Stories about people getting fired before landing great success or fame are interesting to hear. As it turns out, The Oconee Enterprise has such a story. In 1978, Peter Steiner was fired from this newspaper for cartoons about a controversial school bond referendum. He went on to draw for The New Yorker and is well known for a July 1993 cartoon about online anonymity featuring a dog and personal computer with the tagline “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”
cartoon © Conde Nast
The Oconee Enterprise profiles their former editorial cartoonist.
Peter Steiner adds a detail left out of the newspaper account:
I was fired from my first regular cartooning job—the Oconee Enterprise in Watkinsville, Georgia had paid me $25 a cartoon—for taking on what seemed like a shady deal that was being done by one of the town luminaries. He also happened to own the paper [emphasis added]. The cartoon I did ruffled the right feathers though.
The Oconee Enterprise Facebook page has a photo of the full article.
