4 thoughts on “New York Times Sports Cartoon Article”

1. Good Morning from Omaha,

   I used to love to read Tank MacNamara, a sports comic strip that I thought was great back in the day. I don’t know what ever happened to it. I guess it evaporated in the push for more news and ad space in the paper. OR it just ceased being funny as humor has to have a sliver of truth and the truth is really ugly in the world of sports.

   the big money, the don’t give a damn about the fans owners and the fact that the players just don’t seem to get it in any sport have ruined what used to be a pretty good deal for all concerned.

   I still enjoy a clever turn of a phrase , alliteration and a good cartoon. Thats why I keep coming back to drew everyday. He has continued to tradition of sports cartooning and I really hope he will spark a new generation of sports cartoonists!

   Strive for excellence, nothing but your best.

   Gene

2. A picture is worth a thousand words, to dust off an old cliche – and with pen, ink and pencil, only imagination limits what can be said with a picture.

   As I mentioned before, I freqently used your toons while working at a small town daily in Oklahoma. Large newspapers are feeling the crunch – in a world that demands breaking news and the latest scores, waiting the next day for a story is a tough sell.

   Today, the best contribution newspapers can give is perspective and opinion – A daily news cycle allows the writer to reflect and see and event more in context, rather than the Cable News talking heads. This is also true of the editorial cartoonist, who can express a column worth of commentary in a way that catches the eye more assuredly than a simple wall of text ever could.

   Sadly, most editorial cartoonists are falling the way of the rest of national opinion makers: knee-jerk, partisan, hypocritical and sometimes nasty. Many cartoonists that used their art to highlight the challenges faced or the events of the day have now turned to almost constant campaign ads, every bit as bitter as the ones unleashed by SuperPACs.

   While the rise of the Internet has given us the ability to instantly follow news, it has also sparked a rebirth of the comic strip. Aside from this site, I also frequent Subnormality, xkcd, Red Meat and Nerf Now!, all strips with far different levels of art, expression and subject matter – but all of which are consistently entertaining and enjoyable in their own ways.

   I am glad to see your site doing well, and I’m sure I speak for all of us in saying that we appreciate the sharing of your work with the rest of the us. I don’t always agree with your take (as was also sometimes the case in my editor days), but you have that same gift to bring all of the many facets of a story in a way that makes your toons worthy of a place on a sports page (as was frequently the case in my editor days), or of a daily stop during my net surfing (as is always the case now).

3. Drew–

   Badger made an excellent point in his post. If I want the latest news, I have a myriad of sources, both online and off. If I want something with a little more thought behind it, or some considered analysis, that requires a bit of a search. And I am willing to hunt for said sources to get what I want.

   The media that offer something deeper, local, or a little unusual are going to get my attention. Your site is a great amalgam of all three.

   I hope that these platforms get the resources needed to survive, and thrive, in what seems to be a more fragmented information landscape. If that means some of my favorite sites end up requiring paid subscriptions, I will consider it. I’d rather pay, say, $5 a day for that than for a fancy coffee at Starbucks.

4. The nice thing about newspapers is that you can get a more in depth look at the issue but sometimes the stories sound all too much like the “talking bobble heads” on TV. I have always liked the funnies, often they would summarize the current events in a few panels, a picture can speak a thousand words. Doonsebury, Bloom County, Prickly City and Tank McNamara draw on current events and provide a thought or two to ponder.

   Sadly, the first things to go in the newspaper are the comics but there is a ray of hope in the digital world. You can find many of the old and new comics as well as editorial cartoons online at Gocomics.com and DailyInk.com. The neat thing is the cartoons are in color and you can have them sent to you in a daily email for a small annual subscription.

   Check out the sites.

   Drew, may your pens and pencils stay as sharp as your wit.