Commentary
Who killed the editorial cartoon?
by Kirk AndersonThe profession of editorial cartooning isn't so much dying as it is simply entering a new phase in the the circle of life -- the phase where the corpse is eaten by maggots and turned into dirt.
This nutrient-rich soil will help future generations of satire to grow and prosper, and the cycle continues. Pessimists are fond of looking at maggot-infested corpses and seeing only the negative; I see helpful maggots hell-bent on progress.
Motivational speakers remind us that the Sanskrit word for "opportunity" is the same as the one for "loss of job, profession, life savings and health care." We editorial cartoonists know that when one window closes, another one opens, even if it leads onto the ledge of the 41st floor.
True, cartoonists are just above mimes and poets in social significance; is the nation really losing anything?
Editorial cartoons used to have power and influence. This was back in the days of Thomas Nast, when the corrupt politician Boss Tweed famously said of Nast's blasts, "Stop them damn pictures! I don't care what the papers write about me. My constituents can't read. But, damn it, they can see the pictures!" (True quote.) Editorial cartoons might still carry such power today, were it not for the destructive rise in literacy.
But now there is enormous competition for the public's attention. Back in the late 1800s, if you weren't looking at an editorial cartoon, you were checking out hog scrapers in the Sears-Roebuck catalog. This was back when people went to church just for something to do, as preachers were about the only available form of entertainment next to bear-baiting.
Editorial cartoons must have spoken to people like a burning bush. Today we find a burning bush in every commercial, a burning train wreck on every news broadcast and an inferno on every AM radio show. An editorial cartoon must blow up bridges, flash breasts and teach your child Spanish, just to be noticed.
Or maybe not. People still read books. Books! Some books are still in black and white, and some don't even have pictures.
Similarly, people still enjoy live stand-up comedy. In a world where we demand the latest and the fastest, people still pay to see a mortal simply stand on stage and talk to them. Just a guy.
No different from Caveman Dave telling stories around the campfire. We've had satire ever since Cavewoman Bernice drew a buffalo stampede on a cave wall, trampling Caveman Dave. We will always have and will always need satire, whether it comes in a 2D drawing or a Zenga Bot X9000.
One of my favorite editorial cartoons is George Orwell's "Animal Farm," which is not an editorial cartoon at all in the traditional sense, but an editorial cartoon in the form of a novel, with its brilliant use of metaphor, humor, insight and outrage.
Satire may come in the form of Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, Shakespeare or Stephen Colbert's scorching and divine presentation at the White House correspondents' dinner.
We satirists in the editorial cartoonist cult have long referred to ourselves as "buggy-whip makers," with newspapers playing the role of buggies. That would be a problem, if the death of the horse and buggy had rendered the nation devoid of transportation.
But the horse and buggy were just one form of travel, and editorial cartoons are just one form of satire, to be replaced by something better when it comes along. Unless there's a government bailout.
I can hear you say, "Isn't the future of editorial cartoons online? And in animation? My neighbor's daughter has an online cartoon, and people in Belize and Lithuania are reading it."
The pessimists reply, "But how do you make money?" The optimists say, "Volume! Sure, people don't pay for content, but if enough people don't pay for content, surely you reach a critical mass of nonpaying customers!" The pessimists say, "People don't pay for content."
Editorial cartoons are dying because newspapers are dying, or perhaps "adapting." Or "entering a new phase in the circle of life." Some of the damage is self-inflicted. Some newspapers want safe cartoons that won't bring phone calls from advertisers, and safe cartoons are as fascinating as safe NASCAR.
To the extent we cartoonists oblige, self-censor and draw nonthreatening gag cartoons about swilling beers at the White House, we're part of the problem and deserve our enforced dirt nap.
Life will go on without editorial cartoons, just as it will without bank regulation. The death of newspapers is not so different from the death of any other commodity: eight-track tapes, perhaps.
That is, if eight-track tapes were fundamental to a functioning democracy.
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Kirk Anderson was the Pioneer Press editorial cartoonist for eight years, before drawing the weekly "Banana Republic" for the Star Tribune. You can find samples of his work, and a book of "Banana Republic," at www.MolotovComix.com and www.kirktoons.com.
Comments (8)
BWMA: Stop comparing us to newspapers
LANCASTER, PA Today at a press conference, the Buggy Whip Manufactures of America asked that everyone please stop comparing them with the newspaper industry.
"This analogy is really hurting our business," said BWMA President Jebadiah Seltzer. "We"re in much better shape than any paper, and the constant references to "going the way of buggy whip makers" does a disservice to the modern Buggy Whip Manufacturer.
"Frankly," Seltzer added, "we haven"t had a layoff in our industry in almost 100 years."
"We know where our business is at and who our customers are," said BWMA Treasurer Cullum Stoltzfus. "And we certainly have never done anything as tomfoolish as leveraging debt at 35 times the value of our market cap."
When asked if he thought that newspapers could ever rebound from the massive losses they have recently suffered, Stoltzfus replied, "I"m sorry, just a sec" ... I was Twittering."
Terrific commentary, Kirk. You pretty much nailed the situation. But I must say I'm more optimistic than you about our profession's future.
Fact is, there still ARE buggy whip makers out there. From Colonial Williamsburg to Fort Snelling pioneer camp to countless towns out West there's an entire Boring Olde Tymes Historical Re-enactment Industry, busily employing costumed candle dippers, scrimshaw calligraphers and, yes, buggy whip makers. Is it so hard to imagine an extinct newspaper industry eventually reborn as a living exhibit, where we all dress up as authentic-looking ink-stained "journalists" and "put out a paper," to use the quaint vernacular of those soon-to-be-bygone days? Think of it....busloads of middleschoolers on Social Studies field trips FORCED to watch you produce an editorial cartoon in real time.....finally, the youth market we've always craved! Add seniors' Retirement Village Activity Day excursions and Japanese tourists and you'll have an audience for your work that today's newspaper Circulation managers would kill for.
Of course eventually the Disney folks would replace us with animatronic robots, but until then it will be one sweet ride.
Steve Sack
Star Tribune
Editorial cartoons like much of media is being slowly hijack by the right. I went to the editorial cartoonist panel at Comic-con recently And was saddened at some of the attitudes"... Our job is to show the danger of big government..." by former LATimes cartoonist Ramirez. He's quite out there about his agenda. So satirist or propagandist ? Pat Oliphant had his own panel which was wonderful. How many like him are left ? Satirists that is. The panel members showed selections of their work and not one of them had a Palin cartoon which amazed me considering the function od satire. I'd pay to have a selection of editorial cartoons come to my door daily. Not a webite but actual lay it down on the dining room table and read it with breakfast or diner. The best work seems to be in the "alternative" press. I'd like to see this rag with a selection of cartoons available daily with Anderson here leading the way.
Great article Kirk!
I can't imagine a world without editorial cartoonists. I was laid off my job as an engineer 5 years ago and decided to go through that newly open door, (probably the one leading to the ledge on the 41st floor) - Call me crazy, everyone else does, but I'm starting life anew as an editorial cartoonist - one actually made it into USA Today last week. I know I probably won't get rich or even make much of a living but even if it turns out to be for only a short time, I'm going to try and live out my dream and in the meantime do my best to remain optimistic
The sad truth is that all cartoons are on their way out. And so is literacy, democracy and the idea of a shared American experience. Education now largely exists for one purpose: to provide employees, not writers, artists, composers, etc.
As citizens we have become data-mined targets to be divvied up among our preferred filters for the purpose of receiving specially tailored appeals from the corporations that pretty much run everything.
We are thoroughly divided and conquered, and unless there is considerable licensing potential, something as ephemeral as a cartoon will carry no measurable value for a long time to come.
How's that for a depressing assessment?
As a cartoonist I have always moved between silly and serious, but, though I have published what might be called editorial cartoons from time to time, I prefer to think of my approach as something more like cultural criticism. I like to satirize the culture at hand that provided us with the miserable politics we suffer. I consider dreadful leaders like George W. Bush to be symptoms, not symbols, so I go after the so-called "responsible" parties who made him possible. And I don't see much of a future in that at this point in time.
There may yet be a future for cartoons, however. But we'll have to try stronger medicine, perhaps even a bit of artistic nihilism. We need to up the ante, show our teeth, and, yes, draw blood. It aint satire if it doesn't make somebody bleed, which returns us to Kirk's reference to the long-forgotten Thomas Nast.
It's hardly time to quit. it's time to get to work, even if that means handing out photocopies on the street.
And now that news has been transformed into sellable entertainment product
I refuse to believe that editorial cartoons do not have a future. I suppose I have this misguided belief because I believe if you can sell bottled water you can sell anything.
Stewart and Colbert are among the most popular entertainers of the day. Comic books, manga, and graphic novels are still financially viable forms of entertainment. In fact comic books have somehow managed to survive for around a century despite the emergence of TV, cinema and the internet.
There is a market for political satire on one hand and a market for 2D entertainment on the other.
Figuring out what and where the new market is and how to establish it is the greatest problem.
I believe most people have been approaching this problem in a fashion that is too linear.
Only a small number of people can make significant side income, forget about a living from webcomics.
However there's enough interest in entertainment websites, like ign.com and gamespy.com that are devoted to video gaming, that they can employee a few people. You shouldn't be able to do this with a free content website, especially when there are DOZENS of similar websites out there. Yet they exist.
Has anybody noticed that apparently the only people who read this article were editorial cartoonists (or wannabees)? It only took me four months to happen to find it. I google political cartooning or cartoonists about once every three years to see if I'm missing anything or should try it again... The Web is also pretty effectively killing off caricaturing, which I was able to do profitably for a few years after political cartooning. Both art forms/media have been killed off largely by their being cheapened by too many people trying to do them, and most of these people doing them so poorly that they have managed to redefine the art forms/media as something much less than what they had once been.
crazy stuff man, good article - and Pete, you're right about the readers, though I did it for my thesis...
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