When readers respond; Feedback for cartoonists and their work

Readers' response: Cartoonists discuss the response from readers. (From left to right) Mike Lester, Rex Babin, Bruce MacKinnon, and Ted Rall (click to enlarge).SAN ANTONIO - You would think opening a letter that reads, "Ann Coulter has more patriotic blood in one of her used tampons then you have in your whole body," might not be all that inspiring.

But to most of the editorial cartoonists working today, it's precisely the sort-of thing that eggs them on and encourages them to continue.

Rex Babin's cartoon on Mississippi (click to enlarge)...Babin's cartoon 'redrawn' by one of his readers (click to enlarge).A reader took a time to draw his own cartoon about Rex Babin (click to enlarge).Cartoonists presented some of their favorite hate mail and reader response stories as part of a panel during this year's American Association of Editorial Cartoonists' (AAEC) Annual Convention.

Rex Babin, the editorial cartoonist for the Sacramento Bee, started things off with a slideshow of the different types of responses his cartoons gathered.

One cartoon he drew about the state of Mississippi voting to keep the confederate flag incorporated in their state flag even caused a reader to replace Babin's criticisms of Mississippi with those of California, and promptly mail it back to the cartoonist.

Bruce MacKinnon of the Chronicle Herald in Nova Scotia, Canada marveled over the response he received from a Barack Obama cartoon that suggested the name of the White House would need to be changed due to Obama being an African American.

"A lot of the readers were conservatives who would've vote for him, but seemed to want to be offended on his behalf," he said.

Small-market editorial cartoonist Mike Lester of the Rome News-Tribune generated a lot of response for his cartoons, including suggestions for future cartoons by readers.

One reader wrote in to say, "reading your cartoons is like admiring a baseball player who plays for the Yankees. I hate the Yankees!"

Urination and homosexual insults seem a constant among many readers' reactions, and even ideas suggested by readers for future cartoons. Once such idea involved Iraqi officials urinating in the mouth of George W. Bush.

Another wrote in to Lester to say, "you're a faggot, you faggot. Yes, I'm calling you a faggot."

Finally, one reader wrote in, to the applause and laughter of the cartoonists listening to Lester read the email from a reader, "I've grown up in Rome reading Mike Lester's cartoons. Too bad he can't be more like Mike Luckovich."

Lester's hate mail wasn't just centered on his editorial cartoons. A confused mother wrote in to complain about his children book 'A is for Salad'.

"Your mother is an ass. So I guess you didn't fall to far form the ass tree."

Syndicated cartoonist Ted Rall is no stranger to controversy. After drawing a cartoon critical of some 9/11 widows capitalizing on their husbands' deaths, about 40 firefighters with axes from the local firehouse gathered outside Rall's Upper West Side apartment, screaming and hollering.

It took a friend showing up to take pictures of the public servants to get them to disperse. This unnerved Rall, because if the people who are supposed to be protecting you end up attacking you, where else can you go for protection?

"Firefighters are psychotic," Rall said. "They don't work hard, and every five years or so they have to go do a job. That's why everyone wants to be one."

Lester jokes about all the hate mail cartoonists receive, and surprisingly enough, it all really doesn't insult him.

"The only insulting mail I get every two weeks is my paycheck," he joked.

UPDATE: In an earlier version, I attributed a reader's feces-smeared response as being mailed to Rex Babin. It was actually mailed to Clay Bennett, editorial cartoonist for the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

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Complete coverage of the 2008 AAEC Convention