Report on Book signing - September 27: Jeff Danziger

The event was sparsely attended with less than 10 of us in the audience, which is a shame as Danziger was an interesting speaker. He showed about 25 of his cartoons, and explained the rationale behind them. One cartoon, of Bush and Cheney floating down the river on the corpse of a soldier, was notable because he decided not to submit it for publication. He began his talk by saying that he felt especially qualified to comment on the current war because as far as he knows, he's the only Vietnam war veteran political cartoonist. He continued by stating forcefully that the conduct of this war, and the government's behavior reminds him strongly of that war.

Questions from the audience revealed that he draws with a lead pencil, a Bic pen for blacks and a charcoal pencil and then photocopies the image and then scans it. Influences are Oliphant, Walt Kelly of Pogo, and the British cartoonists David Low and especially Carl Giles (a favorite of mine as well). His new book Blood, Debt and Fears: Cartoons of the First Half of the Last Half of the Bush Administration is most likely available in a signed copy from Olsson's, because they wheeled out a cart of them as he was finishing signing for people on line.