Interview With Lloyd Dangle, Author of Troubletown - Page 3

In the book you mention at one point MTV refusing to show bands against the war. I wasn't sure if that really happened or was an exaggeration. Was it? And, more generally, is most stuff in your book factual except when labeled as such?

At the time I drew the one about MTV I would have been able to cite my source, but I can't now. I recall that Clear Channel refused to run anti war songs as well as another major radio chain. I may have lumped them together with MTV, but definitely there was a voluntary ban on  anti-war songs by the big music media at the beginning of the Iraq war.

In general, I cite actual facts, but I also use extreme exaggerations, like having Bush casually claim that he is over fifteen feet tall. He didn't really do that but he might as well have. I wouldn't say that I always label it when I'm exaggerating, but I  think it's always pretty obvious.

What would you like to be known for?

I’m afraid it is inescapable that I will be known for the cartoons on the box of Airborne. I fear that my gravestone will say, “created by a school teacher who was sick of catching colds.” Seriously, I think it will work itself out. My son is the only one who will be stuck with the psychic ramifications of knowing me, so in his case I hope I’m known for being fair and accepting and loving.     

Who are YOUR favorite cartoonists?

Toles, Derf, Sipress, Olipant…those are ones I always have to read. There are a lot of terrifyingly good young whippersnappers coming up too. Iraq and George Bush haven’t just created the perfect breeding ground for Al Qaeda, they’ve trained a generation of political humorists!Are there good conservative cartoonists or is that, like conservative documentary makers, an oxymoron or just bad results like with Millard Fillmore who is about as funny as, say, the war? Speaking of which, how do you make the war funny?

That is a good question. A lot of the cartoons on the daily comics page are what I would consider conservative. Blondie and Dagwood live in a world frozen in time–– a conservative utopia. It’s one of my all time favorites by the way. I have a poster by Jack Chick, the guy who does those tiny comic book religious tracts you find in bus stations and laundry mats. It’s a funny and elaborate picture making a weak argument against evolution. It ends with a fat academic-looking archaeologist praying to a statue of a monkey eating a banana. I had to take it down recently. It was getting stale.  

Article Author: Scott Butki

Scott Butki was a newspaper reporter for more than 10 years before making a career change into education.

He is an in-house media critic, a recovering Tetris addict and a proud uncle.

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