Portland Press Herald Profile: Mort Todd

Above: one of Mort Todd's controversial local TV commercials for NOSH Kitchen Bar.

The Portland Press Herald interviews cartoonist Mort Todd, who, after living in NYC for many years, has returned to his native Maine. What is Mort doing there? Everything. He's doing murals, his own local comics publication, local TV commercials -- the man is a one man media producing machine.

"A lot of people when they first meet me ask, 'What do you do?' and my response is kind of, 'Geesh, depends on the time of day'," Todd said.

He's not afraid of controversy.

While most local TV commercials are either easy to ignore or very direct ("The Furniture Superstore! The Furniture Superstore!"), the Nosh commercial stirred up plenty of online controversy. Vegans and vegetarians claimed it was offensive. Others said it was simply obnoxious.

Mort is also producing a comics-centric mag titled VEX, which has already stirred up anger.

In August, he wrote an editorial criticizing people who oppose the Eastland Park Hotel's proposal to build a ballroom on what is now a public space, Congress Square Plaza. The editorial, in turn, prompted someone to vandalize Vex with stickers and inserts -- which prompted Todd to devote an entire issue to the controversy.

 "Comics Man Reveals His Edge" by Ray Routhier is here.

Or maybe is should be "revels his edge!"