By: Joe Strupp Outspoken syndicated cartoonist Ted Rall, who doubles as president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, lets fly this week with a column on how newspaper cartoonists are an endangered species.
Rall claims both Internet distribution and a push for conformity are hurting the tradition of newspaper editorial cartoons.
"We Americans live in a golden age of editorial cartooning. Never has the profession been as ideologically, stylistically or demographically diverse. Never has the art been as daring or ambitious. Never have cartoons been as popular or, thanks to the Internet, as widely read," Rall writes. "Yet American editorial cartooning is in danger of disappearing entirely--murdered by editors and publishers at the major magazines and newspapers."
He adds that " ? there are fewer than 90 full-time staff cartoonists left in the U.S., down from approximately 280 in 1980. A dozen have lost their jobs in the last year alone. Syndicated cartoonists have seen their income drop by 50 percent or more. Discouraged and broke, young cartoonists are abandoning the field."
The column is posted on Rall's site at:
http://rall.com/rants.html.
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