Filed under: Editorial Cartooning

On the heals of Steve Benson’s Haditha cartoon comes Mike Luckovich’s cartoon on torture etiquette that has generated 18,000 votes on an online poll (Mike’s cartoons usually generate only 1,000) according to Editor and Publisher.Public Editor Angela Tuck, in a column Saturday, took issue with its timing, and claimed the “symbolism clearly overshadowed the intent.” The cartoon showed a hooded figure holding an American flag while reading a book on torture etiquette to an al-Qaida member.Not by design, it appeared just above photos of two Americans killed by insurgents in Iraq this week, whose bodies were brutalized, probably after they died.Tuck wrote: “Luckovich had that brutality in mind when he drew the cartoon, which was meant to criticize U.S. military leaders for allowing torture tactics, such as waterboarding (making prisoners feel as though they are being drowned) at Guantanamo Bay….’

Awhile ago, I posted a notice that Green Bay Press-Gazette editorial cartoonist Joe Heller was one of 41 artists to create artwork that would be displayed through out the city streets and then auctioned off to raise money for the Einstein Project.  Joe’s work is now on display in the lobby of the Brown County Library at 515 Pine Street.

Ted Rall will be the officiator at a small wedding between Congratulations to Masheka and Mikhaela!

Daryl Cagle invited readers to email him with their opinions regarding Steve Benson’s Marine Corps cartoon.  He received over 300 responses.We asked for it, and we got it – more than three hundred responses to the Benson cartoon below.

Still more AAEC convention news and photos are being posted.  The AAEC web site lists the stories that were generated from the convention (I think I’ve linked to most of them earlier) – but for those wanting to see photos of the event, they offer two links: Photos by J.P.

Mike Shelton, editorial cartoonist for the Orange County Register, began creating short animations last May and has now created five of them.  The animations are being done with co-worker Jocelyne Leger and the cartoons are also being distributed to other newspapers (as well as television) that belong to the same communication chain as the OC Register.Dave Astor has a much longer story detailing Mike’s work.

Walt Handelsman, editorial cartoonist for the Newsday, first created flash based animated editorial cartoons back in Februrary and has now produced his 10th animation.  His latest mocks Ann Coulter, the conservative pundit who has generated much publicity for her book through some pretty extreme statements.

From the Toledo Blade comes a snippet of good news for Kirk Walters, their editorial cartoonist, who was awarded “Best in Ohio” by the Press Club of Cleveland’s 28th annual Excellence in Journalism competition.

For the last three years I took an active part in various cartoon competitions around the globe (just a month ago I was awarded by the Award of Excellence at the National Press Club of Canada International Cartoon Contest.)  As a byproduct of all these activities I have got tons of info about cartoon competitions, awards, professional cartoonists etc. So the idea to create a free, available for everybody informational service came naturally.The site map is very simple, I practically do not provide graphic, concentrated on the content.

In our mailbag ….  .:Bloggers stoked reaction this week to a June 7 cartoon by The Republic’s Steve Benson.

Aaron Taylor, editorial cartoonist for the Daily Herald, writes in to remind me that Pat Bagley wasn’t the only Utah Headliners award winner this last weekend.  Aaron was awarded 1st place for editorial cartooning in the Division B category in the recent Society of Professional Journalists awards.

Daryl Cagle has posted video of Dick Locher and this year’s Locher Award winner William Warren talking about the award.  He has also posted the four award submission cartoons over on his site.

With the release of Ann Coulter’s new book, she’s generated a lot of press and controversy over some of the things she has written – and a few are questioning the reaction from the public who’s knickers were in a complete twist when ultra-liberal Ted Rall made some of the same points earlier….  Editor and Publisher writers Dave Astor and Greg Mitchell have asked Universal Press if any newspapers have cancelled their subscriptions to Coulter to which they replied no.Is there an example of a media bias or the power of imagery over words?

Salt Lake Tribune editorial cartoonist Pat Bagley was honored by the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists as the best editorial cartoonist in the state in an awards evening last Friday.  Pat has also released a follow up book to his “Curious George Goes To War” called “Curious George Is Watching You” which is getting lots of press here in the conservative state of Utah.

MetroWest Daily News editorial cartoonist, Dave Granlund’s work is on display now through the during the month of July at the Danforth Museum of Art. The exhibit is called “Pulling It All Together” and features artwork from his recent book.