Jon Dorn ?09: Cartoonist with an edge

When Skidmore senior Jon Dorn was in sixth grade at Plymouth Community Intermediate School in Massachusetts, the woods behind his home were threatened by a plan to build an amusement park.

He wasn?t amused. ?It would've been terrible. I loved those woods!? he recalls.

Though he?d been drawing cartoons since elementary school, the impending construction compelled Dorn for the first time to use his art to make a statement. He sent a cartoon lampooning the plan to the local paper, the Old Colony Memorial in Plymouth, Mass. Lo and behold, it was published. Even better, the amusement park was shelved.

That experience taught Dorn that his love for cartooning could have a real-world impact. It?s a lesson he hasn?t forgotten.

Dorn recently learned that he won a Region 1 Mark of Excellence Award for Editorial Cartooning from the Society of Professional Journalists. During the weekend of April 24-25, Dorn will attend the organization?s spring conference at Temple University. As a regional winner, he will receive a certificate and will find out whether he received first, second, or third place. First-place winners continue on to the national competition, where they will receive a plaque.

Dorn took up editorial cartooning again in his sophomore year at Plymouth South High School then dropped it until his freshman year at Skidmore. ?I had been drawing some cartoons for fun over Thanksgiving break, and they ended up in various places in my room?on the floor, etc. I had a couple of people over to work on a class project, including Vanessa Weber, who was on the staff of the newspaper,? Dorn recalls. ?She said that I should submit some to the paper, so starting in the spring, I began submitting cartoons every week. At the end of the semester, I decided to run for the paper?s ?Fun? section editor, and that?s how I initially got started with the newspaper."

Dorn is currently the co-editor-in-chief at The Skidmore News.

?Editorial cartoons are just cartoons, but they can have such a huge influence on everything,? he says, pointing to Thomas Nast, the famed 19th-century cartoonist who took on Boss Tweed.

He concedes that political cartoons don?t have the same influence they once did, but ?they can still cause a stir. People still see them as important pieces of journalism.?

Dorn reflects on the uproar over the New York Post?s publication of what some readers felt was a racist cartoon, likening the author of the stimulus bill (presumably President Barack Obama) to a rabid chimpanzee. ?I feel like the cartoonist had to have overlooked that stereotype, or didn?t care that he was going to make people crazy. It was probably poor decision-making, but people shouldn?t have been storming the New York Post, demanding that the editor be fired.

?It fascinates me that a goofy drawing can have such a big social impact,? he mused. ?I?d like to think that, at least within the community, I?m putting out what I think is an important viewpoint.?

Dorn?s commitment to social issues goes beyond what he draws on the page. At home, he works as a substitute teacher toward the end of the public school year, in addition to working at a special-needs summer school program. Dorn and two of his high school friends also own Brewster Productions, a concert production and booking company out of Plymouth. Their free outdoor summer concert series, which includes an awareness concert to benefit the public school system, is in its second year.

As co-editor-in-chief, Dorn maintains that he and his staff have been working hard to improve the image of the often-criticized Skidmore News. ?All media outlets should be criticized,? he said. ?We understand that with any community newspaper, there?s going to be endless criticism. We see that as a challenge, rather than an excuse.?

But he specifies that he and his co-editors welcome constructive criticism. ?If you?re writing on the Skidmore Unofficial blog that ?the paper sucks?, there isn?t much we can learn from that. But at least if someone says, ?the writing sucks?, OK, we can try and improve that.?

Dorn has also entered contests sponsored by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, for which both sets of entries are still pending.

?I like winning prizes if I can, but part of the reason I entered was to try to get some money to help pay for grad school,? he explained. After graduating from Skidmore this
spring with a psychology major and art minor, Dorn will attend Emerson College to work toward his MFA in media art, with a concentration in film and audio production.

?The other part was to see how my cartooning measures up to other people?? he admitted. Dorn hopes to continue cartooning in the future, and has even looked into syndication. ?I don?t really know if I?m good enough to be syndicated,? he said. ?I just love drawing a couple cartoons a week, and I think I?d really miss it.? ~ By Lauren Donovan ?10

To see more of Jon Dorn's art, visit his web site or see this overview of his work.