Baltimore Sun Dismisses KAL

 

 

Via DailyCartoonist:

After 31 years (1988-2006, 2012-2025) Kevin (KAL) Kallaugher has been let go by The Baltimore Sun.

From KAL:

I am disappointed to announce that after 31 years of award-winning cartoons in The Baltimore Sun, I was abruptly dismissed from the paper on Friday.

It was just a matter of time.

In February of 2024, David Smith, the conservative owner of the Sinclair Broadcasting group purchased the struggling paper. As my politics do not align with the new owners, I assumed my days were numbered.

Especially as, in years prior, I had drawn some blistering cartoons in The Sun about Sinclair Broadcasting and its owner…

_{Kevin KAL Kallaugher}

Read KAL’s full report and relevant cartoons at his KAL Draws the Line Substack.

_{KAL’s last ed-op cartoon for The Baltimore Sun for June 21, 2025 (dated June 22, 2025 here})

July 2, 2025 Update:

Baltimore Brew headline about KAL’s dismmissal

The Baltimore Brew carries the story and talks to KAL about being released:

Kallaugher, whose biting cartoons have been skewering Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, among other targets over a decades-long career, figures the real reason for his dismissal is his politics.

Kallaugher described a meeting he was asked to attend last December at Sinclair headquarters in Hunt Valley at which Smith discussed his plan to hire a local-topics-only cartoonist.

“He says, ‘The problem is the paper’s got this ultra-liberal cartoonist,’ and then I realized, he didn’t know he was talking to me,” Kallaugher recalled, chuckling.

Kallaugher declined to restrict his weekly cartoon to local matters (“We’re living in the most pivotal time in American history in a century. I’m not gonna sit that out”) and figured, since then, that his days were numbered.

Responding after publication, Sun publisher and editor-in-chief Trif Alatzas sent the following statement:

“We appreciate KAL’s work on The Sun’s pages during these many years. At this time we have decided to allocate our freelance budget to other areas. We will continue to highlight national and international topics through the work of syndicated editorial cartoonists.”

When The Sun shone on and welcomed KAL in 1988

KAL’s first editorial cartoon for The Baltimore Sun – December 4, 1988

The Baltimore Sun welcomes KAL – December 4, 1988

KAL as cover feature for Sun Magazine – December 4, 1988

Sun Magazine feature stories about KAL and Sun’s history of editorial cartoonists – December 4, 1988

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Summer Gag Cartoons 1949 - 1954

Dick Buchanan has very kindly delved into his trove of vintage gag cartoons to come up with a rare color selection on the theme of summer. Thank you very much for these long-unseen single panel gems, Dick!

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SUMMER CARTOONS



In GLORIOUS COLOR



1949 - 1954



Summer is here! It’s time for going to the beach, amusement parks, boating, swimming, gardening and baseball.  And it’s hot.  Since it’s never too hot to laugh we have reached into the Cartoon Clip File and hauled out some summer cartoons for the amusement of one and all. These cartoons are in full color—clipped mostly from the pages of Collier’s. Here are examples of some nifty summer themed drawings by some of the leading mid-century cartoonists . . .





1.  VIRGIL PARTCH.  Collier’s July 1, 1950

2.  DON TOBIN. Collier’s July 9, 1949.

3.  DICK CAVALLI.  Collier’s August 20, 1954.

4.  GLENN BERNHARDT. Collier’s July 1, 1950.

5.  TED KEY. The Saturday Evening Post July 30, 1949.

6.  KATE OSANN. Collier’s July 9, 1949.

7.  BARNEY TOBEY. Collier’s August 12, 1950.

8.  GUSTAV LUNDBERG. Collier’s July 2, 1949.

9.  KIRK STILES. Collier’s July 18, 1953.

10.  FRITZ WILKINSON.  Collier’s September 10, 1949.

11.  KATE OSANN. Collier’s July 2, 1949.

12.  BARNEY TOBEY. Collier’s August 19, 1950

13.  MARY GIBSON. Collier’s July 21, 1951.

14.  TED KEY. The Saturday Evening Post July 19, 1950.

15. HANK KETCHAM. Collier’s July 1, 1950.  

 

-- Edited from a June 27, 2018 blog entry.

 

 

 

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Summer Fun Gag Cartoons 1939 - 1964

Dick Buchanan shares some summer-themed magazine cartoons from the golden age of gag cartooning, so we are guaranteed some laughs thanks to his clip file. Thanks very much, Dick, and take it away ...

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SUMMER FUN
  (1939 – 1964)
 

Another summer is here, prompting your friendly crackpot cartoon clipper to sift through the files to find gag cartoons dealing with summer activities. The result is a selection of gag cartoons in color and glorious black and white which show how some cartoonists portrayed summer back in the days “when the livin’ was easy.” Of course, in reality, while everyone else went to the beach or the ball park, the gag cartoonist spent the summer indoors, chained to the drawing board churning out roughs about autumn and football.

1.  HARRY MACE.  Collier’s  August 5, 1955.

 

2.  STAN FINE.  American Legion Magazine  June, 1954,

 

3.  SALO ROTH.  The Saturday Evening Post  July 17, 1948.

 

4.  DAVID HUFFINE.  Collier’s  June 10, 1939.

 

5.  DON TOBIN.  The Saturday Evening Post  July 8, 1950.

 

6.  ROY FOX.  The Saturday Evening Post  May 21, 1949.

 

7.  BOB BARNES.  Collier’s  July 4, 953.

 

8.  JOHN ALBANO.  The Saturday Evening Post  March 6, 1951.

 

9.  BORIS DRUCKER.  The Saturday Evening Post  July 31, 1948.

 

10.  ORLANDO BUSINO.  Argosy  October, 1964.

 

11.  BILL HARRISON.  Collier’s  October 10, 1953.

 

12.  DAVE GERARD.  The Saturday Evening Post  July 17, 1948.

 

13.  VIRGIL PARTCH.  Collier’s  July 28, 1950.

 

14.  ROWLAND WILSON.  American Legion Magazine  September, 1953.

 

15.  MARTIN GIUFFRE.  Collier’s  June 13, 1953.

 

16.  JOHN GALLAGHER.  American Legion Magazine  July, 1963.

 

17.  WILLIAM von RIEGEN.  Collier’s  July 11, 1953.

 

18.  WALT WETTERBERG.  The Saturday Evening Post  June 15, 1957.

 

19.  BERT GOSHELL.  Liberty Magazine  July 21, 1945.

 

20.  JERRY MARCUS.  The Saturday Evening Post  June 1, 1957.  

 

-- This has been an edited version of a blog entry of May 27, 2021.

Art by Charles Geer: THAT SUMMER WITH LEXY!

 

Here is another book with illustrations by Charles Geer (1922-2008). (Last time I showed you some of his work from the children's book THE MYSTERY AT REDTOP HILL.)

THAT SUMMER WITH LEXY by Audrey McKim was published in 1964 by Abingdon Press. It's copyright that year by the author. The dust jacket and cloth book cover utilize an exclamation point at the end of the title, but the interior title page drops it. 

Plot: Lexy O'Connor and her friend Patty are starting an unexciting summer vacation at home in Edmonton, Alberta, when they

"… decide to earn money for allowances during the school year. A White Elephant Sale ends in near disaster when a neighbor's wedding ring is sold; their house-to-house photography business almost collapses when two picture become police evidence. A lot happens, but it's all told in uninspired prose. The laugh possibilities in this string of misfortunes may hold the youngest members of the age group." -- Kirkus

Here are some of the drawings from the book, all drawn in that loose but confident style of Mr. Geer's which I admire. Mr. Geer was born in Long Island, served in the navy in World War II, and then studied at Pratt. He settled in Rockland, Maine. You can see his love of trees, rocks and water in these drawings.

-- This has been an edited version of an April 20, 2015 blog entry.