examples of serial editorial cartoons — and Sunday's episode of the former would lend credence to that categorization. By the same token, one could add "Pogo" to that list. (But not "Mallard Fillmore." If Bruce Tinsley ever incorporated a continuous story line in his strip, I missed it.)

Recurring series are more common. Tom Toles featured the Continuing Adventures of Ronnie Raygun from time to time. David Low created the character of Colonel Blimp to satirize British conservatism (especially the views of Lord Beaverbrook, owner of  London Evening Standard, Low's employer). My Graphical History Tours have visited Frederick Opper's running series such as Freeneasy Film Company and Sammy and His Pals.

But again, those series didn't tell a continuous story — not even Opper's, running on consecutive days for weeks and months at a time.

Since I'm committed to the Leo In Federal Detention story now, yes, the saga continues.

Sorry, Leo.

Through History with D. Henry Smith

Our Saturday History Tour this week looks at some of the November output of editorial cartoonist Dorman H. Smith on the topic of that month's Disarmament Conference.

"Brought Into Court at Last" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., by Nov. 12, 1921

I've come across two slightly different curricula vitae for Smith (1892-1956). John Adcock reports that Smith sold his first published drawing to Life magazine at the age of 17. Per Adcock, Smith began his editorial cartooning career with the Cleveland-based Newspaper Enterprise Association, a division of Scripps-Howard Newspapers, in 1921, then left for the Chicago Herald and Examiner in 1933.

"Annoying, to Say the Least" by Smith for NEA, by Nov. 1, 1921

AskART, citing "Artists in California, 1786-1940" by Edan Hughes, Who's Who in American Art 1940; Who's Who in California 1942; and Smith's March 2, 1956 obituary in the New York Times, says that "Smith worked briefly in the steel mills before getting a job as an advertising artist in Columbus [Ohio]. A self-taught artist, he was a cartoonist for the Des Moines News (1919-21) and New York American (1927-29). He then was a cartoonist for the San Francisco Examiner while living across the Golden Gate in San Anselmo."

"Sounds Like a Bad Egg" by Smith for NEA, by Nov. 14, 1921

These accounts aren't necessarily mutually exclusive; either contains some information that the other lacks. Also, while the NEA had its cartoonists' offices in Cleveland, Smith might have at times worked from offices at another newspaper. 

For example, I found this classified ad, in which Smith had a California P.O. address, run in various newspapers between 1932 and 1941, when Smith was reportedly working for the Chicago Herald and Examiner. Yet a September, 1935 column by O.O. McIntire identified Smith as "a San Francisco cartoonist." A syndicated list of celebrity birthdays in February, 1937, however, identified him as "Dorman H. Smith, of Chicago, cartoonist." 

Cartoonists generally did not write the name of their home newspaper or syndication service on their cartoons; that information might be typeset alongside or below the other cartoonists' captions, but I haven't seen that with Smith's work. 

"The Key to the Whole Situation" by Smith for NEA, by Nov. 15, 1921

In any case, Smith's cartoons quickly appeared in some 700 NEA newspapers around the country in 1921, and it's not difficult to see why. His simple pen-and-ink drawing style appealed to editors, readers, and any lay-out guys who preferred white space to lots and lots of gray grease pencil. (He would employ grease pencil in some of his later work, however, including cartoons for Collier's — a job neither Adcock nor AskART mentions.)

His Republican, isolationist leanings suited the popular mood of the day; since he generally approved of the actions of the decade's Republican presidents and congresses, any criticisms he made tended to be aimed at foreigners and such bêtes noirs as high prices, rents, and taxes.

"China Knows Good Style" by Smith for NEA, by Nov. 19, 1921

Until I found that Adcock has probably left out a few details, I imagined Smith leaving the NEA to draw for the Chicago Herald and Examiner, his train passing by Herblock's, who left the Chicago Daily News in 1933 to replace the NEA's then cartoonist. Was that Smith? Adcock says so, but Herblock never mentions Smith by name in his own memoir, Herblock: A Cartoonist's Life (Random House, 1998).

"We Won't Have Any Peace Until the Cook Is Fired, Too" by Smith for NEA, by Nov. 22, 1921

Whereas Smith's isolationism was a perfect fit with William Randolph Hearst's newspapers whether in Chicago or San Francisco, Herblock repeatedly clashed with the anti-New Deal, isolationist President of the NEA, Fred Ferguson. When, in 1943, Herblock answered the draft to military service (albeit stateside), Smith returned to the NEA as his replacement's replacement.

I guess he might have been the Grover Cleveland of editorial cartoonists.

"Let's Hope She Doesn't Stumble Over Anything" by Smith for NEA, Nov. 26, 1921

Smith was considered for Pulitzers for editorial cartooning in 1930 and 1946, but never won the prize. Adcock reports, however, that Smith "won numerous awards for cartooning and in 1950 was awarded the George Polk Memorial award presented by the journalism department of Long Island University for his two 1949 interviews with Stalin." (I'm not finding that award here. Meanwhile, according to Editorial Cartoon Awards, 1922-1997, Heinz Dietrich Fischer, ed., Smith was working for the San Francisco Examiner in 1930 and Newspaper Enterprise Association in 1946.)

"Little Lord Fauntleroy" by Dorman H. Smith for NEA, by Nov. 25, 1921

Some of his awards I've found in news reports include the Sigma Delta Chi award for editorial cartooning in 1946, and a medal from the Freedom Foundation in 1949 for a cartoon titled "Every Man a King." Smith was too ill to attend the ceremony in Atlantic City, New Jersey, when he won the National Headliners Club medal for "consistently outstanding editorial cartoons" in 1950.

So now you know just about everything I know about Dorman H. Smith, and I haven't managed to tell you one damned thing today about the Washington Disarmament Conference, China, Anglo-Japan alliances, the Open Door Policy, or Burr Shafer.

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.

Whence Mr. Globehead?

Gary Docken and I were chatting about yesterday's blog entry, and Gary said he was surprised to see a cartoon with a character whose head was a globe appearing in a cartoon before World War I.

I have to admit that I have no idea where Mr. Globehead first appeared in a cartoon. Many of our editorial cartoon conventions can be traced directly to Thomas Nast (1840-1902): the Republican elephant, the Democratic donkey, and even the popular image of Santa Claus. Lady Liberty was an instant cartoon symbol as soon as her statue arrived in New York. Uncle Sam overtook Brother Jonathan as the popular representation of the United States after the Civil War. John Bull for England, Marianne for France, and the bear for Russia date back to the 18th Century.

My first assumption was that using Mr. Globehead to represent world opinion couldn't date before the advent of instant communication -- the telegraph and telephone -- in the late 19th Century. The European powers had already laid imperial claims to Asia, Africa, Australia and all the islands in between, so there might also have been cartoons in which one nation's rival's ambitions could be portrayed as threatening the world.

I have a fairly good collection of books of American editorial cartoons, but no exhaustive examples of Honoré Daumier or the many cartoonists for Punch. For that matter, Mr. Globehead could have appeared on posters advertising circuses, naval recruitment or heaven knows what else. He might have appeared as far back as 1492.

For that matter, the Man in the Moon has been staring down at us since long before Earthlings had eyes to look back at it, so the idea of putting a face on a big round ball is not a particularly novel concept.

The only other example of Mr. Globehead before WWI that I've been able to find is this at right by Frederick Opper (1857-1937). He's satirizing Joseph Pulitzer, then publisher of the New York World. Here the globe clearly is a reference to the name of Pulitzer's newspaper as well as to the planet; and while there is no body attached to it, there is a face.

I don't have a date of publication for this cartoon; one on-line source guesses that this cartoon might date from around 1900. Pulitzer had served in the U.S. Congress for 13 months, resigning his seat in April 1886 citing pressures of his publishing duties. This might possibly have inspired Opper's cartoon, except that he didn't start drawing for Hearst's New York Journal until 1899. In 1886, he was handling a wide array of artist's duties for the humor magazine Puck. Drawn & Quartered: The History of American Political Cartoons by Stephen Hess and Sandy Northrop says that this cartoon appeared in the New York Journal.

÷

Continuing with items brought up in yesterday's blog entry, I came across this quotation from President William McKinley about the Philippines which helps inform R.C. Bowman's cartoon:

"When we received the cable from Admiral Dewey telling of the taking of the Philippines, I looked up their location on the globe. I could not have told where those darned islands were within 2,000 miles!"

My source, Volume 12 of the American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States (1963) fails to mention the source of the quotation. (There is a bibliography, but no footnotes to connect specific citations to their respective sources.)

Almost This Week's Q Cartoon

This is the cartoon I was drawing for Q Syndicate last week in hopes of being able to send it to Q Syndicate before the July 4 weekend. My preference was to have something about Rhode Island's new civil partnership law, but I wasn't happy with the ideas I had been working with. Eventually, of course, I came up with the idea for the cartoon I posted yesterday; that idea was more relevant to LGBT issues than this one, so I put this cartoon aside.

I've commented before that I find women harder to caricature than men. Beyond the age of, say, 25, men don't change their hairstyles as often as women do (except insofar as nature forces change upon us); and women wear make-up to alter the perception of their facial contours.

So far, the best caricatures of Michele Bachmann I've seen have been by John Branch, Taylor Jones, and, not surprisingly, Minneapolis Star Tribune cartoonist Steve Sack, who has had the most experience drawing her. (The June 16 cartoon linked to above, however, isn't a great example, but she has not been inspiring him much lately, I guess.) The rest of us cartoonists are still flailing about trying to fit her features together.

Meanwhile, there is this bizarre cartoon from Terry Wise, trying to nominate himself for a Pulitzer. (It would run counter to the conservatives-get-no-respect meme to remember that doctrinaire conservative cartoonist Michael Ramirez is a two-time Pulitzer winner, as are Steve Breen and the late Jeff MacNelly.) His point, aside from Any Two Things Make a Cartoon, seems to be that it's sexist for liberals to point out the ditzy things that come out of the mouths of Michele Bachman and Sarah Palin.

Conservatives, as you will all remember, have been perfect gentlemen about female politicians. Conservatives in the media have never said a sexist thing about Hilary Clinton, Janet Reno, Sonya Sotomayor or Nancy Pelosi, have they?