Former The State editorial cartoonist Robert Ariail has joined with the The Spartanburg Herald-Journal to do local editorial cartoons.
From GoUpState.com, Ariail says, “Of course, South Carolina is a gold mine for cartooning. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t want to leave the state, and a reason I’m so excited about working with the Herald-Journal. I think the Herald-Journal is showing a lot of faith in the future of newspapers and of editorial cartooning.”
UPDATE: I’ve received word back from Robert. I wanted to know how many cartoons he’s doing for them and if this was a full-time or part-time position with the paper. He tells me he’s basically their cartoonist but he works more like a contributor to start. He’ll draw five cartoons a week for them – three national, two local/state. Both parties anticipate the position to go full-time when the economy improves.
“when the economy improves…”
Ah, yes, the New-World back-end deal!
They used to say, “You’ll get a percentage as soon as we turn a profit.” Now it’s “When the economy improves”.
And the ones who would be doing the paying know neither will ever happen, at least not on paper.
?when the economy improves?? Won’t that be like 2030 or something??
Look on the bright side… how many newspapers these days are hiring editorial cartoonists… either as “contributors” or as full-time staffers?
This is the first one in a long time.
I think that’s great news. Congratulations, Robert and best of luck to you.
Hallelujah, and pass the barbecue.
tried a coupla years ago to get this paper to run my toons for a ‘fraction’ of what I’m sure they’re gonna pay him…..and they told me ‘it wasn’t in the budget’. Now he’ll be a staffer ‘when the economy improves’. Is this kinda like ‘the check is in the mail’? I hope not. Robert is a fantastic artist. He deserves better…..
Thanks so much for your kind words. This is a big thing for me since my wife just lost her job after 30 plus years teaching in the SC public school system. It’s been over a year since The State showed me the door, so I think this is a good start and I’m optimistic about the future. The publisher,Roger Quinn, and editor,Mike Smith, are to be congratulated for realizing the value of a staff cartoonist for their newspaper.
Attaboy, Robert:
Let’s hope that given the herd mentality of newspapers over the past 25 years, this is the start of a new and positive trend for editorial cartooning.
Best of luck in this new endeavor.
Yes, this is it! The beginning of the turnaround! Newspapers will soon begin the process of hiring back editorial cartoonists! At livable wages! And provide healthcare! And they will bring back the pages of comics that they deleted! They will bring the Sunday comics back out of the tabloid-size COMCAST tv schedule and return them to broadsheet size, blowing them up huge, only two per page! Editors will come to their senses and get rid of old, stale comic strips drawn by surviving relatives and, surprise, the youth of America will once again begin reading the newspaper! Oh, happy times! It will all happen soon! When the economy improves!
Congratulations, Robert, and best of luck to you, sincerely!
It’s interesting that no one here thinks the economy will improve any time soon. I don’t think so either. Still, it’s interesting to see, for the first time in my life, such pessimism in America.
Thing have really changed.
Congrats, Robert. It’s been a tough year or two!
Pessimism aside, more dailies seem to be turning to editorial cartoons these days.
Back in the good ol? days (when the government could build a road anywhere it pleased), a highway was put through close to my parents? house. Acres of nearby forest were obliterated and several layers of soil were taken away to build up the embankments. The whole area was fundamentally changed and has never been the same. But eventually some of the woods did come back, a few open fields, and a huge mobile home development. Definitely different, but in some cases not so bad.
So congratulations to Robert and his new opportunity in the fundamentally changed world of editorial cartooning — I hope your gig in Spartanburg becomes a nice grove of trees (and not a trailer park).
Congratulations, Robert! I enjoyed working with you back at The State and Spartanburg is lucky to be harnessing such talent!
I think pessimism is so high because everybody has a story similar to Robert’s. I’m more disillusioned hearing about teachers with over 30 years of experience getting laid of than anything else.
But stories like this make me feel better. Congratulations Robert! I hope your wife finds something that makes use of her experience.
If someone told me they’d make me full-time “when the economy improves,” I would interpret that as corporate glad-handing and make sure to find other ways to make ends meet… That’s not pessimism, that’s realism. The Spartanburg Herald-Journal basically said, “Welcome aboard – here’s a job for you – it is what it is and we aren’t promising diddly squat but you never know…”
Congratulations on your continued employment, Robert – that’s a very good thing no matter how you look at it.
Definitely, congratulations to Robert and the Herald- Journal.
May the trend continue……