'The Satirist', a comic by Peter N. Trinh

About being a satirist
Peter N. Trinh

In January 2009, I attended the Canadian University Press (CUP) Conference in Saskatoon with Editor-In-Chief, Ashley Csanady. Despite the cold weather, the crowd of people was very welcoming. I was fortunate enough to attend a keynote session led by Globe and Mail political cartoonist, Brian Gable.

I would argue that his work is probably the most memorable of items in The Globe and Mail, largely because his satirical work is very visual, using pictures and caricatures that people can look at and see almost instantly what or who is being made fun of. One of the comics that he showed during the keynote that night is the inspiration behind my comic. Gable’s original comic, printed in The Globe and Mail on September 20, 2008, depicts Uncle Sam conversing with a younger Sam about his future while staring at a display of the United States in a pawn shop. This is the visual aspect being stabbed at with my comic, along with Gable’s original line, “Some day this will all be yours.” To put my comic in proper context, remember that Gable’s keynote was based on satire.

To be a political cartoonist, one requires a great knowledge in writing satire; in this regard, Gable is no slouch. Gable at his CUP conference keynote on January 7, 2009 said, “If we create a world where we spend our time not offending people, we haven’t left much of a legacy for the next generation.”This idea on having to choose the hill you’ll die on as he said at the same lecture, is the main theme of my comic. The three names on the tombstones — “J. Swift”, “M. Wente” and “J. Peppler” — reference people who have written and published some pretty controversial works; author Jonathan Swift, Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente, and one particular character: CUP conference speaker, student journalist, and satirist James Peppler. The latter name of the three people was put in the comic mainly as a response on his encouragement of “embellishing” writings to gain more readers using hyperbole, among many other things.

As for the characters in the comic, I’m not so sure if Gable actually has interns. But I suppose that if he did, then my comic would have more of a twist to it than it already has.

Editor’s Note:

To view the Brian Gable comic in The Globe and Mail to which Peter Trinh refers, check out http://www.theglobeandmail.com/v5/content/cartoon/generated/20080920.html.