Comic History Comic Strips Editorial cartooning Interviews

Ohman Opines

“The canaries in the coal mine are not dead yet, but they’re twitching on the ground.”

Jack Ohman, 2025

Jack Ohman, being an editorial cartoonist and columnist, has opinions which he expresses in a 45 minute interview with Rich Ehisen and Tim Foster posted at the Capitol Weekly Podcast today.

Prompted by the interviewers Jack touches on a variety of topics mostly related to his chosen profession:

6:47 Jack Ohman

7:46 Origin story

9:23 Collapse of the afternoon papers

11:53 Substack

{Income is] almost as good on Substack as it was in the good ol’ days when it was only necessary to send drawings in to the syndicates. Though the constant need for promotion is tiring.

14:04 Political cartooning vs. comic strips

Jack Ohman, Mixed Media

In the mid-1990s Ohman’s Mixed Media was appearing in 175 newspapers earning Jack $70,000/year.

15:30 “I never really wanted to be a cartoonist, I wanted to be governor of Minnesota”

16:00 Kate Brown

18:27 Youngest syndicated cartoonist

Jack Ohman was always a political creature.

23:46 Are we in a new Yellow Journalism era?

26:58 “In some ways we’re fighting the same battles of the Civil War”

33:27 The Death of Scott Adams

Asked if he had opinions about Scott Adams Jack responded, “Oh, I have thoughts.”

36: 39 The Bacchi Decision

40:21 Where is cartooning right now?

Jack Ohman, The Sacramento Bee 2013 on a Texas fertilizer plant explosion

“Cartoons seem to be radioactive to the mainstream press.”

48:46 Thomas Nast

Jack Ohman, The Sacramento Bee – from Ohman’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize portfolio

Jack Ohman on, at 65, being on the younger side of the average age of editoonists:

“No one’s coming in … no one’s hiring.”

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Comments 2

  1. The highlight of the entire interview was the very balanced and intelligent discussion about Scott Adams and “Dilbert“. Go ahead and skip forward to the 33 minute mark, and listen from there to the 50 minute mark.

    P.S. You know, if that podcast could have skipped past all the instances of “you know” in the recording, it would have saved several minutes of irritation for every listener.

  2. I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but I know Jack a little and he’s one of the more thoughtful and skilled people in the business. He’s widely knowledgeable–bring up any topic and he’ll know something about it and have an opinion on it–like a good journalist should be. He’s a solid citizen and a good egg! Thanks for the link, DD.

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