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Remembering Larry Wright by Brian Fairrington

When I heard Larry Wright had passed I was sadden by the news. It did however, take me back to the beginning of my career and the special place Larry has in my heart.

I first met Larry Wright 20 years ago on a hot sweltering June day while I was attending my first cartooning convention in Phoenix. I had just won a national award for best college editorial cartoonist that was given by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists; Larry Wright was president of the organization that year.  The convention was held in Phoenix at a desert mountain golf resort with most of the nations best editorial cartoonists in attendance.

Larry was one of the first cartoonists I met that weekend.  He was kind and funny and gave me, “the new kid” great advice as we sat together at a small table off the main hotel lobby as he methodically flipped through my skimpy cartoon portfolio.  About half way through he stopped and pulled a cartoon from the middle of the batch while quipping “this one scares me.”

“What do you mean?” I said in a worried voice.

“It’s very good, and it scares me that I didn’t think to draw it first!” he said with a loud chuckle.

Larry was an extremely talented and prolific cartoonist who had a long and prominent career.  He spent a combined 45 years drawing editorial cartoons beginning at the Detroit Free Press and then later spending three decades at the Detroit News. He became a treasured institution in the Detroit area and throughout the State of Michigan.  In addition to editorial cartoons Larry created two successful comics strips “Wright Angles” and “Kit ‘N’ Carlyle,” which were both nationally syndicated.

In a bit of irony Larry and I would both end up joining a small syndicate upstart almost seventeen years ago called Cagle Cartoons.  I was just starting out but Larry brought name recognition and legitimacy to the new cartoon syndicate that has grown into one the largest of its kind operating today.  With out Larry, and a few others, who know if it would have succeeded?

I’ll always treasure the memories and great friendships that were cultivated at that first convention many summers ago and in particular the one with Larry Wright.  As I recall, Larry had few official duties as president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. However, one such important duty was to sign the best college cartoonist award certificate.

So as luck would have it, I’ll be forever reminded of Larry every time I gaze upon the large gold award plaque that I was awarded that weekend as it proudly bears Larry’s trademark signature at the bottom. The award has even more meaning for me now.

You can view all of Larry Wright’s cartoons in his archive here.

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Very Clear

I watched Sean Spicer’s White House press conference today. We have a drinking game where I have to take a shot every time Spicer says “very clear.” Ooh. The world is spinning. I can’t keep watching these press conferences.

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Cartooning for the Troops in Bahrain

I went on my first National Cartoonists Society (NCS), USO trip last week. The NCS has a long history of working with the USO, dating back to the 1950’s and we’re cheap entertainment – all we need is a pen, a pad of paper and a place to sit.

Bahrain, aside from some flashy skyscrapers downtown, is a pretty desolate looking desert, with beige sand, a beige sky and searing heat. Bahrain is a kingdom that has a long bridge to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis like to come to Bahrain to go to a movie, shop and go out for dinner. I suspect the food, movies and restaurants in Saudi Arabia leave something to be desired, so Bahrain is crammed full of hotels, shopping and restaurants.

Cartoonists at the “Tree of Life,” from left to right: Paul Combs, Michael Ramirez, Dave Mowder,Todd Clark, Daryl Cagle and Ed Steckley.

Out in the middle of nowhere there is a tree they call the “Tree of Life” that grows where there are no other trees in sight. The locals think the tree is thousands of years old, left over from the Garden of Eden. Those cans on the ground are flood lights. Our group of cartoonists is there in the photo, from left to right, Paul Combs (fireman cartoonist and former political cartoonist for the Tampa Tribune); Michael Ramirez, the knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal, right-wing, Pulitzer-winning star editorial cartoonist; Dave Mowder, Illustrator and character cartoonist; Todd Clark, who draws the comic strip “Lola” and writes gags for another half a dozen top strips; next is me in a Hawaiian shirt, and on the right is Ed Steckley, a brilliant caricature artist/illustrator from New York.

I enjoy drawing for the troops! They seem to really appreciate the cartoons. Typically, they will pull out a cell phone with a photo of a boyfriend, a girlfriend or a dog from back home. I sometimes suggest combining the boyfriend with the dog, which is a big hit with the women soldiers, although it doesn’t work the other way around – “girlfriend as a dog” cartoons are to be avoided!

There are US military installations all around Bahrain, including a very big naval base where we spent a good deal of time drawing. We visited a Patriot missile installation and got a great lesson on how the anti-missile missiles work, but they wouldn’t let us shoot one off.

We had originally been slated to visit Afghanistan, but the Pentagon “locked down” Afghanistan as “too dangerous,” so Bahrain was the safe, backup plan. I’m told that some of these NCS/USO cartoonist trips can be rather rugged and adventurous. Since this was my first time, I have nothing to compare it to. It wasn’t rugged. We had a nice hotel. But is was still an adventure.

I was the oldest guy on the trip. It seems to me that the troops are getting younger as I get older. They are kids. Big, tough kids. I appreciate all they do and it was great fun to sit an talk with so many of them.

 

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Trump as Nixon

Here’s my Trump as Nixon!

I just got back from a National Cartoonists Society/USO trip to Bahrain, drawing for the troops. Next week I’m off to Belgium for the Festival in Virton and an exhibition of my work.  Sorry for all the time away. I’ll draw lots of cartoons in June. Really. And I’ll do another blog post about my Bahrain trip.

Of-course, whenever I’m away there is lots of news and I wish I was here drawing cartoons. Trump firing FBI director Comey was big news everywhere and the obvious cartoon to draw was Trump as Nixon, while the pundits on TV were making references to Trump and Nixon’s famous “Saturday Night Massacre” firing the Watergate Special Prosecutor who was investigating Nixon, along with a couple of Attorney Generals. A combo Trump/Nixon was the obvious cartoon to draw and I expected that a lot of other cartoonists would draw the same thing at the same time. It is fun to draw.

One issue we have with “yahtzees” or cartoonists drawing the same obvious image at the same time, is that the cartoon that is obvious to cartoonists typically isn’t obvious to readers or editors – and it is usually the cartoon that editors really want. There’s an old saying among cartoonists, “If one other guy drew it, you’re a plagiarist, if three other guys drew it, you’re a hack, if five other guys drew it, you’re following a great tradition.”

I sketched this one up on the plane back from Bahrain and expected to see some other Nixon/Trumps when I got back to the USA. I wasn’t disappointed. Still, I’ll bet all of these get a good rate of reprinting. Here is how some of my other favorite cartoonists handled their Trump/Nixons. This first one is by Taylor Jones

Here’s one by Jeff Darcy of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer …

This one is by Trevor Irvin from Florida …

The next one is by Rick McKee of the Augusta Chronicle …

This one is by RJ Matson

This one is by Jeff Koterba of the Omaha World-Herald …

Here’s another from Mark Streeter from the Savannah Morning News …

There are lots more Nixon/Trumps on our site and other editorial cartoon sites. Collect them all!

 

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My Exhibition in Belgium

I’ll be having an exhibition of my work in Ville de Virton, Belgium. If you’ll be around – come and meet me! The exhibition opening is May 18th at 6:30pm at the Caves de l’Hotel de Ville de Virton.

I’m a guest of the excellent Festival International de la Caricature de la BD du Dessin de Press et d’Humour in Rouvroy-Virton Belgium, near Luxembourg, May 19, 20 and 21. I’ll be sitting around doing drawings for folks and I’ll probably give a couple of lectures. This festival is organized by France-Cartoons, the association of French cartoonists that I got to know from the editorial cartoonists Salon in St Just le Martel, so it is my old buddies I travel to hang with. It is cool, and it looks like they have a Trump theme this year! heir poster is funny.

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Media Bopper

The White House Correspondents Dinner was even more of a show this year as President Trump chose to have a competing rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trump seemed to pull out all the stops on bashing the press, so I decided to pull out the bopper clown.

I almost did two versions of this cartoon, one with a media clown, and another with a normal looking reporter as the bopper. A few years ago I drew conservative and a liberal version of a cartoon because I changed my mind about the issue and I was assailed by some of my cartoonist colleagues who accused me of creating a new business plan to get twice the value at half the cost, by drawing two versions of cartoons while abandoning my principals.  I was tempted to do two versions of this one, to annoy my colleagues, rather  just for fun – but the clown version was better.

I’ve also been rethinking the way I draw Trump to be more how I feel Trump than how I actually see Trump, so I’m making him fatter, with a longer, bigger, bottom of the face just because the bottom half of his face is more interesting and when cartoonists find something interesting, we make it bigger. Big hair. Big bottom of the face. Big poochy lips.

Boxing with an inflatable bopper character is a standard editorial cartooning cliché. Here’s another one of mine from ten years ago …