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Show I How a Newspaper Cartoon is Made II By PARLEY P. JENSON III "An idea! An idea! My eraser for an idea!" , The newspaper cartoonist was a bit flustrated when he happened to turn himself about to discover that a gentleman who called himself Mr. Inquisitive Inquisi-tive had caught him at his morning pursuit. But you never saw a newspaper cartoonist who wasn't able to pull himself together in a jiffy provided pro-vided he be feeling in his usual spirits and this par- Iticular one was no exception to the rule. He planted a bland smile upon his erstwhile puckered countenance, counte-nance, and inquired the nature of the present longings long-ings of his visitor. "I want to know all about the process of making newspaper cartoons. Some people tell me that they are turned out by machinery, a gross or so ! in a second, and others say that the man on the job I is compelled to draw each picture separately on each i individual copy of the newspaper. Now, between these two propositions, as you will agree, there is a ' wide difference as to facility ; and, if you don't mind, I want to know in other words, my anxiety is to be I shown." So, off they go into the mazes. And Mr. Inquisitive In-quisitive got onto the whole process. He found i that one of the first troubles encountered by the car- ' toonist was to get the idea, as his sudden descent i upon the artist in his den disclosed. Having fixed ', upon his subject, the cartoonist visits the office of i the editor-in-chief, with whom he consults as to the advisability of utilizing the idea which he has evolved. As a rule, the cartoonist has his way in this matter, because it is his special business to devote him- self to the requirements of the day's news in this line to fit the policy i Tif the paper that pays him so much per. It sometimes happens, though, that the editor has himself captured a subject; and in that j case, if he shall consider it to be of more pressing importance than the child of the cartoonist's brain, the latter is shelved and the editorial Investigating the Printing Department. (Uncle Sam is a character the cartoonist makes use of many times during the year, and it will be noticed thnt every artist has a different conception of the old gentleman's gentle-man's features.) i jjjj Ernest Evans, Cartoonist. this adheres but to the damp lines of ink. At this particular time the H picture appears backward upon the plate, as though drawn in red-ink H relief against the shiny surface of the zinc plate. The drawing hav- H ing been thus transferred to the metal, the plate is placed over a gas H stove of distributed jets, and the ink and dragon's blood arc so burned on that they will resist the action of the acid afterwards utilized. The plate is then placed into a bath of diluted nitric acid, which cats the zinc away except where the inked lines appear, the back of the plate ;"L' Some Snap Shots at a Convention. ("A sketching assignment." Being taken from life in the convention hall with a pencil and finished at the office with pen and ink.) idea is used. Then the caricaturist hies himself (H back to his den and takes a large sheet of cardboard and a lead pencil and goes to work to sketch out H his idea in the rough. That completed, he again goes to the chief, who will voice his opinion in H "That is all right" sometimes, once in a long while, H it doesn't sound quite like that and then the artist H proceeds to draw more careful lines with ink. This H part of the work completed, he makes a third visit H to the chief, who casts a critical eye upon the fin- H ished product. The examination is not stated to be H critical, necessarily, from an artistic point of view, H but from the measure of policy and sentiment; for, H however versatile a newspaper editor is supposed H to be, and usually is, he may not have the artistic H temperament. But, before the work can go any H farther, it is necessary to get the chief's "O. K." H This procured, the drawing is sent to the etching H room. Here the original is placed before a large H camera, being exposed to the rays of a powerful clcc- i H ric arc light, and is reduced to the size desired for the H paper. After the negative is developed a print of the same is made upon a sheet of zinc which has been properly sensitized. Thick ink is then rolled over the plate by means of a rubber roller, the ink ad- hering only to the lines of the drawing as they ap- j pear upon the metal. Next, a fine, red powder, i H called dragon's blood, is spread over the plate, and H "There's Someone at the Door!" (An idea for a weather cartoon comes in handy when the news is slack, although such -a cartoon as the above appears much out of place when the weather man orders a balmy spring day to go along with it.) H j having been previously coated with shellac to prevent the acid from H j eating in that direction. Having been properly "routed," in other H ! words, the surplus metal having been cleaned away by a machine H specially constructed for that purpose, the plate is turned over to the I, . printers. It is set into the form, and from the single plate all the car- 'J toons for that issue are printed, just as all the letterpress is reproduced Hlr thousands of times from one stereotype. HP But Mr. Inquisitor had more to learn. He found that the car- H loonist, in making his sketches, sometimes ran against some odd ex- H pcricnccs. Now he is at a political convention, where he finds the H bland man, who is just aching to get his picture in the paper the man H who doesn't care to have any prominence in this matter, but just to (A holiday cartoon which can be made days, or for that matter, weeks ahead of time.) oblige the cartoonist, of course," etc. the grouch, who "just won't have his face paraded before the community, even if he has to make grimaces or duck his nut" the man who wants to afford such oppor- Utility to the artist that he maintains himself in a perpetual pose of 1 castiron stiffness but, deep down in their hearts, they all seem to like 1 it, only one likes it better than another, which is very natural. At times the cartoonist asks a friend of a certain man to entertain his victim H who might be somewhat fidgety so that he will hold still for the min- H utc necessary to get his outlines. Again, the artist is found in the office of some political magnate, or some state or municipal official. He states the purpose of his visit and the jig is up. Bang! and H down goes the roll-top of the desk, and out flics the indignant official, H with a "Not by a dinged sight !" But having been materially helped by a hasty look at the said official the cartoon appears the next morn- ing, just the same. The cartoonist can not possibly be a rcspcctc of persons, if this H term may be used in a broad sense. Every mat ooks alike to him, H except for his dress or characteristics. This the artist constructs ac- H cording to fashion, or exaggerates to comport with the idea to be H presented. The nature of his cartoon has nothing whatever to do with the quality of his personal feelings toward his subject. H From the President of the United States down (or up, depending H upon which party you belong to) the citizens of the whole country are the fair prey and legitimate game of the little three column spot on the front page of a newspaper. YVc are indebted for most of the information and facts contained in this article to Mr. Ernest Evans, Utah's popular cartoonist. Mr. Evans is a Utah boy whose training has been received entirely in Utah on local papers, his first training being received at the hands of the late Alan Lovcy . Mr. Evans has been cartoonist on both the Herald and Tribune and is at present with the latter paper. His work is copied very frequently in j eastern reviews and magazines which is a recognition much coveted by cartoonists. |