RIP Elie Wiesel

I don't often post examples from my short, failed career as a political cartoonist, but the death this week of the great Elie Wiesel reminded me of probably the best political cartoon I drew.

In 1985, Ronald Reagan was asked by German president Helmet Kohl to lay a wreath for German war dead at Bitburg Cemetery. Turns out 50 of Hitler's SS Stormtroopers were also buried there, with distinctive black tombstones, and it became a total debacle for the Great Communicator, one which dominated headlines for weeks leading up to the visit. For the first time in his Presidency, Ronnie couldn't spin the issue. But he stubbornly went ahead with it. In an incredibly unlucky coincidence, it so happened that Wiesel was to receive the Congressional Gold Medal at the White House smack in the middle of this controversy. White House toadies tried to muzzle Wiesel, a man who had survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel would not be intimidated and instead scolded a contrite Reagan in front of the nation. “That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims of the SS.”

With the controversy roiling, Ronnie tried to give a speech about the deficit and how Reaganomics would solve everything. It landed like a turd on a hot sidewalk. Thus this cartoon.

The paper I worked for in Florida was a real rightwing rag. This was a problem, as you can imagine, considering my emerging socialist views. I made it work by sticking to safe topics: bureaucratic f-ups, the Soviets, terrorism, etc. Bashing the beloved Reagan was off limits. But when I showed the editor the sketch for this one, he burst out laughing and gave the ok. One of the far-right editorial writers (who looked like Nosferatu and frequently dropped the N-word in meetings) stopped speaking to me after it ran.

I was so impressed by the simple courage of the small, quiet Wiesel that day, I ran out and bought copies of his novels "The Gates of the Forest" and "Twilight"  and discovered his work.

This is typical of my style at the time. Very sketchy (with flexible point pens!), nothing particularly daring, stylistically, but I was still learning to draw at this point, at age 25. There's no way I could have pulled off a drawing like this even a year earlier.

Six months later, a new editor rode in and fired me for, as he put it, "general tastelessness." That was it for my mainstream political cartoon career. Once sacked, I figured, screw it, I might as well just make the cartoons I want to make.

Live drawing at the art museum

As part of the centennial weekend of the Cleveland Museum of Art, I took part in the live drawing event on the museum's front lawn. Live drawing is definitely NOT my bag, but it was a beautiful day and what's not to love about artists gathering to make stuff?

My assignment was to re-imagine a favorite piece of art from the museum's permanent collection. It was an easy choice, George Bellows' "Stag at Sharkey's." I first encountered this painting when I was a teenager. I was mesmerized by it then, and it still fascinates me. That's it (above).

I re-interpreted it by placing the painting in the upcoming GOP Convention here in Cleveland!

I'm a big fan of Bellows, the best known artist in the Ashcan School of the early 20th Century. Not only is his work incredible, he's also an Ohio State grad, like me, and drew illustrations for various campus publications, including the Ohio State Lantern, the student newspaper where my cartoons were first  published. After college, he moved to New York City and fell in with the leftist radicals there. He contributed drawings to The Masses, the only publication ever shuttered by the federal government, under the Sedition Act, which basically eliminated the First Amendment during WW1. Bellows had split with The Masses by then, when he disagreed with their anti-draft position. He stopped doing political work and concentrated on painting scenes of his grimy Lower Eastside neighborhood. Sharkey's  was right across the street from his studio.

It's ok, for a live drawing done with a Sharpie! Should have placed another sign on the left to blance the weight of the composition... and I forgot the referee altogether. Could have made him a Dead Breitbart reporter live streaming the floor fight. Oh well, like I said, live drawing ain't my bag. I had fun though, even if I inadvertently swallowed about 20 mayflies, who just had their giant Spring hatch and are pouring off Lake Erie by the billions. Lucky I had a Great Lakes draft (pictured below) to wash down the bugs!

The Paris Metro!

Yeah, it's been nearly a month since my last post. Been too busy for anything except Facebook and Twitter posts. 

Been slogging along on The Baron of Prospect Ave. webcomic. Thirty pages and counting now up for your enjoyment HERE.

And the TRASHED promotional tour continues. I just returned from two weeks in Flanders and Holland and an appearance at the Haarlem Comics Festival. It was all great fun. Next up... gulp.... San Diego Comicon! I'm an invited guest and this will be my first Comicon. I'm a little nervous, since mainstream cons aren't my thing and this is the Lord God of mainstream cons. I'm also up for an Eisner Award and appearing on (so far) FIVE panels!

Here's another project I was working on. The Rock en Seine festival in Paris hired me to draw one of the 40 posters for the fest. I requested the American band Clutch, who I've long been a fan of. Conceptual poster art is not really my thing either, and frankly, I struggled with the poster. I work well when I have a concept to wrap a drawing around, but just coming up with an image out of the ether? Never been able to do that. Here in Cleveland, we have a tremendous tradition of great rock poster artists, from Derek Hess to Jake Kelly to John G.

Took me over a week to come up with an image I was ok with, and another week to finally land on a color scheme I thought would pop. Here it is:

Subtle it is not! I decided to go for it with a really radical color.  As is normal with pieces I struggle with, I wasn't sure if this was good or shit when I finished it. But I simply ran out of time. The deadline was here and I emailed it to the Fest art director with just minutes to spare.

Well, I'm happy to report it's apparently NOT shit, because Rock en Seine selected my poster as one of the ones they would plaster on walls in the Paris Metro! I just received this photo, my poster blown up HUGE, on the wall of the Duroc Station (on line 11 and 13, for those of you familiar with the Paris Metro). The first picture above comes from that station. Below is a friend of mine in Paris who was kind enough to take these shots for me. NIce re-enactment!

Ten years ago I was toiling away in a dying genre in a dying business, losing papers and income in bunches, and losing interest in my own work, too. I thought then: Time to try my hand at books. What have I got to lose? Now I've got giant posters hanging in the Paris Metro and just finished my 15th European Tour in the past four years! If I think too much about tall his, I just start laughing in disbelief.

The final photo (below) is from the massive Les Halles station in central Paris. These will only be up for a week. Wish I could have seen them in person.

Between the Lines: Derf Backderf

My next appearance! This Week.

This Wednesday, May 18 at 7 pm, Literary Cleveland hosts an author talk with graphic novelist Derf Backderf, in conversation with fellow comics creator John G. The event will take place at the legendary Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern. Admission is free.

Join Derf and John as they discuss the creative process and the nuts and bolts of writing 

comics. Macs Backs will be selling Derf's books. Signing to follow the talk.              

Signing & Talk this Weds in Cleveland!

Baron of Prospect Ave. update

My webcomic experiment is chugging along here. I have 24 pages up and am starting to post several pages a week. The plan is to knock the shit out of this over the summer. The opening scene is completed and I'm starting in on the next.

I'm having fun with it, and I'm happy with it so far. This isn't something I really view as a commercial work. It's a labor of love. I just want to keep busy and stay productive. Of course, that's how Trashed began, too, as a just-for-fun webcomic. And look what happened there!

As I explained earlier, this project is funded by a year-long grant from the Cultural Workforce, a taxpayer-funded arts organization here in greater Cleveland. How cool is THAT? Art grants for comics! So I can afford to give it away for free, because I am getting paid for it. My plan is to deliver a complete 100-page (or so) story this year. After that, I'll take down the pages and add to the story to make it a proper book and, yeah, it'll eventually be published.

I'm posting these pages in simple b&w. No shading, no color. I didn't want to get bogged down with that. Eventually, I will, and the finished book will have one or the other. Besides the original PR&TP was just b&w line and everyone seems to enjoy it just fine.

Fear not, this tale will be every bit as bawdy and grungy as the original. The first sex scene is just around the corner!

Read it all HERE

The War on Political Cartoons Continues

Not satisfied with the almost total extinction of the daily political cartoonist, the Corporate Master of Media are now turning their attention to niche publications and their cartoonists.

Rick Friday has been penning political cartoons on farm issues for the Farm News in Iowa for 21 years. Last week, he wrote a cartoon that was mildly critical of the salaries of AgriBiz CEOs. 

The editor of Farm News emailed him the next day with the news that higher ups had ordered the editor fire Friday immediately. Apparently, an advertiser, presumably one of the AgriBiz's in the cartoon, had yanked its ads in protest and the newspaper decided to buckle and throw itself at the feet of the offended corporate entity and plead for mercy.

Farm News is owned by Ogden Newspapers Inc. of Wheeling, West Virginia. The family-owned chain owns several dozen daily, weekly and niche newspapers, mostly in small markets and most are total shit.

This is how bad its gotten for the once-storied profession of political cartooning. Our Masters don't like being made fun of in cartoons, no matter how small the publication.

Wrote Friday in a facebook post: "Hopefully my children and my grandchildren will see that this last cartoon ... will shine light on how fragile our rights to free speech and free press really are in the country."