The Who2 Blog

‘Drubbed Ain’t the Word’: The Dying Art of Sports Cartooning

A cartoon of a high school football player, Charlie McGill / The Record

Here’s a terrific gallery of images from sports cartoonists like Drew Litton and Charlie McGill (above). There used to be a cartoonist in the sports section of every major newspaper. Now, not so much.

Some go more quietly than others.

“We’re moving to a more visual society,” Litton said, “so I’m waiting for editors and publishers to say, ‘Wait a second, we’re going in the wrong direction by cutting these cartoons.'”

Cartoon: two mental hospital attendants carry away a Brooklyn fan dressed as a bum as he raves about winning the World SeriesShirley Mullin Rhodes via NY Times

This is a classic by Willard Mullin of the New York World-Telegram, published the day after the long-suffering “bums” from Brooklyn finally beat the Yankees in the 1955 World Series.

Read all about it in the full New York Times article: Lost Occupation, Lost Art as Sports Cartooning Declines »

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