Killed Cartoons
Casualties from the War on Free Expression
2007, 224 pages. Published by W.W. Norton & Company, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10110,
(212) 354-5500, www.wwnorton.com
If editorial cartoonists are the court jesters of journalism, using humor to speak truth to power, Killed Cartoons demonstrates that the monarchs who run newspapers have grown increasingly unwilling to listen. The collection rescues dozens of cartoons rejected for politics, offending advertisers, or just plain effrontery. Their artists include Pulitzer Prize winners Garry Trudeau, Doug Marlette, Paul Conrad, Paul Szep, and Mike Luckovich; renowned illustrators Al Hirschfeld and Edward Sorel; and young turks Ted Rall and Keith Knight and comics creators Carol Lay, Ward Sutton, and Peter Kuper. Most selections are recent, attesting to increased media cowardice and irrelevance. But not all cartoon killers are daily papers or otherwise corporate-owned. A handful have been such purportedly open-minded publications as The Nation, The New Yorker, and Mother Jones.