By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Christopher Borelli Profiles Cartoonist Ivan Brunetti
Chris Borelli writes a lot of swell profiles for the Chicago Tribune. I’m acquainted with cartoonist Ivan Brunetti, the subject of this piece. It’s very good, let’s start by saying that, and I’ll helicopter into the middle of an anecdote:
“Ivan Brunetti is cringing.
He is a Chicago cartoonist and illustrator, swooned over by peers, beloved by his students at Columbia College, revered by a fervent cult of admirers, and coming into his own. At the moment, though, he’s cringing. He’s cringing at this story, at the picture, at what you think of him, at the nice things people say about him. He doesn’t think he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as his peers: His best friend is the celebrated cartoonist Chris Ware; another good friend is cartoonist Daniel Clowes (“Ghost World”), who, like Brunetti, spent some formative years in Hyde Park. When I mention these guys, he cringes.
“Because I feel like a fraud most of the time,” he said. “I haven’t proven myself the way those guys have. I should feel lucky, right? I don’t. I’m constantly complaining. Most of my problems are caused by myself.”
One day I told him I wasn’t exactly certain when this profile would appear in the Tribune. “It’s a floater,” I said.
“Like a turd,” he replied quietly.”
Why does Borelli not identify the “local university press” where Brunetti was a copy editor as the University of Chicago Press, i.e. the largest university press in North America (second if you count Cambridge U. Press)? Putting it otherwise makes it sound like it could be any number of university presses in Chicago, including perhaps his current employer. What’s the angle in obscuring the fact?
Brunetti is not alone in his feelings about working at the UofC Press. Everyone I worked with there alternated between homicidal daydreams and suicidal ideation.
Not sure, Not. Read the article last night and posted straightaway. Wonder if IB’s reticence or the Tribune.