A Day in the Life of an Editorial Cartoonist

By: Dave Astor "Please do not feed the editorial cartoonist," reads a sign on the door of Walt Handelsman's office at Newsday in Melville, N.Y. That warning, jokingly placed by a colleague, speaks to the perception that his profession is populated by people wilder than the average bear. There's some truth to that, but only so much. Editorial cartoonists are those rare animals who use scathing satire or goofy gags to rattle the inked borders of their opinion-page habitats, but they're also serious journalists -- as a day in the work life of Handelsman shows.

It's Sept. 24, and Handelsman starts the day reading his home newspaper before leaving the house. He's not required to coordinate his cartoon ideas with Newsday's stories or editorials, but there's plenty of serendipitous synergy on this day after President Bush's United Nations speech. The front-page headline, the lead editorial, and Handelsman's cartoon all note that Bush did not bring a humble attitude to the United Nations, even as the situation in Iraq deteriorates.

Handelsman -- a 1997 Pulitzer Prize winner syndicated to 250 newspapers via Tribune Media Services -- boards his gold-colored Jeep Grand Cherokee for the drive to work through Long Island's lush suburban landscape. Today he's talking to E&P, but he usually spends this 4 1/2-mile commute listening to National Public Radio. The artist is impressed with the amount of in-depth information NPR offers. "But it's almost too much," he laments. "They make both sides sound so plausible" -- an approach hardly conducive to a pointed cartoon. Handelsman adds that some NPR material is too esoteric for the average American. "I always want my cartoons to be about something people are discussing at the dinner table," he says.

One "something" Handelsman is considering as a cartoon subject today is the California recall election, which had just been reinstated for Oct. 7.

But it's only 9:15 a.m. Another cartoon idea could always pop up during the next few hours of attending an editorial board meeting, glancing at various other New York and national dailies, watching cable news on his office TV, and checking the Web for any breaking stories.

"The speed of the news cycle has changed so much since I became a cartoonist more than 20 years ago," he says. "There was no Internet, and there was no cable. You were able to chill out and work on one topic." But Handelsman, 46, likes the fact that he no longer has to rummage through newspaper morgues to study pictures of the people and things he needs to draw. And that's only one of the benefits of the digital age.

A long island of awards

Handelsman opens the door to his office in the "Viewpoints" section of the massive Newsday building. It's much quieter here than in the newsroom-adjacent office Handelsman had at The Times-Picayune of New Orleans from 1989 to 2001.

Immediately visible are Handelsman's many honors -- including National Headliner Award plaques and a bust of Robert F. Kennedy he received for winning a 1996 RFK Journalism Award. There's also a life-sized cardboard cutout of President Bush, a three-dimensional Bill Clinton face, framed cartoons from peers at other newspapers, a gigantic "No. 2000" pencil Handelsman marched with in a New Orleans parade, and various other knickknacks such as action figures of Baltimore Orioles players -- signifying Handelsman's roots in the Baltimore suburb of Owings Mills, Md. And there's a pile of papers filled with sketches, doodles, and catch phrases. "It's my security-blanket area," says Handelsman, a place filled with "microbacteria that might lead to a germ of an idea" on rare days when inspiration runs dry.

Then it's time for the 10 a.m. editorial board meeting, which is attended by five people in the flesh and three others via speaker phone. Among the topics the paper decides on for next-day editorials: How the Social Security system and America's economy might be helped by the trend of more people postponing retirement. The California recall situation doesn't make the cut, but that's OK with Handelsman. "I'll be the one doing that topic," he says immediately after the meeting. "It gives me the opportunity to add that dynamic to the page."

Another twist Handelsman adds to the editorial page is providing cartoons that are occasionally more conservative than the Newsday stance. Handelsman leans liberal, but believes "there's plenty to bash on both sides." And Handelsman creates his own intra-cartoon dynamic by periodically doing a silly rather than hard-hitting drawing. "Readers like that mix," he says.

Recoiling at the recall

It's after 11 a.m., and Handelsman is about to do some serious sketching. But first he checks his e-mail. One message is from an aspiring cartoonist seeking advice. Handelsman had already replied to this artist -- suggesting he call him at Newsday to chat -- but the e-mail had bounced back. Now Handelsman feels bad that the person might think he's being ignored.

Then Handelsman checks out CNN.com, and sees a story about MSN wanting to close down its chat rooms because of the sexual predators lurking in them. A possible future cartoon topic, he ponders, but for today he decides to stick with the California recall.

The Newsday staffer has three recall-related ideas. He isn't totally thrilled with any of them -- Handelsman says about 25% of the 300 or so cartoons he does a year are on his A-list -- but there's definitely a hierarchy amongst today's trio.

The one he likes least shows a man holding a newspaper with the headline, "California Election Back On." The man eyes a ponytailed protestor carrying a sign saying, "Recall the Recall of the Recalled Recall!"

Handelsman is somewhat happier with a cartoon picturing a different-looking protestor holding the same placard. A woman seeing the sign tells her husband, "That does it! We're moving back to Florida!" -- ground zero of the 2000 presidential election debacle. Handelsman does wonder if the word "back" should be removed. "I can spend hours fooling around with two words," he says. "Wording is key, and I try to make it as concise as possible." Handelsman opts to delete "back."

He is happiest with a cartoon showing a woman saying, "Did they just recall the recall or recall the recalled recall?" Her TV-watching husband replies, "I don't recall."

But Handelsman feels the art needs some work before he shows it and the other two ideas to Deputy Editorial Page Editor Carol Richards. "Carol is very visual," says the cartoonist.

Handelsman draws the wife standing next to an armchair rather than sitting with her husband on a sofa, puts in details such as a TV remote, sketches a kitchen doorway in the background to give the cartoon more visual depth, and adds a dazed-looking canine.

"Now that I have a dog at home, I'm adding more dogs to cartoons," says Handelsman with a smile, referring to his nine-month-old chocolate lab. He pencils in the changes on a flat light table on his desk. "I used a drawing board for years, but everything I put on it would slide off," he explains.

In the midst of all this, Handelsman receives a phone call asking if he'd be willing to make a speech to a Long Island group of accountants. Handelsman -- whose typical presentation includes remarks, a cartoon slide show, sketching, and more -- will make appearances gratis for certain audiences, but feels the $300 fee offered in this case isn't enough from a professional organization.

Dogs and ponytails

Handelsman is just about ready to go into Richards' office, but first asks "Viewpoints" News Editor Alleen Barber to take a look at the three cartoons. "I trust her judgment," Handelsman says. "She will not laugh at a cartoon that sucks. She also knows pop culture, and is an excellent proofreader."

He first shows Barber the Florida cartoon. "You have to think about it too much," she says.

Then Handelsman displays the cartoon he likes least. "That one's not funny," Barber opines.

Finally, he shows Barber his favorite drawing. "That one's much funnier," she says.

Barber then suggests a comma, changing the wife's question slightly to: "Did they just recall the recall, or recall the recalled recall?" And she suggests having the husband say "I can't recall" rather than "I don't recall."

Handelsman makes the short walk to Richards' office -- and the approval process is short, too. "That's funny, that's good," says the deputy editorial page editor as she scans the "I can't recall" cartoon. Richards also compliments Handelsman on the dog in that drawing, and on the ponytailed man in one of the runner-up cartoons.

Discussing 'W' and WMDs

Back in his office, Handelsman talks about President Bush and Iraq: "He did get rid of a bad guy, but not a box of WMDs? Nothing? Nothing?" And he talks about the Middle East. "The hardest issues to cartoon about are the issues that don't go away," Handelsman says. "There's nothing fresh you can say about the Mideast, though you can try."

Handelsman doesn't just comment on national and international matters. He draws at least one local cartoon a week on a topic relating to Long Island, New York City, or New York state.

Then Handelsman heads for a local lunch in Newsday's cafeteria. He eats a turkey wrap and potato chips at a table with a half-dozen colleagues, many from the paper's art department.

Behind his desk again, Handelsman is preparing to draw the finished version of his California cartoon when a CNN segment reports on the "Do Not Call" registry being put on hold -- to the delight of telemarketers and the dismay of people trying to eat dinner uninterrupted. "That could be a good topic for tomorrow," he says.

Handelsman -- also known to watch the Fox and MSNBC news channels -- photocopies his penciled drawing, places it on the light table, and puts a $3 piece of Graphix DuoShade paper on top of the photocopy. Then he begins lettering and inking with various Rapidograph pens and a marker, occasionally using old-fashioned Liquid Paper to correct mistakes.

At 2:45, Handelsman gets a call from friend and fellow Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Creators Syndicate. Luckovich is doing a cartoon about Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark, and describes the idea verbally to see if Handelsman likes it. He does.

A day's electronic ending

Now, the $3 sheet of paper is showing its worth. Handelsman brushes photo chemicals on parts of it to bring out gray shading in his cartoon. Then he blots the drawing, places it in his scanner, and looks at it on the computer to the right of his desk.

Using Photoshop, Handelsman deletes tiny stray blotches of ink, pulls the man in the cartoon a little away from the TV, makes the cable box on top of the set bigger, gives the back of the box more complicated wiring, moves his signature up a bit, and makes other subtle changes: "Tweakage," he calls it. Technologically, it's a much different world than when Herblock was Handelsman's age. Imagine the late Washington Post cartoonist using a computer to tweak the stubble on Richard Nixon's five o'clock shadow?

Then Handelsman electronically transmits the cartoon to Richards, to Newsday's Web site, and to his syndicate. "I used to have to stuff envelopes and mail my cartoons out," he remembers not-so-fondly. Handelsman also faxes a copy of the recall drawing to USA Today for possible use in that paper's editorial-cartoon roundup. He's frequently reprinted there, as well as in The New York Times and Newsweek magazine.

Handelsman gets up and stretches. "This job isn't so good on the back," he says. It can also be stressful on days when good ideas are hard to come by as deadlines loom. But in a office where the sign instructs that editorial cartoonists aren't supposed to be fed, Handelsman loves giving readers food for thought.