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Editorial cartooning

Fairrington’s Artie mascot picked most unusual

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In a story regarding unusual college mascots, CBS News has interviewed Brian Fairrington regarding his redesign of Scottsdale Community College’s Artie the Artichoke mascot that he did for them last year.

The school hired editorial cartoonist Brian Fairington recently to toughen up Artie’s image a bit – give him an artichoke make-over.

“At first it sounded like a lot of fun, but as I got into it I realized, this is a challenge,” Brian said.

The suggestions were to make him more muscular and more fierce, in a sort of traditional college mascot way.

What he came up with was what youâ??d get if you injected an artichoke with steroids. You wouldn’t want to meet this artichoke in a dark alley.

The story is to air tonight during the CBS News/Katie Couric broadcast before the start of the NCAA college final playoff.

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Comments 4

  1. No picture?! You’re killin’ me here!

  2. Starts with a “G,” ends with “oogle!”

    Artie.

    Such a weird creature!

  3. Let this be a lesson (and warning) in the nightmares that await you in taking on these kinds of jobs.

    I was originally contracted to update this odd little mascot that had not had a facelift since 1972. I did three versions at their request, all of which they initially liked…..then the fun started. All the other department heads and student body leaders got involved and it became and exercise in design by committee….oh the horror.

    I ended up doing almost sixty (yes I said 60) sketches showing different incarnations of this little bugger. Half of those were actually inked and colored on top of that. Each time they would agree on a version someone else in the schools administration would come up with a completely new idea and it was back to the drawing board.

    Actually, none of that really bothered me until it came time to bill them. They just could not understand that each time I changed or re-drew the mascot ( at their request of course) I had to bill them. They only wanted to pay me what I originally quoted them, which was only about 3 grand. By the end of the process the cost had more than doubled and I still considered that a great bargain…a steal actually.

    Finally, they never did meet my total demand for payment. The rest of the bill was satisfied by an outside company that was marketing the mascot on school merchandise and who stepped in to make peace. (perhaps they also realized that legally they could not use the image until the bill was satisfied and they had already started to print and embroider it into all kinds of stuff…oooops)

    They ironic thing is they ended up choosing the version that I disliked the most. Oh well, it did get me on CBS News.

  4. “(perhaps they also realized that legally they could not use the image until the bill was satisfied and they had already started to print and embroider it into all kinds of stuffâ?¦oooops)”

    Cool behind the scenes re-cap, Brian. It’s very interesting to me when people don’t understand how they are being billed or what it is exactly they are paying for. I’m sure all of us have come across that, but I’m glad you finally got paid squarely!

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