Jim Borgman - Cincinnati Enquirer Editorial Cartoonist
Any nominal skills I have today regarding illustration began from editorial cartoons or illustrations in Time and Newsweek. There was even a time when I could name the artist purely by their styles without looking at their names. And the Cincinnati Enquirer's Jim Borgman was my favorite. In my early teens, instead of smoking pot for the first time or getting girls, I would go see this editorial cartoonist speak at the Cincinnati Art Museum. I fucking loved it in only the way a obsessive nerd could.
Besides his deft touch on politics and family life, I always appreciated his line work. His drawing style is loose but dimensional and heavy at the same time. There's a weight, that might come with years of experience, but also appreciates craftsmanship. A style you can see in older cartoonists work, pre-"Far Side" crudeness that I think opened the doors for a lot of the poor one-panel work we see prevalent today.
Anyway, I was about 14 and had gone off to Boy Scout camp (alright, alright...). When I came back, my mom was really excited to show me this package from Jim Borgman's studio. I didn't know what it was or why it was there, but it was a letter from Jim, encouraging me on my impending high school journey and to keep up the good work drawing. Drawing? It turns out that while I was away, my mom had copied some of my cartoons (lots of George Bush Sr.'s and Dan Quayle caricatures, one-panels, etc.) and sent them to him without me knowing. Jim's letter had authentic misspellings and everything. He even sent me a signed copy of his latest book, "The Great Communicator", a collection of all his Reagan panels) which I still have to this day. He was a great illustrator, Pulitzer Prize winner and good guy. He retired from the Enquirer in 2008.
More about him here.
His last panel September 26th, 2008.
great post buddy, great post
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