Joe Heller begins animated editorial cartoons

Green Bay Press-Gazette cartoonist Joe Heller has posted his first animated editorial cartoon. The animation pokes fun at Hillary Clinton singing a parody of “Stayin’ Alive.” The animation is plugged on the paper’s homepage.

Regarding the move to animation, the paper has posted an interview about his work:

Q. How does producing an animated cartoon compare with what you’ve done in the past?

A. A regular cartoon that appears in the print product is, like I said, very static, and there are certain rules of setting up the joke, staging the joke and executing it in the punch line. An animated piece just opens up a whole new world of gag lines and visual puns and songs and words, and colors and textures.

I can add more expressions to the faces or the old Batman “Pow!” symbols and all that kind of stuff.

Q. Do you think animation lends itself to the same kind of biting sarcasm that you sometimes use?

A. I think that’s something that’ll probably have to develop. Right now I’m just having fun with it, because it’s the first cartoon and I can poke fun at certain situations. It definitely has a short shelf life, like regular cartoons â?? but I think I have to take a look and try to extend the shelf life of an animated piece a little, because of the work that goes into it. One minute of cartooning takes about 24 hours of work â?? at least in this first effort. I have to make sure that the topic will remain fresh for a little longer so it can stay up a little longer.

The interview reveals that Joe doesn’t have a set schedule or projection of how many of these he’ll produce.

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