Cartoonist Backpedals From "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day"

Seattle-based cartoonist Molly Norris says she has nothing to do with "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day" and wishes people would leave her alone. Slight problem: Norris kickstarted the phenomenon when she emailed her original cartoon to media figures like Dan Savage, who then published it.

On Friday, Norris told a radio talk show host in Seattle that she came up with the idea because "as a cartoonist, I just felt so much passion about what had happened..." noting that "it's a cartoonist's job to be non-PC." That passion, it appears, has lessened. And fast. Her stark website today reads: ""I am NOT involved in "Everybody Draw Mohammd [sic] Day! I made a cartoon that went viral and I am not going with it. Many other folks have used my cartoon to start sites, etc. Please go to them as I am a private person who draws stuff," she writes.

It went viral, however, because she was the one who passed it around. Sending it to people like Dan Savage, a popular Seattle-based blogger and nationally syndicated sex advice columnist. Once it became a national story she reeled back, asking Savage -- in an email he provided to The Ticket -- if he would "be kind enough to switch out my poster" with another one -- a much tamer version which has no images attributed to Muhammad. "I am sort of freaked out about my name/image being all over the place," her e-mail reads. He didn't change it, nor did he post the tamer version. Besides, after Savage posted it, many other sites picked it up including The Atlantic and Reason.

Others that jumped on "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day" have also bailed. Facebook pages, gone. Cartoonist sites, gone. Molly Norris doesn't mention getting any personal threats, FWIW.