by Ardeana Hamlin
of The Weekly Staff
A lot of George Danby’s work is to laugh at. Some of it provokes darker emotions. All of it engages newspaper readers — print or online — who can’t wait to turn to the editorial pages of the Bangor Daily News to see what he has come up with six days a week.
Danby, award winning political cartoonist for the Bangor Daily News, with 40 years of experience, nearly 30 of those years at the NEWS, will launch his first-ever collection of his work, “The Essential Danby,” published by Islandport Press, 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, at Bangor Public Library.
The book, arranged by decades — 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s — contains more than 150 of Danby’s political cartoons. Each section features an essay written by Danby about the events of those years and followed by cartoons illustrating his ideas and observations — his “take” — on those events.
“I was always drawing for as long as I can remember,” said Danby, who grew up in Bangor. Along with his interest in drawing, he also developed an interest in politics, political commentary and newspapers, in general, so that by the time he was 16 he felt confident enough to answer an advertisement placed by the Providence Journal-Bulletin asking for cartoon ideas. “The editors liked what they saw and that gave me an incentive to go to the BDN to ask about cartooning,” he said.
Editors at the BDN also liked what they what they saw. “Because I was so young … they thought they would let me try it out.”
He also drew caricatures of political figures which also attracted editors’ attention.
James Longley, who served as Maine’s governor from 1975 to1979 was one of the subjects Danby drew. “Longley had his campaign headquarters in downtown Bangor and he used to come into my uncle’s restaurant — Brountas’ — to eat. Longley liked cartoons, he liked everyone’s cartoons.” Including the caricatures Danby drew of him.
With his foot in the cartooning door, so to speak, Danby began, still a teenager, freelancing as a cartoonist. Soon, he was freelancing full time.
When he began his career in cartooning, it was all about ink pots and pens with metal nibs. These days, he draws with precision fine line marking pens.
“By the time Nixon was in office, political cartooning was huge in this country. I started to pay more attention to political cartoons, magazine cartoons, the history of cartooning and caricatures. I studied the different styles. I loved it all,” Danby said.
His freelancing career took him to New York City in 1978, then to The New Haven Register as that newspaper’s first full time staff cartoonist in 1979. From there he went to the Providence Journal-Bulletin in 1984. By the late 1980s he had received and accepted an offer of employment from the Bangor Daily News.
As a cartoonist, Danby says he likes the concept of telling a story in a cartoon, delineating in a series of lines and placement of shadings representations of his observations on life. “I enjoy pursuing ideas, drawing cartoons that are very visual, not a lot of dialogue, something that stands on its own. I love the media, I still enjoy meeting the deadline every day. Being at the BDN is great. It’s the best spot in the country.”
Danby estimates that in the last 40 years he has drawn at least 25,000 cartoons and caricatures of famous faces in the news.
As a syndicated cartoonist, his work has appeared in many publications, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Time, Newsweek, National Review, Fortune and Down East.
Danby said the process of putting together “The Essential Danby” has made him think about other books he would like to do. He wants his next book to be a collection of caricatures he has drawn over the years, and he’d like to write and illustrate a children’s book.
“It’s a lot more than just drawing — it’s a lot more difficult than it appears, You have to love the craft,” Danby said of the work he does for the NEWS.”It’s the perfect fit for me.”