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June 2, 2008
Big Spring Shakeup
The month of May found four newspaper editorial cartoonists leaving their jobs, two voluntarily, two not so much.
1) Editorial cartoonist Dave Granlund, who had worked at MetroWest Daily News in Massachusetts for 31 years, was suddenly laid off by owner GateHouse Media Inc.
"I was let go because of the money aspect of it," Granlund told Jessica Heslam at the Boston Herald. "This came out of left field. This was unexpected. We had gone through a series of other cuts a number of weeks ago. We thought the dust had settled."
Granlund said he's been a cartoonist for many years and will try to roll with the punches. "Somewhere out there, there's someone that can see the usefullness for having a cartoonist, especially in these dire times -- it's always nice to have a little levity to spread around," he said. Granlund was let go briefly in 2001 when Herald Media Inc. owned the newspaper but was hired back after nine months because readers missed him.
2) A few days later, Florida cartoonist Jake Fuller found out that his position at the Gainesville Sun (owned by the New York Times Co.) had been eliminated. Fuller had been with the paper since 1992 and their full-time cartoonist since 1997. "I don't know what my future plans are but hopefully it will include political cartooning," he wrote in a brief e-mail.
3) Earlier in the month, Paul Combs, the former Tampa Tribune editorial cartoonist, ended his contract with Tribune Media Services after accepting a full-time position as a magazine illustrator. Regarding Comb's decision, Mary Elson, Managing Editor at TMS said, "Paul has some good opportunities, and we wish him the very best. He is an outstanding cartoonist."
4) Also leaving on his own accord was David Catrow, of the Springfield News-Sun.
Catrow left the paper on May 21 to make his second career his first — focusing on writing and illustrating children's books and helping develop animated movies. Hired as an illustrator in 1984, Catrow soon set out to amuse, confuse and enrage News-Sun readers with his political cartoons.
"It's bittersweet," Catrow, 55, said. "I really grew up here. I've been an artist since I was old enough to hold a crayon and not eat it. But it wasn't until I got here that I realized what it was like to be an artist and create things on deadline."
The illustrator of more than 60 books, Catrow launched a movie career by drawing
concept art for "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who," and will soon begin
work on an animated film. On top of that, his book "Plantzilla" is
being developed into an animated TV series.
Sources: The Daily Cartoonist, Boston Herald, News-Sun, The Notebook