The Kintigh Strikes Back

“If I could be a [political cartoonist] I would, but I can't,
because I'm a f@#%*g [graphic designer]!”

As a preface to this story, it’s fair to note that when I did my first post, I mentioned that the De-evolution of Bud Leith was the most prominently remembered cartoon from my school days. This wasn’t entirely true. The first thing my Little Brother Chris remembered was George Bush & the Chocolate Factory dreamed up by Spanky. Also, only one person responded to that first post, or all of them, for that matter. Not exactly a mandate.

That being said--when I was a smaller fry (before the advent of my biggie-sizement) I fancied that one day I might be a political cartoonist. I also fancied that people who used the word fancy are too fancy for their own fancy pants!

I was 14 and had the hots for my 9th grade Spanish teacher. I think. Of course, at 14 you have the hots for everything, it seems. So, I thought to myself, “How great would it be to become a political cartoonist?” My Pequeña Señora Española del Profesora (so named as I’ve forgotten su nombre) would fancy me!” HA! Not really. Artists are always looking for validation, however. Cartooning was my way of showing off for the girls or to avoid beatings by the stunted rednecks in my hometown.

Now I do it just for the mad cash!

I remember doing an Iranian Hostage Crisis cartoon in my Pequeña Señora Española del Profesora’s class. Oh, those Krazy Khomeini Kollege Kids! By the way, on a side note, had I been old enough at the time, I would have voted for Ronald Reagan. Scary, huh? I DID vote for Reagan in 1984. Did you see any of that coming? Much of the nation was caught up in Reagan’s cult of personality at the time. I was no different. My excuse was political naivete. Heck, I remember singing the chant for Nixon against McGovern in 1972! Again, naivete.

Anyway, around the time of my nascent political cartooning career, I also met the Omaha World Herald’s political cartoonist at an exhibition at Peru State College. I still have an autographed book of his work somewhere. I can still picture cartoons he did of the Republican nomination race in 1976. Funny ones of Reagan! In that same exhibit, our little virgin teenage eyes were exposed to a room FULL of cartoons from Playboy. All done by a single cartoonist. All rejections. Boy, my art teacher hadn’t expected nudies! One of that days lessons I learned, my friends, was that you had to draw ALOT of crap to get a just a LITTLE accepted. I have a longer story about that later.

Maybe my little artistic ego wouldn’t have been able to take all that rejection. Rejection is still hard. As I said, validation. Most likely, because of that, the political cartooning career thing never took off. I did continue to draw political figures though. These beauties were done in 1989-90. I was relatively prolific at the time. New environments and situations tend to bring out fresh creative bursts in me. Early 1980s, late 1980s-early 90s, etc.

I remember ONE cartoon I did for the Penn State Wilkes-Barre student newspaper in the early 80s for my history prof. He was my James Watt hatin’, tree hugging, Native American loving Naziism & Fascism teacher and, boy, he was thrilled when Watt crashed and burned! Looking back, and reading up on the guy, I’m glad he did too! That cartoon was of my first “published” piece. I hope to find it one day.

Sad to say, I’ve lost many, many Reagan “I am your father, Lane” era drawings. Sadder yet, I’ve lost the need for validation. Saddest of all to say, I also lost the name of my sweet Pequeña Señora Española del Profesora.

But I didn’t vote for Bush I. Gracias, Lane.