Cathy Wilcox bids a relunctant goodbye

 

Cathy Wilcox is ending her run as cartoonist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, part of a wider tranche of redundancies at the newspaper group. 

It has been gratifying to see the high level of support and well-wishes the announcment of her retirement has precipitated. 

In addition to a final week of cartoons that made explicit her feelings about several important matters, on her way out she had a word to say on the encroachment of A.I. upon the profession.

Pissing matches

 

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this Bill Brahall cartoon the other day. Here are a few matches:

Cartoonists fear for future of industry with rise of AI-generated illustrations

From Australian Broadcasting News.

The Herald Sun published this AI-generated image of Victorian Premier Ben Carroll

(Australian) cartoonists say they are worried about the future of their craft, as media companies continue to grapple with integrating artificial intelligence (AI) tools into their industry.

On Wednesday, the Herald Sun newspaper published an AI-generated illustration alongside an article about Victorian Premier Ben Carroll.

The illustration, which was clearly marked by the publisher as being AI generated, depicted Mr Carroll with a pirate's leg scraping barnacles off a ship decorated with former Labor premiers Jacinta Allan and Daniel Andrews.

Signe Wilkinson Donates Archive to University of Pennsylvania

 From Feridundemir.

Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson has donated a substantial collection of her political cartoons and working materials to the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.

The collection includes original drawings, published cartoons, sketches, notes and other materials from Wilkinson’s career. It will be housed in the Annenberg Library Archives, where it will be available for research and teaching. 

The elephants in the room

 

Winners of the 11th World Humor Awards

From World Humor Awards.

The Theme of this year's contest was "Kindness and Courtesy"

Pat Oliphant dead at 90

Photo by Greg Preston 

I woke up this morning to the news that legendary editorial cartoonists Pat Oliphant died yesterday. He was a giant of the profession who spawned countless imitators.

In lieu of personal memories, here is a selection of articles about him on this blog:

Patrick Oliphant, Master of 'a Dying Art'

"A Savage Art: The Life and Cartoons of Pat Oliphant"

Cartoonist Ann Telnaes on Pat Oliphant

Pat Oliphant Interviewed in "The Atlantic"

Pat Oliphant by Dave Coats in Go Comics

News from Patrick Oliphant in the Santa Fe New Mexican

UPDATES

"The Man on the Trunk of the Tree." by Jason Chatfield

Pat Oliphant, world-renowned political cartoonist dies at 90 obituary in the Santa Fe New Mexican

The quiet man with the loud drawings in The Comics Journal