BusinessTN

The word “blogging” conjures up images of written commentary published on a Web page. Though it’s true that commentary on most blogs deals in verbs and nouns, there is at least one blog for which illustration-more precisely, editorial cartoons-is the principal medium for communication. John Cox and Allen Forkum are the men behind the blogging cartoon duo Cox & Forkum. Forkum writes the cartoons, and Cox illustrates them. Befitting the manner in which blogging communities themselves are unfettered by distance, Cox and Forkum communicate their ideas to each other via cyberspace. While the former resides in Atlanta, the latter lives in Middle Tennessee.

Born in Nashville, Allen Forkum grew up in Mt. Juliet, graduating from Mt. Juliet High School. With aspirations of becoming a graphic designer, he moved to Georgia and enrolled in a commercial arts program at Dekalb Tech in 1984. There, Forkum and Cox met each other, and created their first collaborative work. “I think we had to make up something like a brochure,” Forkum says. Back then, he never thought he would become what in the cartoon business is referred to as an “inkslinger.”

Upon graduation from Dekalb Tech, Forkum started a graphic design studio, but eventually found his way back to Nashville and into a different line of business-publishing. In 1988, he and his father started AutoGraphic Publishing Co., creators of a monthly newspaper, Automotive Report, for regional automotive industries. What started as a publication for the Nashville area has now grown to cover ten states. Forkum is currently a co-owner and art director for the company.

It was for one of these publications that the duo first created cartoons. “The newspaper needed a monthly gag cartoon to accompany a humor column,” said Forkum in a 2003 interview with Capitalism Magazine. Their cartoon collaboration did not originally start with editorial cartoons in mind. Cox and Forkum thought they had “a better shot at breaking into the dailies,” and thus created the daily comic strip “Captain Speewak!” Though syndicates never picked up the comic strip, the duo continued to produce humor cartoons for Automotive Report while leading separate lives in different cities.

In mid-2001, their interests in current events and humor led them to the world of editorial cartooning. While partnerships in creating comic strips are quite common, a joint effort to produce editorial cartoons is a rarity. According to the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), there is only one team of cartoonists that are registered members (Cox & Forkum are not members of AAEC). Forkum believes their teamwork gives them several advantages. Foremost, they have divided the tasks of one editorial cartoonist, which includes research, analysis of the news, conceptualizing an image, and, finally, actually creating the cartoon itself. Forkum believes that “by having two people look at the cartoon, we’re making it better.” Also, editorial cartoonists often wait a full year to talk shop with fellow inkslingers at their annual convention; Cox and Forkum have such conversations daily.

While their initial trajectory for the cartoons was a casual one, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 changed their course. Suddenly, they realized that editorial cartooning could serve as a platform to articulate their views. They soon began producing cartoons semi-weekly. Following the attacks, “I suddenly had a burning desire to speak out,” said Forkum in an interview with John Little of “Blogs of War.”

In March 2003, the duo had created enough cartoons to self-publish a book, entitled Black & White World. The blog, www.coxandforkum.com, was first created as a means to promote the book. But their blog has since become much more than a sales vehicle. Garnering nearly 100,000 visits a week, their site has developed a loyal following. Although their cartoons are not syndicated, they have also caught the attention of several publications, such as The Intellectual Activist, Investor’s Business Daily and The Detroit News. Schoolchildren in over 2,000 classrooms have also seen one of their cartoons. Newspaper-in-Education’s weekly teaching worksheet, “Cartoons in the Classroom,” used a Cox & Forkum cartoon to help students understand tort reform. Forkum says their Web site has generated a “pleasantly surprising” amount of profit. But will they ever create cartoons full-time? “Right now, we’re keeping our day jobs,” Forkum says. His response is understandable when one considers that there are only about 80 full-time editorial cartoonists left in the United States. In the last decade, the newspaper industry has purged cartoonists out of their jobs mostly as a cost-cutting measure, with one recent firing even involving a Pulitzer Prize winner, Michael Ramirez. “The newspapers have to understand what appeals to readers,” Forkum says, “so I don’t know why newspapers, especially local ones, don’t want a local cartoonist.”

Of course, the cartoon duo has never had to encounter the plight that traditional editorial cartoonists face, including the careful eye of newspaper editors. Because the pair creates cartoons for their own blog, they are not subject to many of the pressures that curtail the efforts of print cartoonists. For instance, some editors often ask their cartoonists to tone down the essence of a cartoon, or the message, or choose not to publish the work at all. In addition, the recent violent protests sparked by a Danish cartoon of Mohammed leave many newspapers wondering if their own cartoonists’ works might create similar scenarios. As print editorial cartoonists fret over issues like job security and censorship, Cox & Forkum has thrived in the unfiltered blogosphere. “Editorial cartooning is liberating,” Forkum says. “And it suits our personalities.” Though Cox & Forkum does not have a “home base” paper, many traditional editorial cartoonists are now playing catch-up to them in the field of online media.

The future for the online duo includes trying to have their cartoons printed in more newspapers. They also hope to publish another book, though it may not be a compilation of cartoons like their previous two books. They are even considering some new options that will further enhance their two-dimensional cartoons. “[Macromedia] Flash is interesting to me,” ponders Forkum. “It would be great to see our cartoons animated. In editorial cartoons, you have to capture the entire joke in a single frame. With animation, you can tell the story in a longer span of time.”

As other editorial cartoonists begin to join their ranks in the blogosphere, Cox & Forkum has led the way in the world of cartoon blogging. Chalk up another innovative development for blogging in Tennessee.