HOW TO GET YOUR EDITORIAL CARTOONS PUBLISHED - Ed Margolis

"It would seem as if the surest way to get an Op-Ed published in The New York Times these days, no matter how obscure the writer or the viewpoint, is to attack Israel," ...Ron Dermer

HOW TO GET YOUR EDITORIAL CARTOONS PUBLISHED
By Ed Margolis
MidEastTruth.com
January 2, 2012

The most frequently asked question I get when speaking to young, aspiring editorial cartoonists is, "How can I get my stuff published?" I start by telling them the obvious. It's really tough out there today. Regular daily circulation newspapers are rapidly becoming the dinosaurs of the digital age and either are in bankruptcy, cutting back on staff, or have just gone out of business completely. The handful that have survived and still can afford to pay a cartoonist are not looking for freelance material. Most have just given up and buy their cartoons in syndication for $5.00. You just can't freelance to a newspaper in today's market, and you will never get syndicated because you will never land a job as a cartoonist with a newspaper, which is a requirement for syndication-- a classic Catch-22. So what's a young cartoonist to do?

Actually there is a solution which I have copyrighted in my pamphlet entitled: The Secret of How to Get Your Cartoons Published . Without going into detail, the basic idea is to draw a carefully crafted Anti-Semitic cartoon and send it to a pro Israel/Jewish organization. The best ones to send to are the ADL, The Zionists Organization of America, The American Jewish Committee, Camera, The Israel Project, StandWIthUs, Simon Weisenthal, and The Flame, but there are dozens more. Actually, your cartoon doesn't have to be too well crafted, and it can even be on the back of an envelope or on a piece of toilet paper; but it must be defamatory and the more disgusting the better.

For best results, you should always submit your cartoon with a cover letter bearing a brief veiled threat (not enough for an FBI investigation.) My suggestion is something like "If the Jews don't withdraw from The West bank, withdraw from Gaza (wait a minute; they already have done that), withdraw from Tel Aviv, withdraw from Manhattan, and go back to the 1941 armistice lines in Germany, then something bad is going to happen. If your cartoon is good (i.e. bad enough) it will generate an immediate cry of outrage the likes of which you cannot imagine. The news of the slur travels like lightning through a network of local Jewish organizations and newspapers, and many of them will republish your cartoon along with a brilliant denunciation.

Please understand that for success you have to follow my instructions carefully. You never send a Jewish organization a pro Israel/Jewish cartoon because it will never be published. Pro Israel/Jewish organizations will never want to offend the "good Muslims" and after the "Mohammed Cartoons" will never publish anything that satirizes the conduct of any Muslim-- no matter how outrageous-- out of fear of being on the wrong end of a Fatwah.

But you ask yourself, how can I do such a thing? Some of my best friends are Jewish. Well, not to worry. Jews love anti-Semitic cartoons. The ADL has gathered some of the best of them and has dedicated an entire web site where they are on display. You can get some very good ideas for your cartoon by copying one of these. But don't look for a cartoon that is critical of Arab or Muslim conduct. You won't find it.

If you can't decide on the exact subject of your slur after looking at the stuff posted by the ADL, the great Israeli cartoonist, Yaakov Kirschen a/k/a Dry Bones has done a scholarly treatise on the "virus of anti-Semitic images" in editorial cartoons. He breaks down anti-Semitic images into defined classifications and displays work dating back to the Middle Ages. He then demonstrates the similarity between these images and the 19th Century Russia Slurs and then takes us through the Nazi era up to the present with the contemporary colorful Arab work. This is a great resource for developing your ideas.

Of course, some of the best Anti-Semitic cartoons are drawn by Jews themselves. After the Arabs burned down half of the Western embassies in the world following the publication of the "Mohammed Cartoons, the ever popular Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced an Iranian cartoon contest with the subject of Holocaust Denial. In response, a pair of Israeli cartoonists created a Jewish Anti-Semitic cartoon contest of their own to show that Jews could draw the best cartoons demeaning and denigrating themselves. There were hundreds of entries, and some of the work was just wonderful. The winner depicted an image of the iconic "Fiddler on the Roof" straddling the burning Twin Towers of 9/11. Can you top that? If you can, I will guarantee you multiple publications which will qualify you for membership in the AAEC.

So I wish you all the best of luck, but I have a warning. Don't think you can make a living drawing anti-Semitic cartoons. I'm afraid it is a very crowded field, and there are some real professionals out there every day getting the job done.

©Ed Margolis 2011
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