Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

“But what about the lurkers?”

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

One way or another, he’s a liar.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Consistently wrong since 2002

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

“They all knew.”

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

You are here: Home / Absent Friends / Fare Thee Well, Tony Auth

Fare Thee Well, Tony Auth

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faretheewell tony auth

That was the very last Tony Auth cartoon on my daily GoComics page, back on July 1st. I knew Auth was old enough to retire, but I didn’t realize why he was no longer drawing. From his “own” paper, the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Tony Auth, 72, of Wynnewood, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and mainstay of The Inquirer‘s editorial page for four decades before resigning in 2012 to become a digital artist, has died.

Mr. Auth had been under treatment for metastatic brain cancer. David Leopold, his friend and curator, said he died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday, Sept. 14, four days after his supporters announced a fundraising effort for an archive devoted to his work at Temple University.

Mr. Auth’s remarkable career began in 1971 when the fledgling artist from California flew in to Philadelphia to interview for the position of editorial cartoonist…

Over the next 41 years, Mr. Auth would use his rapier wit in thousands of carefully rendered drawings to kindle discussion on the political and cultural currents of the day. Few could view an Auth cartoon and stay mute…

In recognition of his body of work, a retrospective was assembled and shown from June through September 2012 at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown. Over 85,000 attended.

As he went through Mr. Auth’s drawings, [guest curator David] Leopold was struck by their optimism. “I think the common idea people have of a cartoonist, is that they have a lot of bile at the world. Tony is not full of bile; he is a very happy, nice guy.”

Leopold said: “He might not show us, or our leaders, at our best, but there is always his hope, that we will all be better.”…

Michael Cavna, the Washington Post‘s cartoon/graphic-arts specialist, “Colleagues salute Pulitzer-winning Philadelphia journalist as a singular, big-hearted artist“:

… “I’m so profoundly saddened by the news of Tony Auth’s death, I find it difficult to put my feelings to words, but leave it to say that we have lost one of the true greats of American editorial cartooning,” Clay Bennett, the Pulitzer-winning Chattanooga Times Free Press cartoonist, tells The Post’s Comic Riffs.

“Every once in a while, an artist comes along with a singularly unique voice and a style that seems derivative of no one before him,” Bennett says of his friend. “Tony Auth was such an artist.”…
“Tony relished cartooning. He loved the drawing, the politics and the phone calls afterwards,” Signe Wilkinson, his fellow Philadelphia political cartoonist, tells Comic Riffs on Sunday evening. “He also relished egging on other cartoonists, including young ones starting out, including me.”

“I walked into his office with a putrid portfolio,” says the Pulitzer-winning Wilkinson, “and he treated me like I was already one of the gang. It’s one of the many reasons he’s admired in the cartoon fraternity.”

Cartoonist after cartoonist — and sometimes even aspiring artists who moved on to other forms of journalism — cites Mr. Auth’s generosity of spirit and professional encouragement….

“Tony felt it! He had that fire in the belly that true journalists have and he trusted that fire, and his cartoons showed it,” Pulitzer-winning Dayton Daily News cartoonist Mike Peters tells Comic Riffs. “He went with ideas that most of us cartoonists would not have the courage to draw, and he did it with such a flair. A few brilliant lines that … came across pure. He always joked about doing a 20-second cartoon, but you see his ideas were pure and his drawings were pure. It was a deadly combination that made his cartoons so special and that no other cartoonist could do…

There’s a video clip over there, of Auth’s speech when he won the 2005 Herblock award. It made me laugh, even as I teared up a little.

Auth was also, briefly, a “funny pages” cartoonist, collaborating with Daniel Pinkwater (children’s book author, dog whisperer, NPR stalwart) as described by Toonopedia:

Norb was a scientist and an adventurer, in the Indiana Jones tradition… He was assisted by a girl named Rat; a dwarf wooly mammoth named Eugen, whom he’d picked up in Yakutsk; and Jacobowitz, a stooge. Together, they battled mad disk jockeys, Tibetan monks from a lamasery in Los Angeles, the talking fish of an underwater floating island, and similar menaces. The only time a major plotline was resolved was when the series ended.

This came quickly — in fact, the strip lasted only 52 weeks, just short of a year. The decision to fold it was made because of poor reception. Only two positive responses came in, but they were impressive enough — novelist Chaim Potok and cartoonist Jules Feiffer were its only vocal fans while it was running. Other mail, Pinkwater later said, wasn’t just indifferent — some of it was downright hostile. King Features, which didn’t shy away from non-mainstream features like Krazy Kat, Zippy the Pinhead and Jacky’s Diary, drew the line at Norb.

After the comic ended, it was a different story. People who missed it became quite vocal about wanting it back, but it was too late. Their only consolation was a 1991 collection of daily strips from Mu Press… — the only time Norb ever got off the newspaper page.

I still have that book (which, IIRC, was very badly & cheaply produced), and a bulging file folder somewhere of strips clipped from the Boston Globe. Be a great tribute for someone with better access to get permission to scan those strips and get them online, so that a generation much more attuned to Norb’s deadpan dada-ism would have a chance to enjoy them!

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  3. 3.

    Elizabelle

    Saw that Auth had passed. Fabulous cartoonist. Love his “W” with bat ears.

    Michael Cavna was at this weekend’s Small Press Expo (for comics/cartoons) in Bethesda. Looks a bit like Johnny Depp. Interesting guy.

  4. 4.

    Mike in NC

    Tony Auth was great, and others like Pat Oliphant are also getting on in years. Sadly, our local rag only runs cartoons by neo-Confederate assholes like Glenn Foden.

  5. 5.

    Dog On Porch

    Long after contemporaneous pundits are forgot by all but historians (say, two weeks from now), political cartoons will serve to convey an immediate impression of human insight into the world of their time*. And the great ones will therefore serve as teachers for generations yet unborn.. which is a very cool legacy.

    *(just check out the Joe & Willie cartoons of WW2).

  6. 6.

    HinTN

    It took reading BJ to learn that our local artist, Clay B, is a Pulitzer Prize winner. What a world. (YES, he takes heaps of abuse from the ignorati in the letters section of the local fish wrap that publishes his work.)

  7. 7.

    jacy

    Surgery went well- laparotomy – but tumor seems totally enclosed and no sign of cancrr smywhere elsr,so no firther treatment. Will be in the hospital for or five days. I’ll post more when I am more or less clptrhensible. Love you guy!

  8. 8.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Violet: From her Facebook feed:

    Surgery went fine. Either benign or low-level malignancy that’s enclosed, so likely no further treatment. Will be in the hospital for several days. Thanks everyone!

    Edit: Or, you know, you can just read her comment.

  11. 11.

    Botsplainer

    The finest movie ever made finally reached Netflix.

    I’m talking Billy Bob Thornton’s masterpiece, Bad Santa.

  13. 13.

    Violet

    @jacy: Yay! Thanks for checking in! That is excellent news! So glad it went so well. Best news of the day. Take care, rest up and we’ll look forward to hearing from you later.

  15. 15.

    scav

    @jacy: Huzzah! Don’t get overly clptrhensible, unless you really feel like it, we like you as you are. ‘sides, you’d be only be setting an over-high standard for many of us.

  18. 18.

    Suffern ACE

    I need another “kids these days” thread. Gah. Being the boss of kids these days is taxing. There’s work…it takes place during the day during business hours. It shouldn’t be that difficult to figure out when you are expected to do work.

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    @Skerry:

    Raven just had Mohs surgery and it sounded like his went fine, if that’s any comfort. I get to have a camera stuck up my butt tomorrow morning, so it’s all relative. ;-)

  21. 21.

    jl

    Very sad news. Great political cartoonist. Great cartoonist period.If that was his last published cartoon, he left with mega-snark and honest good laughs (for those with common sense) intact

  24. 24.

    moops

    off-topic:

    Do comments work for anyone at Hullabaloo? Since the Disqus shift and other oddities I can’t seem to see any comments there.

  26. 26.

    jl

    And I think that one thing that makes a political cartoonist great is being straight out damn funny, even if you disagree with the political viewpoint..

    Jeff McNelly often took a view much more conservative than mine, but his cartoons made me laugh even when I wanted to wad them up and through them in the trash, politcalwise.

    I would hope conservatives would admit the same about Auth. Maybe there are some olde tymey RINOs around who would admit it.

  27. 27.

    skerry

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Yeah, I get the camera stuck in both ends in a couple of weeks. Got “inconclusive” mammogram results today, so I’m headed back there in for an ultrasound diagnostic mammogram.

    I am falling apart. I’ve done a battery of tests the last couple of months and no results have come back positive – or even neutral. Cholesterol is high. Allergies and asthma worsening. Doesn’t help with the bipolar – rapid cycling between depression and manic. And my insurance goes to hell on 1 Nov. Yeah, I’m just a little stressed out.

    Hope your procedure goes well and nothing unusual is found.

  29. 29.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Wishing you luck tomorrow. Hope it’s no big deal. Talked to a friend of mine recently who had her first colonoscopy and she said the prep was bad but the procedure itself was no big deal. They gave her whatever the Michael Jackson drug was. She said she figured out why he liked it. Made her feel great.

  31. 31.

    moops

    I guess that’s why ThereIsNoSpoon and Dennis almost never show up. It’s nice to read Digby, but if i want sterilized web journalism I’ll read her Salon articles. The point of blog posting fireballs is to get discussion rolling….

    Why does Tom Sullivan bother posting there?

  33. 33.

    jl

    Must be a Norb Bernstetn Triangle vortex of mystery. FYWP ate my comment that gave link to some Norb strips.
    Well, people can find the links at the Wikipedia entry for Norb.

    I never heard of Norb before.

  34. 34.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @moops: I am not really interested in having a fight about the relative merits of Digby’s blog. Sorry.

  37. 37.

    PurpleGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
    @moops:

    From what I remember, Digby had a lot of trolls and there wasn’t much of a discussion going on. I still go by there on occasion to see what Digby and the others are saying. I got used to not seeing comments rather quickly because I wanted to read Digby, not rabid trolls.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    @skerry:

    If your cholesterol is suddenly and inexplicably high, make sure they run a full panel on your thyroid, not just the basic test — MomSense just found out that her underperforming thyroid was why her cholesterol was high no matter what she did. I’m guessing that having your thyroid go wonky would raise hell with bipolar as well.

    I’m having both ends done tomorrow, too — or as BillinGlendale referred to it, “import/export.”

    @Violet:

    Yeah, pretty much every single person I know said they don’t remember a thing, and even the one the drugs didn’t work in said it wasn’t a big deal. Even the prep hasn’t been that bad — I’ve gone through worse physically after eating too much ice cream. It’s definitely tedious, though.

  41. 41.

    Suzanne

    First world problem: the perioral dermatitis on my face is flaring up again, and I have this horrifyingly huge zit. It is deep and it hurts and I am almost THIRTY-FIVE FOR GOD’S SAKE.

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Suzanne: I am 50 and I get the same one or two zits a month that I got as an adolescent. Sometimes shit happens.

  44. 44.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I have perioral dermatitis, which is a rash that causes the demon spawn of acne and eczema to erupt around my mouth. The rest of my skin is clear and lovely. The rash burns like someone rubbed my skin with sandpaper, and the disgusting peeling zits make me really upset. And I don’t have health insurance until November 1 and I need antibiotics to get rid of it. Which doesn’t get rid of it permanently. UGHHHH.

  47. 47.

    Ruckus

    @Botsplainer:
    Saw it in theater when it first came out. Middle of the week and about 15-20 people in the theater. That’s OK I laughed enough for all the empty seats.
    It really is a grand movie. It has no class, it’s funny, and no matter how hard you try not to, you have to like Billy Bob Thorton’s character.

  48. 48.

    Ruckus

    @jacy:
    Good news, rest up and let us know how you are doing.

    On a similar note, I’m waiting for the VA dermatologist appointment to see if something on my arm is nothing, or bad news. This getting old stuff, I’m not so sure about it all.

  50. 50.

    Suzanne

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): POD is apparently closely related to rosacea.

    I’ve found some products that work well for me, usually. But last week, my skin all of a sudden got super-oily and I got this mega-zit. The dermatologist has been able to beat it back, but not permanently, and none of the stuff she prescribed is covered by insurance. This tube of ointment is like $250, FFS. Doxycycline is like $80.

  51. 51.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Remember how I took the antibiotic to deal with my rosacea last summer (a year ago)? It’s still gone. My skin is not as clear as it was while I was taking it, but the mask effect went away with the antibiotics and is still gone. I’m working on building up my gut bacteria now and as I add new fermented foods or try different probiotic strains I see changes on my skin. So far the rosacea hasn’t returned though.

  55. 55.

    Violet

    @Suzanne: If it’s closely related to rosacea, you might want to check into SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth). I self-diagnosed that and then did the breath test at my gastroenterologist’s office to confirm. I was right. Took the rifaximin–the antibiotic I mentioned in the above comment) and it’s been a year and it still hasn’t come back.

    Skin issues are closely related to gut issues, apparently. I’ve gone way down the rabbit hole of looking at gut stuff because I’ve also got autoimmune thyroid disease–which is strongly correlated with SIBO and also other gut issues.I’m happy to bore you silly with info or provide links if you’re interested.

  56. 56.

    Suzanne

    @Violet: The leading theory from my derm and ENT is that this is related to an allergy. I got allergy tested about a year or so ago, and I am basically allergic to the whole desert. Like, no lie. I am literally allergic to dust. And dogs and cats. This is fucking Phoenix. We have nothing but dust. I have had allergic reactions to skin lotions before, and my allergenic load is apparently high all year long. I’ve been taking probiotics every day, and I haven’t noticed any gut issues at all. In fact, that’s one area that I kind of kick ass (Ha ha) at. Birth control pills work, but I can’t take them b/c they interfere with my epilepsy med. This round of the flare-up happened when I got my period, so it is most likely related to that. But it sucks so hard. Right now, my face feels like it is burning.

  57. 57.

    Violet

    @Suzanne: That sucks. I’m sorry you have to deal with it. Hormonal changes definitely impact skin, that’s for sure.

    FWIW, I didn’t have any gut problems either, that I knew of. I could eat prety much anything. Only after delving into this stuff did I realize what was going on.

    Since I’m too lazy to find the actual study, Mr. Heisenbug has an article on the current research on a specific gut bacteria strain that in mice anyway seems to eliminate food allergies. mrheisenbug.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/clostridia-food-allergies-excellent-news-silly-conclusions/.

    I’m having luck with fermented foods helping my skin. It is taking time but it is working. I’m focusing on things like kim chi, sauerkraut, kefir. I’m also using resistant starch food sources, like green bananas or cooked and cooled potatoes ( like potato salad). Slow but it’s working.

  60. 60.

    satby

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Dead thread, but this is why I started making soap in the first place.@Suzanne: One thing that made a huge difference for me (and your allergy list matches mine) is eliminating all petrochemical ingredients from all skincare products. Which for me meant using only natural care products, or crafter made so that the preservation load is lower than in commercial products (it’s not safe to have no preservative in formulations that include water unless you will refrigerate and use them up in a week or so, like homemade mayonnaise). Email me at my shop and we can chat.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    @jacy: I am so happy and relieved for you.
    :: big sigh of relief ::

    It’s about time you got some great news, and you got it where it really counts. Go jacy!!

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