More: Chicago Tribune Hires New Editorial Cartoonist

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: Chicago Tribune pens new political-cartooning tradition with hiring of Scott Stantis : Phil Rosenthal : Tribune Media : August 19, 2009 : Nine years after it decided to do without a staff editorial cartoonist, the Chicago Tribune has gone back to the drawing board. : Running headlong against a trend it likely exacerbated by not hiring a replacement after Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jeff MacNelly's 2000 death, the Tribune said Tuesday that it has recruited cartoonist Scott Stantis to its editorial board, effective Sept. 1. : "It is counterintuitive and it's wonderful," said Stantis, 50, who has been jabbing the powers that be with his pen for the Birmingham News since 1996, while contributing weekly to USA Today and syndicating his work to 400 papers. : "I would hope that this sends a signal that we see value in this," said Bruce Dold, the Tribune's editorial page editor. "Papers need to find a way to set themselves apart. I think the Tribune has made a lot of strides in that regard in being punchier, a place with more attitude. A cartoonist is going to fit right into that." : A former staffer at the Orange County (Calif.) Register, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Arizona Republic in Phoenix and Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press, Stantis is a rarity. : He is a self-described libertarian conservative and "being not liberal is an unusual thing in political cartooning," said Ted Rall, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. For that matter, Stantis is unusual in that he is still a staff cartoonist. : "I've been president of this association since September of last year, and about 28 members have lost their staff jobs," said Rall, a freelancer whose work is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate. "That's in the last year alone and after a decade of bloodletting. There were 280 staff cartoonists in 1980, and we're down in the 40s now, maybe in the high 30s." : The situation for newspaper cartoonists had gotten so bad that Stantis said he seriously entertained a run for the state senate in Alabama after being approached "by some fairly high-level Republican people," at least until his wife shot down the idea. : "Although I think I do a really good job [in Birmingham] and I bring a lot of people to the paper, I'm not sure that that's really a prerequisite of employment anymore," said Stantis, whose comic strip "Prickly City" was dropped by the Trib in early 2007 after 2 1/2 years on the comics page. : Hiring Stantis complements an effort under Chicago Tribune Editor Gerould Kern to draw attention to the paper's op-ed efforts. Just as editorials have begun to find their way to the front page on occasion, it is likely that Stantis' work will as well, in the tradition of the paper's longtime, long-ago cartoonist John T. McCutcheon. : "He's not just going to be a cartoonist. He's going to be bigger than that," Kern said. "We have found our editorial voice and we will use it for the betterment of the city, the state and the country. It's important for us to lead, to stand out and point the way, and an editorial cartoon is an incredibly powerful and important way of doing that. We will use Scott Stantis' cartoons in creative ways, not only on the editorial pages but online, and he will be used on Page One." : Dold said Stantis does not need to be in lock step with the Tribune editorials, although Stantis said he expects he will agree far more than not. Stantis will present ideas to Dold. Stantis will be allowed to have independent views, although Dold signs off on everything that appears on the op-ed page. : Jack Higgins, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist at the rival Chicago Sun-Times, said Stantis' politics shouldn't matter. : "The combine that is Illinois politics judges right from left only by which side of their body the goodies are on when they bend over and grab them," Higgins said. "The good news is that the Trib has finally hired a cartoonist." : Stantis is eager to dip his pen in ink and draw blood. : "It was just so refreshing to hear an editor who was optimistic ... talking about being a crusading newspaper," he said. "Hell's bells, that's what people are going to buy and read."

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