Reviews and Info
Publisher: Clemson University Digital Press
Date: 2006
Pages: 190
Author: Kate Salley Palmer
Retail price: $19.95
Reviews:
“Palmer shares her journey from classroom cutup to professional cartoonist and illustrator in her new book, GrowingUp Cartoonist in the Baby Boom South: A Memoir and Cartoon Retrospective, published by Clemson University’s Digital Press. She writes openly about her struggle – what for years was undiagnosed – attention deficit disorder, her life as a women in a career dominated by men and the journey to her current career as a writer and illustrator of children’s books.”
The Greenville (SC) News, 2006
Notes from readers:
“This fine memoir and retrospective allows those not familiar with Kate’s work to see some of the finest editorial cartoons ever produced and to delve into the unconventional mind of a true artist. Her often biting, always witty cartoons force viewers to think about issues and newsmakers in new ways.”
Herb Hartsook, Director of USC Cooper Library’s South Carolina Political Collections
“Congratulations on the publication of your book. I really like the way the book was designed. The size is nice and having so many drawings and photos interspersed with the text really makes it interesting. What a nice volume!”
Lucy Caswell, Professor and Curator, Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library
Kate's Cartoon Book
Growing Up Cartoonist in the Baby Boom South is part funny, bittersweet memoir, part visual romp, with fully half its pages devoted to reproductions of Kate’s cartoons and drawings – including several recent creations appearing in print for the first time. The cartoons are arranged chronologically by year, making it easy to follow the development of political and social issues over time – from Jimmy Carter’s presidency in the 70’s through George W. Bush’s term.
Here’s what Richard Riley, former South Carolina Governor and US Secretary of Education, said in the forward. “Kate Palmer’s political cartoons are great – that is, if they are about someone else. At any rate, they justify a look into her life. Where did this free and caring and funny spirit come from? What was her family like? Were they also contrarians? She [Kate] is what we call in the South call 'a character'. Thus, she enjoys exposing to the world her cartoon characters in their most vulnerable light. She calls herself a satirist, which she defines as a ‘professional smartass’. After you read this book and chuckle at some of the outrageous political cartoons, I hope you will take from Kate Palmer, the person, a belief in the power of a free society where editorial expression is brutally honest.”
From time to time Kate gives talks about her cartooning career, such as to a Women’s Studies Seminar at Ohio State University in February, 2007. Her title for that presentation was “Born to Cartoon”. She was also the keynote speaker in 2008 at the state conference for South Carolina Art Educators.
Here's Kate's cartoon re: Invasion of Iraq as Star Wars characters (Pres. Bush, Sec. of State Powell, Vice-Pres. Cheney, Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Rice)
Ohio State University’s Cartoon Research Library
Clemson University Digital Press
Clemson University Strom Thurmond Institute
University of South Carolina Cooper Library – SC Political Collections
AAEC – American Association of Editorial Cartoonists
Comic Journal Review
“For a myriad of reasons, many of which Kate Salley Palmer elucidates in her memoir, [the] once-proud [political cartooning] industry has been reduced to the work of a defiant few facing an uncertain future. By these merits alone Growing Up Cartoonist in the Baby Boom South is a gripping series of snapshots of an industry undergoing its first death-throes. Palmer’s gift for frank, clear observation extends well beyond her professional work as a cartoonist. She delivers through this autobiography an irreplaceable primary source of detailed information about the mechanics of this slow decay that will be invaluable to students of the future interested in this volatile and, one might assume, terminal period of political cartooning as a vital craft.
The first portion [of the book] is light on illustrations, the space given over mainly to Palmer’s formative experiences growing up in South Carolina of the 50’s and 60’s….Whatever academic or interpretive value it may offer, this charming glimpse into the life and time of an unconventional Southern girl is nearly compelling enough to carry the book on its own, regardless of the fact that she went on to a public and well-documented career….Roughly half of the book is made up of Palmer’s political cartoons, usually accompanied by pithy commentary. She leads off with a chronological survey of her cartoons of national interest, beginning with the ebbing Ford administration in 1976. Not all of her satirical pieces are personality or event-driven as she regularly uses her platform to comment on the improving but still unequal treatment of women in America as decades pass. However removed from the dustbins of history her subject may be, the largest portion of this work is still laugh-out-loud funny.”
The Comics Journal, May 2007