Editorial cartoonist Matt Davies wrote his take on the “Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year” series, which sparked discussion in this post.
My take? I think it was my friend Ted Rall who recently said â??One manâ??s great cartoon is another manâ??s pile of crapâ? or something like that.
Most readers are quite capable of deciphering which cartoons they think are good and which ones arenâ??t, in published collections â?? Iâ??m not entirely inclined to believe that individual editorial cartoonists reputations have to rise and fall based on the quality of the work of others.
Is Chuck Brooks the rightful arbiter of the yearâ??s â??bestâ? cartoons? That of course is subjective, but BECY is not some infallible monolith to be railed against. It is simply Chuckâ??s book (and he does give some of the proceeds back to the Association of American Editorial Cartoonistsâ?¦) Absolutely anyone else can get off their lazy behinds, round up their favorite cartoonists and do the same if they so choose. And they can call their anthology anything they want. â??Absolutely Crappiest Editorial Cartoons of the Yearâ? would be a hot seller, IMHO.