CLS: Don Lee

Editorial Cartoons

Don Lee discuss how the editorial cartoon, succumbing at traditional papers, is being replaced (in the increasingly do-it-yourself world of the internet) by the meme. He also notes that photographs repurposed for editorial expression isn’t exactly a new thing (the famous photo of Teddy Roosevelt riding a moose across a river was, in fact, altered by a newspaper designer to illustrate a political statement), with a little speculation as to what would have happened if practical photography had been available to newspapers a lot earlier. Lee will also talk about further speculation as to how the “meme” could be refined into an effective political cartoon.

Lee was editorial cartoonist for several papers, including the Swanton Enterprise, Fulton County Expositor, Philadelphia Region’s Business, Toledo Free Press and (for 34 years) the Sandusky Register. He was also a reporter and editor for the Register until he didn’t want to be anymore. He also wrote and reported for the Enterprise, Free Press and Register. He now works for himself as a freelance illustrator and caricaturist, and does the occasional editorial cartoon for his blog because he can’t help it.