Thursday, November 20, 2008
AAEC - Editorial Cartoon News
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December 4, 2002
Cartoons of the future, 2072 A.D.
A few years ago I saw Jules Feiffer give a lecture, and during the Q&A someone asked him where he thought editorial cartooning would go in the next century. Feiffer just shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I have no idea. I’ll be dead by then so I don’t really care."
Well, I for one am curious, and so I put the question to a handful of forward thinking people – including cartoonists who are taking the genre in new directions, and, of course, a futurist.
Mark Fiore
Cartoonist and animator
2002 winner of the Online Journalism Award for Commentary
"I’m actually very optimistic about the future of satire, what with the coming apocalypse and all. Political cartoons may not look like they do today or be published on dead crushed trees, but they will exist.
"In 70 years, political cartoons will still be around because there will still be weird people that get angry and are compelled to change the world through little drawings. These political cartoons may be immersive, surround-sound animated works that people download to their flying cars, or they may be charcoal drawings scratched on the side of an ammo box as we fight for scraps of food, I’m not sure which."
Josh Calder
Futurist
Consultant at Social Technologies, a futurist consulting firm in Washington D.C.
"In 70 years, I believe editorial cartoon’s long association with paper will be over. Paper has life in it yet, but ephemera like cartoons will have moved to electronic forms by 2072. They will be instantly deliverable everywhere on the planet, and, with a slight delay, elsewhere.
"Instead of a few drawn frames, they could be miniature animated films, some in 3-D, available through tiny and ubiquitous delivery devices. Some people, of course, will still appreciate the old-school minimalism of today.
"As to content, the emotions will be familiar, in large part, but the subject matter will often be unimaginable to us. ‘Should ultrachimps be allowed to clone themselves?’ Put it in cartoon form.
"John Cashman, a futurist friend of mine, adds: ‘They’ll be 37% more biting and satirical.’"
Clay Bennett
Cartoonist, The Christian Science Monitor
Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
"I don’t really see editorial cartooning changing all that much in the decades to come. The technology by which it’s delivered however, will probably undergo a major evolution.
"The lines between print and television news will dissolve and editorial cartooning will adapt. Most of us will be producing animated cartoons, conceding to a demand for the elements of sound and movement.
"But I imagine as long as there are still refrigerators to adorn, editorial cartooning as we know it today will exist, even if it’s only practiced by a few."
Lucy Shelton Caswell
Curator and historian
Head of the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University
"I think there will still be a few people who want to hold a pen or brush in their hand and create that way–but most people will work on-line. The Web has already opened new distribution possibilities for people and that will continue to grow."
Milt Priggee
Cartoonist
Attended the University of Michigan on a Journalism Fellowship from 2000-2001
"The only thing that is constant, is change. Cartooning will change much more 70 years from now than it has from 70 years ago. Cartoons will have a lot more than just full color everyday. Well before then, cartoonists will be using all the technological aspects of animation, sound and inter-activity to engage their readers. Since graphic commentators strive to inter-act with their readers it will be forms of inter-activity that will define the art in the future.
"Journalistically there’ll be fewer boundaries because the financial base of graphic commentators will become diversified. Freedom of speech will be realized as has never been experienced before. The norm will be what we consider ‘over the top’ in today’s commentary. There will be no more killed cartoons, originals or even collections in print form.
"Cartooning is on the verge of a renaissance."
Peter Kuper
Cartoonist
Editor, World War 3 Illustrated
"NYC 2072 – The last man on earth is sitting amid the ruins of New York reading a political cartoon in a half-burned alternative newspaper and he’s saying: "I don’t get it.’"
end transmission
edited by J.P. Trostle