===== Comments by cbailey@angnewspapers.com (Chauncey Bailey) at 6/09/04 3:08 pmI can do a feature on (Darrin) for the regional black press. tell me (50 words or less per question)1. His background.Darrin: My father’s black, and my mother is Jewish (white). I was born in South Central L.A. and raised in East L.A. and the San Fernando Valley. I was bused 40 miles per day to magnet schools. I graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a BA in Political Science in 1999, and chose to stay in Oakland.2. How he got started?Darrin:I edited my high school paper and continued pursuing journalism in college. I drew editorial cartoons and comic strips for the Daily Cal, and when I felt I was good enough I started faxing them every day to the LA Times, Oakland Trib and SF Chronicle. They all eventually started running them.3. Why?Darrin:I want to show a more developed view of Blacks and Latinos than I’ve seen in the comics pages. They’re either angry about injustice 24-7 or they’re the Cosby’s. Reality is a mix of all that. I want to show minorities with a wide range of thoughts and goals.4. Successes?Darrin:To my knowledge I’m the first and only Black cartoonist to have two comic strips in syndication, and the youngest (of any race) to do so. At 20 (in 1995), I was the youngest editorial cartoonist to be published regularly inthe LA times. My work’s been on CNN, and other television news broadcasts. I won several awards in college.5. Setbacks?Darrin:My first comic strip, “Rudy Park,” focused on the dotcom revolution until that revolution crashed in 2000. Most of the magazines that ran the strip went out of business. Then it was syndicated. Editorial cartooning setbacks came when papers began using more syndicated work and less freelance work. “Candorville” hasn’t had any setbacks – yet.6. Goals?Darrin:To reach as many readers as possible and present them with an image of African-Americans and Latinos that doesn’t gloss over the downsides of life, but that never loses its appreciation for the good in life. I want to show you don’t have to be angry to be passionate. You don’t have to be disrespectful to get respect.7. Tips for young Black artistsDarrin:Practice. Have something IMPORTANT to say and figure out how best to say it, whether it’s visual or performing arts. But don’t wait for someone to discover you. You’ve got to take initiative. Enter contests. Even if you don’t win, you’re getting your name out there. Submit your work in a professional manner to as many people as you can. Network – meet people in the industry you want to be part of, and do not be afraid to ask them for advice. Usually, they’ll be glad to help you.
What I want to know is, what was Chauncey working on, what had he already written, or what else was he involved in, that may have gotten him assassinated? But this is Oakland. Who knows if the investigation will go farther than a fruitless sweep of the East side and a shrug of the shoulders.
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Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet
Eating her words and whey?
No way!
;-)
Thankz, Lucy! Eye've chaynged "lay" to "lie," butt eye ree-fyooz to chaynge "way" to "whey." Thatz wear eye put m'eye fut down.
Dear Darrin,
I love, totally love, your comics, and I've tried to get my local paper to run them. So far, no luck.
So I hope you don't mind some constructive criticism. I'm the grammar and spelling police.
It drives me nuts that proof readers in magazines and newspapers all over the country seem to have forgotten the correct use of "lie" and "lay." I see you, my hero, are doing the same thing at the top of your Candorville Courier page:
"Do you lay awake at night wondering how you can support Candorville?" Please! Change it to "Do you LIE awake at night..." If you don't remember it from high school English, you could look it up...
The other thing is: it's "whey," not "way."
OK, thanks, and sorry about being an English teacher-type.
Your cartoons, story lines, and jokes are so superior to anything out there except maybe Doonesbury. You deserve to be as widely syndicated as they are. I hope that in a few years, you will be.
I'm impressed with the OPD's response to this. I'm not taking their claim about the raid already being scheduled at face value; it's possible they moved it up in response to the assassination.
"Your Black Muslim Bakery." I drove by that place every time I returned to Berkeley from San Francisco. I'd curve out of the off ramp at 51st St./MLK, and there it was. Usually the light would be red, and by some cosmic coincidence I was almost always at least five or six cars back from the intersection. While we were stopped, a couple men from the bakery, dressed in crisp, dark suits would walk from car to car selling bean pies from one hand and Final Call newspapers from the other (a good bean pie is just about the tastiest thing I've ever had). A few times, I'd reach into my wallet and find a 5 dollar bill, but they never made it to my car before the light changed and I had to pull out.
This is a horrible understatement, but if it turns out they had something to do with this, I sure am glad I never got to give them my money.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20108044/?GT1=10252
Suspect: "Your Black Muslim Bakery"