The Daily Cartoonist

Congrats to William Warren! I can definately understand why he was awarded the Charles M. Schulz award. Reading his strips, not only is great drawing evident, but also great writing as well. Very good work!

Yep! Good stuff! Congrats.

Congrats to Garey McKee for having his solid talent showcased in such a respected forum. However, I have no shortage of disdain for the competition itself. No, I wasn’t a competitor in this year’s contest. I was a competitor, however, many years ago. I even managed a position as a finalist in the contest, which at the time was an exciting thing. Not winning that year did not lessen my excitement at being a finalist. What did lessen it was finding out the truth about the judging. Through an source I prefer to leave anonymous (though I’ll admit he was a judge in the contest), I found out that the celebrity judges Scripps Howard put in charge of picking the finalists did NOT actually choose the finalists at all. A bunch of unqualified interns who probably had no experience in what made a good cartoon pawed through the countless entries, chosen perhaps five applicant, and gave those to the celeb judges to pick the final winner. So in my mind, the whole thing’s a sham. I believe McKee deserved to win this year because of his talent, and I only hope the standards used to choose his entry have risen dramatically since the days I participated so that his accomplishment can be a genuine one granted by qualified individuals.

The only forum my talents are showcased in usually ends up lining the bottom of birdcages and sometimes, if I’m lucking, wrapping fish.