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A Video Chat with Multi-Pulitzer Prize-Winning Political Cartoonist Jim Morin

A Video Chat with Multi-Pulitzer Prize-Winning Political Cartoonist Jim Morin

 

 




Introduction to Jim Morin.  2:22 min.  Music: Tri Tachyon, Little Lily Swing.

 

Jim Morin, whose work is distributed by Morintoons Syndicate, won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 2017 and 1996, and shared the Pulitzer with other members of the Miami Herald editorial board in 1983. He was a Pulitzer finalist in 1977 and 1990.

He has also won the 2007 Herblock Prize, the 2000 John Fischetti Award, the 1999 Thomas Nast (international) Prize, the 1996 National Press Foundation’s Berryman Award, the 1992 National Cartoonist Society Award for editorial cartooning, and the Overseas Press Club Awards in 1990 and 1979, among others.

 

Path to Citizenship

Path to Citizenship

 

He joined the staff at the Miami Herald in 1978 and his work is syndicated internationally. Before becoming the staff cartoonist at the Miami Herald, he was the editorial cartoonist for the Beaumont (TX) Enterprise & Journal and Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch.

Born in Washington, D.C., and raised outside of Boston, Morin started drawing cartoons at age seven.  He attended Syracuse University and, fueled by social and political upheavals during the early 1970s, he began publishing political cartoons in Syracuse University’s the Daily Orange.

Morin is the author of five books: Famous Cats, Jim Morin’s Field Guide to Birds, and three collections of political cartoons:  Line of Fire: Political Cartoons by Jim Morin, Bushed ! An Illustrated History of What Passionate Conservatives Have Done to America and the World, and Ambushed!: A Cartoon History of the George W. Bush Administration (with Walter C. Clemens).

 

morin-duel-960

Duel

 

His cartoons and oil paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. Most recently he had a solo exhibit at the Coral Springs Museum of Art. He is soon to exhibit at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in Manhattan.

In June, 2016, Morin traveled from his home in Maine to the tip of Cape Cod to visit some of the locations that Edward Hopper immortalized in his Truro and Wellfleet landscape paintings.  He also visited the vibrant art community in Provincetown, which has been home to some of the world’s best cartoonists, artists, architects, and writers.  We interviewed Morin in Norman Mailer’s former house on the water (which was sold to Mailer by John Dos Pasos).

The videos below are organized by topic and run between 30 seconds and 6 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 1:52 min.




What were your earliest memories of art in any format?

 

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES:   1:24 min.




Which cartoonists influenced you early on?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:  1:39 min.




Did you read a lot of comic books when you were a kid?

 

EDUCATION:  3:51 min.




Did you draw cartoons when you were in high school? Did you go to art school?

 

DEVELOP A VOICE:  1:55 min.




How do you combine drawing with humor? Each is a difficult task on its own.

 

EMPATHY:  0:37 sec.




There is very little to laugh with in today’s politics.

 

EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES:  1:36 min.




Was there a moment when you said, “Aha. I have a special ability to make political cartoons?”

 

STRONG DRIVE FOR ACHIEVEMENT:  2:13 min.




You are the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes — what for?

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:  1:40 min.




Having a Pulitzer Prize is a great thing.

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:  5:45 min.




Can you describe a typical day?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:  0:56 sec.




Is it possible to make “evergreen” political cartoons?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:  2:33 min.




Who are your favorite people to draw?

 

UNDERSTANDS THE AUDIENCE PERSPECTIVE:  0:14 sec.




What’s your criteria for a successful cartoon?

 

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART:  2:28 min.




Has any of your work gone viral on social media?

 

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART:  2:06 min.




How long did it take you to build up your social media audience?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:  1:39 min.




What can a university do to inspire young political cartoonists?

 

DISCIPLINED:  1:13 min.




Do you get into political battles with people who respond to your social media posts?

 

RESILIENCE:  0:49 sec.




How did you get started at the Miami Herald?

 

PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS:  1:36 min.




Describe overcoming a challenging situation.