Dave Whamond 2020 Top Ten

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date December 30, 2020

Here are Dave Whamond’s Top Ten cartoons of the year that were most reprinted in newspapers. Dave’s work has appeared in magazines and newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest and many more. He has won 7 Silver Reubens from the National Cartoonists Society and several book awards. Dave has written and/or illustrated over 50 books and his syndicated comic, Reality Check, has appeared in newspapers since 1995.

We keep statistics on how many editors, who subscribe to our syndicate service at CagleCartoons.com, download each cartoon. Over the next few days I’ll post Top Ten cartoons from some of our other CagleCartoonists! See Dave’s cartoon archive on Cagle.com

Happy New Year!

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers sink too, and along with them, our Cagle.com site.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

Want to get EVERY new CagleCartoon from our 62 syndicated newspaper editorial cartoonists, in your email box every day? Just become a Cagle.com HERO and you get the exclusive daily emails of ALL THE CARTOONS! See all the cartoons before the newspapers print them and never miss a cartoon!

Don’t miss our most popular cartoons of the week collections:

Tags 2020, Alex Trebek, Christmas, coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID19, Grinch, Jeopardy, pandemic, Santa Claus, Zoom

News

More Doggie Presidents

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date December 10, 2020

This is my new one about all the foreign policy landmines that President Trump is laying for the Biden administration.

I drew a Trump Doggie cartoon yesterday and I was thinking about doggie presidents. Today’s cartoon is based on one I drew about President George W. Bush about 14 years ago.

I’ve drawn lots of presidential doggies. Here’s an oldies with doggie Obama.

When Hillary Clinton was running for president against Obama, she had her husband Bill as her attack dog.

Early in the George W. Bush administration, doggie Jimmy Carter opposed and undermined Bush’s Cuba policy, visiting Castro in Cuba.

I draw foreign doggie presidents too. Here’s Cuba’s doggie Fidel Castro from about 14 years ago.

Here’s an oldie with Israel’s doggie Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu peeing on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas while being “condemned” by President Obama.

I can’t get enough of doggie presidents, but that’s not true of newspaper editors. A sure way to make sure your cartoon won’t get reprinted in newspapers very much is to draw a doggie president –also, drawing urine is something newspaper editors don’t like.

Drawing doggie Presidents and urine isn’t a smart business decision for editorial cartoonists; we do it for love.

News

California: COVID and Fires at the Same Time

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date August 21, 2020

We’re suffering from crazy heat in California now, from a worldwide high of 130ºF (43C) a couple of days ago, to 109º at my house. Today it was only 106º (41C) at my house. Dozens of major fires are popping up all over the state, sparked by lightening.

At the same time we have the most coronavirus cases and deaths, which have largely shut down the economy, threatening small businesses and newspapers, who have lost ads from suffering small businesses and cancelled events. So this is my cartoon.

Please forward this to your friends – tell them our Cagle.com email newsletters are FREE and FUN! They can join the newsletter list at Cagle.com/subscribe.

Updated August 24, 2020

Here’s my cartoon today in USA Today.

I draw lots of California flag cartoons. Our bear is a gift to cartoonists. Here are three more of my California fire bear cartoons. Tough times in California.

President Trump wants to stop any federal assistance to charred California, because the state should “rake more” leaves.

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes. We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!

Tags bear, california, california Republic, COVID-19, COVID19, fire, flag, pandemic

Blog News Newsletter Top 10

Top Ten Cartoons of the Week – June 13, 2020

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date June 13, 2020

Here are the ten most widely published cartoons of the week (June 6-13, 2020). It is interesting to note that no drawings of President Trump have been among the most reprinted cartoons since one appeared in March. This was another week when cartoonists drew passionate cartoons criticizing the president that were ignored by editors. What cartoonists want to draw most is not what editors want to print. It is also rare that editors choose to print cartoons about Joe Biden. The reprint curve is steep with the most popular cartoons dominating the reprints and with most cartoons getting little ink. The foreign cartoonists were ignored by our subscribing, American editors again this week.

Our Top Ten is a measure of how many editors choose to reprint each of our cartoons, from the 63 cartoonists in our syndication package. Just about half of America’s daily, paid circulation newspapers subscribe to CagleCartoons.com.

Congrats to Dave Whamond for drawing the most reprinted cartoon this week. Kudos to Rick McKee who benefitted from a tie for the #10 spot, squeaking in with an impressive three cartoons on the list (the Top Eleven this week, because of the tie). Jeff Koterba has two cartoons on the list and special congratulations go to Pat Bagley and Peter Kuper who make their first appearances in the Top Ten this week. Dave Granlund, Steve Sack and RJ Matson round out the list of most reprinted cartoons this week. Great work, gentlemen!

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes. We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!

#1

Congratulations to Dave Whamond who drew the #1 most reprinted cartoon this week.

#2

Pat Bagley was a close second with this cartoon.

#3

Dave Granlund takes third place in the Top Ten this week.

#4

Rick McKee is in a tie for 4th place –with himself.

#4

Rick McKee is here again in 4th place.

#6

Jeff Koterba of Omaha World-Herald claims the 6th place spot.

#7

RJ Matson is in 7th place.

#8

The New Yorker’s and Mad Magazine’s “Spy vs Spy” cartoonist, Peter Kuper, takes 8th place.

#9

Pulitzer winner, Steve Sack, has the 9th most popular cartoon.

#10

Here’s Rick McKee’s third cartoon on the most reprinted list!

#10

Jeff Koterba is in a tie for the #10 spot with his second of two cartoons in the Top Ten (top eleven this week). Editors love Lincoln Memorial cartoons.

The Omaha World-Herald and Cagle cartoonist, Jeff Koterba, will be moderating a special event with Paris-based Oliver Gee, host of the popular podcast, The Earful Tower, and author of a new memoir, Paris on Air.

Originally from Australia, Oliver is a former journalist whose first assignment in Paris was to cover the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015. He would eventually move to Paris and launch The Earful Tower, which was recently featured in The New York Times as one of the best podcasts to travel by ear.

For those Cagle cartoonists who have attended the annual humor salons in St. Just, and have hung out together in Paris, this event might scratch that itch to return to France. And even if you haven’t been to France, this event promises to be a fun time. Plus, hey, you’ll get to see our buddy Jeff on your computer screen!

Oh, and not to worry—it’ll be presented in English. Although there’s always a chance that Oliver will throw in a French phrase or two.

Sponsored by Alliance Française Omaha, this event is free and open to all anywhere in the world! You can also pre-order Oliver’s book, although it’s not necessary to buy one to attend the event, which will be presented via Zoom.

1pm-2pm CST in the United States

Sunday, June 28th

All you have to do, is register now for the free event here.

Please forward this to your friends – tell them our Cagle.com email newsletters are FREE and FUN! They can join the newsletter list at Cagle.com/subscribe.

Tags Abraham Lincoln, All Lives Matter, back to school, Black lives matter, BLM, Defund the Police, division, facebook, Frankenstein, hate, June 54th, memorial, Minneapolis, No Lives Matter, race, racial equality, Twitter, we the people

News Newsletter Syndicate

Blame China! Part 2

Here is part two of our BLAME CHINA cartoons! See part one with cartoons defending China pushing against criticism. Since we hear so much about China from the Trump administration, it is interesting that most of the China bashing cartoons come from the international cartoonists.

Please forward this email to your friends – tell them our Cagle.com email newsletters are FREE and FUN! They can join the newsletter list at Cagle.com/subscribe.

Our newspaper clients are crashing now as Coronavirus is crushing their advertisers. We need your support for Cagle.com (and DarylCagle.com) now more than ever! Notice that we run no advertising! We depend entirely upon the generosity of our readers to sustain the site. Please visit Cagle.com/heroes and make a contribution. You are much appreciated!

Rick McKee, Georgia

Jeff Koterba, Nebraska

Paresh Nath, India

Nem0, Canada

Bas van der Schot, The Netherlands

Gary McCoy, Illinois

Jimmy Margulies, New Jersey

Manny Francisco, Phillipines, Singapore

Marian Kamensky, Austria

Patrick Chappatte, Switzerland

Jos Collignon, The Netherlands

Dario Castillejos, Oaxaca, Mexico

Bob Englehart, Connecticut

Christo Komarnitsky, Bulgaria

Tags blame, China, coronavirus, COVID-19, death, edicine, editorial cartoonists, health, medical, pandemic, trump, world, xi jinping

News Newsletter Syndicate

Top Ten Cartoons of the Week – April 4, 2020

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date April 4, 2020
1 Comment on Top Ten Cartoons of the Week – April 4, 2020

Here are the 13 most popular and most reprinted CagleCartoons for the week of March 29th through April 4th. These are the cartoons that editors download the most, in high resolution, to be published in their newspapers. Enjoy!

Please forward this email to your friends – tell them our Cagle.com email newsletters are FREE and FUN! They can join the newsletter list at Cagle.com/subscribe.

We need your support for Cagle.com (and DarylCagle.com)! Notice that we run no advertising! We depend entirely upon the generosity of our readers to sustain the site. Please visit Cagle.com/heroes and make a contribution. You are much appreciated!

Bruce Plante

Dave Whamond

Adam Zyglis

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News Newsletter Syndicate

Annual State of the State of Cartooning Address

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date February 26, 2020

This excellent address comes from my cartoonist buddy, David Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. –Daryl

During the second World War, British cartoonist David Low was despised by Hitler because he relentlessly refuted the lies broadcast by the Nazi propaganda machine with every stark cartoon. We’re a long way from the age in which internationally applauded cartoonists such as Sir David Low were knighted for their heroic defense of liberty.

When I opened my annual trade journal, The American Association of Editorial Cartoonists Notebook, the bell tolled for my profession, page by page, cartoonist by cartoonist. This year our annual AAEC convention will convene in Ottawa, Ontario, with our Canadian colleagues because our numbers are so small we could meet in an abandoned Fotomat kiosk.

Political cartoonist Bruce Plante called me from Oklahoma when his paper, the Tulsa World, had just been acquired by Lee Enterprises. Needing reassurance I told him, “Lee values cartoonists.” When we began our careers four decades ago there were hundreds of us. Today there are 25 newspaper editorial cartoonists left drawing truth to power in the United States.

A lot of giants have been kicked to the curb. After winning the Pulitzer, Mike Keefe was laid off from the Denver Post. Pulitzer winner Steve Benson was laid off last year from the Arizona Republic. The Houston Chronicle, Knoxville News Sentinel and Indianapolis Star summarily jettisoned their beloved veteran cartoonists Nick Anderson, Charlie Daniel and Gary Varvel.

Most troubling, Rob Rogers, the popular political cartoonist of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was fired by a pro-Trump editor who replaced him with Steve Kelley, a cartoonist who once informed me the most oppressed group in America was white men. Rob relies on syndication and Patreon online subscription patrons to get by.

Scott Stantis has a pseudo-freelance arrangement with his Chicago Tribune. Pat Bagley’s Salt Lake Tribune miraculously survives because it’s owned by a nonprofit corporation. Jack Ohman’s Sacramento Bee is part of the McClatchy chain, which just filed for bankruptcy. My friend and Tucson resident, Chris Britt, formerly of the Illinois State Journal-Register and News Tribune of Tacoma, transitioned to creating children’s books to supplement his syndication earnings.

Syndication is no longer reliable career insurance. Luckily, I’m syndicated to over 700 sites worldwide by Cagle Cartoons. In my AAEC Notebook, Daryl Cagle notes that newspaper chains are consolidating their editorial staffs into one central staff that generates cookie-cutter editorials for the entire chain, adding, “Newspapers are shutting down editorial page staffs faster than they are dropping editorial pages.”

When I was a kid I didn’t listen when the Master Sergeant sarcastically encouraged me to consider a backup plan.

“Doing what?”

“Carving gargoyles. See all the cathedrals in the want ads — hiring stone masons? Your odds of finding work are just as bright, Sunshine.”

I’m glad I didn’t listen. I got lucky. I drew in the last century during the Golden Age of Print and my luck continued through this century’s turbulent transition to digital. These days when young cartoonists ask me for career advice I tell them, “Learn to carve gargoyles.”

It’s impossible for cartoonists to keep up with today’s relentless whirlwind of news. By the time we’ve inked, scanned and uploaded our cartoons our subject’s been eclipsed by 12 new scandals. By the time we upload our hand-rendered cartoon it’s been preceded online by a multitude of memes and YouTube rants; not to mention overshadowed by the comic observers of late night TV. We can see why the producer of “This American Life,” Ira Glass, derided editorial cartooning as “a 17th century medium.”

Ironically, practitioners of our dissed and slowly dying 17th century art form are still sufficiently feared by tyrants to get killed, imprisoned or banished in this darkening century. To the benefit of tyrannies too many regions have become news deserts.

Too many citizens are now completely dependent on the internet for their news, a treacherous cyberswamp teeming with toxic lies and divisive disinformation. The radical right’s war to sow mistrust of the critical mainstream media, which began in the ’70s, along with the rise of Limbaugh, and the billionaire-funded right-wing propaganda mills like Fox, coupled with algorithm-driven cybermanipulation, have all been effective at rendering our citizenry ill-informed and factionalized — two outcomes fatal to democratic republics.

Undaunted by these challenges this “fake news peddler” and “obscene excuse for a mudslinging hack” is proud to be in the honorable company of those persistent resisters labeled the “Enemy of the People” by fascist despots.

Legend has it that David Low had designs for an underground shelter behind his modest London home into which he had placed supplies, a drawing board and a printing press. If his beloved nation were to fall to Nazi occupation, Low had plans to smuggle his family out of the country while he would remain behind, in hiding, churning out anti-fascist cartoons and spreading sedition until his home land was free.

My kind of cartoonist.

See more cartoons by Dave Fitzsimmons.

We need your support for Cagle.com (and DarylCagle.com)! Notice that we run no advertising! We depend entirely upon the generosity of our readers to sustain the site. Please visit Cagle.com/heroes and make a contribution. You are much appreciated!

Tags cartoonists, David Low, editorial cartoonists, gargoyles, Ira Glass, political cartoonists, This American Life

Blog News Newsletter

The Garden (of Earthly Delights)

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date November 3, 2019

My cartoonist buddy, Randy Enos, writes more about his illustrious career …

Email Randy Enos

Visit Randy’s archive –Daryl

About 20 or 25 years ago I started working on a large linocut, just for myself, entitled “The Garden (of Earthly Delights)”. I’m still working on it and I’ll probably never finish it. Every few months, I pull it out and do a little more on it. It’s tucked away in a closet in my studio and I tend to forget about it. I guess I’ve lost interest. It started out as a grand idea. My “garden” doesn’t have any flowers, vegetables or weeds in it. It doesn’t have any caterpillars, dung beetles or worms. What it has are dozens and dozens of famous cartoon characters in it. My grand plan was to pay homage to all the old wonderful “delights” of the magical world of cartoons.

It’s a kind of street scene hustle bustle with a building behind with windows. The characters pass each other on the cobblestones going to and fro while Superman and Captain Marvel attempt to save Fritzi Ritz who is falling from the roof of the building.

My picture contains, so far, Dick Tracy, Li’l Abner, Krazy Kat, Superman, Captain Marvel, Secret Agent X9, the Gumps, Barney Google, Tillie the Toiler, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Prince Valiant, Alley Oop, Hagar the Horrible,
Captain America, Jiggs & Maggie, Ella Cinders, Li’l Orphan Annie, the Cap’n and the Kids, Smilin’ Jack, Beetle Bailey, Harold Teen, Skippy, Archie Andrews, Moon Mullins, Nancy, Felix the Cat, Happy Hooligan, Smokey Stover, The Little King, Ferd’nand, Fritzi Ritz, Mutt ‘n’ Jeff, Pogo, The Yellow Kid (with “Is dis da gardin?” lettered on his gown), Walt from Gasoline Alley and a few dozen others that I can’t even remember the names of. But, I have a lot of space left and many many more characters to include. I get worn out just thinking about it.

I’m cutting on an old, very hard piece of linoleum which is dark brown in color. They don’t even sell this stuff any more. It’s like engraving on a hard wood block. It holds the finest detail. I don’t know if I have the patience to continue on in the dense detailed style I set for this piece. The big 24X36 lino block is even starting to crack in places but I think I can work around that hazard. The formidable task of inking and printing it when it is finished presents another challenge. I don’t use a press. I print everything by hand so I’d probably have to ink and print it in sections and then paste ’em together or just keep lifting my paper and freshening the ink as I go along. I’d have to find a nice big sheet of fairly thin and absorbent paper to use. But, as I said before, I’ll most likely abandon this project before I finish it. My wife keeps urging me to go on with it, however, and she often gets her way. More than often.

A while back, meaning a few years ago, I decided to see how the work was proceeding and whether or not things were coming out as planned so I actually inked a few small sections and took some quick prints off of it hoping to encourage myself to continue. I’m showing some of them here in this article along with a couple of shots of the big brown block itself.

To make matters worse, I started another picture in 2011 that still isn’t finished. It seems to be going the way of “The Garden”. It’s named “The Conqueror Worm” after my favorite Poe poem. At least with this one I’ve started printing and pasting up. It got interrupted when I worked on my Mocha Dick book and I have never gotten back to it.

Well, if my “Garden” never fulfills its destiny… at least I got a story out of it.

Read many more of Randy’s cartooning memories:

Happy Times in the Morgue

I was the Green Canary

Born in a Volcano

When I was a Famous Chinese Watercolorist

My Most Unusual Art Job

A Duck Goes Into a Grocery Store

A Day With Jonathan Winters and Carol Burnett

Illustrating the Sea

Why I Started Drawing

The Fastest Illustrator in the World!

Me and the GhostBusters

The Bohemian Bohemian

Take it Off … Take it ALL Off!

I Eat Standing Up

The Funniest Cartoon I’ve Ever Seen

The Beatles had a Few Good Tunes

Andy Warhol Meets King Kong

Jacques and the Cowboy

The Gray Lady (The New York Times)

The BIG Eye

Historic Max’s

The Real Moby Dick

The Norman Conquests

Man’s Achievements in an Ever Expanding Universe

How to Murder Your Wife

I Yam What I Yam

The Smallest Cartoon Characters in the World

Chicken Gutz

Brought to You in Living Black and White

The Hooker and the Rabbit

Art School Days in the Whorehouse

The Card Trick that Caused a Divorce

The Mysterious Mr. Quist

Monty Python Comes to Town

Riding the Rails

The Pyramid of Success

The Day I Chased the Bus

The Other Ol’ Blue Eyes

8th Grade and Harold von Schmidt

Rembrandt of the Skies

The Funniest Man I’ve Ever Known

Read “I’m Your Bunny, Wanda –Part One”

Read “I’m Your Bunny, Wanda –Part Two”

Famous Artists Visit the Famous Artists School

Randy Remembers Tomi Ungerer

Randy’s Overnight Parade

The Bullpen

Famous Artists Schools

Dik Browne: Hot Golfer

Randy and the National Lampoon

Randy’s Only Great Idea

A Brief Visit to Outer Space

Enos, Love and Westport

Randy Remembers the NCS

Blog News Newsletter

How Newspapers Should Use Their Political Cartoonists

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date October 30, 2019

Martin “Shooty” Šútovec is a great CagleCartoonist who we don’t see frequently on Cagle.com because he is usually consumed with the crazy local politics in Slovakia. I thought I would show some pages from the most recent issue of the “Dennik N.” newspaper that is filled with Shooty’s work. “Dennik” means “Daily” and N stands for “Nezavisly” meaning “Independent.”

Shooty left his old newspaper, the “SME” five years ago with about 30 of his journalist colleagues to found the Dennik N., because a financial group called “Penta,” that Shooty tells me “was known for making dirty business deals with public healthcare” purchased a large share of the newspaper. At the Dennik N. newspaper, all of the editors are shareholders.

Shooty tells me that the Dennik N. paper is very successful and is financed by digital subscriptions, and powered by excellent investigative journalists who forced their Prime Minister Fico (the short, blonde haired guy in the cartoons) and the minister of the Interior to resign, after some big demonstrations.

Slovakia has recently been rocked by a a scandal that is nicknamed “Gorilla” after the codename of a secret agent who leaked secret documents and 39 hours of audio files showing a conspiracy involving the CEO of Penta corrupting select politicians. Shooty says the codename “Gorilla” is similar to the codename “Deep Throat” in the Watergate scandal. The scandal involves a famous mobster named Kocner who ordered the murder of an investigative journalist, Jan Kuciak.

Shooty writes, “Marian Kočner (the black haired guy in the cartoons) is involved in corrupting politicians (and) judges … He is finally in jail, but it was hard work; our newspaper is still publishing tons of his leaked messages … where he is making deals with murderers, members of parliament etc. it is not the same as (the) Gorilla cause, but everything is connected.”

The screenshots show a recent issue of the Dennik N, covering the Gorilla scandal, with Shooty’s cartoons dominating the coverage. This is the way to cover a scandal. Bravo, Shooty!

Shooty writes: “On the picture Im sending you is the wall in our office with wallpaper made from our covers, to show you how often we have cartoons on (the) covers.”

Tags Dennik N., Gorilla, Jan Kuciak, Kocner, Martin "Shooty" Sutovec, newspaper, Penta, Prime Minister Fico, Slovakia, SME

News Newsletter Syndicate

When I was President

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date August 11, 2019

This is the first of three columns about my years as president of the National Cartoonists Society. Read part TWO here. Read part THREE here. –Daryl Cagle

This drawing by Jack Davis shows Snoopy with Sparky’s “Milton Caniff” Lifetime Achievement Award.

I’ve been a member of the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) for nearly 40 years. I was president of the NCS from June, 1999 to May, 2001, and I ran two “Reuben Awards” conventions. The first was held at the World Trade Center in Manhattan the year before the towers were destroyed, and the second in Florida at the Boca Raton Resort and Club. Much of the work of the NCS president is like being a wedding planner, with all the joys, stresses and horrors that implies, which left me with an odd perspective on our colorful profession. Here are my recollections …

Twenty years ago the membership of the NCS included nearly twice as many professional cartoonist members as it does now, and popular newspaper comic strips were the NCS’s strength. The group was rancorous and my years in the hot seat were toasty. We had a crisis at the start when our management company demanded that we triple their fees; they were doing a terrible job so I fired them and I went about finding a new firm, arguing with our board members who wanted to stay with the old management company and pay the higher fees. Finding a new management company for our unusual group was a big chore, because of the unusual nature of our group compared to more conventional professional organizations.

When the new company eventually took over, the old firm transferred our records and I was told that our files looked like someone climbed to the top of a nine foot ladder and randomly dropped the papers into the boxes. It turns out that we didn’t have records of past members’ dues payments – we didn’t know who was paid up and who wasn’t. It became clear why the old management company was doing a lousy job. It was a big mess to clean up the records and to make sense of the membership dues collections; I faced a challenging learning curve of getting myself and the new management company up to speed.

I had a “wedding” to deal with right away. In those days, the NCS had a big, annual Christmas party in Manhattan, often at the Century Club. We planned our biggest Christmas party ever, with the theme being that we would award a “Golden T-Square” to Mort Walker, who drew the Beetle Bailey comic strip. Mort was delighted. We had a nice sponsor in an internet company that was courting us at the time. The 1999 New York Christmas party would be even bigger than the previous year’s Reuben Awards convention in San Antonio.

THE 1999 CHRISTMAS PARTY

The “Century Club” in Manhattan, actually the “Century Association”.

The NCS had long depended on support from the syndicates, especially King Features. When I first started as NCS president, King’s comics editor told me that King was finished with their support for the NCS; he said King didn’t like that the NCS included non-newspaper cartoonist members and he didn’t see what King got out of their longtime support of the NCS. Later I got an angry call from King Features’ chairman who was furiously ranting that he wanted us to cancel the award for Mort because we were stepping on King’s toes; Mort was their guy. I don’t recall saying anything in that crazy phone call; I just listened.

This is Beetle Bailey, from the famous strip by Mort Walker.

On the other hand, Mort was flattered and pleased with the award/party idea, and it was Mort who carried the day. King Features changed their tone after some conversations with Mort and ended up as a second full sponsor for the Christmas party. The double sponsorship let us double the budget and made for quite an opulent evening. I remember that we had a raw bar with all the oysters we could eat, which was fun, and the open bar was freely flowing. Wedding planner glee.

Mort Walker in 2016

King asked to give their “Segar Award” at the Christmas party, an award that King management chooses to give to a King cartoonist; there was a tradition of giving the Segar Award at the King-sponsored-Christmas party, so I said “yes” to King and there were two awards that night. That was my second big issue as president, because many NCSers objected to King giving their own award at the NCS’s party and they aimed their ire at me, complaining that King had “bought” me. Somebody at the party punched somebody else and most people were talking about the punch. And the huge bill for the big party went entirely on Arnold Roth‘s personal tab at the Century Club, which made Arnie nervous when the NCS took too long to reimburse him. (Sorry about that, Arnie.)

But Mort was happy, and it was a great party.

I love Peanuts and Charles M. Schulz was my hero.

PLANNING MY FIRST CONVENTION

The first Reuben Awards convention that I ran as NCS president was in 2000, at the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel in lower Manhattan, but it was originally intended to take place in Santa Rosa, California. The convention was to be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the comic strip, Peanuts. My predecessor as NCS president, George Breisacher, had been talking to Peanuts creator, Charles M. “Sparky” Schulz and the city of Santa Rosa about having the 2000 Reuben Awards banquet at Sparky’s ice skating rink. Sparky and Santa Rosa were both very generous in their offer to host the convention. George and I flew to Santa Rosa to have dinner with Sparky and his wife, Jeannie, to tour the ice rink and visit the proposed hotel. The hotel was a few miles from the rink, but the city of Santa Rosa offered to cover the cost of busses, and they even offered to have a parade. The ice rink was great fun, and Sparky told us how he had a wood floor that would be installed on top of the ice for the Reubens banquet. We had lovely meetings; Sparky was charming and more than generous, but the problem was the hotel, which would be under construction at that time. With no local hotel alternative that could fit the NCS, and difficult logistics, Santa Rosa didn’t happen. We figured the NCS would do Santa Rosa another year, when the construction at the hotel was completed. I was left scrambling to find a new venue for the 2000 convention. This was actually quite typical for new NCS presidents – planning ahead was not part of the culture for the NCS.

Instead of Santa Rosa, I decided to take the Reubens back to New York, and after a search and competitive bid process, I signed a big contract with the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel, still with the theme of celebrating the 50th anniversary of Peanuts.

Sponsorship for the 2000 Reuben Awards weekend was promised, including a big commitment from United Media, the syndicate that owned Peanuts. Sparky, was going to receive the NCS’s lifetime achievement award on Reuben night and political cartoonist Mike Luckovich had organized most of the newspaper comic strip cartoonists to draw a Peanuts 50th anniversary themed strip on the Saturday of our banquet – then in mid-February, three months before the convention in May, we got the news that Sparky had died.

Arrgh! So sad! And what was I going to do!?

——————————————–

Read more old stuff about my career as a cartoonist on DarylCagle.com

Still More of When I was President, PART THREE of three

More of When I was President, PART TWO of three

When I was President, PART ONE of three

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Another Anti-Semitic Trope Controversy

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date July 17, 2019
1 Comment on Another Anti-Semitic Trope Controversy

There is a new anti-semitic cartoon controversy, this time from The Guardian’s cartoonist Steve Bell. Buzzfeed’s media critic Mark Di Stefano first tweeted the cartoon and email that Bell sent to all of The Guardian’s staff journalists.

Bell’s cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was killed, prompting Bell’s mass email. The cartoon depicts British Labour Party deputy secretary, Tom Watson as an “antisemite finder general” calling Netanyahu an “antisemitic trope.”

The Jewish Chronicle reports:

“Last June, (Bell) emailed all journalists to say he felt “unfairly traduced and censored” after the paper would not run his cartoon of Theresa May meeting Benjamin Netanyahu while Palestinian Razan al-Najjar, who had been shot and killed by an Israeli soldier, burned in the fireplace behind.”

‘He accused Guardian editor Kath Viner of not speaking to him because she “did not really have an argument” for spiking the cartoon.”

“In November 2012, his cartoon that depicted Mr Netanyahu as a puppeteer prompted many complaints to the press regulator.”

In his mass email, Bell Writes:

“I suspect the real cause is it contravenes some mysterious editorial line that has been drawn around the subject of antisemitism and the infernal subject of antisemitic tropes.”

“In some ways this is even more worrying than the specious charges of antisemitism. Does the Guardian no longer tolerate content that runs counter to its editorial line?”

“In November 2012, (Bell’s) cartoon that depicted Mr Netanyahu as a puppeteer prompted many complaints to the press regulator.”

Here is the complete text of the letter that Bell wrote to The Guardian’s “Head of Features” Kira Cochrane, and forwarded as a mass email to all of The Guardian’s staff journalists:

Dear Kira

After our bizarre telephone conversation yesterday, I feared you might not publish today’s strip, but still cannot understand why the attached should be more liable to legal challenge from Tom Watson than either of the previous two strips that you have already published. You said the ‘lawyers were concerned’, but what about? It’s not antisemitic, nor is it libellous, even though it includes a caricature of Binyamin Netanyahu. If Watson chose to object he would make himself look far sillier than he does in the cartoon.

I suspect that the real problem is that it contravenes some mysterious editorial line that has been drawn around the subject of antisemitism and the infernal subject of ‘antisemitic tropes’. In some ways this is even more worrying for me than specious charges of antisemitism. Does the Guardian no longer tolerate content that counters its editorial line?

Why in today’s paper has the Guardian published a highly partisan and personally insulting (to the leader of the Labour Party) advert on page 20 that uses the Labour Party logo, but is clearly not a Labour Party approved advert? I would have thought that there would be far more reason to expect a legal challenge on that than on my my cartoon. Or is it that you don’t want to offend poor Tom but are quite happy to offend poor Jeremy?

Why on earth did the Guardian publish, then unpublish, a letter in support of Chris Williamson signed by 100 persons identifying themselves as Jewish, including Noam Chomsky? Were they the wrong kind of Jews. The paper’s contortions on this subject do not do it any credit. If there is a reasoned position on this highly contentious issue, then I would dearly love to see it laid out clearly so we all know where we stand. Or are there some subjects that we just can’t touch?

Best wishes
Steve Bell

Tags antisemitic, cartoon, Israel, killed cartoon, Kira Cochrane, steve bell, The Guardian, Tom Watson

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