Palmer, Ariail tell jokes, sing songs, present careers’ work at lecture
Professors, alumni and friends of USC gathered in Ernest F. Hollings Library Wednesday night to explore the world of political cartoons and learn about the trade from former cartoonists and USC alumni Kate Salley Palmer and Robert Ariail.
The exhibit, “Wreaking Havoc: The Art of the Political Cartooning,” featured the works by Palmer, Ariail and Walt Lardner, an illustrator who worked with The State newspaper for two decades. From its advent, political cartooning was designed to agitate people with power, Ariail said.
Both Palmer and Ariail said they have had their fair share of angry politicians’ wives and letters to the editor after cartoons was published. A self-professed master of words, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies Dean Charles Bierbauer praised political cartoonists for using pictures and illustrations to challenge, document or inspire change.
“You have to know what’s going on and what you think about it and why you think what you think,” Palmer said. Only then, she said, cartoons can be presented with conviction.
Palmer took the center stage at the panel, displaying her best work and inciting laughter, nods of agreement and astonished faces from the crowd.
Palmer’s work addressed issues across the board, including the Equal Rights Amendment, Clemson football, Vietnam veterans and President Ronald Reagan’s campaign and administration. Palmer often communicated her own political views in her work, which sometimes evoked strong responses, just as they did Wednesday. Palmer also sang song parodies to the audience, drawing both laughter and applause.
Even Palmer admitted some of her work was “tasteless,” including a cartoon of President Bill Clinton on skis, but she made no apologies.
Robert Ariail was the second-ever political cartoonist at The State, starting in 1984 to address and illustrate a range of issues of state or national concern. Ariail employed the Peanuts characters and South Carolina’s state symbols to depict controversies including the Ku Klux Klan, the Affordable Care Act and the USC-Clemson rivalry. Ariail also used his talents to raise money for relief efforts after Hurricane Hugo, which caused $5.9 billion in damages in South Carolina.
Palmer attended USC and studied elementary education. She drew political cartoons for The Gamecock as a student. Later, she moved to Clemson and was a syndicate for 200 newspapers, including The Greenville News. She was the first full-time editorial cartoonist in South Carolina and the second woman ever to join The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. She now writes and illustrates children’s books for her own publishing company, Warbranch Press.
Robert Ariail is well-known for his work at The State and The Spartanburg Herald-Journal, as well as his features in over 600 newspapers, which have been acclaimed on both local and national levels. He received USC’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1985.
While Palmer says you can never stop being a political cartoonist, national tragedy has put her in a creative rut.
“I stopped getting ideas after Sandy Hook,” Palmer said. “Until something funny happens again, it’s going to be hard.”
However, it does not take much for an idea to take hold, Palmer said. Ariail agreed.
“[Illustration] is a very unknown process. I think creativity is that way in all of its forms,” Ariail said.
In its third year of operation, over the years the Hollings Library and its S.C. Political Collections have garnered around 1,000 political cartoons from cartoonists working around the state of South Carolina.