Local cartoonist making it big

It has occurred to me that I need to help a friend of mine promote his cartooning ability. I have known Andrew Wahl for over five years, in my capacity as a media adviser and his as a copy editor/paginator then the features editor at The Wenatchee World newspaper, the daily paper here in town. Since last fall, Andy has also been producing a cartoon a week for The World. His agreement with The World apparently stipulates that at least one cartoon per month must be about a Washington state issue. This week's dealt with I-901, which would ban smoking in all public places.

I had known Andy's previous cartoon stints in college and in his prior work at the Longview, Wash., newspaper. But his work for The World has been top notch. His cartoons are not available at the newspaper's Web site. However, he has all the recent cartoons archived along with many from years past on his Web site: Off the Wahl Productions. Trust me, I know my cartoons. This is good stuff; we're lucky.

Andy comes at a time when readers are increasingly polarized. They see media coverage as slanted -- that is if they don't like the story or how it covers their issues. So, mix a liberal cartoonist into a moderate to conservative editorial page, and you suddenly have a few sparks. Andy tells me that the editorial page editor has fielded many calls the morning after one of Andy's cartoons lampoons W. Yet, the cartoons about the overbearing eye of Big Brother watching every move a person makes play as well with liberals screaming of civil rights eroding as with conservatives who want government off their backs.

The new cartoons come out Mondays or Tuesdays. There is a link at the site above to subscribe to the weekly e-mail list with the cartoon and a few notes from its creator. Sometimes that comes even before the toon is published. Or, just send e-mail to: toon@offthewahl.com

-- Wenatchee, Wash.