Telnaes and Wilkinson on Washington Journal

First Anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo Attack

Ylan Mui

Washington Journal January 9, 2016
http://www.c-span.org/video/?402665-5/washington-journal-roundtable-first-anniversary-charlie-hebdo-attack

Ann Telnaes and Signe Wilkinson talked about the role of political cartoonists and the state of freedom of speech one year after the attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's Paris headquarters. Topics included cartoonists as journalists; the role of editorial cartoonists in civic and political debate; and the First Amendment. They showed various cartoons and discussed their editorial intention and what topics and caricatures were acceptable. Topics included religious subjects and the controversy over Ms. Telnaes' Christmas cartoon of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his children that was pulled by Washington Post.

Cartoons to see in the L.o.C.

The Library of Congress has several cartoon and comics exhibits up now.  Here's a quick overview.

You can buy District Comics in their gift shop in the Jefferson Building. My story on the Army Medical Museum is around page 90, wink, wink.

Also in the Jefferson Building for another month is  "Down to Earth: Herblock and Photographers Observe the Environment" curated by Carol Johnson and Sara Duke. Carol's the photograph curator, Sara the Herblock one. I thought this was an excellent exhibit. The photographs and the cartoons really complemented each other, and the unlikely pairing made for a stronger exhibit than either alone would have.

There's a small brochure for the exhibit, although you have to get it at the Madison Building's Prints & Photographs department.


At the same location is "Herblock Looks at 1962: Fifty Years Ago in Editorial Cartoons," an exhibit curated by Sara Duke. This smaller exhibit focuses on President Kennedy.

Obviously Sara made curatorial choices to influence this in both exhibits, but it's still depressing how relevant 50-year-old cartoons are:

The third exhibit is a small one on comic books featuring Presidents that Megan Halsband did in the Serials Department (in the Madison Building) for President's Day. The majority of these comics are from Bluewater's current biographical series, but she did find an issue of Action Comics that I don't remember seeing.









The Prints & Photographs division showed off its new acquisitions this week. Sara Duke showed some original comic book and strip artwork:



A piece by Keith Knight, and two pages from Jim Rugg's anthology. They collected the entire book except for the centerfold. Not shown is...



Above are voting rights prints by Lalo Alcaraz, possibly selected by Helena Zinkham.

Martha Kennedy had some great acquistions this year, including works by James Flora, editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson, Garry "Doonesbury" Trudeau, and Charles Vess' entire book of Ballads and Sagas:












This artwork isn't on exhibit, but you can make an appointment to view it.

A little more on the Herblock Award, from two of the judges

Matt Wuerker, 2010's winner of the Herblock award, and Signe Wilkinson are the editorial cartoonists who were two of the three judges for the 2011 award. They've shared their thinking behind the selection of Tom Toles as the winner with us.

Judging the Herblock award this year was really, really hard.  There was too much good work in way too many inventive forms.  It's good news for our readers ... but hard for judges. Different judges would have ended up with a different decision.

In the spirit of transparency, we'd like to lift the veil a little on the thinking that went into our judging this year. Think of this as a little WikiLeak of what happened on the path to awarding the 2011 Herblock Prize.

Before the judging, it was agreed that this year the finalist would also be recognized.  We knew the job was to come up with two top cartoonists.

We had a great, broad sampling of political cartooning today: lots of traditional single-panel cartoons, plenty of stellar "altie" work, a number of great ventures into cartoon journalism and, of course, the animation submissions. We even had cartoons rendered with actual oil from the BP spill.

In the apples and oranges comparisons that are such a big part of the process, it was hard to measure the simple punchy genius of single panels by the likes of Pett and Britt against long-form docucomics that went beyond the headlines, like those submitted by Ohman, Wasserman and Varvel, or for that matter animated reporter's sketchbooks such as the engaging submission from Rex Babin.

Mike Thompson's finger on the pulse of Detroit crime and Bill Day's attention to child abuse were both powerful uses of our medium. For taking us where cartooning had not gone before, Ted Rall's enterprising trip to Afghanistan was particularly noteworthy.  Pat Bagley's wonderful loose humor and engagement with his readers made him a contender. The "Alties," led by Bors and Sorensen, all made it to the semifinal pile, as did Ramirez, whose graphic punch and strong, clearly expressed political opinions kept him in the running right up to the end.

We all agreed that, to the best of our abilities, we'd not judge according to our political bent but solely on the quality and consistency of the cartooning found in the portfolios we were looking at.

Though Matt Davies had what we all agreed was the single best cartoon of the year, "WikiLeaks" (by the way, a non-animated black-and-white single panel),  the quality and creativity of the Toles and Telnaes portfolios put them at the very top.  Choosing between the two was excruciating and took a while, but in the end we felt the overall consistency of Toles's complete portfolio made him the winner, with Telnaes No. 2 by a hair ... or a .3 Micron line.

---- Signe Wilkinson and Matt Wuerker

Comic Riffs on Signe's support for freedom of speech

Signe Wilkinson is interviewed in IN SUPPORT OF MOLLY NORRIS: Pulitzer winner draws line against fatwa
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 22, 2010

Comic Riffs gets anecdotes from Wilkinson and Johnston

Michael Cavna's got two more today - "Fave Fan Anecdotes: 'For Better or For Worse' & Signe Wilkinson".

Cavna's Signe Wilkinson interview

The Philadelphia cartoonist is on the Comic Riff's blog at "The Interview: Political Cartoonist Signe Wilkinson," By Michael Cavna August 7, 2008.

Breen, Wilkinson and Luckovich interviewed by Cavna in Post

Editorial cartoonists Breen, Wilkinson and Luckovich are interviewed by Michael Cavna in "Line by Punch Line," Washington Post Sunday, August 3, 2008; M06

Further information can be seen at "Cartooning the Candidates," a video in which "Editorial cartoonist Steve Breen describes his method of sketching Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain. Video by Liz Kelly."

The Art of Political Caricature slide show.

In the same section of the paper, Nick Galifianakis drew himself and his ex-wife Carolyn Hax in her advice column. It's a meta-commentary since the drawing is about how ex's can stay friends, which the two of them have done.

RFK Journalism Award to Signe Wilkinson

Alan Gardner broke the story, but here's the citation from the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial's press release:

Cartoon Winner: Signe Wilkinson’s editorial cartoons from The Daily News were instrumental in moving the issue of violence in disadvantaged neighborhoods and schools to the top of the city’s agenda. Her cartoons offer a “steady drumbeat of funny, moving and shocking images”. The RFK Cartoon Judges write, “Her series attacking gun violence in Philadelphia spared no one and drew complaints from everyone- the hallmark of any good cartoonist”.

Some DC-area cartoonists are usually on the awards panel - perhaps they'll chime in.

Also note, "All recipients of the 40th Annual Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards will be honored at a ceremony on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 6:30 PM at the Newseum in Washington, DC."