Here's a link to a C-SPAN2 BookTV segment on my stepfather, the late Lyle Lahey.
Go to video on C-SPAN.
Showing posts with label lyle lahey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lyle lahey. Show all posts
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Local Lyle Lahey
BACK STORY
Home away from home: Lyle Lahey's local powerBy John Zipperer
Breathing is difficult for me right now, but it’s not because of fear or excitement. I have just returned from a week in my childhood hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin, where the temperatures were in the single digits (Farhenheit, alas) and the air so dry that my head decided that breathing was an option it could skip.
The reason for my trip to Titletown was the sudden death of my stepfather, Lyle Lahey, at the age of 81. I spent a week with my siblings...
Friday, February 8, 2013
Lyle Lahey, 1931-2013
At about 7:15 p.m. Central Time, on Friday, February 8, 2013, Lyle Lahey passed away. Known to many in Wisconsin as an independent (and ever-opinionated) political voice, Lyle was also my stepfather.
I don't remember the first time I met Lyle Lahey, but it was probably during a visit to my mother's office at Brown County Publishing in Denmark, Wisconsin. There, lots of talented albeit underpaid professionals assembled a number of local newspapers and one magazine; the magazine was my mother's brainchild; the newspapers were where Lyle worked as a political cartoonist, editorial page editor, and designer.
At some point, Mom must have taken me down to her friend Lyle's office, and there, amidst his drawing board and reference material and stacks of books and magazines and newspapers, was the tall, lanky political cartoonist whose work I saw every day in the Green Bay News-Chronicle and stories of whom I had heard my mother retell.
Over the years, I saw Lyle numerous times, and he eventually became my stepfather. I knew people in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who subscribed to the News-Chronicle soley because of Lyle's political cartoons. I had a (friendly) argument with a friend in high school who was certain Lyle's last name was pronounced laHEY and who didn't believe me when I said I was pretty sure my own stepfather pronounced his name LAhey. For 35 years, Lyle produced political cartoons on a daily basis for Brown County Publishing and the Green Bay News-Chronicle. He rarely took vacations, he never stopped (he had high respect for Bill Watterson, but I think Lyle thought him to be a bit of a weakling when Watterson called it a day after 10 years of "Calvin and Hobbes"), and he did something that artists almost never do: When he had to decide between producing material that was blander and more commercial so it could be syndicated nationally, he chose to stick to local topics because he felt that the people of Green Bay, Wisconsin, deserved to have a cartoonist who addressed their issues.
Lyle also, many years before, created "Bunky," a weekly comic strip in The Farmer's Friend (another Brown County Publishing newspaper). A year ago, I suggested republishing his "Bunky" comics through the magic of Amazon's print-on-demand service; he and my mother gave their blessing. Now, it's an imperative that that be done. Lyle's desert-dry sense of humor is perfectly transmitted in that strip's mixture of a befuddled space alien, a farm boy, and a sojourn to Maoist China.
Lyle Lahey was the man who sent home from the office a couple dozen issues of Omni magazine for me to devour. He was the man who helped my mother come to terms with it when I came out. He was the man who brought home library books of early Superman, Little Nemo, and (the greatest of all) Krazy Kat. He was the man who was the staff political cartoonist for the smallest daily newspaper in the country to have its own political cartoonist. He was the man who shared copies of Car Design and Comics Scene magazines with me, because he knew we both liked the publisher and I really knew nothing about cars. He was the man who shared Harlan Ellison and thriller books with me. He was the man – the stepfather – who got along great with my father; they traded stacks of car magazines each time they saw each other at frequent family gatherings.
And, like a generation so removed from my own ironic generation, he said what he meant and he took you seriously when you said something serious.
Lyle was a good man, a better man than I am or ever have been. He was, in the best sense of the term, an old-fashioned man. He read widely and a lot; he cared about what he talked about, and when you spoke to him, he always focused on what you were saying.
No man is perfect, but you won't get any admissions from me of errors in Lyle Lahey.
Rest in peace, Lyle; you've earned it.
At some point, Mom must have taken me down to her friend Lyle's office, and there, amidst his drawing board and reference material and stacks of books and magazines and newspapers, was the tall, lanky political cartoonist whose work I saw every day in the Green Bay News-Chronicle and stories of whom I had heard my mother retell.
Over the years, I saw Lyle numerous times, and he eventually became my stepfather. I knew people in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who subscribed to the News-Chronicle soley because of Lyle's political cartoons. I had a (friendly) argument with a friend in high school who was certain Lyle's last name was pronounced laHEY and who didn't believe me when I said I was pretty sure my own stepfather pronounced his name LAhey. For 35 years, Lyle produced political cartoons on a daily basis for Brown County Publishing and the Green Bay News-Chronicle. He rarely took vacations, he never stopped (he had high respect for Bill Watterson, but I think Lyle thought him to be a bit of a weakling when Watterson called it a day after 10 years of "Calvin and Hobbes"), and he did something that artists almost never do: When he had to decide between producing material that was blander and more commercial so it could be syndicated nationally, he chose to stick to local topics because he felt that the people of Green Bay, Wisconsin, deserved to have a cartoonist who addressed their issues.
Lyle also, many years before, created "Bunky," a weekly comic strip in The Farmer's Friend (another Brown County Publishing newspaper). A year ago, I suggested republishing his "Bunky" comics through the magic of Amazon's print-on-demand service; he and my mother gave their blessing. Now, it's an imperative that that be done. Lyle's desert-dry sense of humor is perfectly transmitted in that strip's mixture of a befuddled space alien, a farm boy, and a sojourn to Maoist China.
Lyle Lahey was the man who sent home from the office a couple dozen issues of Omni magazine for me to devour. He was the man who helped my mother come to terms with it when I came out. He was the man who brought home library books of early Superman, Little Nemo, and (the greatest of all) Krazy Kat. He was the man who was the staff political cartoonist for the smallest daily newspaper in the country to have its own political cartoonist. He was the man who shared copies of Car Design and Comics Scene magazines with me, because he knew we both liked the publisher and I really knew nothing about cars. He was the man who shared Harlan Ellison and thriller books with me. He was the man – the stepfather – who got along great with my father; they traded stacks of car magazines each time they saw each other at frequent family gatherings.
And, like a generation so removed from my own ironic generation, he said what he meant and he took you seriously when you said something serious.
Lyle was a good man, a better man than I am or ever have been. He was, in the best sense of the term, an old-fashioned man. He read widely and a lot; he cared about what he talked about, and when you spoke to him, he always focused on what you were saying.
No man is perfect, but you won't get any admissions from me of errors in Lyle Lahey.
Rest in peace, Lyle; you've earned it.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Bunky, Safe at Last from Stupid Space Aliens
In April 1975, while inflation raged, Vietnam waned, Mao reigned in China, and the U.S. economy sputtered, a small Wisconsin newspaper called The Farmer's Friend debuted a new black-and-white comic strip, Bunky.
The titular star of the strip was a farm boy who, over the next several years, had a range of wild and humorous adventures that involved rocketships, the People's Republic of China, and space aliens. The comic was the creation of Lyle Lahey, an award-winning daily political cartoonist for the Green Bay News-Chronicle, which was published by the same company as The Farmer's Friend. (Lahey is also the author of The Packer Chronicles, a collection of his cartoons about Green Bay's football team through bad years and good.)
Watch for a special retrospective of Bunky in a future issue of Galaxis (the first edition is still available free here in digital form or you can buy a print copy here). And in the future ... maybe a Bunky book collecting the entire run of the strip? Wouldn't that be nice?
Monday, May 30, 2011
Independent Newspaper Legend Frank Wood, RIP
For all of you publishing exec-wannabes (like me), it is useful to know that Wood became smitten with newspaper publishing when he served in the Allied occupying armies in Germany after World War II. In the early 1960s, he and his wife bought their first newspaper, the Denmark Press. They eventually bought or started more, until they had a string of them, most of them modestly profitable, along with a successful printing operation.
But it was the Green Bay News-Chronicle that defines his legacy for many of us. The morning paper started as a strike paper by employees of the much-larger Green Bay Press-Gazette. When Wood bought the fledgling paper, he brought in additional talent, including my mother and the man who eventually became my stepfather. (I can remember my mother working into the evenings to help oversee the production of the little daily paper.) The Chronicle grew into a scrappy independent voice in the Green Bay area, almost always losing money but subsidized by the profits made elsewhere in the Wood family publishing company.
Eventually, the losses at the paper became unsustainable, and when the Gazette switched from afternoon to morning distribution, that was the death knell for the Chronicle, which went into a circulation tailspin. Eventually Wood sold the paper and most of his company to Gannett, which owned the Gazette and against which Wood had fought bravely for decades. The story of that war was the subject of Richard McCord's 1996 book The Chain Gang.
The above cartoon was created by Lyle Lahey, my stepfather and for about 25 years the daily editorial cartoonist for the News-Chronicle.
More info at the Green Bay Press Gazette obituary.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The History of Wisconsin Governor Walker – in Cartoons
Many of you already know that my stepfather, Lyle Lahey, is a veteran political cartoonist in Wisconsin, having worked for decades at the now-defunct Green Bay News-Chronicle.
For the past several years, he has been producing his political cartoons for the web, only taking a leave of absence recently to accommodate a move across town. Then he picked a great time to come back: right in the middle of the brouhaha over Wisconsin's right-wing governor, Scott Walker, and his plans to radically alter the state's politics and economics. (Let's just say Lyle puts the "haha" in "brouhaha").
Here, then, is a small collection of Lahey comics on the topic of Wisconsin's famous and infamous maximum leader. You can see new and more than 560 archived Lahey comics at his main site, and you can follow his new ones on his blog.
Click on the cartoons to view them in larger format.
For the past several years, he has been producing his political cartoons for the web, only taking a leave of absence recently to accommodate a move across town. Then he picked a great time to come back: right in the middle of the brouhaha over Wisconsin's right-wing governor, Scott Walker, and his plans to radically alter the state's politics and economics. (Let's just say Lyle puts the "haha" in "brouhaha").
Here, then, is a small collection of Lahey comics on the topic of Wisconsin's famous and infamous maximum leader. You can see new and more than 560 archived Lahey comics at his main site, and you can follow his new ones on his blog.
Click on the cartoons to view them in larger format.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Yes, Lyle Lahey Is Back
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker might not be happy about it, but I'm thinking Walker might not like most of what's happening in Wisconsin these days.
You can see all of the action at Lyle's main web site or his blog.
Enjoy.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Oscar the Nursing Home Cat Now Has Science on His Side
Remember the story a few years ago about the nursing home cat, the fish-breathed grim reaper who is able to tell when a patient was going to die? When a patient is about to die, Oscar the cat curls up next to him or her and stays there until the patient leaves this world.
The story caught the attention of millions -- and does to this day (the above cartoon, by veteran political cartoonist Lyle Lahey, has been viewed by thousands of people a month for the past several years). Most people probably thought the cat was either lucky, or magic, or that the nursing home attendants were just not observant of when Oscar curled up next to other patients.
But researcher Dr. David Dosa has been studying Oscar's case, and he's concluded that in fact the cat is detecting something in the dying people -- dead cells, or something -- and was not particularly friendly with other residents when they were living and well.
Read the report on the researcher and his results in an article this month in the UK's Telegraph newspaper.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
President Back on His Feet
For every article I read about how the Republicans are on a roll, there is also evidence of how clueless and leaderless the Party of Followers is these days.
And for every question that has been raised about President Obama's abilities since the loss of the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat to the soft-porn candidate from the GOP, I think the president has answered emphatically that he's still here, armed with a strong agenda, and equipped with a will to see it through. In his recent appearance before the Republicans' meeting (to which he had been invited by the GOP leaders for a Q&A), Obama wiped up the floor with his robotic opponents.
Yes, this is a very partisan blog post. Such is life.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Ho Oh No! A Health-Care Reform Christmas
A couple Christmas-themed political cartoon from Lyle Lahey. For more, see his web site or his blog.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Is Political Cartooning Dead? That'll Make Some (Bad) People Very Happy
Conservative pollster Frank Luntz recently said that Americans have lost their sense of humor, their ability to make jokes (and take jokes) about political ideas and leaders without everyone losing their cool and getting fighting mad. You can see just one aspect of that development the next time you open up a newspaper. Today, daily newspapers are much less likely to have their own political cartoonists providing sharp commentary on local or regional events, and they're more likely to run syndicated political cartoons from an artist in another city and state who couldn't spell the name of your city if their life depended on it.
Who wins? Certainly the local politicians, crooks, activists, swindlers, and other people who prefer to do their work in secret, because they know that people would never approve of their methods or means.
Weekly newspapers are also going through a de-cartooning. Daryl Cagle posts an interesting article by Steve Greenberg examining the steep decline in the numbers of political cartoonists and political cartoons in American newspapers, especially in the alternative weeklies found in many cities. "The number of papers carrying the politically left-leaning [Ted] Rall’s work over the years — as many as 140 at one point nearly a decade ago — has dropped to just 72. 'But they don’t have a lot of pages, because they don’t have enough advertising to support the pages. That’s what’s really going on,' Rall explains. And newspapers find it not only saves money and space to cut cartoons with strong views, but also eliminates controversy, which is more tolerated in the alt-press than the daily press."
All too true.
My stepfather, Lyle Lahey, worked as a daily editorial cartoonist at the Green Bay News-Chronicle for 35 years until the paper's death earlier this decade. It was, I read somewhere, the smallest daily newspaper in the country to have its own political cartoonist, but it did -- and it possibly had the nation's hardest-working political cartoonist. Lyle drew six and sometimes seven cartoons a week, in addition to editing the paper's opinion pages.
He would be a good case study for newspapers considering throwing their cartoonists over the side of the ship. His cartoons were often the main draw to readers of the Chronicle, which was the much smaller of two dailies in the Green Bay metro market. I even saw that close-up; the family of one of my best friends subscribed to the paper only because of Lyle's cartoons; remove the cartoons, and they would've canceled. His fans were not only loyal, they were intense. I remember having a nice argument with a classmate in high school over how to pronounce my stepfather's last name. He was incorrect, and he bizarrely refused to believe I knew how to pronounce my own stepfather's name. Nonetheless, here was a high school student who regularly read political cartoons and identified with the artist.
And yes, offending people is part of the job of any political cartoonist worth his or her salt. Lyle did his share of that, earning heated letters and phone calls from the offended (Catholics, powerful business interests in town, Packers fans, conservatives, liberals, local politicians, activists, polluters -- whoever got angry and took crayon in hand to write a letter to the editor). But he remained independent in his beliefs, and -- a key to his success and to the paper's, as long as it lasted -- he remained committed to concentrating on local topics in his cartoons. He felt he owed it to the people of Green Bay to take on the things happening in and around their town. The bungled investigations of crimes, the toxic wastes pumped into the Fox River, the $43,000 open-air heated bus shelters, etc. As much as he upset some people, he gained the appreciation of others.
And that's what a local political cartoonist can bring to a paper, weekly or daily. I saw that when I was the editorial pages editor of my college daily, the Badger Herald. For a long time, our editorials and columns were dreadful college-student musings on national and international issues. That's what you get when your editorial page editor and associate editorial page editor are both political science students with a focus on international relations. And our editorial cartoons were national syndicated cartoons -- great ones, indeed, with the likes of the Chicago Tribune's incredible Jeff MacNelly. But two things happened that suddenly increased the amount of mail -- positive and negative -- we received and made the editorial pages relevant on campus: First, we learned to write about local, campus topics; second, we got a great campus cartoonist who combined professional-level art with sharp commentary. Bingo -- we were producing a page that people on campus had to read, because no one could provide the text and cartoon commentary that we were providing. We'd made the paper a part of students' lives in a way that the best MacNelly cartoon (and the best MacNelly cartoon was indeed awesome) could never do.
What next? To quote Homer Simpson when asked who would take care of the children if all the parents ran away: "The internet?" Well, the internet is a place of refuge and even success for some political cartoonists. Lyle Lahey has a web site and a blog, where he continues to produce three cartoons a week, now freed to cover topics national and international. Other cartoonists have done the same, but I think monetary compensation (you know, paying the rent or mortgage is a nice feature in life) remains to be figured out.
I spoke to one political cartoonist several years ago who was quite bullish on using the web to spread his work to readers and distribute it to newspapers nationally. I wish him luck. But I think most political cartoonists are talented at drawing and writing commentary, not marketing themselves. I understand that the modern market-based, Schopenhauer-esque response is that they have to adapt or die. But Schopenhauer's theory of creative destruction isn't a universal salve. (Geez, is it a "salve" for anything?)
They will adapt and change, I don't doubt. But it's a tremendous waste for newspapers and editorial cartoonists to lose their symbiotic relationship. They were good for each other.
Weekly newspapers are also going through a de-cartooning. Daryl Cagle posts an interesting article by Steve Greenberg examining the steep decline in the numbers of political cartoonists and political cartoons in American newspapers, especially in the alternative weeklies found in many cities. "The number of papers carrying the politically left-leaning [Ted] Rall’s work over the years — as many as 140 at one point nearly a decade ago — has dropped to just 72. 'But they don’t have a lot of pages, because they don’t have enough advertising to support the pages. That’s what’s really going on,' Rall explains. And newspapers find it not only saves money and space to cut cartoons with strong views, but also eliminates controversy, which is more tolerated in the alt-press than the daily press."
All too true.
My stepfather, Lyle Lahey, worked as a daily editorial cartoonist at the Green Bay News-Chronicle for 35 years until the paper's death earlier this decade. It was, I read somewhere, the smallest daily newspaper in the country to have its own political cartoonist, but it did -- and it possibly had the nation's hardest-working political cartoonist. Lyle drew six and sometimes seven cartoons a week, in addition to editing the paper's opinion pages.
He would be a good case study for newspapers considering throwing their cartoonists over the side of the ship. His cartoons were often the main draw to readers of the Chronicle, which was the much smaller of two dailies in the Green Bay metro market. I even saw that close-up; the family of one of my best friends subscribed to the paper only because of Lyle's cartoons; remove the cartoons, and they would've canceled. His fans were not only loyal, they were intense. I remember having a nice argument with a classmate in high school over how to pronounce my stepfather's last name. He was incorrect, and he bizarrely refused to believe I knew how to pronounce my own stepfather's name. Nonetheless, here was a high school student who regularly read political cartoons and identified with the artist.
And yes, offending people is part of the job of any political cartoonist worth his or her salt. Lyle did his share of that, earning heated letters and phone calls from the offended (Catholics, powerful business interests in town, Packers fans, conservatives, liberals, local politicians, activists, polluters -- whoever got angry and took crayon in hand to write a letter to the editor). But he remained independent in his beliefs, and -- a key to his success and to the paper's, as long as it lasted -- he remained committed to concentrating on local topics in his cartoons. He felt he owed it to the people of Green Bay to take on the things happening in and around their town. The bungled investigations of crimes, the toxic wastes pumped into the Fox River, the $43,000 open-air heated bus shelters, etc. As much as he upset some people, he gained the appreciation of others.And that's what a local political cartoonist can bring to a paper, weekly or daily. I saw that when I was the editorial pages editor of my college daily, the Badger Herald. For a long time, our editorials and columns were dreadful college-student musings on national and international issues. That's what you get when your editorial page editor and associate editorial page editor are both political science students with a focus on international relations. And our editorial cartoons were national syndicated cartoons -- great ones, indeed, with the likes of the Chicago Tribune's incredible Jeff MacNelly. But two things happened that suddenly increased the amount of mail -- positive and negative -- we received and made the editorial pages relevant on campus: First, we learned to write about local, campus topics; second, we got a great campus cartoonist who combined professional-level art with sharp commentary. Bingo -- we were producing a page that people on campus had to read, because no one could provide the text and cartoon commentary that we were providing. We'd made the paper a part of students' lives in a way that the best MacNelly cartoon (and the best MacNelly cartoon was indeed awesome) could never do.
What next? To quote Homer Simpson when asked who would take care of the children if all the parents ran away: "The internet?" Well, the internet is a place of refuge and even success for some political cartoonists. Lyle Lahey has a web site and a blog, where he continues to produce three cartoons a week, now freed to cover topics national and international. Other cartoonists have done the same, but I think monetary compensation (you know, paying the rent or mortgage is a nice feature in life) remains to be figured out.
I spoke to one political cartoonist several years ago who was quite bullish on using the web to spread his work to readers and distribute it to newspapers nationally. I wish him luck. But I think most political cartoonists are talented at drawing and writing commentary, not marketing themselves. I understand that the modern market-based, Schopenhauer-esque response is that they have to adapt or die. But Schopenhauer's theory of creative destruction isn't a universal salve. (Geez, is it a "salve" for anything?)
They will adapt and change, I don't doubt. But it's a tremendous waste for newspapers and editorial cartoonists to lose their symbiotic relationship. They were good for each other.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Special Best-of Edition: Oscar the Deadly Cat
I don't get it. I mean, it's a funny cartoon, playing off the news that a cat at a nursing home was always able to figure out which resident was next to die and it would spend time with them, presumably comforting them. (Then again, it's a cat, so it might have been awaiting dinner.)
But this is why I am so gobsmacked: This cartoon (first published here on August 3, 2007) is the single most-viewed item on this blog. It's also the single most-viewed image from my main web site, which hosts cartoonist Lyle Lahey's political cartoons (see it here).
Over the past couple years, tens of thousands of people have accessed this cartoon and viewed it. That makes it far and away the most popular cartoon or post or article I've ever posted on any of my web sites or blogs.
Just thought I'd establish that.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Illinois Governor Blagojevich Arrested; Feds 2, Illinois Governors 0
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) recently urged President George W. Bush to commute the sentence of Blagojevich's predecessor, George Ryan (R), who was convicted of various crimes. No word yet on that pardon, but Blago (as he's known to his legions of enemies) may be in need of a pardon himself. This morning came the shocking news that Blagojevich has been "taken into custody" by federal agents as the result of an undercover investigation of a broad array of corrupt practices. Apparently, the guv was trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-Elect Barack Obama.
Even in Illinois, that's illegal.
Read the charges and the latest updates. I won't reiterate them here.
I will, however, note that as a born-and-bred Wisconsinite (now living on the West Coast), this does somewhat amuse me. After all, in various social studies and civics classes on good government (and in Wisconsin, most social studies and civics classes are good government classes), New York's Tammany Hall and Chicago, Illinois, were the go-to topics to demonstrate the perils of unclean and corrupt government, influence-peddling, low-morals, etc., etc., etc.
Two consecutive Illinois governors have now been arrested. It'd be funny if ... no, it's funny.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Bush vs. the Democrats
I like this cartoon. (For more by Lyle Lahey, see his web site or his blog.)
At the same time, I understand the odd pressures Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are under to not appear obstructionist during a time of war. Would I like to see more vim and vigor from that party? Sure. But I think their eyes are all on the November 2008 prize. And then we'll see what the Dems can do.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
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