Celebrating the Past • Planning the Future
Summer Convention June 17-19, 2004

Cartoonist shows opinions through stroke of pen

Ben Sargent is in a class by himself at the Austin American-Statesman — he is the only editorial person who still washes ink off his hands at the day’s end.

“I’m the last person in our building that still does anything by hand,” the editorial cartoonist said.

“One day the power went out in downtown Austin and I literally was the only person who could work.”

Sargent, who won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2001 and 2002, showed his work and explained the process of cartooning during a speech June 19 at TPA’s 125th Summer Convention in Austin.

“Cartoonists make people see things and we hope in my business that if we’re doing our job that that’s what happens,” Sargent said.

Cartoonists draw heavily on symbols to create a message. Sargent said cartoon pioneer Thomas Nast is credited with inventing many of the symbols including the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant and the popular image of Uncle Sam.

“Every cartoon has symbolism in it in a broader sense in a way that it takes a familiar situation … and then turns it to make the point of your cartoon,” he said.

Cartoonists also draw heavily on caricature of public figures in the news. Sargent said the best caricatures develop over time as the cartoonist studies the subject’s movements and actions and each drawing continues to get better and  more recognizable.

“I think there’s a great deal of influence that kind of satire has in terms of forming public impression of that public figure,” he said.

Cartoonists, like columnists and editorial writers, must have their own voice, Sargent said. Even though he’s been labeled “famously liberal” by Texas Monthly, Sargent said he gets frustrated when specific groups try to claim him as theirs.

“One of the most important things a cartoonist needs to have is independence, is for people to know that your opinions are being derived at by you,” he said.

The reading public tends to think that because it is a cartoon it should be funny and that, Sargent said, makes it a challenge to deal with a serious subject.

“Editorial cartoons: their first duty is not necessarily to be funny,” he said.

“In my mind we are editorialists — just like a column writer, an editorial writer — and their first purpose is to present an opinion. If they can do that and be funny that’s the most effective way to do that.”