Nothing new is being said, but it’s good to see Editor & Publisher running an article by Rob Tornoe on the future of editorial cartooning.
In terms of fodder for their cartoons, Cagle suggests cartoonists look to magazines at the supermarket checkout aisle and outlets like “The Today Show” in addition to hard news and politics.
Two-time Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist Mike Luckovich agrees. “I want topics my readers are interested in and knowledgeable about,” says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cartoonist, whose work is distributed by Creators Syndicate. “It’s important for me to find good topics that are front and center in political and pop culture.”
Luckovich also thinks that it’s easy for a cartoonist to come up with a hard-hitting idea. “The hard part is refining the idea so that it still has punch, but is also humorous,” he says. “I think humor is the most important ingredient.”
I did a Pecha Kucha this past month on the “Almost Lost Art of the Graphic Cartoon”.
It is the humor that keeps many of us working, but it is the hard-hitting graphic cartoons that make us relevant.
If we are just funny, why not do greeting cards ? I disagree with Lucko, humor is the easy part. Sometimes, too easy.
Course, having an editor that accepts the tough ones helps.
Cagle is the perfect reverse barometer.
Interesting choice of excerpts, Alan.
That Orwell, he was on to something.
“I’d create a strong voice with which the paper could be associated, one that would bring in new readers, generate discussion, and serve as community outreach to schools and other institutions,” Rall says.
And that’s why Ted has never been a staffer….