Spotsy School Board

I am now drawing cartoons for the FXBG Advance. It’s a local online publication that’s still in the beginning stage that I believe will be a great publication.

The founder is Martin Davis who was the editorial page editor of The Free Lance-Star until he met the same fate I did, getting laid off. We worked for that newspaper at different times, so we never got to work together.

Since I left The Free Lance-Star in 2012, I haven’t drawn a lot of cartoons on local issues. I’ve done a few here and there for publications across the country that would commission me to draw one, but it was very infrequent. There was never any consistency to it except for a short while for a small weekly in St. George, Utah, who commissioned me to draw local cartoons for a while then decided overnight with a new editor that I suck.

But I haven’t drawn any local cartoons for a few years and I kind of felt that was a shame because I’m pretty good with local issues. My career started on local issues in Mississippi. I started at The Panolian in Batesville where I would often draw about county supervisors and volunteer fire departments. I created a syndicate in Mississippi that catered to state issues. When the Honolulu Star-Bulletin hired me, it was because they could understand my cartoons on Mississippi issues, subjects they knew nothing about. So, they had me draw a local cartoon that was published on the front page of the newspaper in full color six days a week.

After I left Hawaii, The Free Lance-Star interviewed me based on my ability to draw local cartoons. However, after a year of drawing six local cartoons a week in Hawaii and seven years in Mississippi doing statewide issues five days a week, the publisher said he wasn’t sure I had the experience to be able to produce a daily cartoon. I bit my tongue and was hired anyway but I should have seen that was going to be a place that didn’t have a lot of respect for cartoonists. It wasn’t.

But, I did a lot of strong local cartoons in Fredericksburg. After I left the paper, I won first place in the National Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest for a cartoon I drew for the Highland Current in New York on a local issue. So, yeah…I felt it was a bit of a waste that I wasn’t drawing on local issues for any publication.

Now, not only do I get to draw on local issues again but I get to do it where I actually live. This is stuff that can actually affect me. While I don’t have a child in Spotsylvania schools, I do feel it will be nicer to live in a community without people who were educated to be goose-stepping troglodytes.

Not only will I be drawing cartoons on local issues where I live, but for a publication I trust. Martin didn’t edit anything in this cartoon. It’ll be fun to draw on the Fredericksburg region again but without as many restrictions and roadblocks as last time.

We’re not sure how often I’ll draw a cartoon for the FXBG Advance but for now, we’re thinking about once a month. With my schedule, that’s enough for now.

Last year, another cartoonist asked me if I’d endorse Martin to be his editor, a guy overseeing his cartoons. I told him I believed he’d be OK with Martin. That didn’t pan out for him but it did for me. Here’s my endorsement: I’m drawing cartoons for Martin.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: If you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw: