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Labels: books, cartoonists, cwa, illustration
The Herblock Foundation has a brand spanking new whitepaper out on the state of political cartooning called "The Golden Age for Editorial Cartoonists at the Nation’s Newspapers is Over." Too true.
The whitepaper (which you can download as a PDF here) contains a glum survey and a depressing collection of essays by a wide range of cartoonists, including Clay Bennett, Ted Rall, Jen Sorensen--and yours truly.
Here's a quote from my essay, which is untitled in the collection, but which I like to call "The Way the Future of Political Cartooning Wasn't."
The future of political cartooning I imagined in 2001 was already a far cry from the future of political cartooning in 1981. My fellow 20-something alternative cartoonist friends and I didn’t even vaguely aspire to comfortable drafting-desk staff positions at daily newspapers with reasonable salaries and health benefits. The Pulitzer Prize application just seemed like a waste of money.
Our model was self-syndication in the alternative weeklies. We looked to Ted Rall, Keith Knight, Alison Bechdel. We’d pay our inky dues, toiling in the Bristol Board — or Wacom tablet — trenches. We’d work day jobs. By night we’d comb through news sources and write and draw and write. Sleep was for suckers.
We’d market ourselves with clever self-promotional packets mailed regularly to hundreds of alternative and niche publications. We’d blog and send e-mail newsletters, and we’d draw attention to our cartooning book collections at comic conventions with big vinyl banners and brightly colored tablecloths. We’d sell T-shirts and stickers to our legions of super-dedicated online fans.
Our aspirations were modest. Maybe one day we’d quit our day jobs and squeeze by on a low five-figure income. Or if we were already squeezing by fulltime, maybe one day we’d be able to afford — gasp! — basic health insurance.
That's one of the least sad bits. Download the whitepaper PDF to read the whole thing.
Yeah, um... Happy New Year. And stuff.
P.S. If you want a more thorough sum-up of my 2011, it's over here at my sewing blog Polka Dot Overload, but I do warn you that it is mostly about babies and sewing and not political cartoons or politics (except for a mention of me getting laid off from the cartoon syndicate United Media when they outsourced all our jobs to Universal Press Syndicate).
Labels: cartoonists, cwa, meta
Masheka and I will be tabling with our Cartoonists With Attitude pals Keith Knight (creator of "The K Chronicles" and "The Knight Life") and Jen Sorensen (of "Slowpoke" fame) at the always fabulous 2011 Small Press Expo. More details to come!
What: SPX 2011
Where:
Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
5701 Marinelli Road
Bethesda, MD 20852
Subway: White Flint Station
When: Open to the public Saturday and Sunday, September 10 and 11, 2011.
Saturday: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Sunday: noon – 6:00 pm
Bonus photo: Here we are with CWAer Matt Bors at SPX in 2006:
Labels: conventions, cwa, events
He was also recently(ish) featured in the gorgeous art book anthology Black Comix: African American Independent Comics, Art and Culture. That's his art in the bottom left corner:
See the Black Comix blog for more info.
And he has another project coming up, which I'll post about when I have more details.
Here's the cartoon at Women's eNews, and below is a permalink (the eNews link expires in a week or so):
Mikhaela Reid Metro Times (Detroit) Jan 21, 2010 |
I will add that I received a really disturbing bit of pro-rape (seriously!?) email from a Mr. John Napolitano in response to this cartoon this morning. An excerpt (warning--this is really horrible, so please don't read if it will upset you... it certainly upset me):
But do you understand that the rapist could be another (male) earthquake victim. pushed over the edge from being denied the aid they need?No comment. That really soured my morning.But most women's advocacy is full of this sort of narrow short sightedness, which does nothing but make another part of the people feel less than equal. I sometimes wonder if this isn't the real aim.
The end result is the furthering of the "Women's Agenda at the expense of Humanity.....
For some reason (not sure why I didn't do any cartoons about the coup against Aristide?) I hadn't drawn any cartoons about Haiti since 2004. Here's one from 2004 and one from 2002. I was appalled to hear that the U.S. has told Haitians that even if they manage to get to the U.S. via dangerous boat journey, they will just be jailed. At least no one is being deported to Haiti at the moment.
Click image to see full-size for either.
Seriously? They seriously claim this is the BEST way to help, sunning in a fenced-in resort 60 miles from hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of immediate aid? Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders had difficulty getting their mobile hospital supplies into Port-Au-Prince...
Caption: Royal Caribbean cruise ships continue to dock in Haiti
Dialogue: Buying trinkets in a fenced-in resort is the LEAST we can do for those lovely unfortunate people! Absolutely! More champagne, darling?
Wish I had still been registered to vote in my home state, not that it would have made a difference. KENNEDY'S SEAT? WTF?!
Labels: cwa, massachusetts
Labels: cwa, massachusetts
OK, ok, I know--enough with the baby stuff. But this is cartoon-related--I sewed up a little blue hooded sweatshirt this weekend with Masheka's cartoon doodles on it (fabric printed via Spoonflower).
I didn't have a baby-sized mannequin or doll to put it on, so Masheka kindly used it as a puppet here.
And, by the way, this is a gender-neutral item (baby is a Mystery Baby right now)--I don't believe in "blue is for boys", etc. I love blue, so whatever.
Via Racialicious. Only caveat to this otherwise excellent piece--at the end he mentions several organizations to donate to, including Doctors Without Borders and Partners in Health--but also Wyclef's Yele foundation. After recent revelations, I'd avoid the latter and stick with the former two.
Yes, I'm playing cartoon catchup again--this one ran over a week ago in print. I must admit I've been a bit busy preparing for the arrival of the Cartoonist SuperBaby (as in, Masheka and I are both artists and packrats, and we have to get rid of over 1/3 of our earthly posessions and furniture to make room)...
Cartoons on Haiti coming this week of course.
By the way, you may remember this nameless couple--they've appeared a few times over the last year or so, starting with the election. Maybe at some point they'll get actual names.
Masheka is one of many awesome cartoonists featured in this exhibit at Green Brain Comics' Headspace gallery in Dearborn. Here's his contribution, and the details from his blog:
Check out my version of Gil Kane's cover to Sensation Comics #109. The original art and a color print are on exhibit (and for sale) at Headspace Gallery in Michigan's Green Brain Comics (see press release below) -----Green Brain Comics is proud to announce the opening of a new exhibit entitled COVERED on Wednesday, January 13th in the recently named HEADSPACE Gallery inside Green Brain Comics.
Inspired by a similar theme at the Covered blog (www.covered.blogspot.com) HEADSPACE curator Dan Merritt has assembled several pieces by artists that have brought their own touch to famous, and infamous comic book covers from several different decades.
"The theme for this exhibit has really sparked a creative flame." says Merritt "Each of these pieces has been lovingly recreated in tribute to the original art and the original artists that created them."
Featured in the exhibit will be works from Michigan based comic creators Paul Sizer, Matt Feazell, and Sean Bieri. Joining them will be other well known local artists Eric Millikin, Jennifer Rose Evans, and Chris Houghton. The Covered exhibit also features new work by many others, including Bryan Durren, Heather Hansma, Lizz James, Jesse Hughes and a piece by Masheka Wood from New York.
The opening reception for the Covered exhibit will be on Wednesday January 13th from 7pm to 10 pm. And the art will be on view until Saturday March 6th.
HEADSPACE Gallery is inside Green Brain Comics which is located at 13210 Michigan Avenue in East Downtown Dearborn. More information is available at www.greenbrain.biz or by calling 313-582-9444
I had to share this--my mother made a newborn nightgown for my baby-to-be out of a Cartoonists With Attitude T-shirt!
Also, Happy New Year!
I wasn't planning to do two "Obama is a Mean Old Warmonger" cartoons in a row but come on... accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo with a speech about how war IS peace? Dude was asking for it...
Labels: afghanistan, cwa, obama, toons, war
This is a sequel to my Iraq Surge cartoon from 2007. Just because Obama sounds so calm and reasonable (and can pronounce nuclear) doesn't make the victims of his bloody endless war any less dead or tortured.
As I was sketching this cartoon Sunday I got a comment from a reader wondering why I hadn't expressed my irritation with Obama lately. I told him it was mostly out of disappointment/avoidance, but this surge thing most certainly required comment.
Labels: afghanistan, cwa, obama, toons, war
Notice any differences between this picture and this one taken just a month ago (besides the lack of googly eyes)?
Anyway, this is why I have been under the weather so much lately. I've discovered it's quite a bit more difficult to blog/draw/whatever when you're uncontrollably nauseous all the time.
Here's another from a few months ago, originally for Women's eNews (but that link no longer works for some reason).
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"Mikhaela Reid's cartoons are right *$%@ing on."
--Alison Bechdel
"Mikhaela Reid rocks!! She's where i steal most of my ideas from!!"
--Keith Knight
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