I knew the gig was up back on Nov. 2, 1989, when the late and great Los Angeles Herald Examiner (Death to the Hearst Corp.!) folded into oblivion. They had a practice of hiring up new talent, and I quietly hoped I could get a start there. Instead, I still have my last renewal bill I never got to pay and a few copies of the last edition as sad souvenirs, with people like William Bramhall and Bill Schorr now just as “freelance” as Mr. O’Connor.

Yes, the whole L.A. Newspaper Group’s bunch of papers are now no longer fit to wrap fish. I’m late to mourn O’Connor’s lay off because, well… Trying to land a regular art job somewhere tends to distract one. But it seemed odd that O’Connor’s last cartoon on Cagle.com was January 9, and even more disturbing that the Whittier Daily News (the L.A. Daily New’s weak sister) had “consolidated” its op-ed section to only one page every day, with a come-on to read its additional content online. Suddenly there was a dead canary in the cage…

I hope Patrick O’Connor can find himself a syndication somewhere, considering his eight-plus years of portfolio. And, hell, yes, the L.A. Daily News is now below pathetic as a newspaper. I won’t waste any money on them ever again. (Bad enough my Tribune-abused Times is slowly shrinking into oblivion, too!)

And my passion, cartooning? Well… It’s a relatively inexpensive hobby, I suppose.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

“Draw some cartoons in Russia and meet some real fascists, who will leave your bullet-riddled body on the asphalt. Or Gaza. Enjoy your freedom of speech there.”

There have been many times in my career when readers, co-workers and even editors have suggested that I go live somewhere else when they didn’t like one of my cartoons. I find this logic to be the most basic, caveman sort of thinking there is. Why should I go to Gaza and draw cartoons? Or Russia?
Because you don’t agree with my viewpoint, that’s why. This is why we love America, isn’t it? Because we’re allowed to have different opinions? Simply because you don’t like what I think I’m the one that has to leave my country? That’s how it works in your small mind?
Well, there is no freedom of speech when it comes to Israel or a host of other issues, as Mr. Gordon so ignorantly points out. It seem the only bullet-riddled bodies I see these days are lying on the streets of Gaza in a bloody slaughter the press cynically calls a “war.”

As content disappears, so do the readers. Once the readers are gone, then the ad revenues disappear. The newspaper business is run by morons.

Media News’ LA Daily News, which employed Mr O’Connor, is Exhibit A in this process. The newspaper is a disgrace & Singleton’s mismanagement has resulted in a newspaper not even worthy as a bird cage liner.

And the ones who ought to make it won’t stop just because someone suggested they do so. I’ve quoted this before, but it’s a great quote: I interviewed an actress once who said nobody in her MFA class had stayed in theater except her. “A lot of people want it, but not very many people have to have it. You have to have to have it.”

If you have to have it, Wiley Miller isn’t going to keep you from getting it.

2. Glib, know-it-all remarks about “apartheid walls” and fascists suggest an elitist viewpoint out of touch with your audience. Cartoons that are clever, sell; those that contrive divides, mock individuals and pedal simplistic, uninformed solutions are just propaganda and a lot of people seem to be enjoying their extinction.

Draw some cartoons in Russia and meet some real fascists, who will leave your bullet-riddled body on the asphalt. Or Gaza. Enjoy your freedom of speech there.

What that means is: “Find your own path”.
Not always easy.

The fascists will always try to shut us down, especially any satirists. They hate us, with reason. We shine a light on their failures and lies.
They don’t like that.

If I could only get my wife to say that…

Speaking of drawing on cave walls, Clay……I think one artist that’s had a lot of impact over the past year or two is not a newspaper or magazine cartoonist at all. He’s a guerrilla graffiti artist named Banksy. If you’re not familiar check him out at http://banksy.co.uk/. His work on Israel’s apartheid wall is particularly inspiring.

And what about the election we just had? Who had the most visual impact last fall? I can’t think of one political cartoonist that’s ever reached the cultural phenomenon of Sheppard Fairey’s “Hope” poster. It was certainly a visual achievement in its ubiquity and resonance.

So, Wiley is right again! There are always alternatives.