Kansas City Star editorial cartoonist Lee Judge has launched a blog to post his unpublished and killed cartoons. The blog is actually a sanctioned blog hosted on the Star’s web site and has the full backing and support of the publisher and editors though it does contain the following warning at the top of the page: “This blog features unpublished cartoon sketches, which some readers may find offensive. Viewer discretion is advised.”
The blog launched on Valentines Day and had over 16,000 page views within it’s first 24 hours according to E&P. So far no complaints.
From the E&P article:
Judge said the Star doesn’t look at his rejected/unpublished sketches before he posts them on the blog, and has not asked him to pull any drawings. “There’s a lot of freedom,” he observed. The Star even promoted the blog with mentions on its front page and the Op-Ed page.
Along with the freedom is lots of extra work with no extra pay, as is usually the case with staff editorial cartoonists who do blogs. “It’s like there’s this vicious dog next to you all the time waiting to be fed,” Judge said of the blog’s demands. “But if the choice is two jobs or no jobs, I’ll take the two jobs!”
Judge’s specific job isn’t threatened, but he noted that the overall number of staff editorial cartoon positions has decreased significantly during the past 20 years. And Judge said his extra work is softened by the fact that he enjoys doing the blog and that people are seeing work they normally wouldn’t have seen (unless they attended one of his slide shows).
Thanks for this story, Alan. His posting opened my eyes to a new way to view editorial cartoons. It showed me that I’ve oft been a short-term thinker in reading editorial cartoons.
Ha ha!
Lee,
Can you imaginr what papers and classified stuff could have been “accidentally” burned in Cheney’s office building fire?
Who could have lit the fire?
Any potential emarassing papers up in smoke?
Looks like cartoon fodder to me!!
Roger Logan
I would love to see Lee Judge do a cartoon for the KC Star that features Ben Bernanke standing in Fort Knox, wearing a HazMat suit and surrounded by stacks of papers that say, “IOU,” and clutching a sheaf of papers in one hand that are labeled, “Toxic Securities.” Two or three bars of gold at Bernanke’s feet would be a nice touch.