→2025→07→29→Comic strips→Editorial cartooning→newspapers→Are Cartoonists Journalists? aka: Is a Barnacle a Ship?
Comic strips Editorial cartooning newspapers

Are Cartoonists Journalists? aka: Is a Barnacle a Ship?

1 minute 7 comments

A cartoon drawn in a small frame can highlight an incident, a context or a political situation in its entirety. Working as a cartoonist in newspapers, I have had a variety of experiences over the years. Once, at an event, a friend of mine was introducing me as a “journalist.” Someone nearby interrupted, saying, “Oh, I know him. He’s not a journalist, he’s a cartoonist!”

Khalil Rahman

Khalil Rahman for Protho Alo takes up the age old question: Can cartoons be counted as journalism?

According to the American Press Institute, the four main goals of journalism are:

1. To inform the public
2. To hold power to account
3. To foster democratic debate
4. To act in public interest

All four of these core goals are present in political or editorial cartoons.

Naturally Khalil dismisses newspaper comic strip and magazine cartoonists as part of The Fellowship:

And yet cartooning is a very powerful form of journalism. Of course, not all cartoons are journalism. There are many branches of cartooning, like comic strips, graphic novels, caricatures, gag and more.

>> For an opposing view see “Taking Comics Seriously” by Arthur Asa Berger

excerpt from “Taking Comics Seriously” by Arthur Asa Berger (American Media, 1989)
Frank and Ernest by Thaves – July 15, 2025

origins of “Is a barnacle a ship?”

… from an anecdote about Harry Hershfield, the creator of Abie the Agent. As he told it, there was a point in the early 20th century when newspapers started adopting the use of bylines institutionally. He approached his editor, Arthur Brisbane at the New York Journal, and asked if that meant he could start signing his work. “My strips appear in the paper; doesn’t that make me a newspaperman?” Brisbane snarled back, “Is a barnacle a ship?”

Previous Post
CSotD: Potpourri for 60, Art
Next Post
Appreciating Cartoonists

Comments 7

  1. While i worked in newsrooms 40yrs or so I was only an “editorial cartoonist” now and then, my titles were first “news artist” and later “layout editor.” What I did was illustration, design, charts/maps as required. I always considered myself a journalist. My fingers stayed ink stained much longer that the other wretches there

  2. I had the “Is a barnacle a ship?” quote hanging over my desk for years. It provided a bracing splash of humility, not that anyone trying to make and sell comics isn’t already humbled by indifference and rejection. Always appreciated the reminder not to take myself too seriously.

    I’ve also always loved the quote by Mrs. Thurber (I assume it was Helen, his second wife?). I think the first time I saw it was in Mort Walker’s “Backstage at the Strips.” My wife has actually said it to me before, not even realizing that the Thurbers did it first, when she catches me drifting away. “You’re writing, aren’t you?” Also reminds me of an interview with Raina Telgemeier, in which she said something like, “I’m starting work on a new book, which looks a lot like sitting around doing nothing.”

    I make graphic novels and I’ve also been a journalist (newspaper reporter and freelance), and in my brain they feel like the same thing. I’m trying to tell a story as clearly, fairly, and honestly as I can. Sometimes I do that with words, sometimes with words and drawings. It’s all journalism to me.

    1. As a software engineer, a new project also looks a lot like sitting around doing nothing. I do some of my best work in the shower or while driving. I think that’s true for all creatives and knowledge workers.

      1. A friend of mine compared a well-written piece of code to a poem. Everything in its place, nothing that doesn’t belong there. As a poetaster/parodist who has done a bit of programming, I agree.

  3. Re: Barnacles…
    I was one of a staff ten well-paid illustrators about 20 years ago, something practically unheard of in this century. One day in the art department, one of the owners said, “Artists are a dime a dozen.”

    Unfortunately, my mama raised me to have a little self respect.

  4. If I’m remembering right, Bill Mauldin (who did win a journalism award) wrote about a car trip he was on with a journalist, and they just happened to be in a city where some kind of civil unrest started happening. They were first to report the story as it unfolded and he made several sketches as things were happening. No question, that was journalism. I think it was Mauldin, anyway.

  5. If Bill Mauldin wasn’t a journalist, there aren’t any,

Comments are closed.

Search

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get a daily recap of the news posted each day.
^ Top