by JP Trostle, Minister of Information
So, as you might have heard, I’ll be stepping down soon as the Notebook editor (and editor of this site). The reason — and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s true — is to spend more time with my family.
It is also true that I’ve been moving away from editorial cartooning for a long while, at least as far as publications that pay are concerned; as the cliche goes, I didn’t so much leave newspapers as they left me.
It’s now been a decade since I was downsized from the last paper I drew for, the alt-weekly Indy Week, and even AAN, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, quietly dropped their annual award for cartooning last year. What was once seen as an accessible if not viable career conduit is long gone.
In that regard, I know I’m not alone.
This is actually the second time I’ve stepped down from this job. Oddly enough, if you just go by numbers, this is the longest gig I’ve ever had.
Taking over for the erudite V. Cullum Rogers in 2002, I was editor of the Notebook for 8 years, back when it was a quarterly and came out every 3 months… more or less.
After Ann Telnaes asked me to return in 2017 to wrangle the website, I served another 8 years. But even when I wasn’t editor, I still contributed articles, covered conventions, and took photos — so many damn photos — over another 7 years.
If I was like Crash Davis in the classic 1988 flick Bull Durham, I would quietly pursue the league record without saying anything, but I’m not much for baseball analogies. (Ha-ha who are we kidding I LOVE sports metaphors!)
My run as editor encompassed 40 issues of the AAEC Notebook — a record —including the book-length 50th Anniversary “Golden Notebook,” and one actual book, “Attack of the Political Cartoonists.”
I am particularly proud of the 5-volume set covering the years 2017-2022, and consider it my own take on Gibbon’s “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Editorial Cartoonist.” (And just like Gibbon, very few people have read it.)
Beyond that, I helped launch two websites — three if you count the disastrous voyage of the damned that was our previous site — ran award contests, wrote who knows how many press releases, and advised presidents. The position mutated over the last quarter-century as it absorbed other responsibilities — one time I insisted on being called Head Cat Herder — but I really do prefer Minister of Information (dude, it was in the old bylaws!)
As difficult as it has been to watch this profession contract and come under constant siege, I think the main reason I stayed so long is not just because I believe in the mission, but because so many of you have become close friends over the years.
As I’ve said many a time, cartoonists are some of the smartest people on the planet, and it has been an absolute privilege to work for you and with you. Someone once described the AAEC as a “drinking club with a drawing problem,” and that is exactly the sort of club I always wanted to belong to.
The able and enthusiastic Kevin Necessary will be slowly taking over things around here and I wish him luck. He’s going to need it.
We’re all going to need it.
—Jape
[Photo: Matt Wuerker and JP Trostle at the 2007 opening of “Bush Leaguers: Cartoonists Take On The White House” at American University in Washington, DC]
