AUGUSTA, GA – Billy Morris and his patented 12-gallon hat is an icon that most will recognize. His likeness is a personification of the establishment that exists everywhere; that authority figure that holds the puppet strings and seems to always pull them in his general direction. One or more exist in every town or city. He is also one of the biggest givers.

The cartoon version of state Sen. Ben Harbin represents that kid who always got away with things while others didn’t. That little brother you had who always came home late and, despite never making the honor roll, never seemed to get as much grief for it.

The pollen monster might be that pesky annoyance that you can never do anything about, but refuse to accept as a way of life.

These are all metaphors for things that happen in all of our lives and can be found almost everywhere. They are representations of feelings and obstacles that everyone shares, have to face daily and certainly have a tough time ignoring.

Then again, sometimes former Augusta Commissioner Marion Williams is just Marion Williams.

With his ears open and his pen ready, local artist Jay Jacobs spends his days and nights listening to the pulse of Augusta. The way that an angler checks the temperature of the water and the speed of the current, Jacobs tunes into what people have to say about everything from politics to road conditions and puts them into his weekly cartoons in the front of the Metro Spirit.

Catching a trophy bass in downtown Augusta may not be the easiest thing to accomplish, but for Jacobs, finding something to complain about is like shooting fish in a barrel.

“Just listen to someone talk and nine out of 10 times under the guise of trying to say what people want to hear, you can see the truth under it,” explains Jacobs.

The concept of editorial or political cartooning has been around long before Ben Franklin put his opinion on British colonization into the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. The woodcut piece called, “Join, or Die” featured a snake cut into several pieces representing eight colonial governments. At the time there was a popular belief that a snake cut in two could come back to life so long as it was put back together before midnight.

The cartoon, like those of Jacobs, employs visual metaphors to represent a point of view or opinion. “Altie-style” cartoons, such as Tom Tomorrow use more of a comic book style to deliver their message.

Jacobs began drawing the Twisted Toon in the Spirit in 2005. And along with the Whine Line, he has done hundreds of cartoons since, making him one of the longest, current-working, part-time employees at the Spirit.

“I was asked to draw a cartoon, like a ‘Metro Spirit  corrections department’ cartoon… after that I would just draw stuff that I would notice, not like I was out trying to find anything,” said the bearded Jacobs. “I thought it was going to be temporary. I would call up to the Spirit and ask what stories they were doing and then off of the one line they would give me, I would either ask more, or try to research it and then try and do something off that. For the first year, everything I did typically paralleled the story they were doing.”

Jacobs spent his childhood in North Augusta before moving to Pennsylvania to pursue his artistic interests. After realizing that the college institution no longer had anything to offer him, he released himself back to Augusta on his own recognizance and has been here ever since, painting and drawing for a living.

Before coming to the Spirit, Jacobs had never drawn any cartoons before.

“Even Chris Murray [who draws the Spirit ’s crime cartoon] grew up drawing little flip books. I had never done any cartoons,” he said. “You can kind of tell that looking through the catalog.”

In the years that Jacobs has drawn these cartoons, he has grown more politically aware.

After the trees were cut down on I-20, Jacobs realized that you have to get involved and you have to try and make a difference. That was when he began listening to the radio, reading the newspaper and listening to insiders talk about the whole process.

“I can say things that can’t be said in print. With a teaspoon of sugar, the medicine goes down a little easier,” said Jacobs. “If you use the humor to put stuff out like that, it’s just a little bit easier to take. It can have more edge to it because it’s a funny little cartoon.”

Even a casual reader can see the themes that reoccur in his work. Over the years his style has evolved from the realistic interpretations to glorified stick figures in search of his preferred renditions. Today, he has locked in his style, which is in most of his current cartoons.

Bulbous figures both real and imaginary represent Austin Rhodes and Ryan B.

Billy Morris can be seen riding a TEE Center monster all the way to the bank. Or Woody Merry, with his hot temper, is pictured taking on all his challengers.

No one is safe from Jacobs’ pen, but most are treated fairly. Sometimes he just draws things exactly as they happened and quotes people directly.

“Hey, when someone throws you a fastball, you have to hit it out of the park,” says Jacobs, referring to several of his cartoons featuring former Augusta Commissioner Marion Williams.

Although he is never told exactly what to draw, in recent years, he has taken more ownership of the toons and puts more of himself into them.

“Republican or Democrat, everyone can appreciate morons in local politics,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs draws his cartoon on Monday morning. While the rest of the Spirit staff scurries around the Broad Street office trying to assemble the paper, he is still in his pajamas.
He has his preferred routine down to a science.

Sitting at a small desk, he draws on the backs of used printer paper opting for an old cutting board over a proper drafting table. He compiles the things he has heard and things he has seen over the previous weekend. He looks people up on the Internet to find out more about them and to try to get to know them before he makes his first stroke, sometimes to determine if they should be included at all.

When the final idea is sketched, he transfers it onto illustration board, and, misspellings aside, it is ready for print.

The faces change from time to time, but the message is the same. In the end, Jacobs’ intent is to open eyes and be a visual voice for the people of this city. Just like most people, he has no respect for commissioners who abstain or don’t show up to work.

“If you abstain, you should have your gas card and cell phone taken away,” demands Jacobs.

He doesn’t like his tax money to be used poorly. He reminds his readership about the wrongs the were never corrected when the offenders would prefer you forget all about it.

He would like to see the James Brown Arena get a better sign and the money spent on putting up walls around I-20 be used to build better schools.

“How can you honor the Godfather of Soul with a sign that has no soul?” he asked.

While Jacobs may not always have the answers to fix the problems, he does remind people of the questions they should be asking.

In a time when it is easy to sit back and complain from an armchair or anonymously in the comfort of the Whine Line, Jacobs is instead trying to make a difference in Augusta.

“Everybody has an opinion and the people who have the right idea are doing something about it,” Jacobs said.

He has received several awards for his accomplishments as a painter and has shown his canvassed efforts in almost every downtown gallery that has a doorman collecting a cover.

Most will recognize his “stream of consciousness” style even if they have never heard his name. It is his firm grip on the local scene and his dedication that helped him win Metro’s Best Visual Artist three years in a row as well as a president’s award from the Greater Augusta Arts Council in 2006.

He was instrumental in creating and participates in both Art 45, the annual live art event that takes place during Arts in the Heart of Augusta, and Social Canvas, another live event that features local bands and young artists performing together in unison. Jacobs is also a founding member and inaugural artist of the Metro Spirit Gallery.

He has helped raise money for local charities including The Art Factory and The Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art and continues to participate and help out anyway that he can. He also plans to submit a design for the “Art on the Wall” project for Augusta’s utilities department in early 2010.

It is true that everyone has an opinion. It’s easy to see that not everything is perfect in Augusta and even easier to point out.

But unlike most people, Jacobs has the right idea, and is doing something about it.

He plans to continue the Spirit cartoons so long as there is material to write about, which, in Augusta, should be a long time coming.


Jacobs’ original cartoons can be purchased at the Metro Spirit office on a first-come first-served basis and are subject to availability.