Local cartoonist/caricaturist/graphic artist Ron Hill’s character BB Bluesbird began nearly a decade ago as a collaboration between himself and noted area graphic artist Gary Dumm, based on a character Hill came up with, of an avian blues guitarist. The two traded ideas, produced a couple of years’ worth of weekly color web comics about his adventures and misadventures — and then, as Gary puts it “Life got in the way of this labor of love.”
Hill, who has been contributing cartoon commentary to suburban papers, including West Life, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times and Geauga Times Courier, for more than 20 years, revived the character to tie together his reflections on the events of the past year, especially the chaotic presidency and the COVID-19 pandemic — LOTS of COVID — along with takes on local issues or events, such as the legendary Chagrin Falls Pumpkin Roll.
He’s now collected his cartoons in a single volume called BB Bluesbird & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year, subtitled “Every single editorial cartoon by Ron Hall published in 2020.” It also includes some unpublished cartoons.
“Suddenly, BB was figuring out this new normal like the rest of us, amidst social unrest, the climate conundrum, and the most important presidential election of anybody’s lifetime,” says the promotion for the book. “The lessons we all learned (or didn’t learn) are suddenly as dire as life and death.”
Hill points out how challenging his job has been this year. One shows vice president Mike Pence wishing the president “thoughts and prayers” when he was diagnosed with COVID-19. “I was worried about this one,” he writes. “I have a 3-day before publication date deadline for West Life, and the president could have been seriously ill or dead by then, so I didn’t want to give the appearance of callousness.”
Some readers complained about a left-leaning slant in his work, something bound to happen in a year when staying safe and healthy took on a political aspect.
“One reader left the editor a voice mail decrying the fact that West Life was the last newspaper she subscribed to (she had already cancelled all the other left-leaning papers available). She pleaded: why couldn’t they replace me once in a while with a cartoonist who would bash the left? My publisher said “It’s hard to fault the Democrats when there are none in power.”
Order the book here.
