Peter Crosta | Special Features Editor
crostap@imail.losrios.edu
A man who has been described as “unconscionable and sick,” a “resident embarrassment,” and accused of having an “unhealthy homoerotic obsession with our [now former] vice president” drew a crowd Feb. 18 in the Cultural Awareness Center.
He was Berryman Award winner and former Pulitzer Prize nominee Rex Babin, The Sacramento Bee’s editorial cartoonist. Babin grabbed the audience’s attention with select letters to the editor that contained descriptive phrases about him and his work, like the ones above. Some of the letters were printable –many were not.
“It’s easy to be glib on email,” Babin said.
Babin came to the campus with a variety of goals, but with one standing above the rest.
“I want to give an entertaining presentation,” Babin said. “There is a self-interest here. I want people to continue to read the newspaper.”
Babin also explained the work process involved in creating editorial cartoons to about 40 students and faculty members.
“It has a lot to do with staring at blank walls,” Babin said.
Babin’s presentation was filled with many examples of his work, including his new online Flash animated cartoons and his illustration of US Airways Flight 1549’s landing in the Hudson, known as the Miracle on the Hudson.
“The one where the hands were holding it right up at the water, I thought was a very compassionate cartoon,” said Victoria Henderson, coordinator for the Cultural Awareness Center. “I think he brought an understanding of the role of a cartoonist.”
Babin is no stranger to campus presentations. In fact, he has spoken many times to high school students about the work he does.
“It’s very much like a career day kind of thing,” Babin said. “Mine would be a very unique job, and I don’t tell people ‘become an editorial cartoonist.’ There’s just not a lot of jobs out there. It’s an opportunity to tell kids to think outside of the box in terms about what they want to do.”
Before starting at The Sacramento Bee in 1999, Babin was featured in the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union and has worked at the Orange Coast Daily Pilot and the Denver Post.
Connect with us!