Three in a Day

Bad news from a couple of days ago, via cartoonist Ward Sutton:

Terrible news today from the sadly shrinking world of Editorial Cartooning: 3 very talented, PulitzerPrize-winning cartoonists, Jack Ohman, Joel Pett, and Kevin Siers, were all laid off by the McClatchy chain of newspapers for "no cause."

Some examples of their work:





McClatchy said, "We made this decision based on changing reader habits + relentless focus on providing the communities we serve with (content) they can’t get elsewhere."

So their "relentless focus" to "serve" communities amounts to ... eradicating editorial cartoons.

Ohman was at the Sacramento Bee, Siers at the Charlotte Observer, and Pett was a freelancer at the Lexington Herald-Leader, according to the Washington Post. Ohman is the current president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. 

Jack Ohman is from Saint Paul, and got his start at the Minnesota Daily, the student paper at the University of Minnesota before quickly moving to the big time without finishing school (he was nationally syndicated at age 19). Kevin Siers is also from Minnesota, and also worked at the Daily, before Ohman.

Joel Pett, I confess, was not a name I remembered hearing before, but I recognized this cartoon of his, which is why his drawing style looked familiar:

Meanwhile, the Star Tribune has saddled itself with the head-shakingly bad Mike Thompson, when these three talents have just become available.

Talk about bad timing!