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Eric
Devericks: The Man You Love to Hate
by Georgia Ball
March 1, 2005
The Cartoonists
Northwest meeting on Friday, February
18 featured Seattle
Times editorial cartoonist Eric
Devericks. Eric's is a success
story based on hard work and determination,
and members listened with interest
as he
detailed his rise to prominence at
such a young age.
Eric
acquired an interest in cartoons while
pursuing a medical career at Oregon
State. After publishing a series
of humor strips in the school paper,
he tried his hand at editorial cartooning
and fell in love with receiving hate
mail. He made it his goal to become
a paid, professional cartoonist, and
put all of his focus into winning
journalism awards that would impress
potential publishers. Eric won several
contests including three national
journalism awards; he quit school
and became a freelance cartoonist.
He developed a relationship with the
editors of the Spokane Review
at a cartoonists convention who showed
some interest in hiring him, but September
11 interrupted the process and made
it impossible for the Review to hire.
But the Spokane editor was so impressed
by Devericks he shopped his name around
various newspapers. Eric received
a call from the Seattle Times,
and since then has been their hard-working
staff editorial cartoonist.
Eric starts his
day at the Times
by attending an editorial staff meeting,
in which writers and editors debate
the issues that will become the editorial
page. He listens to their ideas, but
prefers not to match the content of
his cartoon with the themes of the
articles it will be published with.
He gets his ideas for cartoons by
reading incessantly, watching television
news broadcasts, and listening to
talk radio. After making several smaller
sketches he creates a more elaborate
sketch and then passes it to his boss
for a critique. Once he has sign-off
he begins the final cartoon within
a couple of hours to make the five
o'clock deadline.
He begins with
a detailed pencil sketch, then goes
over the cartoon with brush pens and
micron pens. He uses gray markers
for his shaded areas, but elaborate
strokes are not always necessary;
Eric prefers to focus on the characters
rather than needlessly fill space.
He works larger than the cartoon will
be printed and so scans his final
work into Photoshop in two pieces.
He enjoys experimenting with different
pens and other materials, and believes
that every new technique mastered
is another tool for his arsenol. His
caricatures emphasize the essence
of the person. a gaping mouth for
Howard Dean, enormous ears for President
Bush. Consistently Eric works to be
unique in style and approach.
For aspiring
editorial cartoonists, Eric Devericks
cautions that you need a thick skin.
Eric can receive thousands of angry
emails over the course of the year,
but it's his goal to make  readers
think, and his favorite cartoons are
the ones that invoke the most outrage.
Editorial cartooning is about inspiring
people to share their opinions, and
fortunately, Eric thrives on emotional
responses. He acknowledges that when
he was considering this career path
in college, established cartoonists
warned him not to do it. True, it
can be difficult at times; sometimes
there is pressure not to print local
storylines for political reasons,
and cartooning on a national theme
runs the risk of having your cartoon
supplanted by a nationally syndicated
artist. But Eric loves his job, and
his determination rewarded him. He's
now a familiar name to Seattle
Times readers, who alternately
believe he is slanted left and right.
contact: Georgia
Ball
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