Editoonist Jim
Borgman, a Pulitzer Prize-winner who has been with the Cincinnati Enquirer for 32 years, has joined the growing rolls of
full-time newspaper staff political cartoonists who have left their positions,
usually involuntarily. According to the Notebook
newsletter of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), in a
three-month period ending, approximately, in early August, “at least nine
cartoonists announced they were to be laid off, forced to take buyouts or had
decided to step down or retire from their long-time drawing gigs.”
Borgman was
one of 60 applicants accepted by the Enquirer
for severance under the company’s voluntary severance program, which
included up to a year’s pay for employees with longtime service. Presumably,
Borgman qualifies. And we also presume he welcomed the chance to escape, with a
tidy bankable bundle, some of the deadline pressure he has been working under
since the 1997 launch of Zits, the
syndicated comic strip he draws that Jerry
Scott writes. He said as much when he bid farewell to his readers:
“What a remarkable
landscape of nonsense and characters I’ve gotten to chronicle [over the years].
... Hidden behind each day’s cartoon has been a sweatfest aimed at amusing and
engaging you in the topics of our times, all done in the belief that when we
are fully immersed in lively debate we make wiser decisions about our world.
I’ve poured my blood and bones into a job which, if done well, looks effortless
and whimsical. I’ve had fun and you’ve told me you have, too. It’s been
important to me that my work be of this place, midwestern, blue collar, with a
voice from the heartland. ... You are beautiful, kind and generous people and
it has been an honor to share these years with you. There is no place I would
have rather invested my life.”
He
continued: “When I created Zits
twelve years ago with my partner Jerry Scott, my hours behind the drawing board
doubled and the weekends turned into weekdays. A body can only do double duty
for so long, and mine has gotten soft in the middle. It’s telling me to get the
bike down from the garage ceiling and breathe some fresh air again. I don’t
know if I’ll miss this precious real estate I’ve enjoyed and the chance to talk
about anything on my mind. I do look forward to reading a newspaper without a
highlighter in my hand. Sometimes lately when I watch the news I feel like a
butcher looking at a field full of cows. I don’t see the animals anymore, just
the hamburger. That’s a good sign that it’s time to shake yourself off and do
something else. ... The thing I treasure most from these years is the
relationship you and I have built, meeting over coffee every morning. When my
editor suggested that it was a shame to let that lapse, I agreed and came up
with an idea. Over the years I’ve played at creating a weekly comic strip
devoted to just us and this curious place we live. Outsiders won’t get it. All
I can tell you so far is that it will be about a little flying pig who lives in
the back booth of a chili parlor in a quirky town called Porkopolis. Watch this
space in January.” Porkopolis, need I add, is one of the early names for Cincinnati.
I've
enjoyed doing two of the best jobs I can imagine,” Borgman told one online
reporter, “ — drawing editorial cartoons and my comic strip Zits. And I have loved it all, although it is exhausting,"
Borgman said. "Continuing Zits
while doing a new weekly feature sounds like a great balance. I’m not
retiring — just reducing workload."
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