Cartoonist

“ Finally, caricature is drawing that catches and exaggerates individual peculiarities, most often with a result which is humorous or satirical. The art of cartooning depends very largely on caricature and symbolism for its effect. Cartoons interpret life. The successful cartoonist, therefore, combines talent for drawing with a high degree of general intelligence. ”

“ In looking backward over a century of caricature, it is interesting to ask just what it is that makes the radical difference between the cartoon of to-day and that of a hundred years ago. That there is a wide gulf between the comparative restraint of the modern cartoonist and the unbridled license of Gillray's or Rowlandson's grotesque, gargoyle types, is self-evident; that comic art, as applied to politics, is to-day more widespread, more generally appreciated, and in a quiet way more effective in molding public opinion than ever before, needs no argument. ”

“ Punch required "funny little figures," and I supplied them; but my métier, I must confess, was work requiring more demand upon direct draughtsmanship and power. I am a funny man, a caricaturist, by force of circumstances; an artist, a satirist, and a cartoonist by nature and training. The one requires technical knowledge—in the other, "drawing doesn't count." The more amateurish the work, the funnier the public consider it. The serious confession I have to make is that I have been mistaken for a caricaturist in the accepted and limited meaning of the term. ”

“ Nimble pencils are still busy, as in the days of Rowlandson and Gillray, in recording and in influencing the trend of history. And although, now and again during the past century, there has been some individual cartoonist whose work has stood out more boldly and prominently than the work of any one of our contemporaries in Europe or in this country stands out to-day, there has never been a time in the whole history of comic art when Caricature has held such sway and maintained such dignity, and has enlisted in her service so many workers of the first talent and rank. ”

“ Now our best cartoonists would not stoop to secure recognition by such means; they are more considerate, and we are allowed to appreciate their clever representations without feeling the sting of resentment, even though our sympathies are on the other side. But our cartoonists of to-day do not spend all their time representing the political issues; they also deal with the affairs of everyday life.
We are told that the word cartoon originally meant a design or model for a large picture in fresco, oil, tapestry, statuary, glass, or mosaic. ”

“ To the writer, whose privilege it has been for more than twenty years to confer almost daily with some cartoonist of proved ability or of excellent promise while the latter was developing the idea which was to take pictorial form under his skillful hand a few hours later, it is a pleasure to record here the belief that, like Abou Ben Adhem, the successful producer of cartoons loves his fellow men. ”

“ I fancy the truth to be that the whole business should be opened up to all, and afterwards each should gravitate to his place by natural fitness. For the cartoonist once having the whole craft requires more constant practice in drawing to keep himself a good cartoonist than he would get if he also did all the other work of each window ”

“ She was looking at the canvas Ruth had on her easel. “Nels and I were talking about it yesterday. We think you ought to follow up the cartoon thing. You know they make a lot of money, cartoonists. You could take it up seriously, you know—”
“But I don’t want to take it up seriously. I don’t want to be a cartoonist. I want to be a landscape painter, and if you will allow me to be frank, too, I don’t think that you are in a position to judge whether I have talent or not.” ”

“ Bush, "the dean of American caricaturists," may be said to have spoken for them all when he said, in a recent interview, that he looks upon a cartoon as an editorial pure and simple.
"To be a success it should point a moral. Exaggeration and a keen sense of humor are only adjuncts of the cartoonist, for he must deal with real people. He must also be a student. I am obliged not only to use my pencil, but to study hard, and read everything I can lay my hands on. The features of Roosevelt, Bryan, Hanna, and Croker may be familiar to me, but I must know what these men are doing. ”

“ It was not until the century was well rounded out that the cartoonist’s and joker’s art came into sufficient demand to make a comic newspaper a commercial success. Even now their number is limited to a very few that can boast of permanent success. ”

“ For the cartoonists—when greatness bred cartoons, as by one of the world's kindly counterbalances it does—he was always stouter in body and more stolid in countenance than a faithful photograph would have recorded him. ”

“ There is another and less specific reason why caricature had to await the advent of printing and the wider dissemination of knowledge which resulted. The successful political (p. 7) cartoon presupposes a certain average degree of intelligence in a nation, an awakened civic conscience, a sense of responsibility for the nation's welfare. The cleverest cartoonist would waste his time appealing to a nation of feudal vassals; he could not expect to influence a people to whom the ballot box was closed. Caricature flourishes best in an atmosphere of democracy ”

“ Post-card editions of the cartoons run into many millions; his cartoons have been filmed, exist as lantern-slides, and leading actors and actresses have reproduced them in the form of tableaux. But it is in the world’s press that the greatest distribution has taken place. He is cartoonist to half a hundred newspapers, and literally thousands of different publications have reproduced his pictures at one time or another. ”

“ Early in that fall’s campaign they had secured the best cartoonist in America. Cartoons are rarely the work of one man but are got up by consultations. Howard spent never less than an hour each day with the cartoonist, Wickham, wrestling with the problem of the next day’s picture. ”

“ In the case of the leading dailies, the cartoon must be in accord with the settled political policy of the paper, as much as the leading articles on the editorial page. The individual preferences of the cartoonist do not count. ”

“ I was so struck with it that I took it to his room and remarked, “Porter, did you do this?” He looked up with a faint smile, and said “Yes.” I said to him that I did not know that he was a cartoonist, and his reply was that he did that kind of work for his own amusement at odd times.
To make a long story short, we were in the midst of a very warm political campaign in Texas and during the campaign he drew some of the most magnificent cartoons that I have ever seen in print anywhere. They attracted attention, not only in Texas, but were copied freely throughout the United States. ”

“ Distinguished achievement in analytical, symbolic, and interpretative art is probably as incompatible with native stupidity as is distinguished achievement in any other field of technical endeavor. Persons who can draw, but are nevertheless generally dull, should probably not be guided toward the career of designer, architect, cartoonist, or portrait painter.
All persons possess in some amount each and every one of the capacities, which in rare and happy combinations constitute talent in drawing. ”

“ Now many weekly journals, as Harper’s, Leslie’s, and a monthly magazine called Cartoons, make this a special feature. Nearly every newspaper in the country contains at least one cartoon in each issue, and many have their own cartoonists, whose time is busily occupied preparing drawings for the daily issues. ”

“ And yet the best type of caricature should not require a high degree of intelligence. Many clever cartoonists over-reach themselves by an excess of cleverness, appealing at best to a limited audience. ”

“ They required, however, in their altruistic schemes, just a little assistance from their brothers of the pointed pens and the black ink pots—the newspaper cartoonists. Would these kindly step forward and help in a noble cause? Gaily these worthies sharpened their rusting pens, right merrily they stirred the thickening ink, and here you have the crystallization of their comic brew—a precious handful of gilded homeopathic pills, sometimes called cartoons, which will prove to be a sure cure for all business troubles of an internal nature, as well as for many that have nothing to do with business. ”

“ In this country many people of the older generation will still remember the widespread popularity of the patriotic caricature-envelopes that were circulated during the Civil War. To-day we are so used to the daily newspaper cartoon that we do not stop to think how seriously handicapped the cartoonists of a century ago found themselves. The more important cartoons of Gillray and Rowlandson appeared either in monthly periodicals, such as the Westminster Magazine and the Oxford Magazine, or in separate sheets that sold at the prohibitive (p. 6) price of several shillings. ”

“ The faces, however, are in most cases excellent likenesses; they are neither distorted nor exaggerated. The artists, while sadly behind the times in retaining the use of the loop which Continental cartoonists discarded much earlier, were in other respects quite up-to-date, especially in adopting the method of the elder Doyle, whose great contribution to caricature was that of drawing absolutely faithful likenesses of the statesmen he wished to ridicule, relying for the humor of the cartoon upon the situation in which he placed them. ”

“ By exaggerating only a little the human quality of expression in the dogs' faces and suggesting a resemblance to some particular individuals, the picture would become a caricature. Cartoonists have not scrupled to borrow the design and adapt it to such purposes. ”

“ If so, we may at least posit that almost unbounded license must be allowed the pen which aims simply to raise a laugh. We do not fulminate against a treatise on Quaternions because it lacks humor. If the drawings of cartoonists are anatomically incorrect, we are smilingly indulgent. ”

“ And yet, if one stops to analyze the individual cartoons, to take them apart and discover the essence of their humor, the incisive edge of their irony and satire, one finds that there is nothing really new in them; that the basic principles of caricature were all understood as well in the eighteenth century as in the nineteenth, and that, in many cases, the successful cartoon of to-day is simply the replica of an old one of a past generation, modified to fit a new set of facts. ”

“ THOUGH the word "cartoon," as used to designate certain kinds of satirical drawings, has strayed far from its original meaning, it has achieved in its present uses an adequate definition which the public profitably may bear in mind. That effective instrument of the artist turned satirist, "must always figure," according to an authority, "as a leading article transformed into a picture." It is, in short, an editorial expressed in line. By this rule, then, should be judged the cartoon, properly so called. By this rule the work of Bradley's brain and pen invariably measures true. ”

“ To the Teacher: Pupils should be encouraged to bring good cartoons to school. These may be collected, and the best put up where all can see and be ready to discuss as to size, composition, variety, number, and color of lines used in expressing the idea.
History of caricature and cartoon. It is hard for us to realize that caricature is as old as man’s ability to express himself with chisel, pen, or ink. Away back in the time of the Assyrians and Egyptians we find certain caricatures representing grotesque figures drawn on papyrus. ”

“ Tenniel’s depictions, more than the ordinary qualifications of a screen draftsman.
As in the rough-and-tumble antics of the rustic clown little refinement is either prevalent or expected, so in the ordinary comic animated cartoon exquisiteness of drawing is neither found nor ordinarily looked for. But in a story with fineness of wit, and told artistically, it is obligatory that its interpretation be of a corresponding quality. It is necessary, in other words, that the artist be good at figure work and especially skilful in drawing difficult actions and perspective walks. ”

“ The cartoon, which, as usual in modern German art, is superior to the ultimate picture, was executed in the artist’s prime at the age of thirty. At this period, as here seen, the knowledge was little short of absolute; subtle is the sense of beauty; playful, delicate, firm the touch; the whole treatment artistic. ”

“ We shall now understand the comic element in caricature. However regular we may imagine a face to be, however harmonious its lines and supple its movements, their adjustment is never altogether perfect: there will always be discoverable the signs of some impending bias, the vague suggestion of a possible grimace, in short some favourite distortion towards which nature seems to be particularly inclined. The art of the caricaturist consists in detecting this, at times, imperceptible tendency, and in rendering it visible to all eyes by magnifying it. ”

“ Take away the personal rancor, the almost irrational hatred of "Little Boney" from Gillray, take away Daumier's mordant irony, his fearless contempt for Louis Philippe, and the life of their work is gone. The typical cartoon of to-day is, to a large extent, not a one-man production at all. It is frequently built up, piecemeal, one detail at a time, and in the case of a journal like Punch or Judge or Life often represents the thoughtful collaboration of the entire staff. ”