This is the first in what I hope will be a regular series of profiles on young cartoonists. Whether they’re in high school or early in their college cartooning days (at least prior to winning the Charles Schultz award) I hope to take a day every two weeks or so to shine a spotlight on a cartoonist early in their career.

The inaugural cartoonist in this series is Bob Al-Greene, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Bob is one of three cartoonists at the Daily Nebraskan, the UN-L student newspaper. He earned a ranking of Superior at the Spring 2006 National JEA/NSPA convention in San Francisco. He has also won a few awards from Quill and Scroll, the National Federation of Press Women and he was the Nebraska High School Journalist of the Year last year.

NEAL OBERMEYER: When did you get your start in editorial cartooning? What made you decide to start?

click to view the full-size image and Bob’s thoughts on the cartoon

BOB AL-GREENE: I’ve been drawing my whole life, but I started doing cartoons during my sophomore year in high school for the school newspaper, the Central High Register. Central’s journalism department is one of the very best in the entire country, so I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity, as far as turning my work in to competitions and things like that. My mom originally had urged me to start up a website and start putting up my cartoons, but I’m only getting around to that now.

The opportunity to express a clear and defined opinion solely through my art and a few choice words was, looking back, not something I was sure I could do, because I don’t consider my art to be in the same style as a lot of cartoonists, but it’s been working pretty well for me so far.

N: I would agree that your art is not in the same style as the “traditional” editorial cartoons – have you ever felt any pressure to conform – from yourself or others – or had people tell you “This isn’t what editorial cartoons are supposed to look like!”

B: I’ve tried a couple of times to simplify my drawings or stylize them even more, but instead my stuff just comes across looking childish, which is what I don’t want, so it doesn’t see print. I’m not sure I’ve found my artistic niche quite yet. I still have some evolving to do. I actually can’t remember anyone ever telling me, “This isn’t what editorial cartoons are supposed to look like!” or anything like that, and I’ll credit that to the fact that everyone has a different style and the truth is, cartoons are an extremely open genre and can be taken in any number of directions.

This summer a cartoonist was on “The News Hour” (one of my favorite programs to get ideas from) and he was talking about how cartoonists are having to make the switch to the Internet to keep their readership, and how they’re literally doing animated cartoons with voice-overs and impressions… That just turns the entire concept on its head. This is a very exciting time to be a young journalist. Continue reading →

There has been some really interesting material in the Lincoln Journal Star and the Omaha World-Herald these past few days regarding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Here’s how the timeline played out:

SATURDAY: Jeff Koterba’s cartoon, declared by Kyle Michaelis of the New Nebraska Network as one of the worst editorial cartoons of all time, runs in the World-Herald. I used to work with Kyle, I occasionally write and comment on the NNN site, and he occasionally plugs my cartoons, but I had nothing to do with it!!

Kyle says:

Omaha World-Herald cartoonist Jeff Koterba had an absolutely appalling cartoon in Saturday’s edition. You really should see this one for yourself.

In it, a mother carries a sign reading “I’m Pro-SCHIP and I vote!!!” while her daughter says of the protesting parents “If they really cared about our future, wouldn’t they oppose the expansion of government?”

Koterba’s work is rarely very funny or insightful, but this is an embarrassment to editorial cartooning. How much do you have to distort an issue to suggest that children are better off with no medical care than with subsidized care?

SUNDAY: The Journal Star editorial board hits a home run with SCHIP needs Nebraska delegation, pointing out the bipartisan cooperation that has gotten the bill as far as it has, yet not quite far enough to withstand Bush’s veto. The editorial also does a great job of putting the hysterical critics of the bill in their proper place with a great quote from REPUBLICAN Charles Grassley:

The bill is not a government takeover of health care. The bill is not socialized medicine.

Screaming ‘socialized medicine’ during a health care debate is like shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater. It is intended to cause hysteria that diverts people from looking at the facts.

To those of you who make such outlandish accusations, I say, go shout ‘fire’ somewhere else. Serious people are trying to get real work done. Now’s the time to get this done.

They also point out the absurdity of one of the key points brought up by opponents:

The Bush administration has made the attention-grabbing claim that it would expand federal coverage to families earning $83,000 a year. That claim is about a single hair short of bogus. Its only factual basis is a request by New York to expand coverage to 400 percent of poverty. In Nebraska the current guideline is 185 percent of poverty. In reality the bill contains disincentives for states that raise the eligibility limit above the federal minimum and incentives for reaching eligible families who are not enrolled.

The ed also points out the hypocrisy of those who supported Bush’s prescription drug benefits and the similarities between the bills. It’s definitely worth a read.

MONDAY: Not surprisingly, Rep. Lee Terry shows up late to the debate, fully equipped with hollow talking points. In today’s Public Pulse in the Omaha World-Herald, Terry provides a condescending lesson to those who support SCHIP.

I was amused by Andy Siref’s Oct. 4 letter about the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. We share the same goal of helping uninsured children who are from lower-income families.

If that were the aim of the bill presented to Congress, I would have voted “yes” instead of “no.”

But the facts are that the bill I voted against would enable coverage for children and their parents when they may earn as much as $80,000 or more per year and may even already have health insurance.

The bill also would more than double the cost of this government-run program at a time when most Nebraskans want Congress to control spending…

Poor Lee. At this rate, Nebraska’s senior representative is making Adrian Smith look clever.

Related cartoons:

Back when I started cartooning in the fall of 1999, I was totally new to the Daily Nebraskan. It wasn’t long until I saw how much fun the illustrators were having, and Melanie Falk let me join her staff in the spring of 2000. I was still cartooning 5 days a week, so I only illustrated for one. For the most part, I illustrated opinion columns, but I occasionally illustrated a few arts columns and stories too.

It was during that stint that I really started learning how to do ink washes (Melanie and Delan Lonowski were very patient teachers) and that was also when I first got my hands on those neat Prismacolor gray markers.

Continue reading →