True Colors Shine Through in the Cartoon Issue

Seven Days prides itself on being a writers’ newspaper. That is, a publication that devotes as much energy and resources into the craft of writing as it does into sourcing, reporting and all other aspects of news gathering. How we tell stories is of critical importance. This makes the Cartoon Issue — our 11th annual —something of an oddity, because we ask our writers to do a curious thing: Get out of the way.

In a typical feature story, images (photos, usually) augment the writing. But in the visual medium of cartooning, it’s the other way around. Words are used only in service to the artwork and, ideally, sparingly so. That’s a challenging exercise for reporters used to telling stories in thousands of words. Here, they get a couple hundred, if that.

But the graphic format has distinct advantages. Instead of describing how glassblowing artists bring kids’ visions of fantastical creatures to life, we can show you, as Jennifer Sutton and artist Ezra Veitch do in a cartoon about the “Glasstastic” exhibit in Brattleboro.

Or, with science and sight gags, we can unfurl the real-life mystery of how a rare Bahamian rodent ended up in a taxidermy exhibit at the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium in St. Johnsbury, as artist Kristen Shull does in her illustration of Carolyn Shapiro’s story.

Steve Goldstein’s comic about cyclist-inventor Steve Norman and his latest biking innovation benefits from the technical visual style of neuroscience illustrator Annabel Driussi. Meanwhile, the lawn-mowing sheep that Ken Picard visited at Bridport’s Long Cloud Farm are rendered in exquisitely cute detail by animal lover Julianna Brazill.

Music editor Chris Farnsworth and artist Ellie Liota are both fans of the mystical American composer Moondog. That shared affinity is evident in their cartoon collaboration about a Burlington musician keeping Moondog’s music alive. Artist and writer Frances Cannon collaborated with, well, herself on a visual book review of I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai.

Food writer Melissa Pasanen and artist Emily Rhain Andrews round up the new crop of food carts on the Church Street Marketplace in Burlington this summer. And on the cover, Violet Kitchen previews all the cartoon stories appearing in this issue, proving once and for all that a picture really is worth (at least) a thousand words.

Related Stories

Glass Menagerie: Curious Creatures Come to Life in a Brattleboro Exhibit

What if you could draw an imaginary creature and see it come to life? That’s what happens in “Glasstastic,” a biannual exhibition at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. Launched in 2011, it’s a collaboration between professional glass artists in southern Vermont and elementary school students across the state.

Love Triangles: Cyclist Steve Norman Reinvents the Two-Wheeler

Growing up in Rockland County, N.Y., Steve Norman was fascinated by triangles. At age 6, Norman learned to ride a bike on an EastRiver pier in Manhattan. Melding those two interests in 7th grade, Norman sketched a revolutionary bike design and showed it to his geometry teacher.

Mammalian Mystery: A Middlebury Professor Follows the Trail of a Bahamian Rodent

Shortly after Alexis Mychajliw arrived at Middlebury College in 2021 to teach biology and environmental studies, she went to check out the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium’s natural history collection in St. Johnsbury. Franklin Fairbanks founded the museum in 1889 when he transferred his vast “cabinet of curiosities” into naturalistic displays of animals, plants and birds from all over the world.

Deep Graze: Bridport Sheep Farmers Use Low-Impact Farming to Fight Climate Change

After 20 years of traveling the world managing ranches and farms, Suzanna and Stephen Goldblatt Clark planned to move to New Zealand. But when the pandemic hit, they instead bought an old dairy farm in Bridport to raise sheep and moved their family there in May 2020.

The Viking of Church Street: Julian Calv Keeps the Music of Fabled American Composer Moondog Alive

Once upon a time, in New York City, a blind composer named Moondog held court. Everyone from Charlie Parker to Frank Zappa to Phillip Glass knew about Moondog. A street musician by trade, he often wrote his music in 5/4 and he filled his work with the sounds of cities and people and life.

Visual Book Review: ‘I Have Some Questions for You,’ Rebecca Makkai

This novel follows Bodie Kane, a film professor and podcaster, back to her alma mater, a boarding high school called Granby in rural New Hampshire, where she has agreed to teach two courses during a short winter term.When Bodie was a senior at the Granby School, her former dorm roommate, Thalia Keith, was mysteriously murdered.

Street Eats: What’s New With Church Street’s Food Carts

Every summer, like birds flying north, the flock of food carts settles back on Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace. Along with familiar fixtures, such as kettle corn, crêpes, poutine, sliders, cheesesteaks, Turkish gyros and fresh-squeezed lemonade, each year brings new flavors to the party.

This article appears in The Cartoon Issue 2023.

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