Cartoon of the Week: 'We are in a risky business'

The Daily Tribune - January 30, 1986

This cartoon is from my days as the staff editorial cartoonist at The Daily Tribune, in Royal Oak, taken from a page of my 1989 book, "Out of the Inkpot and Into the Fire." The news of the Challenger disaster cast a pall over the Trib newsroom and it took me a couple of days to collect my thoughts and draw a tribute that included some ray of hope. I chose to quote Gus Grissom, one of my childhood heroes and one of the original Mercury astronauts, who died with crewmates Ed White and Roger Chaffee aboard Apollo 1 in January 1967. His words, spoken after he was rescued from his sinking "Liberty Bell 7" Mercury capsule; "... worth the risk ..." seemed appropriate, since they were spoken by someone who would know.

Off the Drawing Board: A footnote to this cartoon - it resulted in a surprising reaction by dozens of Trib readers, who protested with calls and letters to the editor, shaming us for printing a cartoon with a "laughing astronaut" following the Challenger disaster. Negative response was so strong, I felt compelled to write an explanatory column the following week and apologize for the misunderstanding. (My first and only response of that nature in my nearly 40 years of editorial cartooning.)

I hope the meaning is clear to readers with this reprint, 30 years later.
That's the Point!