CSotD: The Pulitzers
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I have been a Jack Ohman fan for a very long time, with this piece serving as my catch-all analysis of what they've done to my song, ma, for nearly a quarter of a century.
Which is not bad, given that it's the work of a cartoonist who is only a little over half a century old today.
So yesterday, the Pulitzer committee caught up with me (and a whole lot of other people), and gave Jack the 2016 Pulitzer for Editorial Cartooning.
Here's Mike Cavna's coverage, which includes an interview with Ohman.
And here's the portfolio that he submitted for the award. I'd be tempted to rob it here, but I'm equally tempted to regale you with some of the times I've featured him myself. So go look at those 20 – a pretty impressive collection — and then enjoy these I-told-ya-so's from the recent past at CSotD:
And, if that's not enough, here's the search results for the other times he's been here. (Best practice: Go down the list clicking "open in new tab" so you don't have to keep coming back and finding your place again)
And I had a rather good day in the "I Told You So" race, since both runners-up have also appeared here with some frequency, most recently thus:
(Matt Davies, April 12)
(And here's his Pulitzer portfolio)
(Steve Sack, April 10)
(And his portfolio)
Missed it by that much …
Okay, I'm not always right. I use Darrin Bell's editorial cartoons here a lot, too, and he didn't get one.
Almost, though, according to today's Candorville.
Harsh realities
But now let's stick the corks back in the champagne bottles and get serious: I run comics here every day. I don't pay to use them, and you don't pay to read them. Given the amount of commentary and interpretation added, I think this blog readily qualifies under the category of "fair use," but that doesn't mean I'm comfortable with being anyone's "source."
That's not my purpose, which is why I link back to the cartoonists themselves: I hope I'm creating a fan base for some deserving artists.
If you like cartoons enough to come here often, you should have a Comics Kingdom membership and a membership at GoComics, and sign up for a Patreon or two. And check out the collections in the Amazon widget, or at your local bookstore.
Even the Pulitzer only pays the rent for a couple of months.
Nor does it offer job security and, goddammit, this is not about "dead trees."
The Ohman classic I opened with is about the Wall Streeting of papers, not the Internet competition.
When it ran in 1992, Craigslist was still three years in the future, even as a local service, and, while some papers had offered on-line service for just over a decade, the media picture then was still one of geeks and early adapters.
This was not about competition in the real world but about competition on Wall Street.
That hasn't changed: Even in the online world itself, the acquisition scramble is not about success in attracting and serving the public but about maximizing profit and getting those golden eggs out of the goose as soon as possible, whatever it takes.
Look, if a company is worth buying, it's worth running as a standalone.
As was the bar/restaurant that Paulie acquired in Goodfellas. But, if you've seen the movie, you know that wasn't why he bought into it.
I had a publisher who, after our small, privately-owned chain was acquired by a publicly-traded company, and after a lot of resistance most of which we couldn't see from inside the trenches, resigned rather than making the suicidal cuts they demanded.
They replaced him, of course, with someone who would.
The streets are full of Pulitzer winners in all categories who got the axe.
Matt Davies won the Pulitzer for his Gannett paper in 2004 and was laid off six years later. He landed, finally, at Newsday, the support of whom he acknowledged yesterday at Facebook, saying, "Nice to hand back a small thank you to a paper that celebrates the value of a cartoonist."
In a sensible world where the product was the product and not the profits, it wouldn't be necessary to single out anyone like that.
Prizes are nice, but, if you value this stuff, don't sit back expecting the darned fellows in the Execuhair to preserve it for you.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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