A Brief Chronology of the Cartoons
In 1998 Michael F. Giangreco created his first book of black and white cartoons, Ants in His Pants: Absurdities and Realities of Special Education, published by Peytral Publications of Minnetonka, Minnesota. This was followed by two more sets of cartoons with the publication of Flying by the Seat of Your Pants: More Absurdities and Realities of Special Education (1999) and Teaching Old Logs New Tricks: More Absurdities and Realities of Education (2000). In 2002 he completed a full color version of 100 of the best cartoons from the three previous books, Absurdities and Realities of Special Education: The Best of Ants..., Flying..., and Logs (2002). In 2007 all of the cartoons from the first three books, plus a dozen newer cartoons (327 different cartoons, in both black and white and full color, for a total of 654 images) were included in a searchable CD, Absurdities and Realities of Special Education: The Complete Digital Set. This collection was first published by Peytral Publications and was sold to Corwin Press/Sage Publishing along with the four cartoon books later that year. In 2019 Corwin Press/Sage classified all four books and the CD as "out of print," reverting the rights to Michael Giangreco as creator and copyright holder. Giangreco then decided to collaborate with UVM’s Center for Digital Initiatives and the Center on Disability & Community Inclusion to make all of the previously published color cartoons, plus six newer cartoons, available in an accessible format online. While Michael Giangreco retains the copyright to the cartoons, he is making them available for non-commercial educational use for free with the understanding that users will retain the copyright tag line attached to each cartoon and not resell the cartoons or use them in commercial products. Those interested in reprinting for commercial purposes, such as including cartoons in books distributed by commercial publishers or for-profit web sites may contact the cartoonist to request permission to reprint by emailing: Michael.Giangreco@uvm.edu