Vermont's Cartoonist Laureate to the Rescue

By Ed Koren and Ethan de Seife @ethandeseife

Readers of the New Yorker can recognize Edward Koren's work at a glance: His frizzy, big-nosed characters have, over five decades and more than 1,000 drawings, become icons of the magazine's commitment to cartooning. Residents of Vermont know — or should know — that Koren is only the second person to hold the title of State Cartoonist Laureate. (The work of the first Vermont cartoonist laureate, James Kochalka, is also featured in this issue; see page 24.)

But few beyond Koren's neighbors know that, for the past 26 years, he has been a volunteer with the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Department. Koren calls his other, less public job a "tonic," in that it allows him to connect with his community — and to occasionally escape from the demands of his drawing board. Even when he's inking, he wears his emergency pager.

Koren is a modest fellow, reluctant to write or draw about his own life. But he kindly agreed to Seven Days' request to write and illustrate a firehouse anecdote that humorously shows how he finds the balance between his two unusual careers.

The original print version of this article was headlined "Local Hero"

        
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Tags: Comics, State Cartoonist Laureate

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About The Authors

Ethan de Seife

@ethandeseife

ethandeseife.wordpress.com/

Bio:
Ethan de Seife was an arts writer at Seven Days from 2013 to 2016. He is the author of Tashlinesque: The Hollywood Comedies of Frank Tashlin, published in 2012 by Wesleyan University Press.

Ed Koren

Bio:
Edward Koren, the current cartoonist laureate of Vermont, is well known for his more than 1,000 cartoons for the New Yorker, and has contributed to many other books and periodicals. His work has been exhibited in shows all over the world, including a retrospective at the University of Vermont in 2011. He has been... more