Toles wins another (UPDATED)

Tom Spurgeon reports that Tom Toles has won an Opinion Award from The Week, which may have put a video of the awards online, but definitely ran this article about his win.

The other cartoonists who were considered are Steve Breen, Mike Luckovich, Glenn McCoy and Rob Rogers. Sadly, I think the 5 might be 1/10th of the full-time editorial cartoonists working in newspapers.

A little more on the Herblock Award, from two of the judges

Matt Wuerker, 2010's winner of the Herblock award, and Signe Wilkinson are the editorial cartoonists who were two of the three judges for the 2011 award. They've shared their thinking behind the selection of Tom Toles as the winner with us.

Judging the Herblock award this year was really, really hard.  There was too much good work in way too many inventive forms.  It's good news for our readers ... but hard for judges. Different judges would have ended up with a different decision.

In the spirit of transparency, we'd like to lift the veil a little on the thinking that went into our judging this year. Think of this as a little WikiLeak of what happened on the path to awarding the 2011 Herblock Prize.

Before the judging, it was agreed that this year the finalist would also be recognized.  We knew the job was to come up with two top cartoonists.

We had a great, broad sampling of political cartooning today: lots of traditional single-panel cartoons, plenty of stellar "altie" work, a number of great ventures into cartoon journalism and, of course, the animation submissions. We even had cartoons rendered with actual oil from the BP spill.

In the apples and oranges comparisons that are such a big part of the process, it was hard to measure the simple punchy genius of single panels by the likes of Pett and Britt against long-form docucomics that went beyond the headlines, like those submitted by Ohman, Wasserman and Varvel, or for that matter animated reporter's sketchbooks such as the engaging submission from Rex Babin.

Mike Thompson's finger on the pulse of Detroit crime and Bill Day's attention to child abuse were both powerful uses of our medium. For taking us where cartooning had not gone before, Ted Rall's enterprising trip to Afghanistan was particularly noteworthy.  Pat Bagley's wonderful loose humor and engagement with his readers made him a contender. The "Alties," led by Bors and Sorensen, all made it to the semifinal pile, as did Ramirez, whose graphic punch and strong, clearly expressed political opinions kept him in the running right up to the end.

We all agreed that, to the best of our abilities, we'd not judge according to our political bent but solely on the quality and consistency of the cartooning found in the portfolios we were looking at.

Though Matt Davies had what we all agreed was the single best cartoon of the year, "WikiLeaks" (by the way, a non-animated black-and-white single panel),  the quality and creativity of the Toles and Telnaes portfolios put them at the very top.  Choosing between the two was excruciating and took a while, but in the end we felt the overall consistency of Toles's complete portfolio made him the winner, with Telnaes No. 2 by a hair ... or a .3 Micron line.

---- Signe Wilkinson and Matt Wuerker

Wash Post's Tom Toles Herblock Prize Winner 2011

According to Jennifer Lee of the Post, "Washington Post's Tom Toles is this year's winner of the Herblock Prize & Lecture for excellence in editorial cartooning: http://www.herbblockfoundation.org/herblock-prize-winner/737 "

 

Congratulations to Tom, and that's two Washington winners in a row, as Matt Wuerker took it last year.

 

 

Comic Riffs has additional details including noting that Ann Telnaes was a runner-up.

Toles played music over the weekend

Another 'for the record' blogpost -

Reporters rock the National Press Club
By: Nikki Schwab and Katy Adams
Washington Examiner January 24 2011

- someday you'll thank me.

1 more day in Toles cartoon contest

The Post has joined the caption-writing contest world...

Readers will have a chance at writing a cartoon caption with The Washington Post's caption-writing contest with Tom Toles.

WashPost editorial Cartoonist Tom Toles sketched a State of the Union cartoon here, but there's no caption: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tomtoles/2011/01/state_of_the_union_cartoon_cap.html

Readers can post their suggested caption(s) in the comments section until 11:59 p.m. ET Monday, Jan. 24. The winner gets a print of the cartoon, with their suggested caption, signed by Tom Toles. The winner will be announced before Obama begins his State of the Union address that Tuesday evening.

For official rules, go here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tomtoles/tom-toles-cartoon-caption-cont.html

PR: WashPost's Cartoon Caption Contest

The Post has joined the caption-writing contest world...

Readers will have a chance at writing a cartoon caption with The Washington Post's caption-writing contest with Tom Toles.

 

WashPost editorial Cartoonist Tom Toles sketched a State of the Union cartoon here, but there's no caption: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tomtoles/2011/01/state_of_the_union_cartoon_cap.html

 

Readers can post their suggested caption(s) in the comments section until 11:59 p.m. ET Monday, Jan. 24. The winner gets a print of the cartoon, with their suggested caption, signed by Tom Toles. The winner will be announced before Obama begins his State of the Union address that Tuesday evening.

 

For official rules, go here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tomtoles/tom-toles-cartoon-caption-cont.html

 

That darn Toles! (continued)

This time a blog called the Oregon Catalyst doesn't like Tom Toles' cartoon.

That darn Toles! (continued)

Witches are your neighbors and acquaintances

Washington Post Saturday, September 25, 2010; A11

What is a witch? The Tea Party's Senate candidate in Delaware, Christine O'Donnell, said that she dabbled in witchcraft. Post columnist Richard Cohen ["Republicans, bewitched," op-ed, Sept. 21] and cartoonist Tom Toles [Sept. 21] commented on it. I wonder if either knows what a witch is? Is it the Hollywood version from "Snow White" or "The Wizard of Oz?" If not, then what?

A witch could be standing in line behind you at the checkout counter or sitting next to you on the Metro. And he or she probably does not cackle or have a wart on her nose or carry a broom. There are several thousand of them in America. They are hard to tell from Episcopalians or anyone else.

If The Post is going to write about them, perhaps you should invite one or two to talk to your staff to provide some background and answer questions.

John B. Holway, Springfield

Post launches cartoon contest - updated

America's Next Great Cartoonist Contest. Enter now. Chance to win a one-month stint in the Washington Post Style section. Work for the man for free. No purchase necessary.

Our Man Thompson, who got paid for his Post Style cartoon appearances, is one of the judges, as is Garry "Greatest cartoonist of the 4th quarter of the 20th century" Trudeau, the Post's Gene Weingarten the latest person to break onto their comics page, and Tom "that darn" Toles as well as Stephan Pastis and Jerry Scott. Cavna's blog post on it is here and be sure to read the comments about legal concerns being raised.

I'm feeling slightly less cranky as I update this, so I will say it's a good opportunity for someone to break out of the syndication pack.

That darn Toles, now on MTV's Real World

Tom Toles appears on Real World XXIII: Washington DC, episode 12 which is online now. He's in the first segment, being nice to the would-be college political cartoonist.

Senator Franken uses Toles' cartoon as visual aid

Franken uses a cartoon to explain complex financial dynamic. by Christina Wilkie, The Hill's The Washington Scene blog May 7, 2010.

And she gave this Youtube link to a film of his presentation as well.

That darn Toles, continued even more

Ummmm, doesn't the idea of less guns = less gun crimes ever occur to anyone? On the other hand, I guess if one thinks that editorial cartoons shouldn't be propaganda, one lives in a different world than I do. They're editorializing after all.

Propagandist cartoon draws on the District's gun laws
Washington Post Tuesday, April 6, 2010; A12

The April 1 editorial cartoon by Tom Toles seemed to imply that the 2008 Supreme Court ruling that forced the District to revamp its gun laws led to last week's shootings that left four people dead in Southeast Washington.

The only problem with Mr. Toles's blatant propaganda is that the still-restrictive gun laws make it impossible for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves. Does anyone think the suspects in the shootings owned guns legally?

Tom McAnear, Arlington

That darn Toles, continued some more

Today - a letter defending Toles from the earlier letters.

That darn Toles, continued

More letters to the editor - click the link to read them -
Editorial cartoon draws ire, gratitude
Washington Post April 1, 2010; A14

Regarding Tom Toles's March 29 editorial cartoon:

Tom Toles is blogging

Matt Wuerker confirms my previous story that Tom Toles is blogging. Matt sent in a link to this excellent Robert Wright interview. You can read Tom's blog at his Washington Post page.

Tom Toles, beyond the cartoon

It looks like Tom Toles began blogging last week about the issues he did his daily cartoon on. I think this is a new development, but I usually read him in the paper edition. I'm not sure what brought it on either, although I think it's a welcome development.

MTV's Real World cartoonist met Tom Toles

There's a story on the Express website and one at the WTOP site, about Andrew, the would-be editorial cartoonist on MTV's The Real World: DC meeting Tom Toles and drawing a cartoon for the Washington Times.

Toles through the decade feature on Post website

A Tom Toles through the decade feature is on the Post website. "Washington Post political cartoonist Tom Toles talks about highs and lows of "the Aughts" and the inspiration behind some of his most memorable cartoons from the past 10 years."

The Year According to Toles

The Year According to Toles appears in print in today's Washington Post. It appeared online a couple of days ago.

That Toles, he's no Herblock

The Buffalo News pays Tom Toles a backwards compliment in this review - How Herblock ruled Washington with a pen, By Mike Vogel, NEWS BOOK REVIEWER, November 08, 2009,