The impetus behind the walkout was apparently a refusal by the newspaper's publishers to print the Danish cartoons that caricature Muhammad and have caused protests and riots in several countries. In an e-mail to the New York Observer, editor in chief Harry Siegel explained that "the editorial group -- consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editor Jonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah ... have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running." Siegel went on to say that he had long dreamed of running the Press, thought that the staff had "come quite a ways in only a few months towards restoring the paper's tarnished editorial reputation and credibility," and hoped "that under new ownership and leadership it can again be an invaluable read for all good Gothamites."
James Sturm recently talked to the Village Voice about the Vermont school he co-founded, the Center for Cartoon Studies, which is pursuing accreditation. Before co-founding The Stranger, Sturm worked with the comic magazine RAW.
Jen Sorensen's comic strip, Slowpoke, has moved a bit away from social commentary in the past few years to be more political. Her ideas come from, among other places, progressive blogs. She describes here how she draws her cartoon, what inspires her and the creative process. This is the eighth in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
