issue feature


For the past 12 years you’ve seen Scott Stantis’ cartoons in The Birmingham News and wondered about the guy behind the marker. Recently, I got to meet the illustrious character himself.

By Mary Ellen Stancill Illustrations by Scott Stantis

On a recent Tuesday morning, I sat in the lobby of The Birmingham News and waited for Scott Stantis to arrive. Around 11:15 a.m. a somewhat disheveled 40- something-yearold man with flopping brown hair came rushing up the walk and spun through the revolving door as a security guard walked over and whispered to me, “That’s Mr. Stantis.”

Within moments Stantis had whirled me into his world, showing me the way his motorized drawing board moves up and down, introducing me to his compadres on the editorial board and getting my thoughts on doing a cartoon based on the images taped to his cube wall.

As we drank coffee and talked, Stantis discussed everything from what he loves most in the world (his wife of 27 years, two sons and cartooning) to his prediction for Alabama’s next governor, the possibility of a run for public office (probably not), his interest in the Congo, the importance of properly edging your yard and whether or not he should get a haircut. As he answered questions about himself and his work, Stantis also asked questions of me: Who was I named after? Why do I think Obama won? How do I get my hair to poof? Lively and often scattered, yet thoughtful and passionate in speaking about his life and career, I realized Stantis was also trying to put together a picture of me—whether consciously or not I couldn’t tell. Then, about halfway through our conversation, he grabbed a napkin, borrowed my pen and proceeded to cartoon me. “Cartoons are cartoons,” he later said. “Writers write. Painters paint.

Sculptors sculpt, poets write poetry. It’s something you do. It’s something you have to do. And while cartooning might not at first blush appear to belong in those categories, it does. It absolutely does.”

Stantis, the youngest of four boys, grew up in California and Wisconsin. He attended community college in Los Angeles and planned to be a lawyer or go into politics, with aspirations to become a “Karl Rove type guy.” But, as he explains, “The cartoonist on the college paper was terrible.

And, I thought, I always liked to draw, and I like politics so I walked in and said I’d like to try this. And the next week when [my cartoon] ran it was like an epiphany. It really and truly was. I know that sounds insane, but I thought this is it. This is my life.” At 19 years old Stantis had found his career as well as his future wife, Janien Fadich-Stantis, who was the editor of the college paper.

From the college paper, Stantis began freelancing, getting paid $10 per cartoon for work in local newspapers and other publications. He continued to freelance until he landed his first full-time cartooning job when he was 22. Since then, Stantis has moved around the country working for The Orange County Register, the (Memphis) Commercial Appeal, The Arizona Republic, The Grand Rapids Press and, for the past 12 years, The Birmingham News. He’s also penned three comic strips: Sydney City that lasted about a year, The Buckets which he did for 10 years and then sold to his assistant and Prickly City, a current project that appears in nearly 100 papers nationwide.

He writes five editorial cartoons each week for The Birmingham News and one weekly editorial cartoon for USA Today which is syndicated to about 400 newspapers.

Today there are only 63 editorial cartoonists working full-time for newspapers in the entire United States.

Stantis considers himself a member of the peculiar and slim minority of only five to 10 politically conservative cartoonists, but adds, “I’m much more libertarian.”

According to Stantis, there are fewer cartoonists than professional basketball players.

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January Birmingham, Alabama

  

 
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