Charlottesville Words

You may already know Jen Sorensen from her comic, Slowpoke, that appears in C-Ville Weekly. But did you also know that she’s a nationally syndicated cartoonist who hobnobs with the likes of Ruben Bolling and Tom Tomorrow, and is the author of three compilations of her best work? Her latest book is One Nation, Oh My God, in which, in addition to reproducing the best strips of the past few years, Sorensen adds commentary that places each strip in its current-events context and reveals a bit about her creative process.

I snagged a few prime A’s for my Q’s while Sorensen was between events on her cross-country book tour. If you’re in the Charlottesville area, come see Sorensen discuss One Nation on June 11, 7 pm, at WriterHouse, 508 Dale Avenue.

A couple of standard questions to kick things off: If you couldn’t draw Slowpoke, what would you do instead? Do you have other creative outlets, such as other kinds of drawing, or other arts, or cats?

It’s hard to say what I would do for a living if I wasn’t a cartoonist. Cubicles and timed lunch breaks fill me with despair, so most office work is out of the question — unless the office is dot-com casual with ping-pong tables and nap pods (they have those at Google). Since I really am a slowpoke who takes much longer than the average person to do anything, my weekly strip doesn’t leave me with lots of time for other creative pursuits, though I do enjoy cooking. I don’t have cats, but I do have a small terrier.

Second standard question: Who are your influences? Some of your cartoons, especially the single panel ones (”Spectacle Semiotics,” for instance) remind me a lot of MAD Magazine of the 1970s — were you a fan?

Yes, I loved Jack Davis’s artwork in MAD. I was also influenced early on by Carl Barks, who drew Donald Duck comics. Some of his humor was actually very sophisticated. I also loved an illustrated book called Humans by Mike Dowdall and Pat Welch which took a funny, observational approach to American culture. Later influences include R. Crumb, Roz Chast, Peter Bagge, Matt Groening, and many others.

George Bush and the neocons, for all their faults, have been a real gift to cartoonists. Or have they? What “wealth of fresh comedic possibilities” would a Clinton or Obama presidency bring to the drawing board?

While either one would be a tremendous improvement over the insane clown posse currently in charge, it’s only realistic to expect that they would disappoint in some ways. Neither has shown particularly strong progressive leadership in the Senate. So I’d make fun of any pandering to the right, or the Republicans’ attempts to stifle reform. The barrage of ludicrous faux-scandals the Republicans would throw at them would also provide some new, if unwelcome, material. Anything would be better than more Bush, though. Now that most Americans realize the past seven years have been a disaster, drawing cartoons criticizing the Bush administration feels like stating the obvious.

You mention that the ironically-mustached John Bolton is “a pleasure to draw,” the dough-faced Samuel Alito less so. Is there any public figure you positively dread drawing?

Ah, but I think John Bolton’s mustache is a very literal, “I am man, hear me roar” mustache as opposed to the self-mocking variety! Right now, I find the hardest public figure to draw is Chief Justice John Roberts. It’s bad enough that Roberts and Alito are so politically backwards, at least they could have had the decency to be funny-looking.

Your cartoon featuring former Harvard president Larry Summers appeared in a business management textbook. What has been the most surprising request for a reprint you’ve received?

This was more satisfying than surprising, but a cartoon of mine called “Gadget Hieroglyphics” — about the little icons one must master to use any software or gizmo — supposedly ran in a computer book about designing user interfaces called “GUI Bloopers 2.0″.

By providing commentary with the cartoons, you fix place them in their historical, cultural, and political context. Do you also run the risk of over-explaining the joke? The flip side of that question: Do you ever worry that Slowpoke is too smart (again, I cite “Spectacle Semiotics”) or that you’re playing to a dwindling demographic?

Writing the commentary was a delicate balancing act; I wanted to make sure future readers understood what the cartoons were about without boring present-day wonks who know the context. In the end, I probably erred on the side of posterity, but I tried to do it in an entertaining way. I learned a lot myself as I was writing it.

Sometimes I find myself wondering if a concept or gag is above people’s heads, but as a rule of thumb I don’t dumb down the cartoons. They probably are too smart to achieve mainstream, Garfield-level success — though I don’t think they’re that hard to get. My fans tend to be a really diverse group of educated, informed people, which is not an easy demographic to pin down. But I would not say their numbers are dwindling.

Judging from your comments about some of the complaints you’ve received about your work, it would seem that a certain percentage of your audience lacks either a sense of humor or a sense of irony. What do you think attracts someone like that to political cartoons?

My cartoons run a few places online where they’re mixed in with more traditional editorial cartoons and daily strips. For many of those, no sense of irony is required. In the worst cases, no sense of humor is required either. I think a bunch of readers who misinterpret Slowpoke aren’t necessarily regular followers of the strip; they just came across it somewhere.

A recurring theme in your commentary is that reality often outruns the joke (e.g., “Hamsterster“). How do you keep ahead of the cultural curve? Do you ever envy the guys who draw family-fare gag strips like Ziggy and Blondie?

It’s extremely tough these days to keep ahead of reality. I do a lot of checking on Google to make sure my ideas don’t already exist in some fashion. I don’t envy the guys who draw family-fare strips, as I would find that writing so mind-numbing that I couldn’t do it. I do, however, envy their paychecks!

I find Mr. Perkins inscrutably adorable, even in his flame-spouting wingnut incarnation. But I have to ask: Why does he always sport a curlicue behind his head?

Thanks! I like him too. The little floating curlicue is his ear. It’s kinda abstract.

Did you have a mentor when you were starting out? Do you mentor other cartoonists? Who is an up-and-coming political cartoonist to watch?

A mentor might have been nice, but cartooning is something I’ve always done on my own. Some better-known cartoonists, such as Ted Rall, Tom Tomorrow, Ruben Bolling, and Lloyd Dangle have been very supportive and helpful along the way. As a group, we tend to stick together — we have to. I can’t say I mentor anyone, though I occasionally teach workshops for kids through the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library.

As for up-and-coming cartoonists: he’s actually been around for a while, but my friend and colleague Tim Kreider draws a darkly hilarious strip called “The Pain: When Will it End?” that deserves more attention.

You say, “I like to think [political cartooning] has the potential to do some good.” How do you avoid preaching to the choir, if you’ll excuse the cliché? Arguably, those of us who read the alternative press already share Slowpoke’s point of view. How do you break into the right-wing echo chamber? Do liberals have an echo chamber of their own?

Progressives tend to ask themselves this question a lot, but I don’t get the sense that right-wingers worry about preaching to the converted. If anything, they seem to wallow in it. In my case, I don’t see it as a problem, as progressive-minded people need to know they’re not alone. They’re certainly not seeing their perspective reflected on cable news in a way that is representative of their numbers. But beyond providing comfort, I try to touch on some less-obvious points that get readers thinking. Sometimes I’ll bring up an issue that many hadn’t heard or thought about. Hopefully I’m pushing the conversation forward as opposed to parroting it.

I do hear from self-professed conservatives who say they enjoy my work, so I would add that my audience doesn’t solely consist of people who agree with me. Though I suspect some do more than they like to admit!