By Julie Asher
The political cartoonist’s job is “to create a discussion,” Christopher Weyant told an SPJ-DC group Nov. 20. “My job is not to make you think like I do.”
Weyant, whose work appears in The Hill newspaper and The New Yorker magazine, spoke to SPJ members and guests gathered in a room at the George Washington University School of Media & Public Affairs building.
Political cartooning is like an opinion column, according to Weyant, who lives in New York with his wife, Anna Kang, and their two children. “My job is not to be balanced or fair. I am going to give you my opinion and back it up with some facts” and deliver an image “quick and fast,” he said. “You will either be angry or it will make you laugh.”
His talk was by turns humorous and serious. He highlighted a little history of cartooning in the U.S., talked about how he chose it as his career and described the components of a good cartoon. As he spoke he projected a kind of gallery of his work on a large screen. (See examples of his work at www.christopherweyant.com.)
He started with an image of what is widely acknowledged as the first political cartoon in America — Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 illustration “Join or Die,” depicting a snake whose severed parts represent the Colonies. It became a symbol of the Revolutionary War.
Thomas Nast (1840-1902) gave political cartooning “a kick,” he said.
Every cartoonist dreams of being Nast, he remarked. “He’s the pinnacle of what we all want to be. He targeted an insanely corrupt politician and brought him down with cartoons.”
Nast was an ardent opponent of slavery, supported the Union during the Civil War, and later exposed William Magear “Boss” Tweed, leader of New York City’s corrupt Tammany Hall political organization during the 1860s and early 1870s.
“That is what is great about America,” Weyant said. “You can’t do this (political cartooning) without freedom of the press.”
A New Jersey native, Weyant described his upbringing — he was raised by a Jewish mother and a Catholic father and had 12 years of Catholic schooling –- as giving him “a sense of perspective.”
“It helped me see the other side of a situation was equally valid,” he said. The Jewish-Catholic culture gave him a “different way of looking at the world, he explained, adding that Judeo-Christian ethics “implore you to stand up (and) let your voice be heard.”
As a kid, he had a lot of dreams of what he wanted to be –- an impersonator like Rich Little, or maybe a ventriloquist, or even a jockey. In college he figured he’d be a lawyer. He took the LSATs, “then I met attorneys,” he joked. Today, “I have really good attorneys.”
He was always artistic. In school he’d draw something for classmates in exchanged for their snack –- “I realized commerce was involved” with drawing. And while in Catholic school, he had “an issue with authority.” He realized the “seed” to become a cartoonist was planned back then.
One concern he has about his field is the diminishing number of full-time cartoonists and a seeming lack of interest at journalism schools today to promote political cartooning as a career their students should consider. Weyant would like to see J-schools teach the next generation about political cartooning. In 1995, when he launched his career, there were 800 full-time political cartoonists; today there are 220 and the rest are part-timers.
Cartoonists don’t do a good job of promoting themselves, he said. “We’re not visible.” The field is “going through a tough time. It’s a tough time for the old model (of journalism),” Weyant said. The explosion of the Internet “piggybacked with the economic collapse” has made things tough for everyone in the industry, he continued.
Yet, “in an age when people are reading less, grabbing this (and) that, aggregating, looking but not reading,” and the news industry is counting on tons of views of its online content, cartoons are the perfect visuals for that environment, he said. “Cartoons are a link to that world.”
Weyant does about 1,500 cartoons a year. Besides the daily news, he finds inspiration in popular culture, including some hit TV series. Often a Time magazine provides fodder for covers and then there are the “gifts that keep giving” — like teary-eyed House Speaker John Boehner, saggy-faced Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and –- at least for while — former Congressman Anthony Weiner, with his “sexting scandal” and short-lived New York mayoral campaign. President Barack Obama and all political and other public figures are fair game, but not their families, stated Weyant. “I will never go after family members.”
The toughest subject to handle in a cartoon is a national tragedy, like 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing. He struggled to come up with something appropriate on the bombing. In the end, he created a simple cartoon showing a tiny girl (modeled on his daughter) reaching up to shake hands with an older man wearing a ball cap. The caption read: “Yes, we like the Yankees but today we’re all rooting for Boston.” The cartoon quickly went viral and Diane Sawyer, anchor of “ABC World News,” used it to close a broadcast. Many of his cartoons have been featured on NBC’s “Today” show, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News and elsewhere.
The humor in his cartoons for The Hill is harder hitting than that in his New Yorker images, which are more word play, “like a fencing match,” and cover more than politics. Tackling a difficult subject with humor, he added, can make us less afraid of it.
A cartoon “deals with basic human psyche, core emotions” Weyant added.
And on that rare occasion when a cartoon misses the mark, there’s always tomorrow, he said. “That’s what’s great about newspapers.”