Process: The Fellowship of (kissing)the Ring
The Process of making a cartoon in solidarity with Ann Telnaes
This week, many cartoonists have stood in solidarity with after her resignation in protest after the Washington Post refused to run a cartoon depicting the slew of tech and business billionaires genuflecting to Trump, having all donated millions to his inauguration fund. The lie given for killing the cartoon was woeful. As
put it, “No one has crafted a less-effective excuse for not running a cartoon, ever, one time.”In the ensuing days, many have done their own versions of the cartoon (some even used the theme as a jumping-off point for a different execution of the idea.) Either way, it’s something I hope we continue paying attention to despite the ever-increasing list of distractions —taking Greenland by force, setting Cybertrucks on fire, etc.
Steve Brodner has collected some of the tribute cartoons here, and Ann has posted some more on her own Substack here. Please subscribe to Ann’s substack here, and support independent cartoonists. For what it’s worth, here is my contribution below. (Scroll down further to see the process.)
It wouldn’t be Proces Junkie without me diving into the process of making the cartoon: so here’s the ‘behind the scenes’ of this idea.
On Friday, Ann quit WaPo in protest, and posted the rough of the spiked cartoon on her Substack. I texted her to see if she was OK, and to tell her I was finally cancelling my WaPo subscription. I have zero reason to read it anymore. Ann is a friend. She’s been a great help to me as a cartoonist since I was a teenager, with no idea how to get started in this game, so I felt pretty animated about this one.
The other editorial cartoonists rallied behind her (there aren’t too many left, but there’s enough to make some noise!) as the story became a national news headline in every major outlet—not to mention going viral on Substack.
started rallying the troops to do their own version of her cartoon to signal-boost it, and some of the most incendiary renditions spewed forth into the world. It gave the original idea far more oxygen than it would ordinarily have garnered, to begin with. A textbook case of The Streisand Effect.Sidenote: Some ignorant trolls have been belching comments like “Ann should grow a thicker skin! One cartoon rejected after decades of working at the paper? Grow up!” etc.
No take has ever landed further from the mark: Ann’s skin is so thick from a career being a Reuben & Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and past President of the AAEC) she’s practically a fucking armadillo. She’s had countless cartoons rejected over her career for countless reasons; It’s a part of the job. I can’t think of any other profession that requires building a callus to rejection more than an editorial cartoonist; and yes, I’m including tech entrepreneurs, scientific researchers and telemarketers. (Ok, maybe New Yorker cartoonists have it worse, but at least we get to work in our underwear.)1
The fact that this happened around the 10th anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo murders was particularly chilling, so I feel like a lot of cartoonists were already loaded for bear. I felt pretty passionate about it, so strung a few words together over on New York Cartoons.
I was noodling with a few ideas for a cartoon that played on a variation of Ann’s cartoon, but ultimately her original concept was so solid I didn’t need to monkey with it. I was leaning towards more of a ‘Yes, and…’ than anything.
I jumped around from a tortured Lord of the Rings metaphor while I was in the shower (best ideas, always) abd I bounced around the concept of “The Fellowship of (kissing) The Ring”. It’s a bit of a mixed metaphor, which isn’t great for an editorial cartoon. You either do the Godfather/Pope ‘kissing the ring’ concept, or you do The Fellowship Of The Rings. I think what I landed on was a bit of a mess, perhaps.
I had an idea of drawing the cartoon with each of the tech billionaires as LOTR characters, lining up behind Trump’s Frodo; ie. “You have my Sword, And my Bow, And my Axe!” but it would be “You have my cash, and my Algo/Newspaper, and my App!” etc, but it all got a bit clunky and hack. (Sometimes you’ve got to get them out of your brain onto the page to see how bad the ideas are.)
While these ideas were swirling, Morris farted so loudly it shook the building, so I took him out for a walk to clear my head (and his belly). Walking usually helps me clarify ideas I’m stuck on— as it has countless other people who come up with things out of thin air for a living.
While I was walking I played with the idea of everyone now calling this point in time the ‘Post-Truth Era’, then fuddled with the idea of “The Washington Post-Truth” but, again, it’s a hat on a hat, and a bit hacky. I’m not sure. Usually, I’d bounce stuff like this off Scott, but he’s in Australia with his ridiculously cute baby, enjoying Sydney's summer sun. Hard to argue with that.
I started sketching up some pencils at the drawing board, building on Ann’s idea of the tech and media broligarchs all bowing, prostrate before the giant Trump on a plinth; “genuflecting to his highness.” It seems like they’re all just clambering to be his favourite. It’s worth noting that Elon Musk was not in Ann’s cartoon, nor was Tim Cook, but they’re both just as guilty as the rest of these spineless flunkies who flung giant sacks of cash into the kitty to curry favour with the Mad King.
We all know why they’re doing it— playing to Trump’s fickle ego and hoping to stay off his Shit List, but it’s staggering how rapidly they all jettisoned their dignity after only recently saying things to the effect of, ‘He’s an abhorrent assclown with the attention-span of a baby chimp.’
Because I sometimes squeeze too hard on my pencil (a dreadful habit; you’re meant to do the exact opposite), my mechanical blue pencil is wrapped in gauze and masking tape. I got the tip from Tom Richmond, who wraps his live caricaturing clutch in gauze and elastic bands to stave off RSI/Carpel Tunnel. I do the same with my Stylus for my Wacom Cintiq. I’m a fucking monster, I know.
Before inking, I did some warm-up sketches and noodled around with a few extra details in the composition, moving postures and proportions before laying it under my lightbox for a loose guide for inks.
I wanted to at least nail one of the caricatures of each of the offending goblins, so I pulled a bunch of reference photos up on Google Images to see what features I could exaggerate. I wanted the expression on Bezos’ face to be so clear that it was unmistakeably him, and not just another rich white bald tech billionaire, so I took a couple of practice passes at how his face might contort to show maximum submissiveness, mid-smooch.
Zuckerberg has changed his hair lately; he grew it out so it’s all curly and wears a chain, but more people remember/recognise him from the haircut he’s had for over a decade in the public eye, so I opted for that. I spent an inordinate amount of time getting his tongue right.
It felt nice to be back drawing again after having taken a break over the holidays to move into my new place. I was digging sketchbooks and drawing tools out of boxes all weekend, but I’m slowly getting back to full capacity. My desk faces the city, so I have to pull the blinds down to stop gazing out the window and daydreaming.
Process Note: You’ll notice I do pencils and composition on an angle, and inks on a flat surface. I just find it to be a better way to work for me; I know it’s not the ‘correct’ way to do anything, but when have I ever followed a rule? I have a little reminder on my drawing board because my brain is a small dog that still needs to be trained.
Once the inks were done I took them from the natural plane in which we all exist and thrive, and scanned it into the digital realm, where NFTs and bitcoin float around like pollen. I tidied up the rough edges and, truth be told, took another swing at my Zuckerberg caricature (I didn’t get the neck shape quite right that first time.) You can see my first pass below.
The good think about inking by hand is that you can get through the art without the tyranny of uncertainty that you could draw a line better. The tyranny of the UNDO function— believe me, I know it’s helpful sometimes when you’re trying to get a finished peice of art ‘just right’, but if you want to get something finished, you can circumvent the endless possibilities by just drawing the thing by hand, then fixing any lines you want to re-draw later, after you’ve scanned them in. A hybrid workflow is what I use, and I enjoy using both digital and analogue tools; they each have their value.
Rather than do watercolours/wash by hand this time, I decided to do that part in Photoshop. I had the luxury of not having a deadline on this piece, but I didn’t want to spend all day on it— hence bringing it into photoshop for final touches and wash. Do I prefer to do washes by hand? Yes. Does it take way longer and involve more risk? Also yes. But sometimes you just make the call according to how long you want to spend on the job. My turnaround time between approval and finished art for the New Yorker is anywhere between 2-3 hours for Dailies.
I feel that the career editorial cartoonists who have to do a cartoon every single day of the week, often under extremeley tight deadlines due to the ever-shringking news cycles, are superheroes. I started out doing a weekly cartoon when I was 19, which eventually blew out to a daily, and learning that skill was both exhilarating and terrifying; You have to make fast calls about style, execution and sometimes just ship something you might’ve liked to take a second pass at— but when the deadline creeps up, you’ve got to turn something in.
As a premium subscriber, you already have access to the digital watercolour brushes I used for this peice in your Premium Toolkit Folder (check the header of this email). If you’re ever having trouble locating or installing them, please let me know. If you’re a free subscribert and want access to them, you know what to do. 😊
I think Procreate and Photoshop are just about on par for watercolour brushes these days— the brilliant Kyle T Website is the reason for that. I’m glad he’s over at Procreate these days, and he’s doing crazy things with their latest brush release.
After adding some finishing touches, and building out a 600dpi print version, as well as a 144dpi 2000px wide version for screen, I posted it to all of the things and let the reactions start flooding in. I’ve written before about the fact that ‘the reaction doesn’t belong to you’ once you put your art out into the world. That’s something I’ve had to learn over many years of having my work interpreted in a vast array of ways that I did and didn’t intend, but thems the breaks.
If you liked this peek behind the curtain, feel free to share it with a friend or colleague who might like to learn something. If you have any questions, pop them in the comments below.
‘Til next time,
Your pal
I just know I’m going to get an email from an editorial cartoonist in their underwear.