The Daily Cartoonist

Industry news for the professional cartoonist

Mike Peters to reduce number of editorial cartoons

Alan Gardner111 mins

The good news is that Mike Peters isn’t retiring as the editorial cartoonist for The Dayton Daily News, but the sad news for those who appreciate his editorial work, he’s reducing his workload from four to five cartoons a week to two or three. The Pulitzer Prize editorial cartoonist and creator of Mother Goose and Grimm tells me in an email:

I’ve been doing both 4 or 5 editorials for forty years and 7 strips for twenty five years so I’m going to drop down to two or three editorial cartoons a week. I realized I haven’t had a weekend that I haven’t worked for twenty five years. It’s time I start taking them.

11 thoughts on “Mike Peters to reduce number of editorial cartoons”

  1. I wouldn’t be cartooning if it weren’t for Mike. The example set by his work, his playful approach to the craft and his support made all the difference. No one kicked Nixon’s ass harder than Mike, and any collection of his work is surprising for its breadth and hilarity. Although he’s still brilliant, he’s more than earned the right to take a little more time off.

  2. In a world where respected, prize-winning, cartoonists are having to take early retirement or face embarrassing, belittling buyouts, it is GREAT to hear about a cartoonist AND a newspaper that have decided to stay together. Of COURSE Peters deserves a weekend! He deserves a lot more than that, and we readers get the continued benefit of his sticking around. Maybe a new model is needed, one that allows a staff cartoonist to scale back weekly output so that he/she can burn brightly for a longer time.
    Thanks, Mike!

  3. “I wouldnâ??t be cartooning if it werenâ??t for Mike” -Ted Rall

    Finally, someone to blame.

    I used to watch Mike Peters(Pan) flit about on the Today Show set w/ Jane Pauley and think, “now there’s a guy who loves his job.” He was a frequent and always entertaining guest who drew on command and while he chattered: a skill much harder than it looks. While I wish him infinite weekends, I’ll miss his work.

  4. Looking at Mike Peters, you’d never guess he was retirement age. The man definitely has some Peter Pan blood flowing through his veins.

    Mike Peters’ work knocks my socks off. I love his early work that doesn’t look like the Mike Peters we know today. And I love the thick brush lines that have been imitated, but never improved upon by others. Just wonderful, beautiful work.

    No one tells better stories than Mike Peters.
    And no one gives better hugs than Mike Peters. I mean, that’s what Mike Lester tells me. 🙂

    Even Superman needs a break.

  5. Stacy- He’s never let me see it, but I know for a fact, Mike stays so young looking because he has a strange portrait of himself up in his attic…

  6. I remember visiting Mike at the Dayton Daily News, back “in the day.” He (and Bob Englehart of the Dayton Journal Herald) was important influence to my future incarnation as an editorial cartoonist, although my interest was in comic strips at the time.

    He (they) always had time for my visits and showed me the tools of the trade.

  8. Mike Peters is a great cartoonist and a great guy. I am thankful he is spending one of those new weekends off with the ToonSeum in Pittsburgh.
    Mother Goose and Grimm:The Art of Mike Peters goes up next week! The work is just amazing.
    If you happen to be around Pittsburgh come on by, see the exhibit and say hi to Mike, he will be with us that weekend along with Rob Rogers and Ann Telnaes for a panel on the campaign too!
    Now if we could only get Ted Rall to visit us……

  9. I really, REALLY wish I could be there for that panel, Joe – I’d love to visit Toonseum and I’m dying to meet and interview Ann Telnaes. (Mike’s interview is featured in the current issue of “Stay Tooned! Magazine, BTW.) Unfortunately, that’s the same weekend of our NCS chapter meeting in Chattanooga.

  10. I think if it were not for Mike Peters and Jeff MacNelly, I would still be looking for the funny hooks that give fuzz to the edge.
    I remember the Today Show segments with Jane Pauly….thinking ( I want to be THAT guy ).

  11. I decided to go to this. I’ll post a blog and some pictures shortly after the event (e.g. by Monday). I live too close to resist not going. I’ll also try to determine how many of these kids acorn was able to register. 😉

Comments are closed.

Top