I think this is pretty opaque, although the artwork is great.

So after staring at it for a little while, I was able to describe it as “Newspapers are zombies that are eating their own brains.”

Ok, so far so good. Newspapers being zombies makes some sense, since they are pretty much walking dead. But why is he eating his own brain?

There I’m pretty much at a loss. Are they destroying their best and brightest (their “brains”)? Are they otherwise doing actions that are hastening their own demise, and if so, what? Are they just hungry?

Anyway, great artwork.

Newspapers, as a news medium, are starting to lose serious funding as more people halt their subscriptions, either because they use TV news or the internet instead, or because they can’t afford the paper anymore. Because they lose funding, newspapers have to cut costs, but there’s practically nothing to cut before the quality suffers because of it. So the only way newspapers can try to stay alive is by killing themselves.

At least, that’s what I got out of it. Nowicki, your cartoons are great.

What I think I see happening in the cartoon is this:

The newspapers are dying, therefore zombies. Or maybe that means the papers are dead and don’t know it yet.

As the papers are laying off writers, they might be printing more stories from other news organizations like the Associated Press, and that could be what it means for them to be eating their own brain.

The figure in this cartoon isn’t actually supposed to be a zombie. He’s just a starving guy.

I suppose it’s natural for people to read the look of a gaunt, hollow-eyed, and skeletal starving person combined with imagery of (self) cannibalism as being a “zombie.” I’m not really sure how that could be avoided while still communicating the cartoon’s message.

Originally, I thought about having the figure consuming his own arm, since I figured that would be easier to draw, but by eliminating things like columnists, cartoonists, and other unique, exclusive features, newspapers are eating the brains of their organizations, so I ultimately determined it would be more accurate (as well as more attention-grabbing) to just illustrate that literally.

The other reason he appears to be a zombie is that he is eating brains, a standard zombie trope.

That aside, I think we kind of got it, but were not convinced of our own interpretations. It was only worth mentioning the confusion because most of your cartoons are exceptionally clear.

That and, you know, pretty much only zombies can survive losing half of their brain.

I don’t know, there’s been some pretty impressive physical brain damage survivors over the years.

I don’t think he should be able to use his right hand with no left brain.

These are incredible, thank you for doing these and putting them up. You have great ideas and the drawings are phenomenal. Loved the Flintstones/Jetsons one in particular, but this is spot on as well.

I’m pretty sure the whole point is that the news industry has to dumb itself down in order to stay alive. More celebrity gossip will sell newspapers, and even though it’s ruining their integrity, they’re forced to do it.