Dave Astor has written an excellent piece on some of the high, low, and funny points in the last 50 years of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists.
There also was that aforementioned 1988 encounter with former Zeppelin frontman Plant, who happened to be staying at the same Milwaukee hotel as AAEC conventioneers. Several cartoonists (including Rob Rogers) were having drinks with the singer when J.D. Crowe — then of The San Diego Tribune — decided to play a joke on the rock legend. Crowe made believe he thought Plant was singer David Coverdale of Whitesnake, a band considered somewhat derivative of Led Zeppelin. An enraged Plant proceeded to head-butt Crowe.
Plant didn’t have a “Whole Lotta Love” for Crowe at that point, but the two ended up burying the hatchet and posing with Rob Rogers for a photo. “Just as the picture was being snapped, Plant, who’s a good two or three inches shorter than Rob and I, hoisted himself up to appear taller,” recalled Crowe, who’s now with the Press-Register in Mobile, Ala.