Bagley guest cartoonist: David Fitzsimmons

Cartoonist's Note: While I take time away from my drawing board to organize the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention, I am featuring the work of some attendees. Arizona Daily Star's David Fitzsimmons is a liberal cartoonist in a deeply red state with a nutty right-wing legislature. I don't see how he does it.

Another weird thing is that we found out just a few years ago that we both used the same brand of Eberhard Faber Fine Point Felt Tip Pen. Maybe it was the Che Guevara endorsement on each box of twelve that spoke to us ("I usually make my points with bullets, but if I didn't, I'd use the Eberhard Faber Felt Tip Pen!"). There was really nothing special about the pens. They were cheap, only about a buck each, and were exhausted after only four or five cartoons. But as Fitzsimmons so succinctly put it, there was something about their "nubbishness" that we couldn't find in anything else.

Then, with no warning, they stopped making them. Disaster!

I bought up what I could find on the internet, and stuck them in the freezer mummified in plastic wrap. Over the past three years my supply has dwindled until I'm down to my last box.

Fitzsimmons has moved on to another brand of felt tip pen, but still occasionally mourns the loss of the black EF no.38011. Meanwhile, I'm experimenting with pencils and kind of liking it.

—Pat Bagley