The Sorensen Monologues
AAEC 2013 Post-Mortem
So I’m back from Salt lake City. Have been for nearly a week. My experience of this year’s meeting of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists was somewhat marred by a freelance deadline and the fact that I had to leave a day early.
I’d hoped to finish the freelance job before I left, but no, I wound up working on the road — penciling furiously in the Denver airport, inking on the flight from Denver to Salt Lake while surrounded by an unsettling number of babies and toddlers. Inking on planes sucks, especially having to work around turbulence and beverage carts, but it is possible.
Despite my mobile cartooning heroics, I still wound up spending too much time in my hotel room working, which involved a dramatic climax in the form of a busted travel scanner. I knew my scanner was on its last legs, so I’d borrowed one the night before from The Economist cartoonist Kal Kallaugher. Kal had kindly lent me his whole portable studio, including Wacom tablet and pen. After my scanner failed the first time, I tried Kal’s, but the driver would simply not install. Sweating profusely at this point, I switched back to my old scanner, which kept making an ungodly buzzing sound. Eventually, after smacking it repeatedly with the Little America Hotel information binder, I managed to get a couple scans out of it. Honestly, I don’t know how I get myself into these situations.
Salt Lake City itself was lovely, with more hip bars and tattooed young’uns than you’d expect. They also have some sweet light rail. Prior to the convention, host Pat Bagley had featured me as a guest cartoonist in the Salt Lake Tribune, which was nice. I managed to drink with everyone I’d hoped to drink with, and met some new folks as well. I missed last Saturday’s grand finale because it was my anniversary, although I wound up stuck in the Denver airport for several hours because it was too hot for planes to take off in Phoenix (where my plane was coming from), so I missed my anniversary too. At least I didn’t miss my deadline.
New Gig: NSFWCORP Comics
I”m taking part in a cool new project: a comics page in the print edition of NSFWCORP magazine, a.k.a. “The Future of Journalism (with Jokes).” As of the current issue, the subscription-based monthly features exclusive comics from several creators, including Scott Bateman, Matt Bors, Brian McFadden, Ryan Pequin, Ted Rall, and myself.
The comics page is edited by Matt Bors, who has a press release up on his blog. The mag also boasts some smart writing, not to mention a great doodled balloon-dog mascot.
What I’ve Been Up To: Reubens! Travel! Lightbulbs!
It’s been a while since I babbled about myself in this space, so here’s a giant autobiographical news dump for you. Last month I took a trip to the Pacific Northwest to get my stuff out of storage, and am happy to report that I have a proper drawing table again after many months of using any available surface. My office is slowly shaping up, as I make my way through a giant crap pile in the middle of the floor. My main problem is that I have no place to put the crap, meaning I need to go out and buy some more crap to put the crap in, and I really have no patience for that sort of thing.
Upon returning from the Northwest, I took off for Pittsburgh for the National Cartoonists Society annual Reubens Weekend. I almost didn’t go, but am very glad I did, because I won the NCS Award for Best Editorial Cartoons! The Reubens are often referred to as the Oscars of the cartooning world, except with none of the media coverage of the Oscars. Here I am holding my lovely plaque, which I look forward to hanging in my office as soon as I buy some nails.
I also had the pleasure of appearing on a panel that weekend with several luminaries from the daily strip world. From left is moderator Hilary Price (she stood on a chair while orating at one point, a technique I will have to try on a future panel), Terri Libenson, me, Cathy Guisewite, and Lynn Johnston.
Photo by Barbara Dale
Never in my wildest imagination as a wee youngster reading the comics page did I think I’d be sitting beside THE Cathy and the creator of “For Better or For Worse” at a conference someday. Afterwards, some of us went out for delicious sandwiches with french fries in them at Primanti Brothers.
A day or two after the Reubens, I found out that I am a finalist in this year’s Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Awards. I can really get behind this award-a-day plan. At risk of excessive horn-tooting, around this time I was mentioned in the New York Times, in a review of Victor Navasky’s book on political cartooning. I’m listed as an omission from the book, along with several prominent cartoonists whose absence from any book on political cartooning is frankly bewildering.
Right now I’m knee-deep in freelance work and home improvement projects without end. I did manage to successfully change the lightbulb in my refrigerator the other day, and now I can see my food again. This has been my greatest recent accomplishment, aside from the NCS Award.
Next week I’m off to Utah for the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention. Yesterday, I was the “guest cartoonist” for my colleague and all-around good guy Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake City Tribune; they ran my gun control strip from a few weeks ago. Stay tuned for further developments from the Beehive State.
Blog Note + Pittsburgh Appearance
I haven’t been able to write much here lately because I’ve been busy moving into a new home, which has yet to be equipped with wifi. To give you some idea of what my life has been like, I had to send out this week’s cartoon from the parking lot of a local coffee shop at 1:45am last night. (I’m currently sitting inside said coffee shop as a paying customer.) Oh, how I miss the days when people were lazy and/or clueless about password-protecting their wireless networks.
In other news, I’ll be doing an event in Pittsburgh next Sunday, May 26, as part of the Pittsburgh Comic Arts Festival. I am humbled to be appearing on a panel with several legendary comic strip artists: Lynn Johnston, Cathy Guisewite, Terri Libenson, and Hilary Price. Details here.
Pardon Our Mess
As you may have noticed, some parts of this site are still incomplete. For example, if you click on the “Order a print” button, it takes you a Store page filled with Latin gobbledygook. And the Illustration portfolio has just a few images in it, due to some technical difficulties with the plugin. I can assure you, this will all get fixed soon — I wanted to make the switch to the new site now, since my old site’s hosting plan will be expiring soon.
I’m especially stoked about the new site’s highly-searchable, visual archives — click on a subject in the tag cloud, and you’ll get thumbnails of all the comics on that topic. And cartoons are now connected to their respective blog posts, instead of being on separate pages. I look forward to doing more blogging now that everything is so up-front and easy to find. So yeah, stay tuned!
National Cartoonists Society Awards
I’ve been nominated for an NCS Award this year in the Editorial Cartooning division. Woohoo! I face tough competition from my colleagues Clay Bennett and Michael de Adder. A full list of division awards nominees is available on the NCS site.
2012 Wrap-Up: Stuff I Did This Year
Hard to believe it’s time to change the copyright date on my cartoons again, but alas, here we are. I’m both humbled and happy to report that 2012 was my best year yet as a Cartooning Professional. Thanks to all those publications that made it possible by using my comics and freelance illustrations, and thanks to readers who lent their support through print orders, donations, and thoughtful comments here and elsewhere.
Some highlights of 2012:
In March, I found out I was this year’s Herblock Prize Finalist. With my prize money, I purchased an emerald-encrusted mechanical pencil with a burled walnut barrel and deluxe boar leather handgrip. OK, maybe I didn’t.
In May, I flew to Vegas for the National Cartoonists Society annual gathering. There, I mingled with a number of the nation’s comic strip artists amidst the constant presence of cocktails. I felt briefly fancy, then returned home with a suitcase full of dirty laundry and no longer felt fancy.
Road trippin'
Shortly afterward, Mr. Slowpoke and I began an epic road trip from the Northwest to Austin, TX. During the drive, while we were somewhere in the middle of Utah, Kaiser Health News posted my comic about freelancers and health insurance (“An Open Letter to the Supreme Court About Health Insurance“), which blew up and became one of KHN’s most-read stories ever. (Clearly the SCOTUS decision upholding the Affordable Care Act was all thanks to me. You’re welcome.)
In June, I attended Netroots Nation in Providence, RI, where I was on a panel with fellow Daily Kos cartoonists Tom Tomorrow and Matt Bors. As an added bonus, Paul Krugman showed up in the audience while I was at the podium. Fortunately, I realized this after I sat down.
Making new friends at Big Nazo in Providence, RI
Also in June, I found out that I won the 2012 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Awards for Best Cartoon. Huzzah!
In September, I covered the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte for the Austin Chronicle and C-VILLE Weekly. I can now say I saw the Foo Fighters live.
Me with the entire Obama family
A few days later, I was off to Washington, DC for the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention, where I gave a few presentations. I participated in the cartoon version of a “Literary Death Match,” in which I was narrowly defeated in the final round by Keith Knight, who drew better blindfolded than I did (I’m sure he cheated).
With Clay Bennett and Tom Tomorrow at AAEC. Photo by Bruce Guthrie
My travel season finally over, the fall brought an abundant harvest of freelance work, most notably a series of WPA-style posters for the National Women’s Law Center. This gave me a chance to admire the incredible handiwork that went into the old WWII posters, and to spend way too much time thinking about fonts.
Around this time, the Center for Cartoon Studies unveiled a tribute poster to Matt Groening’s “Life in Hell.” I was flattered to ask to participate. My contribution was published on Slate.
The year was rounded out with a pleasant interview with Tom Racine of “Tall Tale Radio.”
Whew, I’m exhausted just thinking about all that stuff. Here’s hoping 2013 is similarly righteous. I’ll be unleashing a completely revamped website in the new year, so stay tuned for that. Cheers!
AlterNet Launches Comic Section
Some very cool news: AlterNet has begun publishing political cartoons, and today is my debut on the site. Check it out! And if you’re feeling spunky, share or leave a comment.
Follow me at the DNC
I’m in Charlotte, where I’ve begun my dual-pronged coverage of the Democratic National Convention for C-VILLE Weekly and the Austin Chronicle. Here are the links for following along:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/authors/jen-sorensen/
http://www.c-ville.com/author/jensorensen/
If you’re in a city other than Austin or Charlottesville, pick one; posts will be more or less the same. I’m hoping to integrate my tweets and photos before too long. Go ahead, leave a comment on either site!
Dem Convention Blogging
Some of you may recall my blog coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention for C-VILLE Weekly. We’ve been working on doing something similar this year, possibly in partnership with another altweekly, so I’ll be traveling to Charlotte the week after next. Watch this space for updates!
Editor: Comics help keep print readers loyal
In response to the recent Austin Chronicle story in which I was interviewed about the future of alt-weekly comics, an editor who publishes my work wrote me this noteworthy email:
Jen,
I read the article about the decline in political cartoons in the alternative press, and as usual, there’s a tragic flaw in the reasoning for getting rid of comics to cut costs.
By dumbing down the print side of their publications, publishers everywhere are destroying their own industry. If anything, the logical response to online competition would be to add *more* comics, columns and thought-provoking material to keep readers loyal.
We’ve taken that approach at Northern Express and the print side of our business is thriving. For what it’s worth, we sometimes run more pages now than i’ve seen in the Village Voice, and our geographical area encompasses a population of under 300,000.
Meanwhile, the daily in our town has gone all-in with the online delusion and has gone from a staff of 12 reporters to 3. What publishers don’t realize is that their online presence should be the gravy on the potato — not the other way around.
Thanks for indulging my favorite pet peeve.
Bob Downes,
Northern Express Weekly
Traverse City, MI
Well-put, methinks. To be fair, I understand that not every market is the same, and I know some editors have cut comics due to space issues when they truly didn’t want to. But considering that we live in an increasingly visual age, and political satire is popular, I suspect comics cultivate regular readers better than… well, a lot of other things.
