Showing posts with label Sean Delonas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sean Delonas. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

ComicsDC makes Olbermann's Countdown


Well, they used one of my pictures of Sean Delonas at least in their February 23rd "New York Post outrage goes national." Uncredited, I assume, but Our Man Thompson spotted it and let me know.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Kal on Delonas chimp cartoon

Kal sent a note saying that he's got a blogpost on the Delonas cartoon.

He's also traveling a bit:


In June I will be the featured international artist at the annual Knokke-Heist cartoon festival in Belgium. The festival, one of the largest of its kind , will feature an exhibition of 50 originals and a lecture/symposium in the summer. The exhibition will be on display at the Belgium seaside resort through September.

I am delighted and honored to announce that I will be at the University of Portland on Thursday, March 5 to deliver the introductory William James Mazzacco Memorial Lecture in Distributive Justice.The lecture takes place at the Buckley Center Auditorium (5000 N Willamette Blvd.) at the University of Portland at 7:30 p.m. The lecture is open to the public.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Weingarten on Prickly City, Doonesbury, Delonas' chimp

From the 2/10 Chatalogical Humor:

Washington, D.C.: Gene - what did you think of last Friday's Prickly City where they call Rush Limbaugh a jerk? It actually made me laugh.

Gene Weingarten: I would like this better if it were funny. I applaud the stance, but I think political cartoonists -- and political standup comics -- have an obligation to be funny.

_______________________

"...I think political cartoonists -- and political standup comics -- have an obligation to be funny." : Unless their name is Trudeau, the Garfield of political "humor."

Gene Weingarten: I was thinking specifically of Garry Trudeau and Doonesbury. He is the perfect example of the political satirist who sees his mission as humor first.


and 2/17's Chatalogical Humor:

Alexandria, VA: Hi,

No, Prickly City wasn't funny, and did you leave the "ly" off your link intentionally, or Freudian slip of a sort?

Gene Weingarten: I always call it Prick City, because of its politics. Been doing that for years.
_________

Richmond, Va.: I have a great Ralph Steadman story for you. At some point he was in town doing a book signing for his illustrated version of "Animal Farm" (it's so amazing). He was giving each signature a unique ink-blot and a fan came up and said "do something really crazy to mine!" So Steadman took out his lighter and set it on fire.

Gene Weingarten: Excellent. I have that Animal Farm book. It is brilliant.

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UPDATED 2.20.09

Gene Weingarten: I want to begin with an important clarification. In yesterday's update I was asked if I found THIS photograph interesting in light of the sharply debated prior discussion involving posteriors. I responded with laughter. At some point during the day yesterday, the link mysteriously shifted to a different picture, namely THIS one, which was a highly controversial political cartoon from the New York Post. This cartoon was seen by many people as a racist commentary directed at President Obama. This one I would not have laughed at.

But let's talk about it!

It's by Post cartoonist Sean Delonas, a man whose work I have read and loathed for years. Delonas is strident, unfunny, rabidly right-wing and a virulent bigot, portraying gay people in a way so revolting you would think it's parody if you saw it in The Onion. It's not. Here is Sean Delonas, for example, on gay marriage. Here is Sean Delonas on Governor McGreevey. See that oddly raised leg? That is Delonas's signature move to show someone is gay: Gays are prancing lilyhoppers!

So what do we make of the furor over the chimp cartoon? Is it racist? Does Delonas get the benefit of the doubt?

Sure. I'll give it to him. This cartoon is interpretable without racial overtones: The stimulus bill is stupid, he thinks: It might as well have been written by a rabid chimp. The cartoon coincided with the story of the crazed chimp in Connecticut who ripped off a woman's face, and was shot to death by police. Obama wasn't really the author of the stimulus bill, though his was the most public face behind it. Mostly, I think comparing a black person to an ape is so archaic, so Depression-era, and so primitive that even a Neanderthal like Delonas wouldn't do it.

No, what Delonas would and did do is create a totally pathetic cartoon using the unspeakable tragedy of the chimp attack, which left a woman horrifyingly maimed, to make some lame political point about the stimulus package. It's inappropriate, unclever, and makes senseless use of a shockingly violent image. Pure Delonas, pure crap, but not racist.

Express poll on Delonas chimp cartoon

Yesterday the Express asked "Was the New York Post's cartoon using a chimp to criticize the stimulus bill racist?"

http://www.expressnightout.com/pollcenter/index.php?poll_date=2009-02-19

A short sample of the answers is printed in today's paper, and you can click through the online link to read 75 more.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

NY Post chimp cartoon starts a firestorm on a Wash Post blog.

Posting for the blog host Mike Rhode:

Yesterday, Mr. Cavna asked about a Sean Delonas cartoon, "The Stimulus Monkey': Is Today's 'NY Post' Cartoon Racist?" As of this posting, he's got 81 comments, possibly a record for the Comic Riffs blog. Judging from the hits this blog got last night on Delonas (for a post about meeting him at a children's book signing), he's really touched a nerve.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Sean Delonas booksigning



Sean Delonas and his son Ryan signed their new children's book, Scuttle's Big Wish today at Aladinn's Lamp bookstore in Arlington. Sean is the New York Post's cartoonist for Page Six. Ryan's a ten-year old who tells stories. The two collaborated on Scuttle, a retelling of King Midas, which was picked up by HarperCollins. Sean painted each page in oil (see the photo of two of the paintings) and each took about 100 hours to complete. With revisions, the whole book took about four years, but they've got two more in the pipeline now. Sean told me that he got started in cartoons when his friend Bay Rigby at the NY Post took a break and recommended him as a replacement. Sean's website, linked above, has plenty of examples of his cartoons.

The bookstore had them sign some extra copies which should be available. (They also had signed copies of Mo Willems' You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons: The World on One Cartoon a Day.)



Ryan (seated with cheese hat) and Sean Delonas (standing with cheese tie)


Sean Delonas



Ryan Delonas



Two original oils for the book.