Editor’s note: The Desert Sun recently welcomed freelance cartoonist Tom Deisboeck to create original ‘toons for the opinion pages.
The Palm Springs (Calif) Desert Sun (Gannett) has contracted Tom Deisboeck for political cartoons.
… how would you describe the tone of your work?
So, I like to be edgy. The political side is on the biting, satirical end of things. Doesn’t always work, but I’m going for clever tag lines, hopefully — some form of a combination of the art and the caption. I don’t like to restate the art in the caption or the other way around. I think the caption should add to it, not be redundant — let’s face it, if you need to “explain” the art, it’s probably not good enough. All this with the backdrop of the glaring political contexts that we’re in.
cartoons © Tom Deisboeck
The Dessert Sun introduces their readers to Tom with an interview.
… how do you approach just the endless news that we’re all sort of bombarded with?
… There’s a rush sometimes. Every cartoonist jumps on the next high-level gaffe of a politician. And if you’re not doing it right away, three days later, you’re run over by the news cycle, so speed is a bit at the essence which influences your approach and technique. Also, if you wait, by then the obvious artistic treatments of the story have all been done and published. So, you want to go somewhat more subtle, which may get risky if you’re trying to be too clever as people may not get it or may not like it, or at that point may just be fed up with it.