Columbus Dispatch suspends cartoonist Jeff Stahler after learning of similarities to New Yorker cartoons

The Daily Cartoonist
Alan Gardner says Stahler’s cartoon in the Dispatch on Monday “has a striking similarity” to a David Sipress cartoon published in the New Yorker in 2009. Stahler tells Gardner that it’s a coincidence, but Gardner points out two other cases in which Stahler’s cartoons are conceptually identical to ones published in the New Yorker. (Gardner’s post includes all the cartoons in question.) “As a general rule, as long as the cartoonist isn’t light-boxing, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt,” Gardner writes. “Collectively, however, the matter gets harder to explain away.” Update: Dispatch Editor Ben Marrison tells me: “We take these allegations seriously. Given their serious nature, we have suspended Jeff Stahler’s cartoon indefinitely until an exhaustive investigation can be conducted.” || Earlier: Did Columbus Dispatch cartoonist lift from humorist Borowitz? || Related: Tulsa editorial cartoonist resigns after Daily Cartoonist accuses him of plagiarism (Poynter.org, The Daily Cartoonist)