On canadiancartoonists.com, they’ve posted an article about editorial cartoonist Vance Rodewalt of The Calgary Herald. It’s a rather long piece, but delves into Vance’s history of how he became a cartoonist, the vanishing number of editorial cartoonists and how political correctness is affecting editorial cartooning.
The rise of political correctness, which, says Rodewalt, “kind of snuck in the back door a few years ago,” is perceived by many cartoonists,including Rodewalt, as a problem. “Everybody is so terrified of offending someone that a distortion like a cartoon is suspected of being a dangerous thing.”
This pressure to produce increasingly bland cartoons, says Rodewalt, is exactly what he and his colleagues will get together to “talk and drink non-stop about” at a cartoonists’ convention in Denver this spring. “Opinion,” he laments, “outrageous opinion, is under attack. It’s being watered down and that’s hurting editorial cartooning.”