Filed under: Editorial Cartooning

The Cincinnati Enquirer is celebrating 30 with Jim Borgman as their editorial cartoonist.  To commemorate, they’ve posted a Q&A with Jim, several congratulatory cartoons from fellow cartoonists (includng Dave Coverly, Jim Davis, Mike Luckovich, Marshall Ramsey, Jerry Scott, Jeff Stahler, Lynn & Rod Johnston), a video of Jim at work re-drawing the winning cartoon from the contest, a slideshow of 9 of his most favorite cartoons, caricatures of the local politicians he’s skewered over the years, and finally some of the cartoon contest runner ups.

Today he has signed Shannon Associates to represent him.While sitting at my desk at The Times, I wished I had time to do something more creative and fun like illustrate children’s books, and possibly write and illustrate my own children’s books.Even though, I’ve heard time and time again how hard it is to get an illustration representative, I decided to go for it. I worked really hard to build a strong portfolio and approached a handful of reps, and just for kicks, I sent my work to a couple of the DREAM reps that I had no chance in hell landing.Today, I signed with Shannon Associates, one of those dream reps.Shannon Associates is one of the top illustration reps in the world, who will represent my work in many illustration markets, starting with the children’s market.Shannon Associates represents or has worked on projects such as “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “Harry Potter,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Shrek,” “Star Wars” and most recently, Pixar’s “Cars,” according to Stacy.You can check out Stacy’s illustration portfolio that he maintains on his web site.

Rosemary Goudreau, the editorial page editor for the Tampa Tribune writes a farewell message to Paul Combs who left the Tribune to return to his native Ohio.Dear Readers,I’m sorry to say that Paul Combs, our editorial cartoonist, has decided to leave the Tribune.Paul and his family moved to Tampa a year and a half ago from a small town in Ohio, and like some number of people who move to Florida, they found it difficult to plant roots in our sandy soil.Now the draw of family and friends is pulling them home. Paul plans to syndicate his cartoons, so you will still see his work from time to time on our pages.And we hope to have another cartoonist on board by the end of the summer.Daryl Cagle has the last Combs/Tribune cartoon on his blog.

According to E&P, the Cincinnati Enquirer will publish a special section of the paper next Tuesday on the anniversary of Jim Borgman’s arrival at their newspaper.The section will include cartoons by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Borgman, comments by people who have been the subject of his commentary, a Q&A, the results of the “Borgman Challenge” cartoon contest, and other content.Borgman told E&P that the section (which will coincidentally be published the day of his wedding anniversary) is a real honor. He added that the newspaper may be doing the special section partly to make up for the cancellation of a 25th-anniversary public event that had been scheduled for October 2001.

Search and Destroy:AMERICA GONE WILD: CARTOONS BY TED RALLNot only is my new Central Asian travelogue/graphic novel/current affairs analysis SILK ROAD TO RUIN coming out this summer, there’s another treat for fans of my cartoons.AMERICA GONE WILD will come out this fall….  Here for the ages is the hate mail and death threats I received, my personal interactions with personalities like Bill O’Reilly, etc.–all the dish you’ve always wondered about.

Congratulations are in order for Canadian editorial Cartoonist Brian Gable of the Globe and Mail who was awarded his fourth National Newspaper Award.  The awards were handed out last Friday in Halifax.

Mike Luckovich, who has previously won this years Pulitzer Prize, SPJ’s Sigma Delta Chi Award, Overseas Press Club Award, and the National Headliners Award, can add the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.More details over at E&P.

Early in the Daily Cartoonist’s days, I posted a story about Jim being listed on the Annoyatorium – a gripe message board about people who annoy….  One of the reason he wasn’t annoying was “Every city election year, there is a write-in campaign for him for Cincinnati City Council.”All of this is a way of saying Cincinnati loves Jim.

Today at 1 p.m. (EST) the five nominees for the Reuben Award will be guests on the Washington Post’s chat forum.  The five guests and nominees are: Bill Amend (Foxtrot), Dave Coverly (Speed Bump), Brian Crane (Pickles), Mike Luckovich and Dan Piraro (Bizarro).You can submit questions ahead of time on the wp site.

Now Photoshop lets us appleC-appleV elements and move them around, making complicated cartoons like this one do-able under tight deadlines.That said, I always feel an irrational twinge of guilt when I cut-and-paste within a cartoon, as if readers have paid me by the line and insist on their money’s worth.  For reasons I can’t explain, I usually go back in and tweak the characters and backgrounds here and there to give the eagle-eyed wannabes something to examine and form conspiracy theories about.

Larry Wright took a buyout from the Detroit News this spring and bought a Corvette….  He takes a buyout, but will continue to do three cartoons a week for the paper, plus consult with the paper on their web site (which he managed since the 90’s) and he’s now the happy owner of a new Corvette.

It’s been a while since I last posted a story about some of the newspaper industry happenings, but I thought this story about McClatchy selling the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer to a local Philadelphia group was important for one reason: The new owners do not intend to lay off any staff at either paper.  That means editorial cartoonists Signe Wilkinson and Tony Auth’s jobs are safe.

Yesterday I mentioned David Horsey had taken first place for editorial cartooning in the Western Washington SPJ, but he’s not the only cartoonist to go home with an award.  Milt Priggee who draws for the Puget Sound Business Journal has also took first place in the category of “cartoons” (meaning local business editorial cartoons) and again in “illustrations.”

Ted Rall has announced on his blog that his new book “SILK ROAD TO RUIN: IS CENTRAL ASIA THE NEW MIDDLE EAST?”… A follow-up of sorts to TO AFGHANISTAN AND BACK, SILK ROAD TO RUIN is part travelogue, part current affairs, a comprehensive look at the “Stans” and why Central Asia will be to the 21st century what the Middle East was to the Middle East: the lynchpin and perrenial hotspot that will keep American and other Western foreign policy makers jumping.

Via Mike Lynch, comes word that Paul Conrad has launched a new web site….  Times during which he made President Nixon’s infamous “Enemies List.”The site promotes is a tribute to his work and features a portfolio and a sneak preview at a documentary of his career.