Editorial Cartoonist Profiles
Skip to comments
With Derf Backderf, Bill Dyer, Tim Atseff, Mike Luckovich, Steve Kelley, Terry Mosher, Joel Pett, and Ron Cobb.
Derf Backderf
Annie Nickoloff for Cleveland Magazine interviews Derf (John) Backderf about this his new book The Dissidents, a graphic history about “the artists who worked for New York City’s The Masses, a socialist political magazine of the early 1900s.”
Obviously, that was not possible [to talk to the artists] with a story that took place 110 years ago. It was done through autobiographies and the archives of The Masses themselves. I read every issue, cover to cover. There’s six years’ worth. You just look for clues and slowly build your story outward from there.
Elsewhere The Chris Hedges Report features a 40 minutes interview with Derf Backderf about The Dissidents. The link also contains a transcript of the interview.
Chris Hedges: Let’s talk about The Masses. So, it’s a trope, but it works in your book. You have this fictional cartoonist who kind of is the narrator of the story.
Derf Backderf: He is the narrator, yeah. I needed a narrator. I needed to be to be able to explain what was happening to these cartoonists and able to explain the cartoons themselves because I’m dredging up a 110-year-old cartoons here. And I needed someone to explain the context and why they were so incendiary and why the government was so terrified of them.
Bill Dyer
Editorial and sports cartoonist for The Knoxville News-Sentinel (1935-1976) and comic strip artist (Adventures of Patsy, Oaky Doaks) Bill Dyer is the subject of a gallery as The News-Sentinel digs through it archives spotlighting the cartoonist.
The paper makes note for readers not to be confused with cartoonist Bil Dwyer (Dumb Dora, Muggs and Skeeter).
Tim Atseff
Yahri Edmond for Southern Illinois University’s The Daily Egyptian reviews Tim Atseff‘s “Requiem for Newspapers -30-” exhibit at the university’s Sharp Museum.
“Requiem for Newspapers, -30-” a large-scale exhibition by the former newspaper editor turned artist, is on display in Faner Hall at the Sharp Museum through December. The exhibition combines painting, collage and installation to examine the history of newspapers and the growing loss of local journalism.
Tim Atseff‘s newspaper background includes working as copy boy, staff illustrator, photo retoucher, news layout artist, art director, political cartoonist, designer, and managing editor.
Mike Luckovich
Jeff Hullinger at Georgia Public Broadcasting recently interviewed Mike Luckovich in a 2 minute segment on the cartoonist’s though while creating his 9-11 cartoon that same day.
“Normally, I try and use humor as a means of getting across my point but after September 11th you couldn’t use humor. The tragedy was enormous.”
Steve Kelley
The New Hampshire Union Leader ran a Steve Kelley cartoon that elicited a comment from a reader:
To the Editor: The editorial team at the New Hampshire Union Leader has access to a lot of syndicated political cartoons every day. Out of all the cartoons available, the decision to publish the cartoon by Steve Kelley that attempts to find humor in the death of three young children — one only eight months old — is indefensible.
Terry Mosher and Andy Donato
From last year on Terry Mosher’s Facebook page is a photo of him and Andy Donato with the caption:
Here is a recent pic of me with the Toronto Sun cartoonist, Andy Donato. Andy is the longest continuous working political cartoonist in North America. Me, I’m the second-longest…
With Donato’s recent retirement I guess Mosher is now “the longest continuous working political cartoonist in North America.”
Joel Pett
“75 months, 40 panels, 0 sense at all.” 6 years and 3 months after 9-11 Joel Pett created a visual timeline of the 6 years that followed that tragedy. “The most ambitious cartoon undertaking of [his] career,” a”full-page synopsis of the 9/11 aftermath.” On his Substack Pett discusses the cartooning tour de force.
Ron Cobb
News of a documentary project with Ron Cobb as the subject had Steven Heller thinking about the underground editorial cartoonist, which prompted Heller to repost a past profile and gallery of Cobb.
Comments