Our readers never miss an opportunity to let me know when my productivity drops off. I had the flu last week and I haven’t been writing and drawing as much as I should. A few days ago, as I was recovering from my viral stupor, the editorial cartoonist community was agitated into an online kafuffle by an anonymous critic on the web. I was surprised by the overblown reaction from my peers, who posted to chat boards, e-mailed me and e-mailed each other in a thin-skinned conniption fit.
The anonymous guy ranted mostly about cartoons that he thought were lousy, but he saved some of his venom for me. He doesn’t like my web site which he thinks looks like “vomitus.” He was also bothered by the ads on my site, complaining that I’m greedy, cheap and fat. The guy showed particular interest in my “fat ass.”
All in all, the anonymous “Bad Cartoonist” sounds like most of my daily e-mail. My cartooning colleagues need to understand that the internet is built upon a foundation of rude, anonymous jerks and get back to their job of being graphically rude on the editorial pages.
Cuban Cartoon Debate
A couple of weeks ago I posted Cuban cartoonist Ares‘ take on the change in Cuba as Fidel Castro turned the presidency over to his brother, Raul Castro (left). Cuban ex-patriot cartoonists Alen Lauzan, from Argentina, and Osmani Simanca from Brazil, drew a cartoon rebuttal to Ares’ cartoon (right) and I thought it was fun, so I post it here. Click on the cartoon to see an enlarged version, and you’ll see that they “flopped” Ares’ signature.
Cartoonists don’t often carry on cartoon arguments with each other when they do, I point it out!
