Questions For Mr. Fish

Although I have many questions, I think I'm most curious about how he feels about being so controversial. Within each cartoon, Mr. Fish has the ability to offend thousands of people individually, or social classes, or religions, or people of different areas, or even people of different careers. I can't even imagine having to defend myself against some of the comments and unhappy remarks I'm sure he receives about his artwork. I would also like to know if he's happy that he became known through his controversial artwork, rather than being an "excellent artist." By that I mean, he seems to have in his mind that he wants to create controversial cartoons that gain reaction of his viewers, rather than creating masterpieces, like Van Gogh or Picasso. Although cartooning and caricature is not fine art, it would still be interesting if he worries more about the content of his cartoons and controversy of them than he cares about how well they are rendered, or what they look like.

Mr. Fish

I'm very interested in meeting Mr. Fish, his work is very interesting and unique. In the sense that I got a lot of feedback when hanging the posters, you can tell he has a very diverse appeal to the public. I was informed to not post any more of the zebra cartoons seeing as they were "racist" to a few people who made remarks. I'm very interested in looking at what Mr. Fish uses for inspiration and what he bases his techniques in his sketches from. I also interested in his feedback on what our work for this class will be. I also am curious to see where he started in this field? What motivated him to go into cartoons and sketches?

Mr. Fish Question

I want to ask about his ideas on the future of editorial cartoons.

He wrote, " Editorial cartoons help prevent the authoritarian powerbreakers of society from completely suffocating democracy with the bogus idea that only professional politicians and high powered businessmen should be allowed to engage in the public debate about how government can function." While newspapers, and magazines are struggling to compete in today's society, and are inevitably being forced to retrench, how does he view his work morphing in the future? Does he see his work reaching a wider audience? (other than Harpers etc.)

Another theme that subsumes his oeuvre is the conflicting arguments between religion and politics. I'm wondering if he could sort of expound upon this?

Mr.Fish and a dish

When Mr.fish comes to lunch with us I'm truly obligated to ask the questions of how did he get to do what hes doing. What is his inspiration and motive behind his work? There's also the question of how is it do make these cartoons as a job. But in a different note I will stray away from common questions. I want to ask who his favorite artist is. I want to also ask when he started doing comics. I want to ask if he doodles in his spare time and if he sits down and watches political debates or if he goes off of the general talk around us. The questions ask more that what do you do. These questions are more about talking to him on a level of a fellow colleague and finding who he is. I want to more than anything know the personality of this humorous cartoonist. From his work he seems like a very intelligent and funny guy. I want to actually get something out of this opportunity and talk to him on a personal level. This may be a stretch but it why not let the chance go to waste.

Don't jump!

Being an Equestrian myself, I find this comic very humorous. The idea of horses being able to spook easily is very common, and for people who are not horse people and walk up to a strange horse often result in a spooked or scared horse. Here in this image there is a huge play on words for one taking someone who would commit suicide and replacing it with a horse is funny because horses are huge jumpers depending on the breed. The fact that the artist made the quote "don't spook him officer he's a jumper" is just ironic because horse who generally spook do in fact jump in fright. When a horse spooks it can be from a variety of things it could of because it just didn't want to do what you wanted out of bad behavior or their could be things that jump out at it or something of that nature. As far as this comic being relatable to other readings it again plays with what we have been discussing in class replacing animals with humans and their emotions that are familiar to the public. This image in particular reflecting how people can possibly be suicidal and wanting to jump off the edge of a building.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpFHwFdN0Kw


I thought this commercial was a perfect caricature of life at the bar, although I’m confused as to why they’re drinking water. But the whole idea behind the bar being a "watering hole." There’s also a really terrible transition from plastic surgery to it being okay to change something if you don’t like it for example the flavor of the water, or your nose. This also is completely about physiognomy.

This week I chose a political cartoon designed by John Cole for the Scranton Times Tribune. This cartoon depicts both Obama and one of his opponents in the up coming elections hopping around as easter bunnies. Each carries a colorful basket with a ribbon hanging off of it with there political standpoints written on them. Though they have been portrayed as these lovable happy animals there views points give off the opposite effect. Obama's ribbon states, "Tax and Spend" The cartoonist is trying to portray how much we as american citizens pay in tax's each year and what is it spent on. Just once, It would be nice to know where this money is going and what exactly it is used for. On Ryan's basket, the ribbon reads, cut and starve. From this I related to the upcoming loss in jobs and pay cuts. It has become difficult just to get by in 21st century America. Many business's have had to down size and let go of hard, long term workers for the sake of keeping their business alive. Which is the opposite of what should be happening when hoping to reach this goal. A business can only flourish if it has the opportunity to grow first. All in All, it was interesting how the cartonist juxtaposed the happy idea of an easter bunny with the depressing message being sent through the easter baskets. Not to mention that both bunnies are arguing over who they think will have more people believe in what they are "selling". After all, that is what politicians do. Sell their ideas and hope that people like them enough to vote for them when the time comes.