Editorial Cartoonist Signe Wilkinson Discusses Her Upcoming Comic Strip

By: Dave Astor About a year ago, a United Media executive approached Philadelphia Daily News editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson about creating a comic strip.

The 1992 Pulitzer Prize winner had mixed feelings about the offer. Wilkinson knew that drawing a daily strip wouldn't be easy while still doing five or six editorial cartoons a week and co-creating occasional political animations. She also knew that a number of newspapers have been cutting back on comics despite the popularity of those sections -- making it even harder for new strips to succeed.

But Wilkinson agreed to try a comic, and the result is the "Family Tree" feature that United will launch on Jan. 7. Ultimately, there were several positives that outweighed the negatives for Wilkinson.

One is that, despite her editorial-cartoon workload, Wilkinson has more time to do a comic than she would've a few years ago because both her daughters are now adults. "I don't have to pick up anyone from sports practice any more," she with a chuckle, during an E&P interview today.

Another reason why a comic appealed to Wilkinson is the job insecurity of editorial cartoonists in an era of fewer staff positions. When Ted Rall -- United's acquisition/development editor (and a Universal Press Syndicate editorial cartoonist) -- asked Wilkinson about starting a comic, it was around the time of ownership change and layoffs at the Daily News and its sister paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer. "I wanted to have control over something I liked and believed in," said Wilkinson, who did emphasize that she thinks the situation has now improved greatly at the two Philadelphia dailies.

Wilkinson -- a 22-year Daily News veteran whose editorial cartoons are syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group -- also wanted to create characters, not just draw people such as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. And she wanted to be topical without being overly political. "'Family Tree' is not a political strip in the Democratic or Republican sense," Wilkinson said. "It's sort of how politics filters down to the family level."

The new humor comic has a strong environmental theme that Wilkinson described as "the lighter side of going green." She'll also touch on other serious and not-so-serious issues such as the standardized tests the teen girl and boy in the Tree family have to take, health care (the mother is trying to switch jobs in order to obtain better medical benefits), "getting to the fume-spewing school bus on time, finding Earth-friendly facial scrubs, and dealing with aphids, neighbors, and other pests."

Finally, Wilkinson wanted to add another woman's voice to comics pages that have more female creators than 20 years ago yet remain a mostly male-cartoonist bastion.

"I feel I can deal with beauty, clothes, social pressures, mother-daughter relationships, and other issues in a way that will ring true to other mothers and other daughters," she said.

"Family Tree" is not the first comic effort for Wilkinson. About five years ago, she did the "Shrubbery" comic/editorial-cartoon hybrid for the Daily News (it starred a leafy George W. Bush, among other characters). And, earlier in the 2000s, she created a comic called "The Garden of Edith" that she dropped after a couple of rejections.

"I wouldn't have been a pioneer type," she joked, in discussing how she didn't stick with that feature. "After Jamestown, it would have been over!"

But Wilkinson has stuck with "Family Tree," which she has worked on for months in preparation for the early-2008 launch. She writes it early in the mornings she's not rowing on the Schuylkill River, and then draws it on weekends.

United Senior Vice President/General Manager Lisa Klem Wilson told E&P that early sales are going well for "Family Tree."