I met Helen Thomas last year at a conference called “Women and Power” at Omega Institute.  We were presenters on the same panel about women and the media. She was funny, gracious, kind, opinionated. Among her many bon mots, she said (and I love this) that”If you want to know what’s happening in the world, read the comics.” (paraphrase, but close).

My feeling is that as we get older, we women learn to lose our inhibitions in many ways. Helen Thomas represents that clearly. We realize that being careful is not all that it is cracked up to, that being nice at the exclusion of ourselves should not always be the most important quality to have. Her comments on Israel and the Jews, however, went too far in my estimation. She is, of course, allowed her own opinion, but even she realized after the fact that what she said was not right. Her emotions got the better of her–I am not sure if it was because of her age. Maybe after years of being asked questions, she let her inner editor fall away when she shouldn’t have.

I am sorry she will end her career on this note…if in fact her career is ended. Maybe she should do stand-up. Sarah Silverman has shown that raw comments get a laugh from many. In my cartoons, I try to be uninhibited but thoughtful, not hurtful, and not provocative as in pushing people’s buttons. I want to be like Helen Thomas, but not as she was last week.

The cartoon below was done last week (June 10, 2010) and has run in numerous online sites, starting with womensenews.org, then dscriber.com and now salon.com It’s getting a lot of comments, mostly in the form of dialogue between the commenters on their own opinions. As long as the comments don’t get nasty, dialogue is what we need.

Amanda Stern’s Happy Endings Music and Reading Series is an institution in New York. She has received numerous positive reviews and awards for her funny, entertaining monthly event. She brings together three authors and a musical group each month to Joe’s Pub, and it is a wonderful evening. I met Amanda last year, and we talked about doing a New Yorker cartoonist evening, and it’s finally coming to fruition this month. I helped her find three cartoonists, and she found a musical guest.  It should be a wild evening. The unexpected thing is that each author has to do a “risk” of some sort. Stay tuned: I will hopefully post a video of what happens.

Cartoonists: Drew Dernavich, Carolita Johnson, myself

Musical guest: Jeffrey Lewis

link:  http://www.joespub.com/component/option,com_shows/task,view/Itemid,40/id,5165

I was interviewed by a friend who blogs for Planet Green. Very nice interview!  Thanks, Ronnie!

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/interview-cartoonist-liza-donnelly.html

Here is a blog post I wrote about my trip to France for the cartoon festival, RIDEP. The New Yorker’s cartoonbank.com, which is the site that promotes and sells all things cartoon, kindly posted this entry. Hope to do more in the future.

http://blog.cartoonbank.com/2010/02/17/cartoonist-in-france/

Our New Yorker colleague, cartoonist Matt Diffee, hosts a regular music/comedy evening in New York City. It’s called The Steam Powered Hour, and features contemporary bluegrass music and comedy and cartoons. This Valentines Day, he invited my husband Michael and I to “perform”, whatever that means!  Come join us!  Featuring music by Reckon So and The Sassy Jenkins, and Colbert writer, Frank Lesser.

For more info:

http://www.villagevoice.com/events/steam-powered-hour-matinee-valentines-day-edition-hosted-by-matthew-diffee-1643159/

Tomorrow, I was invited to travel  to another French cartoon festival, this time in Carquefou.  They are honoring women cartoonists this year, and I look forward to meeting cartoonists from around the world who are women. Much of the work is political, and while I work for The New Yorker, my work is often political–either socially or culturally.  I hope to blog for The New Yorker about the events. I will also write about it for Women’s Enews and blog for the Cartoonbank.com

The 11th Rencontres Internationales du Dessins de Presse (RIDEP)

Facebook page

website

New Yorker Holiday after-party dinner at Cafe Un Deux Trois in Manhattan. Photos by Felipe Galindo (Feggo)

Left to right: Jack Ziegler, Liza Donnelly, Roz Chast, PC Vey, David Sipress, Paul Noth, Ward Sutton, Emily Flake, Carolita Johnson, Michael Crawford, Drew Dernavich, Joe Dator, Sam Gross, Bob Eckstein, John O’Brien, Bob Mankoff, Felipe Galindo, Michael Maslin

A closer shot, left to right: John O’Brien, Bob Mankoff, Felipe Galindo, Michael Maslin, Jack Ziegler, Liza Donnelly, Roz Chast, PC Vey

Carolita Johnson, Emily Flake, Andy Friedman

Perhaps like many New Yorker cartoonists, I always wanted to see my drawings animated. A few weeks ago, through the group PinkSlip Animation (of which I am a member), one of my drawings has come to  life!  Mike Milo, a very talented and experienced animator, said he would animate my sequential drawing. I did the drawing for Revolvingfloor.com, and now it is live! Note that the sound plays automatically, something that is going to be fixed soon.

It’s titled: The Sock

The new blog, No Country for Young Women, transcribed my speech at Omega Institute and features it on their home page today. The creator of the blog is the wonderful filmaker Elena Rossini. You can find her work on The Illusionists website and her website.

Here is the link to the transcipt, and a few of my cartoons. I will post the video of the speech soon.