Drawing 9/11.

• Author: Rimensnyder, Sara
• Position: Soundbite - Chip Bok - Interview

Starting a career in political cartooning is a tricky business. In the case of award-winning scribbler Chip Bok, his first fulltime position, at Florida's long-defunct Clearwater Sun, came after a six-year hunt. It also ended in dismissal after a short six months, when a new editor who wanted only local cartoons took over. "It didn't take long before I had offended just about every body in town and probably most of the advertisers," recalls Bok.

He recovered. His new book, Bok! The 9.11 Crisis in Politico I Cartoons (University of Akron Press), brings together nearly a year of his cartoons from the Akron Beacon Journal, where he's been on staff since 1987. The 50-year-old Bok is also syndicated, bringing his 'toons to rags such as the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and Reason Online (reason.com/boktoc.shtml). Yet if it weren't for Mad and a certain presidential scandal, Bok might never have found his calling. "Alfred E. Neuman and Richard Nixon launched a lot of editorial cartoonists," he says, "including me." Assistant Editor Sara Rimensnyder spoke to Bok by telephone in November.

Q: 9/11 was a difficult event for humorists. What have been the particular challenges for political cartoonists?

A: Editorial cartooning is a negative art form: criticizing, satirizing, making fun of authority. In the case of 9/11, I didn't want to do that. It didn't seem like the moment to criticize the commander in chief-to see how...