The Life of Brian’s Cartoon
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A dozen years ago Brian Fairrington at Cagle Cartoons created a political cartoon with a religious scenario. Fittingly the cartoon has a habit of being resurrected, albeit in an altered state.
Recently in a Devon Parish magazine.
There are several transgressions with this, not the least of which is why a publication edited and produced by a Christian church would seemingly applaud killing elected officials.
Councillor Colin Frajbis, the editor of the Instow, Westleigh & West Yelland Parish Council magazine offered one of those non-apologies where it was not his fault but the readers perceptions:
“I’m sorry that some readers appear to have been so offended by the cartoon on page eleven of the last edition of the parish news.
“In my defence, I would point out that the contribution was obviously intended as a light-hearted comment on the general public’s feeling about the all too often frustratingly evasive and disingenuous behaviour of their political masters.”
Other transgressions include taking the cartoon and obviously altering the script.
And there are questions. For one, why is Pru Maskell assigned the copyright to the altered cartoon when in The Daily Mail article the Councillor, a Conservative from North Devon, is criticizing the sentiment expressed. BPM Media remains a mystery to me.
This latest version is being shared. All over.
Then there is the question of why there are two versions.
While searching for the original I found this other altered version which contains the Fairrington signature with apparent United States origins. Where did this, with a one word replacement, appear?
Then it turns out that whoever created this disgrace not only stole Brian’s drawing but the idea wasn’t original either. Back to searching for the original we find this from 2016 (origin unsure):
Seems the more recent “creators” took this a step further.
As to the original cartoon – Brian tells us:
The cartoon was originally created in 2009 by Brian Fairrington, a syndicated political cartoonist living in the United States. The cartoon was originally distributed and published in 2009 by Cagle Cartoons Syndicate to their subscribing clients, which are about 1000 newspapers and websites throughout the world.
(Brian is also the executive Editor of Cagle Cartoon Syndicate.)
I never did find the original but Brian was kind enough to send a copy to The Daily Cartoonist.
While some may find the original confessor’s admission a sin against man and nature,
at least she isn’t breaking the Sixth Commandment.
Brian contacted the editor of the church magazine where the pirated cartoon appeared and informed the editor that he was the cartoonist that created the cartoon. Brian shares the response with us:
The cartoon was submitted by a local, who I believe received it from a relative in Canada. I had no idea of its provenance or that it had been altered and certainly no money was exchanged. The Parish News that I edit is a free community magazine. All activities, compilation, editing, distribution and the like are entirely voluntary. I assumed, naively it seems, that everything was copyright free.
All the best, Colin
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