Time to make the donuts...

When I worked at the Mirror, I had to make one deadline a week. One. My editorial cartoon for the alt weekly had to be emailed before 5pm Monday. After that, Miller time.

Of course, I was drawing a cartoon that was going to appear Thursday, a three-day lead, which meant I had to pick something that would still be topical and, hopefully, make sense by the time the paper hit the stands. That was the real challenge. But still, just one deadline. A week.

Halifax-based freelancer Michael De Adder, though has the opposite problem. He has to do six cartoons in ONE DAY.

The nationally-renowned, award-winning cartoonist tells us what his Fridays are like in his blog.

Are cartoonists artists? Not to the Canada Council.

It's one of those questions that makes cartoonists, and especially editorial cartoonists, squirm. Granted, most would agree that what they practice is an artform with a long and established history. But to call themselves "artists?" That makes them uncomfortable. Because it seems pretentious. And because it weights what they do with the heavy mantle of "IMPORTANCE." Whereas, really, they just draw funny pictures.

But if that's what they think then they're wrong. Because they are artists and what they produce is art, goddammit. Highly topical, highly opinionated - and, yes, usually funny - art.

I've had the same discussion with standup comics. These are people who, like cartoonists, work intensely at developing creative skills that they apply to connecting with, entertaining and informing an audience. They can and will talk about what they do deep into the night amongst themselves, analyzing every turn of phrase, every gesture, every pause - even mic technique, ferchrissake - referring to Carlin, Pryor, Wright, the whole pantheon of comic geniuses to make their points. But call them artists? No, uh-uh, nope, they're entertainers, performers. Not artists.

Bullshit. They're artists. Just like cartoonists.

The reason I'm bringing this up is because the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists, which held its biennial convention two weeks ago in Montreal, has launched an online petition that calls on the Canada Council to end its ban on supporting cartoonists and publishers of cartoon books.

I bet you didn't know the Council had this blind spot, did you? Except it's not really a blind spot. No, it's a form of discrimination. The Council supports virtually every other school of creative art in the country. Publishers, specifically, get funding for every kind of book imaginable (including graphic novels), but not a cent of public money for books of cartoons. Even though there is hardly a major museum or educational institution in Canada that does not have cartoons, especially editorial cartoons, somewhere in its collection.

Worse, new publishers in particular are effectively penalized for publishing cartoon books. Here's how it works: Before a new publisher can be considered a candidate for Council support, they must independently publish a dozen titles on their own dime. Fine, BUT...if one of those books is a collection of cartoons, it does not count towards their qualification because the Canada Council does not consider it a "real" book. How is that not snobbism of the highest order? How is that not discrimination?

Historians and (believe it or not) even some politicians are constantly telling cartoonists how important their work is; history on the run, lynchpin of democracy, blahblahblah. At the Montreal convention at least two academics and three politicians (including former PM Paul Martin) did just that. It's the sort of thing that makes cartoonists roll their eyes at each other. But inside they know it's true. It's just not cool to say so out loud. Because the idea is to take the work seriously, yes, but not to take themselves too seriously. Anybody who takes themselves too seriously, after all, is a bore and might as well run for office. Or run the Canada Council.

The ACEC is trying to redress what is really an injustice that (before you go off on the Tories: "That f***in' Stephen Harper!"), has existed for a loooong time, even under the Liberals. Because it doesn't have to do with politics but with perspective. The Canada Council doesn't have it.

So sign the petition if you think Canada's cartoonists deserve to be recognized somewhere other than on the wall of your office cubicle or your fridge door (though that is the highest honour). Do it now. Kick the Canada Council in the goolies.

About the pic at the top: That's outgoing ACEC president Terry (Aislin) Mosher with a framed copy of one of the most famous editorial cartoons ever published in Quebec: Serge Chapleau's portrait of Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe wearing his infamous cheese hat. Now that's art.

You can also help support Canada's editorial cartoonists by buying this book:

It's a nice little collection of drawings by every single editorial cartoonist in the country. Each cartoonist - whether working at a daily,  a weekly or other publication - was asked by Aislin to choose a single drawing that best represents their work. The result is a snapshot of the art of the editorial cartoon in Canada today. An introduction provides a historical context for the collection. The book is also the catalog for an exhibition running through the summer at Montreal's McCord Museum

Shattered Mirror

Okay, this is kind of old news now but, since it's the main reason I ended up starting this blog, I figured it should be addressed. Plus it may be news to you if you're not a Montrealer.

Above is the last editorial cartoon I drew for the Montreal Mirror. It appeared in the June 21 issue. The next day the paper's corporate owner, Quebecor, announced that the alt weekly, founded in 1985, was shutting down for good. The move came with absolutely no warning, sending a shockwave through Montreal's media and arts communities. Seven full-time jobs vanished, dozens of freelancers suddenly no longer had rent money. No more Sasha, no more Rant Line, no more Best of Montreal.

I found out about it on Facebook. Really. I'd been the Mirror's editorial cartoonist for 9 1/2 years, having moved there in 2003 after a decade with cross-town rival Hour (and I'll tell that whole story in a future post). So suddenly after nearly 20 years I no longer had a steady cartooning gig. Same for my buddy Rick Trembles, whose Motion Picture Purgatory ran in the paper for a generation, give or take a few years.

Also tossed in the street was uber-talented music editor and comics artist Rupert Bottenberg. And there will be no more brilliant Richard Suicide covers to look forward to anymore either.

There's been a lot of speculation as to why this happened. Scarcely a month prior, Hour had finally been put out of its misery once and for all by its parent company Voir (corporate owner Transcontinental). This was a long time coming. Last year Hour laid off its entire (albeit small) full-time editorial staff, replacing them with a single editor and a single freelance columnist. So, for all intents and purposes, the Mirror had the anglo alt weekly market to itself. And the paper, though it wasn't pulling in the advertising bucks it once did, looked healthy and viable. But not viable enough for Quebecor.

In a phony letter from "the editors" (it was actually written by somebody in the corporate head office) posted on the Mirror website, Quebecor blamed "the growing popularity of digital media" for its decision to close the paper. Of course, it that were true, you'd think they'd have developed the paper as an online platform and held onto the sweet demographic that made up its readership (primarily 20- and 30-somethings) for its advertisers.

So was it just business? If so, why does Sun Media/Quebecor keep its neanderthal clown circus Sun News Network going? The cable "news" channel bleeds millions and yet has nothing to show for it but an audience made up of mouth-breathing Morlocks and pets left alone at home with the TV on (their ratings are embarrassingly low).

Was it political? The editorially-independent and definitely leftish Mirror was the black sheep of the Sun Media/Quebecor family, which leans further right than Karl Rove at a Tea Party cross-burning. Maybe they just decided it was time to drown the ever-troublesome offspring (actually an adoptee, Quebecor purchased the Mirror in 1997) in the bathtub.

Was it personal? Did CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau (PKP) finally decide that, with Trancontinental's Hour out of the anglo alt weekly market, he no longer needed the Mirror on the stands to show what a big swinging dick he was? (The two companies compete for market share in many other areas).

Or maybe it's all of the above. We don't really know and probably never will. Now it's all history. And a whole bunch of people (me included) just have to get their shit together and move on...

...But before that, I might as well use the opportunity here to thank editor Alastair Sutherland for all the years he just let me do my thing, never spiking a single cartoon. I think he even liked a few, judging from the "ha!" I'd occasionally get in an email, effusive praise from him. And thanks to art director Chris Tucker who, on many an occasion, had to replace one version of a cartoon with another just because I decided to move an eyebrow or redo the shading under an armpit or some other such neurotic cartoonist bullshit.

Finally, thanks to the Mirror's readers. Without you it would have just been wanking.

The last thing the world needs is another blog. So here's another blog.

I generally have no idea what I'm doing and I never have.

 I jump into things and figure out how to do them as I go along. I've never had the patience for proper instruction, training or reading manuals. As a kid, I taught myself how to ride a bicycle on a bike with only one pedal. I became a professional illustrator and cartoonist without having ever gone to art school (it shows). I fell into broadcasting from print because I gave good interviews.

Why not write a blog.

So, background (this is the easiest way to write my first post and I will always find the easiest way to do things): My name is Dave Rosen.

I'm a cartoonist and a seller of vintage movie posters. The former is actually now a little uncertain since I lost my regular gig when the Montreal Mirror shut down a couple of weeks ago (more on that later). The latter started as a sideline, became a full-time business and now may be drifting back to sideline status as our economy continues its slow, inevitable implosion. I don't know what the future holds (if I did I'd be a rich lottery winner). More blog-writing, I suspect.

I'm also a former-lot-of-things. A former broadcaster (I mentioned), former standup comic, former freelance journalist, former librarian, former idealist. I almost know how to do a lot of things but none of them really useful (like fixing stuff and building things) should there ever be a zombie apocalypse.

I don't get out as much as I should. And, even though I'm a little scared of them, I like people, but I have to keep reminding myself of that, otherwise I try to avoid them.

Last week (and this will be a whole separate blog post) I attended a cartoonists convention in Montreal. And, shockingly, enjoyed myself. I had many great conversations with many interesting people. Like most people who don't get out enough, I talked too much. I realized I had stuff to say. And some people even thought some of it was interesting. But maybe they were just being polite.

Anyway, some of that stuff is going to end up here. Because I have opinions. And theories. And a whole lot of people outside my family haven't heard any of my stories or jokes yet. So they'll seem fresh to a lot of you.

I'll mainly be writing about cartooning. I've been a cartoonist since I was 15 and if there has ever been any thread running through my life, then cartooning is it. But I'll include a lot of other stuff as well. I just won't know what that is until I write about it.

About the blog title: It's from Mitch Hedberg, one of my favourite dead comedians (the others are Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks). A line he used whenever a joke didn't work, which could be often in his case: "I'm gonna go back and fix that joke by taking out all the words and putting in new ones."

More to come. And I promise the posts will be shorter and there will be pictures, maybe even some cartoons.