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reliance on terms like “nazi� and “socialist� to criticize the current administration. As a result, an incensed Bill O’Reilly branded NPR “a left-wing jihadist deal� after calling Fiore’s cartoon “not funny, stupid and unnecessary.� Fiore later wrote that the controversy was “just great,� because it accomplished the sort of discussion he’s after. He also seized the opportunity to speak out about the danger of splitting people into easy bipolar categories. “As a matter of fact,� he wrote, “I myself am a left-leaning, pro-gay-marriage San Franciscan, Catholic, anti-Bush, antiNader guy who guts his own fish, has cut down trees with a chain saw and took political science classes with Mary Cheney. Is your head imploding yet?�

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02.02.11-02.08.11

THE BOHEMIAN

iore’s interest in cartooning began in childhood, with Garfield and Doonesbury. “I was brought into the news through cartoons,� he says. “Not because of some brilliantly written editorial, but because of funny pictures.� His eyes light up when he speaks of the “perfect design� of newspapers and the Sunday-edition cartoons. “Eventually,� Fiore notes, “I was drawn inside to something deeper, to the editorial cartoon.� In ninth grade, an English teacher one day told him, “Do anything you want this period, but you must give me something by the end of it.� Echoing the Cold War climate, an astute Fiore drew a cartoon of a kid sitting under a tree watching a truckload of dissembled nuclear warheads rolling by. His teacher informed him that political cartooning was something people did for a living, and his passion blossomed. When it comes to his skills, then and now, Fiore is modest. “I was not naturally talented,� he admits, “I just liked it.� In the mid-’90s, while working at a copy store to foot the bills, Fiore scanned one of his cartoons in color for the first time. The digitized result amazed him. After an uninspiring turn as a staff cartoonist in “a terribly stifling fluorescent, windowless office,� Fiore fled the print world for good in 2002. He’s never looked back. “Animation gives me the opportunity to tap into people’s emotions, given the range of color, motion, sound and music. It’s like getting to pull back someone’s skull and poke different parts of their brain,� he says, chuckling. By literally putting faces on issues, Fiore infuses the serious with the silly. Fiore’s chirpy talking gun, for example, is featured most recently in “Shooting from the Lip,� a response to the tragedy in Tucson. The gun calls for an “eight-day waiting period for dangerously confrontational political speech� because “guns don’t kill people, words kill people!� Then there’s the hopelessly grumpy conservative Mr. Dan, growling at the innocently practical Dogboy. “Mr. Dan! ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ is going to be repealed,� Dogboy announces—to which Mr. Dan responds, “Good, now we can ask who’s gay and tell

them to leave!� There’s also the playfully sinister Knuckles, a black-hooded oaf who delights in torturing people, and Pokey, a hypodermic needle who’s eager to keep the death penalty alive and well in America.

‘The syndicates have done more to kill cartooning than the internet.’ Fiore’s is essentially a one-man show; he has no research assistant, and only just hired voice actors about a year ago. (He and his wife still lend their vocal cords.) Every week, he combs both print and online news for a worthwhile and often underplayed story that he can turn into a one- to two-minute cartoon. Like all satirists, he must tap into the archetypes that reach the largest number of people. “Advertising serves the role that literature once did,� Fiore says. “There was a time when Americans had books, like the Bible or Huck Finn, to unite them, but these days it seems like advertising is our common language.� A self-syndicated artist, Fiore sells his cartoons to a number of media outlets, including the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com, where they run each Thursday. When it comes to syndicated cartoons, he is frank: “The syndicates have done more to kill cartooning than the internet.� After all, it’s much easier for newspapers to pay less for a sure thing (The Family Circus, anyone?) than to take a chance on something new. He bemoans the syndicates’ use of grandfathered cartoonists who, though great, are squeezing out local, regional cartoonists whose hearts are still beating. For someone who mucks around in the grime of American politics, Fiore is remarkably upbeat. In addition to spending his weekends “unplugged,� he manages to stay positive by focusing on what’s possible. He calls for his viewers to “Turn cartoons into action!� with his site’s “Do Something� link, which lists helpful (and hopeful) sites related to his cartoons, like SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), a comforting salve to Fiore’s hilariously irreverent “Hierarchy Complicitus� about the misdeeds of the Vatican. As for the future? Fiore remains characteristically cynical and optimistic in the same breath. “I hope we screw things up enough,� he says, “that we are forced to innovate solutions in order to save ourselves.� Mark Fiore appears twice on Saturday, Feb. 12, at the Charles Schulz Museum. From 10–11:30am, Fiore leads a master class for adult cartoonists ($32–$40; reservations at 707.284.1263). From 1–3pm, Fiore appears in the museum to draw, meet fans and answer questions ( free with museum admission). 2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa. 707.579.4452.

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