One example of an artist whose drawings caused some political issues was Sean
Delonas. While his pictures never led to assassination attempts, he did have to
leave the newspaper over the picture. The picture features two dumbfounded police men standing over the dead chimp that
attacked a woman. “They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus
bill," says one of the police men. This could be read as a very raciest attack
on President Obama by implying that they thought he was the chimp, or this could
have been a simple implication that the artist disagreed with the stimulus
package and was using some recent news to show it. Depending on a person’s
political position, it can be any number of interpretations.
Delonas. While his pictures never led to assassination attempts, he did have to
leave the newspaper over the picture. The picture features two dumbfounded police men standing over the dead chimp that
attacked a woman. “They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus
bill," says one of the police men. This could be read as a very raciest attack
on President Obama by implying that they thought he was the chimp, or this could
have been a simple implication that the artist disagreed with the stimulus
package and was using some recent news to show it. Depending on a person’s
political position, it can be any number of interpretations.
Because Sean never made any comments about why he created this picture, it has left it open to the public to comment about it freely. There have been many interpretations of this picture and the internet has allowed them to be expressed. On Sam Scocca’s page “Bottoms
Up! Here's to the End of Sean Delonas”, one comment read “How is this offensive? He obviously isn’t referring to Obama. The stimulus package was written by a board of committees.” This is a good point, but another person commented to that, “If it’s so obvious, then why are so many people having a problem with this picture?” and again, this is a good point. Each person is going to view this differently. Some say that it’s racist, some say its not, and others say it’s protected by freedom of speech and press and doesn’t matter. |
Several months after the release of the chimp picture, Sean accepted a buy out leaving the
newspaper. Shortly after, he started his own website selling his political
cartoons at a rate of 3 new pictures a week. One possible motive for drawing
this image was to get his name out in the public. This image was reprinted in
many other newspapers, shown on TV, and is now all over the internet. Now Sean
has his own business selling his pictures to any private citizen or news paper.
While it is unknown how much more or less Sean has earned, this is a viable
theory on one reason he has not commented on the chimp drawing.
As one would expect from leaving after such a shocking image, he was given a farewell image
that was as equally shocking. This picture, created by Jim
Cooke, depicts the face of Dean on the body of a chimp laying on a bed
with a plunger stuck up his butt. The caption reads “I should have retired ages
ago!!!” Jim Cooke also left commentary with the explaining his hate towards
Sean. “Like the Post as a whole, he specialized in punching down, while pretending to
be punching up. Though he spanned eras, his hostility, sadism, and contempt were
the essential tone of Giuliani Time. We can offer no better farewell than this
cartoon, by Jim Cooke, depicting Delonas enjoying his retirement.”
newspaper. Shortly after, he started his own website selling his political
cartoons at a rate of 3 new pictures a week. One possible motive for drawing
this image was to get his name out in the public. This image was reprinted in
many other newspapers, shown on TV, and is now all over the internet. Now Sean
has his own business selling his pictures to any private citizen or news paper.
While it is unknown how much more or less Sean has earned, this is a viable
theory on one reason he has not commented on the chimp drawing.
As one would expect from leaving after such a shocking image, he was given a farewell image
that was as equally shocking. This picture, created by Jim
Cooke, depicts the face of Dean on the body of a chimp laying on a bed
with a plunger stuck up his butt. The caption reads “I should have retired ages
ago!!!” Jim Cooke also left commentary with the explaining his hate towards
Sean. “Like the Post as a whole, he specialized in punching down, while pretending to
be punching up. Though he spanned eras, his hostility, sadism, and contempt were
the essential tone of Giuliani Time. We can offer no better farewell than this
cartoon, by Jim Cooke, depicting Delonas enjoying his retirement.”