He's been gone about two months now, and I miss him. Jeff Stahler was an award-winning editorial cartoonist for the Columbus Dispatch. He didn't die, he was canned/quit over a "plagiarism" allegation. Stahler drew his panel well after the one that ran in the New Yorker. And the two are very similar. Could be coincidence, but probably not.
Plagiarism is cheating and should not be condoned. In this case, however, we're talking about one-panel cartoons, not doctoral theses or scientific research. Just doesn't seem like a firing offense -- the guy's not a reporter, he draws funny pictures.
Stahler's one the top political/editorial cartoonists in the country. He was one of the few bright spots in the otherwise lame Dispatch. When Columbus snagged him eight years ago from the Cincinnati Post, he was already well-known and nationally syndicated -- a rising star. He gave our wimpy local some instant credibility. (Until he arrived, the Dispatch employed the worst cartoonists imaginable. Boring, ugly, never funny. For decades pre-Stahler, the Dispatch never had a cartoonist capable of a presidential caricature. Never.) Stahler drew two cartoons every weekday: one for our editorial page, the other for his syndicated "Moderately Confused" panel.
And now he's gone. His "Moderately Confused" still runs in our comics section (How does the Dispatch justify that?) but our editorial page now gives us a steady diet of the cheaper, less clever, and more conservative (of course!) syndicated cartoonists, including the frequently racist Ed Gamble. A sad state of affairs.
I wish Stahler and the Dispatch would kiss and make up.
No comments:
Post a Comment