Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Dick Wright


by Mike Rhode


Dick Wright of The Providence Journal-Bulletin was the 1983 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Editorial Cartooning. As Dave Astor has written, “Wright worked for the [San Diego] Union-Tribune … (starting in 1976) and later joined The Providence (R.I.) Journal, the Nashville (Tenn.) Banner, and The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch. Currently [2005], he’s affiliated with the Gwinnett Daily Post of Lawrenceville, Ga. He was syndicated by Tribune Media Services, then Copley News Service, and finally for several years in the early 2000s by Daryl Cagle. His work was collected in the book If He Only Had a Brain... in 1998. The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco “houses over 300 political cartoons illustrated by famed cartoonist Dick Wright in the mid-1990s.” He retired from editorial cartooning in 2005, around the same time he was profiled by the Washington Times. Wright has recently returned to editorial cartooning.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I draw editorial cartoons.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

I use a brush, pen and India ink.
 
When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

I was born in 1944.

Why are you in the Washington area now?  What neighborhood or area do you live in?

I live in Warrenton, Virginia.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I am self-taught. I went to Long Beach State University and I majored in finance.

Who are your influences?

Mad magazine, and especially Mort Drucker. Also, Walt Disney.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

I think I would do more local cartoons.

What work are you best-known for?

I can't think of a single piece of work. In general probably my caricatures.

What work are you most proud of?

Well, when I started I was pretty rough. I guess that given where I started I am most proud of what I developed into. My work is a far cry from when I started. I had some help along the way. Mort Drucker was a great encouragement to me as well as Karl Hubenthal in Los Angeles.

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

I am content to do cartoons about Virginia at this point in my career.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?
I used to keep a file of "ideas" that I used to trigger new ideas. If you worked at it long enough something would come.

What do you think will be the future of your field?

I think that the future in cartooning is in online venues.

What local cons do you attend?

I don't attend any.

What's your favorite thing about DC?

I worked in DC for Scripps-Howard Newspapers. I got to know DC a bit. I guess being in the middle of the action was my favorite thing. I ran into many people that were real players. I enjoyed that

Least favorite?

Traffic.

What monument or museum do you like to take visitors to?

The Smithsonian.

How about a favorite local restaurant?

I love Mexican food just about anywhere.

Do you have a website or blog?

I have a website for a book I wrote called "Growing Big In God". I wrote short messages about many topics about life. I was a pastor of two churches and used my experience and knowledge to help others deal with the tough side of life. Dick Wright Cartoons is my Facebook page with new cartoons.

How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected you, personally and professionally?

I work from home anyway so it really hasn't impacted me much.

 Can you tell us a bit about being a church pastor and your faith?

I grew up in church. I had a very powerful experience with God at about the age of thirteen. From that time forward, I was deeply engaged in church and was very focused on spiritual things. On my own I began to read the Bible every evening before going to sleep. In reading the Bible, I learned a lot about God and it changed me. Even as a young teen, I became very interested in someday serving the Lord as a pastor. My parents were middle class. We struggled financially even as my dad worked two and three jobs as far back as I can remember. When it came time for me to go to college, I did not have you the heart to ask for help in going to college. I was interested in going to a bible college to become a pastor. Instead, I attended Junior College with no particular direction. I dropped out and got a job as a draftsman because I could draw. In those days we actually drew by hand the things we were building. I advanced quickly and moved up to a junior designer at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. I became interested in engineering.


By then I was married with two little girls. I wanted to become a senior designer, but you had to be degreed. So I went to Long Beach State studying engineering and worked full time. While I was at Long Beach State I began to draw cartoons for the university newspaper, the 49'er. I did this a couple of years and finally I went to some local newspaper editors and asked them what they thought of my work. They were very encouraging and began to print a few. This changed my whole direction. I began to consider changing my career goal from engineering to cartooning. I spent about two years contacting newspapers looking for a job. Finally, I was hired at the San Diego Union as their back-up cartoonist and illustrator and I was on my way. It didn't take long for my editorial cartoons to be used more and more and I became the lead cartoonist. I was in San Diego for about eighteen months and then moved to the Providence Journal and that is where my career took off. I was focused on being as good as I could be. I would get up at about four in the morning and read the paper cover to cover. My intent was to know what was going on so my cartoons had substance. I worked at it. I became syndicated and my list of papers grew to about 420. This was a lot, since at that time there were only about 1700 dailies in the country.

This went on for years, but I never forgot the early experience I had with God and my very distinct call to be a pastor. As my list of papers grew I reached my limit. I began to struggle to keep the numbers up and had to work harder just to stay even. I began to realize that there was no way I could sustain what I had been doing for years and I became discouraged. I began to question what I was doing, and for what? At this time I began to think about becoming a pastor and fulfill that early calling. I was 52 at the time. I began to seek out what was necessary to become a pastor. I had a friend who was a pastor who told me that in Virginia all you needed to become a pastor was to be ordained by a church and I could become a pastor. His church ordained me as I had 30 years’ experience leading and teaching the Word. Within a month I had gathered together a group of 21 people and we started a church and I was the pastor. In 12 weeks the church grew to 100 attenders. Three years later we completed a new church building. In five years, my church had grown to more than 400. I retired and then came out of retirement to help another small church get established. I am currently the assistant pastor at that church now.

 You mentioned Mort Drucker who just passed away this month, after a long life. Do you have any specific stories or anecdotes about knowing him?

 When I was trying to get into cartooning, I wrote Mort a letter with some of my work to Mad magazine. I received a letter back from him. He was gracious and encouraging. He offered advice about cartooning that was very helpful. One of the things he told me was that every assignment I get and send off should be better than the last job I did. He said this was the way to get better. He said that when you plateau and level off, keep working at doing better than your last job. He said this is how he improved. Mort was a very kind and gracious man. Many years later, when I was the cartoonist at the Providence Journal, I was involved is getting the program set for an editorial cartooning convention. I contacted Mad and talked to the editor and invited all the cartoonist to the convention in Newport. Mort and Jack Davis showed up along with some others. What a thrill! I have a photo of Mort and myself taken at the mansion where we were hosting the convention. He was so gracious and kind to me. What a great cartoonist, a great man. I miss him.

 4/23/2020: Updated with links to Wright's Facebook page, thanks to DD Degg of the Daily Cartoonist.

ArtInsights Gallery on The Iron Giant and The Little Mermaid


Our 1990 The Little Mermaid Original Production Cels Collection

PR: Beyond Comics Wednesday Evening Live Sale & Auction!




Beyond Comics
LIVE FACEBOOK SALE & AUCTION!

Wednesday, April 22th
7:30pm to 9:00pm



Here's What Is Different
These cabinets are filled with discount comic book sets. Already marked down below SRP. We will be going through these "live" selling them "First Come."

In between we will be auctioning some old collectibles.

We will also be offering some of the new product we received just before the lock down as well as since.


Auction Items!
OLD MERCHANDISE & TOYS

Auction Will Be A Little On The Fly!

Expect Some Fun Stuff!
Check Out Our Online Stores For Additional Items!
Beyond Comics

Gaithersburg - Frederick
We take great pride in carrying the most amazing selection of statues, action figures, toys, and random comic merchandise to be found anywhere.
Beyond Comics | 5632 Buckeystown Pike: Frederick, MD - - , 18749 B N. Frederick Rd, Gaithersburg, 

Robert Elder on his visit to Amazing Fantasy in Library of Congress last summer

A Holy Grail in the Library of Congress: Visiting Steve Ditko's Amazing Fantasy #15 Original Artwork

Third Eye Comics PR: It's Comic Book Wednesday (with NEW COMICS!)



WHAT'S NEW AT THIRD EYE FOR WEDNESDAY 4/22/20!
Hey Third Eye Faithful!

It's true: new comics have begun trickling back into Third Eye! It's a gradual return, with the publishers getting product to us -- but it's a start, and guess what: mid-May, all publishers should be back on a normal ship schedule!

We're pumped, and we hope you take a chance on some of these series you may not have already read!

PLUS: some great new graphic novels are hitting too!

Read on, and get stoked!

And, don't forget: we've got lots of options to get you the good from HOME DELIVERY TO MAIL ORDER AND MORE! You can read about those here.
This Week's Highlights
Check out our spotlights on comics and graphic novels we think you'll love -- and order for mail order or pick-up!
New Funko POPs - in stock now!
Order all the new toys, statues & other Merch we got in this week for mail order or home delivery!
Buy Third Eye Battle Bonds & Help Third Eye win the Fight for Fun!
Find out how you can help support Third Eye during the COVID-19 crisis!
FREE Flat Rate $5 Shipping!
Not local? Can't make it to the shop? Hit the link below to browse our site or email steve@thirdeyecomics.com to put together an order!
Third Eye Comics | thirdeyecomics.com | Annapolis, MD 21401
Third Eye Comics | 209 CHINQUAPIN ROUND RD, SUITE 200, Annapolis, MD 21401 thirdeyecomics.com

Monday, April 20, 2020

Post cartoonist Nick Galifianakis gone digital?

For about 2 weeks now, Nick's cartoons for the Washington Post's advice column have been in color and appear to be digital. This is quite a departure for the artist, who traditionally had worked in pen and ink for decades.

Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "Capitalism is the Pandemic"


From DC's anarchist cartoonist Mike Flugennock -

"Capitalism is the Pandemic"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=2977

One in solidarity with the May Day general strikes being planned in the US, inspired by graffiti spotted in Chicago about a week and a half ago.

Special thanks to @redfishstream on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/redfishstream/status/1248989182854217730

Cavna on new Black women cartoonists on the comics page

Newspaper comics hardly ever feature black women as artists. But two new voices have arrived.

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Barbara Dale's coronavirus cartoons




Baltimore cartoonist Barbara Dale did a couple of cartoons about COVID-19 on Facebook, and then put them on Zazzle and is selling prints of them. I asked her to say something about them for us.




I've worn the same red robe for three weeks. I no longer believe in underwear. My hair is reminding me that I'm old. It's hard to breathe through a mask. Disinfecting the mail is ridiculous, but I've done it. Clutching chocolate is a comfort.






I feel still, isolated, sad and only temporarily safe inside my four walls, while outside the numbers of dying continue to grow. I put Trump on top, all a flutter, to contrast the stillness of the bottom part of the poster. He's cruelty manic, pointing at everybody but himself to blame. A whirling dervish. 

I think the bottom part of the poster, with the person inside the house surrounded by dead, is a good image unto itself and I'll explore that further. 

KAL's "Satire can save us all" on Facebook - 1 month of episodes are up

Kallaugher, Kevin "KAL". 2020.
Satire can save us all [Episode 4]

Satire can save us all [Episode 3]
April 7? 2020

Satire can save us all [Episode 2]
March 31? 2020

Satire can save us all [Episode 1]
Mar 24, 2020

Sarah Boxer on Person Place Thing - Episode 299 (with Jill Sobule)

Sarah Boxer emailed me a few days ago, and I apologize that this fell in the cracks -

This podcast, episode 299 of Randy Cohen's show, Person Place Thing, featuring me and Jill Sobule, was recorded in New York City, on February 13, 2020, B.C. (Before Covid). https://personplacething.org/episode-299-sarah-boxer/

Jill had just come back from Thailand with a cough. Yet we hugged. That used to be a thing. She lost her voice and got it back. We knew she would. The audience was packed like sardines into the auditorium of NYPSI, the NY Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. We talked, we laughed, and we sang within spitting distance of one another. True story. What we had that evening is part of a lost world. 

You can hear it any time as a podcast at PersonPlaceThing.org (go to the archive; it's under the Bs for Boxer). Or download it free at iTunes.   

I am staying at home at sarahboxer.weebly.com
But my books are still out and about, on Amazon, at Politics and Prose

Stay well, stay sane, stay at home! xo, Sarah