Charles Apple

That sound you’re hearing is yet another shoe dropping.

The News & Observer of Raleigh announced Thursday it was eliminating 53 more jobs — 20 of them in the newsroom. This is the third job reduction since May for The N&O.

Among the casualties this time: Editorial cartoonist Dwane Powell, who has drawn for The N&O for 33 years, and graphics editor-turned-political satirist/flash animator Grey Blackwell.

Grey, hard at work in his office at The N&O in February.
—

You may recall we posted a very nice Q&A with Grey this past spring. We’re huge fans of his work. Before he got into the online thing, Grey had been graphics editor of The N&O for eight years.

Here’s a list of the animated shorts Grey has created for The N&O. Find Grey’s portfolio on his personal web page.

N&O cartoonist Dwane Powell
—

Dwane, too, will be missed. He was always very kind to me, a former editorial cartoonist. The N&O’s Jonathan Cox reports that Dwane:

…plans to leave the newspaper after the elections in November. He’s unsure of his plans, saying he might continuing drawing for the Creators Syndicate that distributes his work or retire completely.

[N&O publisher Orage Quarles III] said he hasn’t yet decided whether to replace Powell but might try out some new cartoonists on the editorial page.

Find Dwane’s N&O cartoons here. Find his official bio here.

The N&O’s Pat Stith
—

Another recent high-profile departure: Ace investigative reporter Pat Stith, who won a Pulitzer for The N&O in 1996. Pat was one of the more graphics-friendly reporters at the paper. My very first SND award came as a result of a project he and I worked on together, 13 years ago.

Read The N&O’s report here. Dammit.

Full disclosure: I worked at The N&O from April 1993 to October 1996.

Share on Facebook

Looks like Grey Blackwell of the Raleigh News & Observer has done it again. Just in time for political conventional season, too.

In his latest animated musical masterpiece, Grey depicts presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain as they argue over who has the more impressive list of celebrity supporters in Hollywood.

Forget those already-stale JibJab guys. Grey kicks their asses.

Find it here. Be prepared to e-mail it to all your pals.

Read the Q&A with Grey that we published earlier this year here.

Find more of Grey’s work archived here.

Share on Facebook

In case you missed it, The New York Times ran an interesting piece about Al Jaffee, the artist who creates — among other things — those Fold-in features that have appeared on the back page of Mad magazine over the past 44 years.

The Times‘ Neil Genzlinger writes:

Mad is, incongruously, a publication that seems to cultivate longevity, as evident from artists like Mort Drucker (first appearance, 1957) and Sergio Aragonés (1963). No current contributor, though, goes back further than Mr. Jaffee. And while other Mad features, like Spy vs. Spy, have changed artists over the years, only Mr. Jaffee has drawn the fold-in. Since the first appeared in April 1964 all but a handful of specialty issues of the magazine have had one.

“A number of months ago I counted, and I came up with something like 396,” Mr. Jaffee said. “I must have done No. 400 by now.”

87-year-old Mad artist Al Jaffee. Photo
by Librado Romero/The New York Times
—

He started work on No. 4-whatever, for the issue that goes on sale in mid-May, as he has all the others: with a rough pencil sketch. This one shows an altar scene invoking the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is due out soon, and the fold-in question is, “What frightening ancient relic will be the focus of much attention and fanfare this summer?” The folded-in answer, of course, has nothing to do with Indiana Jones.

It’s a wonderful profile, covering how Jaffee started work for Mad, step-by-step how he creates his Fold-In features and delving into his recent bout with colon cancer.

Perhaps the most interesting part is a portfolio of 23 Fold-Ins in which you have to click and drag the page in order to see the hidden picture.

Make sure you check it out in the Sunday Times.

Share on Facebook

Here’s wishing the happiest of VizEds birthday wishes today to Wes Rand, an artist with The Hartford Courant. Wes turns 45 today.
One is Wes. The other is his self-portrait.
Can you guess which is which? Both are
from Wes’ Facebook page.
—

A 1986 graduate of the University of Rhode Island, Wes has been an artist for the Courant since 2000.

Wes has only one piece posted in his portfolio at NewsPageDesigner. But what a piece it is!

Just when you think you’ve seen every kind of sports stadium graphic you can see, someone comes along and does something like this: A watercolor stadium graphic.

Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

Can we see that again, in higher-rez instant replay?

Sure just click on the thumbnail:

Wes was kind enough to send me a very, very large version a couple of years ago. I’ve been using it in many of my slideshows.

So that’s the only piece he’s posted at NPD. But Wes has a nicely-designed personal web site where you can see more of his work.

He’s really into cartooning:

And, of course, he illustrates for the Courant:

Wes has even designed a number of fonts that you can download and use for free:

I’m thinking that “HandORand” would make a great headline font.

In addition, Wes writes a blog he calls Inklings. Find it here.

Wes sits atop what the Batmobile would have
looked like, if Bruce Wayne had existed in the
1840s. From Wes’ Flickr feed.
—

Wes shares a birthday with Megan Lavey of The Arizona Daily Star, scientist Linus Pauling, race car driver Mario Andretti and actors Ali Lartner, John Turturro, Bernadette Peters, Gavin MacLeod, and Gilbert Gottfried.

A veteran of many, many animated kids’ shows and movies, Gottfried is probably most famous for giving the voice to the AFLAC duck. What a career.

Plus, today is Public Sleeping Day. Seriously.

Celebrate the day, Wes, by dozing off at your desk!

Best wishes for a happy birthday, man!

Share on Facebook

Bob Englehart, editorial cartoonist of The Hartford Courant, made an interesting error in his cartoon depicting Hillary Clinton’s win in last week’s New Hampshire primary.

It’s in the last panel. Let’s see if you can catch it:

That’s right. He drew New Hampshire upside-down.

Editor & Publisher’s Dave Astor reports:

When contacted by E&P, Englehart replied: “Hah! I made a mistake. I was so focused on making a vertical state fit a horizontal space that I didn’t even notice I had made it upside down! Most people didn’t even notice.”

And he quipped: “I hear New Hampshire is changing its slogan to ‘Live Right Side Up, Or Die.’”

Find Englehart’s cartoon blog here. Readers comments on that particular cartoon can be found here.

—

UPDATE:

The Associated Press reports:

The state of New Hampshire is getting out of the business of issuing identification cards to members of the news media.

The man who handled the chore — Jim Van Dongen of the state Department of Safety — says the decision is based on the proliferation of online and specialty news outlets and technology that allows just about anyone to call himself a journalist. Van Dongen says that put him and his bosses in the uncomfortable position of issuing cards to all comers or having to decide who is a legitimate journalist.

No great loss, folks. Newspapers will have to create their own laminated press pass ID cards.

And there in New Hampshire, they’ll probably look something like this:

Share on Facebook

Joe Strupp of Editor & Publisher reports today: 

When the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press wanted a Page One image to go with a package of stories on Gov. Jon Corzine’s controversial plan to borrow money against the state’s toll roads, a mere photo would not suffice.

So Executive Editor William “Skip” Hidlay approved an illustration for Sunday’s paper showing Corzine, a Democrat, in a hat and tweed coat, opening one side to reveal cars pinned to the inner lining like a peddler offering his trinkets.

Photoillustration by Jeff Colson/The Asbury Park Press
—

Under the headline, “Hocking the highways,” the accompanying stories investigated how Corzine’s plan would likely increase tolls.

…The approach did not sit well with Corzine’s office, which responded Monday with a terse press release that included an open letter to the paper calling the image “a tremendous disservice.”

The governor’s chief of staff, Bradley Abelow, wrote in a press release labeled as ”an open letter to the editors” of the Press:

While working with photo editing software may be a useful tool for assembling gag photos or correcting minor imperfections, using it to manipulate the Governor - any governor - into a sinister character is not what we would expect from a responsible media organization.

As we enter the important debate on how best to restructure New Jersey’s finances to better serve the public, the free press must do so without their own opinion or agenda. Images that are nothing more than editorial cartoons morphed into photographs are fine – for the editorial page. But placement of such images on the front page of the Sunday edition demonstrates a blatant disregard for objective reporting.

 Strupp reports:

“We weren’t attempting to show the governor in any kind of sinister light,” Hidlay told E&P. “We were looking for a way to illustrate a very complex problem that is difficult to show visually.”

…The paper published the entire release as a letter to the editor on Tuesday, but Hidlay said no apology would be forthcoming. “We think the reporting is outstanding and frames the issue for New Jersey readers,” he said. “It is no different from what any other news organization has done in the past.”

Reaction to the controversy has been mixed — as you’d imagine. A reader who calls himself Puffaroo commented Tuesday on the Press web site where the open letter was posted:

Well, the APP doesn’t owe me any apologies. I thought the Photoshopped image of Corzine pretty much captured the essence of the deal. It was a riot to boot.

Another reader posted:

Responsible media organization? HAAAHAAHAheeooouuaaahaahaaa!!

He should have added: “It is, however, what we expect from the servile lackeys who serve their paymasters at the Gannett-run APP, though.”

That reader called himself DumbAsABush. Read into that what you will.

The actual story from Sunday generated feedback from readers, as well. The fourth comment posted was from Justaguy:

I see the new publisher has added Page One to the APP Opinion Pages.  

Someone called APP Reader posted:

What’s with the picture?! Has the Asbury Park Press turned into the N.Y. Post?! 

Strupp points out in his story that the partisan blogs got involved Monday. The Democratic blog Blue Jersey posted:

The Asbury Park Press editorial board has a history of partisanship, but apparently even their supposedly objective reporting is slanted. It’s pretty sad when the Asbury Park Press is putting out content on par with the Trentonian.

Another political blog, In the Lobby — which, I presume, leans in the opposite direction — felt differently: 

By publicly complaining about the photo illustration, Bradley Abelow made it into a news story. In effect, he gave it legs.

But we have to ask: Have Corzine or Abelow ever seen political advertisements — especially some of the ones that the governor’s money helped pay for?

The governor is the one who is making us wait until Jan. 8 before he tells us what he has in mind. He’s the one who’s been acting like he has something to hide.

Instead of sending out a press release complaining about the Asbury Park Press, it’s too bad Corzine and Abelow couldn’t send out a press release telling us how much we should expect in a toll hike.

Looks to me like the illustration — created by Asbury Park’s Jeff Colson — caused folks to stop and think and to form opinions of their own. Which is what any good illustration would do. 

Did this one go over the line? Is it closer to being an editorial cartoon than a page-one illustration?

What do you think?

—

The illustration was created by Jeff Colson of the Press. See more of his work here. 

Click on the thumnails below for larger jpeg views of the illustration or the whole page:

Find a PDF of the Sunday page containing the illustration here (at The Newseum).

Find Strupp’s E&P article here. 

Find the press release from the Governor’s office here. 

Find the Press‘ posting of the press release — along with comments from readers — here.

Find Sunday’s APP A1 lead story here.

See readers’ comments to that story here. 

We first read about all this today via Romenesko. 

Share on Facebook