MacKay Explains Editooning to Critics
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If you are waiting for Graeme MacKay to apologize get comfortable because you’re going to grow old waiting. Instead Graeme offers an essay on editorial cartooning, satire, and boundaries.
Among subjects, slants, gags, texts, and artistic layouts, boundaries is just one of a multitude of other considerations I make in coming up with an editorial cartoon every day. Depending on the issue, boundaries will matter a lot, or not really at all. In the realm of editorial cartooning in which we punch up, the natural targets for satire are the people who possess the greatest power and influence. They are fair game, open season, especially when they reflect who I am as a privileged white, able bodied, cultural Protestant, 55 year old married family man.
Graeme’s exposition on editorial cartooning comes because of letters objecting to a recent cartoon.
… I was met with push back after my March 20 editorial cartoon depicting Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin engaged in military offensives against innocent civilians juxtaposed with Justin Trudeau announcing Canada’s decision to halting arms sales to Israel.
My mission as an editorial cartoonist includes observing Canada’s place in global affairs, and the vote by Parliament to suspend arms shipments to the Netanyahu government was significant and warranted reaction. While the cartoon may appear provocative to some, its intention is clear: to comment on current events and political decisions in a satirical manner.
His article in The Hamilton Spectator was “edited for length and undesirable content.”
The Hamilton Spectator has maintained a rich tradition of keeping editorial cartoonists on staff for longer than most newspapers across Canada. Blaine, Doug Wright, and Ivan Glassco are just some of the names that have kept the light of satire burning bright in this city.
I am immensely humbled and honoured to walk in the trail cleared, and grateful that those controlling the levers in difficult times show their value for editorial cartooning by keeping me on the payroll.
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