Cartoons on the radio, and other wonders

Chris Satullo welcomes Tony to Newsworks in a piece you may have heard on the radio on Monday.

Today, at an age when many people are plotting their assault on the early-bird special or tooling around snowbird retreats in a golf cart, Tony Auth begins a new stage in a distinguished career.

After 40-plus years of provoking nods of agreement and howls of outrage as cartoonist for the Philadephia Inquirer, Tony joins WHYY as our digital artist in residence.

Anytime you can welcome a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, as well as an all-around great guy, that’s worth a cheer.

Consider this my version of that cheer.

Ever since word leaked out a few weeks ago that Tony would be coming to WHYY, many people have posed this question with furrowed brow:

“How can you do cartoons on the radio?”

Click here to read more or listen to the piece.

 

My Philadelphia Inquirer Farewell

Today marks the end of my employment as staff editorial cartoonist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. It has been a joyful and happy ride. The Inquirer has been my home since my weeklong job interview in 1971, where my task was to attend editorial board meetings, take positions, argue my point of view, win some arguments, and lose others. In short, for a week I did everything a political cartoonist does at a newspaper – except draw cartoons. I lost most of those arguments, but won the job.

John S. Knight had recently purchased the paper and was determined to make it a major metropolitan daily. He hired a great editor, Gene Roberts, who set about putting together a great team of reporters and editors. The Inquirer was taking a chance on me. Continue reading

THE ‘RIFFS INTERVIEW

TONY AUTH wants to be clear about one thing:

He is not being forced out of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Auth, the Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist who has been at the Inquirer since 1971, tells Comic Riffs today that he is stepping down from his four-decade perch to pursue new and invigorating forms of cartooning. Auth — also a Pulitzer finalist in 2010 — feels it’s the right time to take the buyout offer from the paper, which reportedly is looking to cut about three-dozen jobs.

Read the full interview at the Washington Post

To Stir, Inform, and Inflame

DOYLESTOWN, PA–In this national election year, Tony Auth will be the subject of an exhibition at the James A. Michener Art Museum, To Stir, Inform and Inflame: The Art of Tony Auth, June 2 to September 23, in the museum’s Fred Beans Gallery.

This retrospective exhibition gathers together the full range of Auth’s art, including drawings, paintings, sketches and newspaper pages, as well as a selection of his award-winning children’s book illustrations. This exhibit will display more than 100 original cartoons that have touched the lives of countless newspaper readers in our region and, through syndication, all over America.

Continue reading