Excellence in Journalism Competition

I found out recently that for the first time in four years I did not win the Milwaukee Press Club's Excellence in Journalism Competition. What's more, I didn't place.

So who are these cartoonist who beat me in the competition. Well, they're not cartoonists. You see, this year the Milwaukee press club combined a couple of categories. In the past there had been separate categories for best editorial cartoon, best cartoon in a magazine, best newspaper illustration and best magazine illustration. This year all of those genres were lumped into one category. First and Second place went to magazine illustrations from Milwaukee Magazine, a glossy monthly publication.

The illustrations that won are not my style but they are by no means unworthy of winning.

I don't want to sound like a sore loser, but why am I competing against magazine illustrators. Frankly it doesn't seem fair. The illustrators likely had a least a week to put together their illustrations, and I whipped up the cartoons I submitted in an afternoon.

The competition is judging apples and oranges all in the same category, but as the print media industry continues to crumble I guess this is a sign of the times. Next year, maybe they've a writing category for "Best News, Feature or Sport's Story, appearing in a Magazine or Newspaper."

Here are some of my editorial cartoons.

Update

Here are the cartoons I've drawn since the last blog update.
There are new if seemingly unfair water restrictions in Tampa in the wake of a drought.
This cartoon is absolutely disgusting. I love it.
I'm always surprised to find out that there are people out there who just absolutely hate wind power. I think some of them would rather live next to the stack a coal power plant, just to spite liberals. Incidentally the power company complained the Wisconsin State Journal's editor about being single out in this cartoon, even though I'm sympathetic to them.
All the words in this cartoon leave nothing to be explained.
Enjoy the sunshine on government while it (newspaper) lasts.

Drunk driving

Unfortunately, I've been drawing alot of cartoons about drunken driving recently, but I think this one is the strongest. I love the drawing, and the message is jarring but honest.

My only problem with the cartoon, was the quality of the reproduction in the print edition of the Wisconsin State Journal. I probably ought to sit down with the designer so I can figure out how to make the color look clearer.

editorial cartoon update

Here is the last week of cartoons.
Obama's earmarks. It's not the most intelligent cartoon in the world, but it makes me laugh.
It's amazing what some developers will try to pull.
I like this image, but I could have executed the drawing better. Still, it's a good cartoon.
Whenever I draw a cartoon about stem cell research I get a bunch of complaints, mostly from people who complain that I don't specify that I'm talking about EMBRYONIC stem cell research. Folks also complained that there was no ban on stem cell research, just restrictions on using federal dollars for funding.

I understand those complaints, but they miss the larger points about the damage that the Bush administration did to scientific research. As to the point about not using the word EMBRYONIC, (1) it's a long word that doesn't fit in cartoons (2) why would I draw a cartoon about plain old uncontroversial stem cell research.
State Farm has dumped Florida home insurance policy holders. Those policy holders have been forced to Citizens Property Insurance which is paid for by Florida property tax payers.

Exceedingly frustrating day was resolved about a week later with this cartoon.