Editorial cartooning

Frank Cammuso laid off from The Post-Standard

Skip to comments

Alan Gardner October 3, 2012 1 minute 6 comments

Syracuse Post-Standard editorial cartoonist Frank Cammuso was one of the 115 employees told they will no longer have a job with the paper after January 31 when the paper drops to a three-time a week printing schedule on February 1.

Frank has been with the paper for 23 years. He was gracious enough to answer a few questions regarding this announcement.

Alan: A lot of papers lately have announced they are dropping to a 3x week schedule. At what point did you know that the Post-Standard was going to change their print schedule and when did you find out your position would be cut?
Frank: The staff of the Post-Standard was notified of the changes at the end of August. I was let go along with 114 others on Monday, Oct. 1st.

A: You served as the cartoonist for 23 years – a good long run. What will you remember most about working for the Post-Standard?
F: I enjoyed cartooning the state politicians. I’ve covered everyone from Mario Cuomo to Eliot Spitzer to Hillary Clinton. It was fun to have big personalities as targets.

A: Will you be providing cartoons for the paper as a freelancer or under some other arrangement?
F: No, I believe come January 31st my political cartooning days will be over.

A: . You’ve done a lot of cartooning outside of the newspaper. What was the mix of non-editorial cartooning work to editorial cartooning? Is it enough that you can transition over fairly easy or will you need to do a lot of ramp up?
F: Unfortunately for political cartoonists the writing has been on the wall for a while. I have been writing and drawing graphic novels for the last ten years. Right now it takes up about two thirds of my work time. I have been in the making the transition for the last few years. This was actually the kick in the pants I needed to make the jump.

A: What are your plans now?
F: Write and draw more graphic novels and creator owned projects.