Sharptoons
Joe Sharpnack
My fifth grade teacher handed back my spelling
assignment in which I had drawn a scene involving war protesters and police
officers. “You have a real problem with authority figures, Mr. Sharpnack.”
Well, maybe a little. But not nearly as much trouble as I had with spelling.
In my house we were taught that if you really thought something was
unjust, you had an obligation to do something about it. This did not, however,
suggest tattling or painting “YOU SUCK” on the local water tower.
It implied an active participation in your community. If you want to yell
at your congressman, do it in a letter or go to the polls and kick him out,
don’t just scream at the television. And if you’re going to
write a letter, make sure you have some idea of what you’re talking about.
And spell the guy’s name right, because no one listens to an idiot.
I agree with this (except for the part about no one listening to an
idiot—it is a fact that countless maniacs from all levels of psychosis
have been given mass audience thoughout history).
I experimented with a motely assortment of occupations — including
dairy farmer, retailer, interstate road musician, sheet metal worker, house
painter, plumber and college student. Unsatisfied, I decided to combine my
problem with authority, my obligation to speak up and my ability to write
with pictures (this keeps spelling errors to a minimum) into a new calling:
editorial cartoonist.
People seem to respond to something visual more than something text
based. You just don’t hear people go “Oh! That is out of line!”
into the first two sentences of an op-ed column. Most people will get that
far into a written editorial piece and say, “Oh, I know where this is
going,” and then discard it without finishing what the author intended
to say. They can’t do that with cartoons. They’re stuck with that
image the second they see it. That can’t throw it away without “finishing”
it. Unless of course there was so much text in it that they get to the second
panel and say, “Oh, I know where this is going…”
