Joel Pett on Obits

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the AAEC convention this year in San Antonio. Besides the beer and conversation there's a lot of informative panels to check out. Nick Anderson, the President of the organization, had asked me to be on one about obit cartoons. How I would have loved that. But it wasn't in the cards this year.

Rob Tornoe is down there and posted about the obit panel on his blog. Joel Pett was a panelist:

"Normally, the letters say 'you suck', 'you can't draw', 'who are you related to at the newspaper'," Pett said. "But when you draw an obit cartoon, suddenly you're a genius, and the readers love you."

But Pett was hardest on himself as he showed an obituary cartoon for Barbaro, the famous race horse much beloved in Kentucky.

"In Kentucky, you have no idea how many people loved this," Pett said of his cartoon featuring Barbaro as a consteliaton in the night sky. "I think it sucks. People loose their jobs in our industry and I do this shit?"

"I guess you really can beat a dead horse."