R.J. Matson takes Time’s top ‘toon

Comments ⁷

1. Scott Metzger

   I’m surprised Mike Luckovich didn’t make the top 10. He got robbed.

2. Jeff Darcy

   Don’t worry, He’ll probably be all 25 in Newseek’s TOP 25. Just kidding,Luckovich!

3. Kevin Moore

   I’m surprised Tom Toles, Clay Bennett, Kirk Anderson, and Ben Sargent were completely ignored. How is that possible? A random sampling of ten cartoons from these guys would beat out the ones chosen here.

   Or for that matter, how about alt-weekly cartoonists? Tom Tomorrow, Ted Rall, Ruben Bolling, Matt Bors, August J. Pollock, to name only a few.

   This was a lazy and disappointing list.

4. Dawn Douglass

   What strikes me about this list is how politically SAFE, even humdrum, it is:

   1) Cheney is a war monger and only crazy people support Bush at this point
   2) Old people sex
   3) Writer’s Strike
   4) Virginia Tech Shooting
   5) Toxic Toys
   6) Craig not telling the truth
   7) Steroids in baseball
   8) Iran’s dictator
   9) Cheney is evil
   10) Making fun of a Christian leader’s death

   Wow, how hard hitting, how unexpected, how original, how daring, how illuminating. (rolling eyes)

   The only one that made me smile was #3. Are editorial cartoons not supposed to be funny anymore?

5. Kovalic

   What Kevin said.

   Sad.

6. Bill Jones

   “Iâ??m surprised Tom Toles, Clay Bennett, Kirk Anderson, and Ben Sargent were completely ignored.”

   so you arenâ??t that familiar with the time magazine top 10 editorial cartoons list then kevin? : )

   you are absolutely correct, though. there are another 5 or 6 that are in the category of â??itâ??s surprising when theyâ??re not on a best-of list.â? and these ainâ??t them. given the number of fantastic cartoons turned out each year by those top cartoonists, only matson and sherffius from this time magazine list have an outside chance of making a real top 10 list.

   but even then, the selected matson and sherffius cartoons arenâ??t even their own best work this year. not by a long shot. the sherffius cartoon probably wouldnâ??t be in his own personal top 100 from â??07.

   in my opinion, this annual list from time magazine is a greater annual travesty than the brooks â??best cartoonsâ? book. as has been stated, we may not like it, but really, brooks can call his book anything he wants and sell it. if he can sell it.

   tell me how, though, a respected publication like time magazine, whose selection of man of the year makes headlines around the world, can toss off a set of cartoons like this year after year and not get called on it by some media watchdog group. i keep expecting them to turn up on 60 minutes. â??excuse me, sir, can we talk to you about the cartoons you selected…â?

   when i first ran across the time magazine list i soon realized that every cartoonist on it was from the copley syndicate! thatâ??s one small syndicate out of 10 or 12. and every copley artist was in the list. and like this year, some of the obvious lesser lights were given two or three slots.

   iâ??m annually amazed.

7. J Read

   For what it’s worth, Mr. Matson didn’t even KNOW he was on their list. He seemed genuinely surprised when I remarked about it to him, and wanted to know which cartoon I was referring to.