The Boomer Cartooner Feiffer

In honor of the many professional cartoonists in our community--Drew Dernavitch, Matt Diffe, Keith Bendis--and people like me who fantasize about be published by the like of The New Yorker, we bring you this: An interview with the cartoonist of his generation, Jules Feiffer.

Inspired by his hero of the political comic, Walt Kelly author of Pogo, Feiffer had the drive, but not the penmanship. He developed a loose style, mostly "out of ignorance" according to the artist. But that loose style and open white space has captured a specific atmosphere of malaise mixed with merriment that makes his work so unique.

This interview gives insight to his decision to give up lambasting the political and cultural landscape in America.

Even after Watergate, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Iran-Contra Scandal, Monica Lewinsky, et. al., Feiffer feels that our current era is too scary to take lightly. He also celebrates new discoveries in his art and creative process.

From Studio 360, on November 03, 2006:

The Bush administration has boosted the careers of many liberal comics and commentators like Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But a familiar voice of the old left has been unusually quiet during the last six years: Jules Feiffer. Studio 360's Eric Molinsky traveled to Feiffer's studio to find out why the legendary cartoonist erased himself from the editorial pages.

Feiffer’s cartoons have been collected into 19 books, and have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, Playboy, and The Nation. He was commissioned by The New York Times to create its first op-ed page comic strip which ran monthly until 2000, when Feiffer decided to start off the new millennium by giving up cartooning, In his mid-sixties, taking inspiration from his three daughters spanning three generations, he has reinvented himself as a children’s book author.

His abandonment of the medium afforded by political cartoons may be inspired by the dread best articulated by Feiffer's hero, Pogo the Possum, who is best known for declaring during the height of 1950s McCarthism: "We have met the enemy, and it is us."

Comments

[Jan Adkins]

I, too, was a Pogoholic and a keen advocate for Candidate Pogo in his ill-fated but gallant run for the presidency during the 50's, when Senator Malarkey frightened the stuffings out of nearly everyone in the Okeefenokee Swamp. Difficult times, recently revisited.

The whole quote was poignant and engraved in my mind, posited by Kelly in one of his brilliant prefaces: "And when at last with tiny blasts on tinny trumpets we finally meet the enemy, not only will he be ours, he will be us."

[Drew Dernavich]

Not having grown up with Feiffer, I only saw his later work, and although it took me a while to warm up to it I appreciated the uniqueness of his skill and approach, even if I didn't necessarily share his politics.

Chesterton said a century ago that politicians were at a point where they were too caricaturish to be caricatured. Sound familiar? I think every generation starts with idealism and ends up in frustration. So it is not surprising when political cartoonists, who are often so much more idealistic, decide to exit the battle. But Feiffer will be one of the last ones of his kind - as newspaper markets shrink they don't want to alienate readers with unpopular opinions, so the editorial page cartoons are often gags which could have come from a Leno monologue.

Feiffer's new book, which is referred to in the interview, does indeed reflect a new and richer drawing style, and it looks great - almost like he's been reinvigorated.