This year, I think, marks my 10 year anniversary as an editorial cartoonist. I have to be honest… I sucked baaaaaad 10 years ago. Many aspiring cartoonist will frequently ask, “how did you get started drawing editorial cartoons?” The answer I should have given them was, “by sucking at it really, really badly for a couple years.” I started out at Michigan State’s State News. At the time it was a 40,000+ daily newspaper which was widely read by both the constantly drunk underachievers and the college elite. It was the perfect place to learn and to experience the reach of a large-ish daily newspaper in a campus filled with your constituents.
To mildly demonstrate what I'm taking about, check out the cartoon below from the year 2000. It was also included in the winning Locher Award Portfolio. The cartoons from 97 -99 were almost unrecognizable as cartoons.
Lately I haven't been cranking the desired "Bilicki 5-a-week" and I want to save face by stating that's not because of laziness. Actually, it’s the complete opposite. These new color cartoons take about 3 times as long to create. They're monsters. The usual black and white toon was done at 9”x12” and these are done at a whopping 12’x16”in full “analog” watercolor. I’m changing from quantity over quality to quality over quantity even though they’re less newsworthy because the cartoon factory is efficaciously effective.
BOOK NEWS!
MORE BUSH CARTOONS!Rob Rogers did a fantastic job curating the Bush Leaguers Exhibition this past summer. Congrats Rob... you went overboard while remaining on deck as the captain. Clap. Clap. Clap.
This is what the AAEC site has to say...
"This catalog is a rare collection of 98 current political cartoons about George W. Bush and his most trusted advisors. It contains the complete exhibit, "Bush Leaguers: Cartoonists Take On The White House", which was on display at the American University Museum in Washington, D.C. in honor of the AAEC's 50th anniversary. Over 80 cartoonists from newspapers across the country, including several Pulitzer Prize winners, have contributed their best cartoons depicting George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and more."
(Click on the image to purchase)
In other book news, it’s time to stuff our stockings full of more cartoons. For the past four years or so Daryl Cagle has hand-picked what he things are the years best toons. I'm glad he picked some of mine.This is what Amazon said about it:
"All of the top political cartoonists in the world contributed to this collection of the best cartoons of 2007, from Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index website, the most popular cartoon site on the web (www.cagle.com). More than eight hundred cartoons cover the major topics of the year, from lovesick diaper astronauts to the surge in Iraq. We have cartoons on Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, Paris Hilton in jail, Senator Larry Craig in the bathroom, the presidential candidates, poison Chinese toys and much, much more! News junkies and cartoon fans won't want to miss this great cartoon history of the year 2007!"
This is what I say about it: "You clicky, you buy!"
(Click on the image to purchase)
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