The Best & Worst of it

I landed a gig as cartoonist for my hometown newspaper, pathetically named The Advertister. The Editor was super excited, and new. My written proposal to send in some cartoons weekly was well received, and I relished the idea of freelancing in this small capacity, hoping to build on the capital. I had, accordingly, no contract, but a lot of free range. I made sketches for me, then sent in two potential finished compositions, and time and again one or the other was accepted, sometimes even both, with week's delay in publication, as the limit was one per week. A crisp 25-dollar check came in the mail promptly the next day after the work was featured in the paper. Yay!

Not much, in the grand avenue, but a cheerful lightness of step in the right direction... Now to the part where it gets dirty. After 7 or so happy such weeks, I received an email from the Editor, in odd wording that the Owner of the paper had received interest from another party... my heart sank. I saw the work of the Other printed shortly the next day, my own (with no false modesty) doubtlessly superior illustrations rejected. I had been extremely cautious. I had curbed my satiricism to the most benign commentary. I had resorted to serving the perceived clientele with "good taste." So, I knew it was nothing that I had opinionated. The Owner of the paper had apparently seen the family Name.

That was blacklisted, a history unrelated to myself except by a dis-nepotism. You see my parents had worked for the same paper a decade earlier. Father as a photographer and Mother covering the local beat with incisive criticism, that was soon suspected to have been Ghost written by Father; and indeed so it was, but nobody could prove it. Nevertheless, the duo had to go, because they were undermining the comfortability of local scoundrels and operatives. They were essentially barred from any such work, by reputation. And I by association was a potential latent threat.

It was an interesting stint, a glimpse through a dirty window of local news.

05.06.2023

Unsavory job challenge @Prose