Tooners For Tuesday
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Profiling Florida cartoonist Ron Bates, Matt Wuerker and Kevin ‘KAL’ Kallaugher and The Founding Fathers, and Pedro X. Molina on the state of the art he is proudly a part.
Ron Bates
Nicole Stitz for The Port Charlotte Sun profiles Ron Bates a muralist, set designer, commercial artist, illustrator and, once he moved to Florida, editorial cartoonist.
Since relocating to Port Charlotte in 2002 with his wife Donnell and daughter Casey, Bates has become a familiar artistic presence throughout the region. His early Florida works included watercolor and colored pencil collage illustrations of Punta Gorda and Gasparilla Island landmarks, some of which were sold as Kiwanis Club fundraisers.
Not long after arriving, Bates submitted several editorial cartoons to The Charlotte Sun — a decision that launched a remarkable 17-year run illustrating political and community commentary for the newspaper and syndicating his work across Florida publications.
He said of his editorial cartoons that he liked to steer away from controversial fueled political content and instead focused on local and state environmental concerns. He was able to “poke fun” and make light of otherwise stressful situations. Bates shared that he moved into the area just in time to endure Hurricane Charley — the aftermath of which provided for lots of inspiration for his editorial cartoons.
Matt and KAL Draw the Founding Fathers
For The Hay Adams July 4th celebration editorial cartoonists Kevin “Kal” Kallaugher and Matt Wuerker temporarily forget the current politicians and go back 250 years.
For America’s 250th Fourth of July at The Hay-Adams, an opportunity for the artists to draw entirely new subjects arose. Instead of depicting the most prominent voices in today’s political world, the storied coasters could feature figures who were integral to the country’s history.
Hotel Manager Colette Marquez tapped Kevin “Kal” Kallaugher and Matt Wuerker to collaborate on this rare set of designs. Upon discussing the concept, the three realized that there are far too many pivotal figures from across the full 250 years of America’s history to choose from. So, they opted instead to focus solely on the Founding Fathers.
The cartoonists discuss their caricatures of The Continentals.
“Ben Franklin has a very cartoonish face and is extreme with his hair and glasses, Alexander Hamilton sort of had boring features, but John Adams had truly comical aspects to his face and hair,” Matt said.
Kal said that he had originally drawn James Madison in front of the hotel, but then realized the designs needed to show someone at Top of the Hay. So, he kept part of the original depiction of Madison, then painted an entirely separate background, and put the original head on it.
Pedro X. Molina on The State of The Art
For Tinyview Pedro X. Molina contributes an illustrated essay on comics – his pride in the craft, the decline of newspapers, the rise of a.i., the expected free content of the internet, the Substack, Patreon, and Tinyview alternatives, and more.
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