Mr. Fish - WARNING! Graphic Content: Political Cartoons, Comix and the Uncensored Artistic Mind

Howl, 2014, Mr. Fish

But, of course, the editorial cartoondefined simply as political or social commentary rendered in pictorial formpredates the advent of the newspaper industry, so there should be no reason to assume that by getting rid of news printed on paper we are ushering in an unprecedented mass extinction of the editorial cartoonist. After all, if the Chicxulub asteroid hadnt slammed into Mexico 65 million years ago and obliterated more than 70% of life on Earth, the dinosaurs wouldve never been encouraged to diversify and become the worldwide bird population that we so enjoy today as singers, delicacies, beggars, companions, mimics, and multicolored metaphors for freedom. In other words, while very specific circumstances might determine the particular actions of a cartoonist and classify his or her work in accordance with the very precise demands of a contrived occupation or lifestyle, the instincts of the artist are much more innate and predisposed to creative expression regardless of financial compensation or celebrity incentive.

In fact, an argument could be made that it isnt even the profession of editorial cartooning that typically attracts an artist into launching a career as one.

Duck Amuck (Still), 1953, Animators: Ben Washam, Ken Harris, and Lloyd Vaughan; Director: Chuck Jones

In 1953, Warner Bros. Studios produced a Merrie Melodies animated short called Duck Amuck that featured Daffy Duck and an unseen animator (later revealed to be Bugs Bunny) who tormented his subject as he attempted to demonstrate his range as a thespian. The animator erases and redraws background scenery inappropriate to Daffys antics, erases and redraws him in preposterous and aggravating ways, and alternately ignores and deliberately misinterprets his every demand for cooperation and respect. Similar to Groucho Marxs frequent breaking down of the fourth wall to address moviegoers for one reason or anotherI may be stuck here, but theres no reason you cant go out into the lobby until this all blows overDuck Amuck was the first cartoon I ever saw that, with a wink to the audience, both acknowledged the creative omnipotence of the artist and demonstrated a radical break from the traditional narrative structure upheld by every other animated short in popular circulation, the resulting message to young viewers everywhere being: Anything is possible given the right combination of mischievousness, drawing ability, and disdain for mainstream storytelling.

Nearly every other cartoonist Ive ever spoken with from my generation regarding his or her chief inspiration for entering into the profession of editorial cartooning places Duck Amuck somewhere at the top of the list, despite the fact that there is absolutely nothing overtly political about it. For older cartoonists, such as Daryl Cagle, David Levine, and Richard Guindon, inspiration came from artists such as Winsor McCay, Gustave Verbeek, and Rube Goldberg, each renown for rejoicing in the absurd, combining innovation with renegadism, and celebrating the delightfully nontraditional aestheticagain, not specifically political, though, like Duck Amuck, reflective of a radically independent mind, artistic fearlessness, and an appetite for intellectual frontierism, none of which is cultivated or encouraged by conventional society.