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Five Great Rex Babin Cartoons

In honor of my fallen colleague Rex Babin, I thought I’d share five great cartoons from his archives. The Sacramento Bee has posted a gallery featuring Rex’s best cartoons from 2011.

In a front-page editoral in The Bee, Anita Creamer writes about Rex’s most popular cartoon, which he drew after the “Miracle on the Hudson”:

In Rex Babin’s perhaps most beloved editorial cartoon, huge hands reached down from on high to steady US Airways Flight 1549 as it floated on the Hudson River, passengers standing on its wings.

The “Wings on the Hudson” cartoon showed a different, more emotional side of Babin to Sacramentans who were accustomed to the sharp observations of his political cartoons: It showed his heart.



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Sacramento Bee Cartoonist Rex Babin Dies of Cancer

I’m very sad to report that my friend Rex Babin, the brilliant cartoonist for the Sacramento Bee and a longtime contributor to Cagle.com, passed away this morning after a two year long fight with stomach cancer. A little over a year ago, Rex took a medical leave from his position as the paper’s staff cartoonist, and has been drawing off and on since.

Rex was a friend, and a mainstay in the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, serving as president in 2010.  He was the winner of the National Press Foundation’s 2001 Berryman Award and was a finalist for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. His cartoons were nationally syndicated by King Features.

My thoughts go out to his family, especially his wife Kathleen and their son Sebastian. What a sad day and a terrible loss for the profession.

Here is his last cartoon, which appeared in the Bee on March 4:

Rex-Babin

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Best Cartoons of the Week

Every Friday, we collect the best political cartoons of the week and stuff them into one big, glorious slideshow.

So just relax and catch up on a week’s worth of news with our Best Cartoons of the Week slideshow.

Pat Bagley / Salt Lake Tribune (click to start slideshow)
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In Defense of George Zimmerman?

Ever since the media latched on to the Trayvon Martin killing (view our collection of Trayvon Martin cartoons here), they seem to be certain of one thing – George Zimmerman, the neighbor watch man who shot the Florida teenager, is guilty of murder.

Most cartoonists have focused on the tragedy of Trayvon’s death, but Michael McParlane went a different direction and focused on the media’s newfound role and judge, jury and exuctioner:

I asked Michael his thoughts, and here’s what he emailed me:

Debates are rampant over whether or not the same backlash would be exhibited if this were a black on black murder. Large groups of people can effect dramatic change, but where are the current protestors, and carpetbaggers, when the crime is not deemed “racist”?

Does he have a point?

RELATED: Five Powerful Trayvon Martin Cartoons

Cartoonist Criticizes Obama for Politicizing Trayvon Martin Murder

My Trayvon Cartoon

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Five Powerful Trayvon Martin Cartoons

As the Trayvon Martin case continues to unfold, a lot of unanswered questions remain about the tragic death of the Florida teenager. As a result, cartoonists have been fine-tuning their thoughts about the shooting. Everything from hoodies to skittles have entered the fray, as well as President Obama’s comment that if he had a son, he’d look like Trayvon (which our conservative cartoonist Gary McCoy mocked as politicizing the event).

I’ve shared my own cartoon and thoughts about the shooting, so I thought I’d post five powerful cartoons about Trayvon, drawn by the nation’s top cartoonists…

Taylor Jones / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Jones)
Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)
R.J. Matson / St. Louis Post-Dispatch (click to view more cartoons by Matson)
Mr. Fish / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Mr. Fish)
J.D. Crowe / Mobile Press-Register (click to view more cartoons by Crowe)
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Cartoons: Obamacare on Trial

Why listen to lawyers and pundits talk about the Constitutionality of Obama’s Health Care Reform Law when you can just listen to cartoonists! Our group of ink slingers have weighed in on Obamacare, and you can check out their opinions in our new Obamacare Revisited cartoon collection.

Chris Weyant / The Hill (click to view our Obamacare on Trial cartoons)
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Cartoonist Criticizes Obama for Politicizing Trayvon Martin Murder

Leave it to our conservative rabble-rouser Gary McCoy to rile up our readers yet again. Fresh off the heels of his Sandra Fluke cartoon controversy, McCoy’s most recent cartoon calls out the President for politicizing the murder of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin…

I’ve asked Gary to write something about the cartoon, and here’s what he sent me:

And so it goes… I do a cartoon on President Obama politicizing the Trayvon Martin death, and thousands of spastic, hyperventilating leftists reached for their inhalers in unison, collectively raising CO2 levels, and melting the polar ice caps. All the while I celebrate their anger sitting in my comfy arm chair and watching the ice melt in my glass of scotch, with a warm, smug grin on my face.

Why is it that my conservative editorializing rubs liberals raw like Rosie O’Donnell’s bicycle shorts? What we have here is our country’s most narcissistic president ever, unable to keep from making every major story about him if at all possible (unless it’s high gas prices, a still sluggish economy, high unemployment, etc.). The Trayvon Martin story is about a black teen that was tragically shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Those are about the only facts we know for certain. The shooter, Mr. Zimmerman has not been tried in any court of law to have been found guilty of anything. As of now, we do not know if he was justifiably defending himself or acting outside the rule of law. Yet every Supreme Court Justice wannabe is posting with certainty like this is the next Dred Scott case. The bizarreness of Obama stating that if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon is nearly unfathomable. Yes, Mr. President, we know you’re black (half black technically), but really, what’s your point? Mr. “let’s all come together, and not make race an issue” can’t seem to keep from waving his giant, novelty, double-laminated race card whenever he smells political opportunism wafting in the air.

I can always tell when my critics have no substantive argument to make in their defense, for that’s when the shallow charges of “horrible cartoonist” and “racist” start to fly. The latter of which is a hilarious label on a guy who married outside his race and has a bi-racial child. But I guess when you’re tutoring a kindergarten class, you’ve got to leave the slide rule at home and bring the crayons instead.

Here are what some readers had to say about the cartoon:

Betty C.: “Don’t see any humor in this cartoon! Disgusting to say the least about the content!”

Debbie C.: “This is a racist hateful cartoon…there is freedom in this country to be able to say things like this, however, this is a bad bad cartoon.”

e-socrates: “Oh no, politically incorrect speech! Time for the jackbooted boycott vigilantes to put a stomp to this! Go get ’em Blackshirts!”

Bridget R.: “I’ll play devils advocate and ask anyone to give me an example of other presidents talking in the media about a local murder case. I’ll wait.”

Tom H.: “This is one of the most disgusting cartoons I’ve ever seen. The cartoonist should be deeply ashamed of himself.”

Nomorenicksleft: “If Zimmerman had only ordered a drone strike on Trayvon without due process, Obama would have rubberstamped it.”

WhiteDawg: “Breitbart was a despicable individual, but at least he came up with some of his own material. McCoy is just trying to illustrate Rush Limbaugh’s thoughts as offensively as possible.”

What do you think of the cartoon? Let us know by commenting below, or leaving a note on our Facebook page.

 

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Revisiting ObamaCare

Today, the Supreme Court begins three days of oral arguments to decide, once and for all, if President Obama’s health care reform law is constitutional.

Since its passage in 2010 on strict party lines, all Republicans have talked about is repealing ObamaCare. Every GOP Presidential candidate has made it a central plank of their campaign (they’re a little more vague about what they’d replace it with).

Obviously, cartoonists have been weighing in on health care reform for years. Here are some relevant cartoons I plucked from our archives…

Chris Weyant / The Hill (click to view more cartoons by Weyant)
Eric Allie / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Allie)
Jimmy Margulies / The Record (click to view more cartoons by Margulies)
John Cole / Scranton Times-Tribune (click to view more cartoons by Cole)
Pat Bagley / Salt Lake Tribune (click to view more cartoons by Bagley)
Jeff Parker / Florida Today (click to view more cartoons by Parker)
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My Trayvon Cartoon

I hate drawing cartoons about crime, and I didn’t really want to get involved in the arguments about the shooting of Trayvon Martin, so I just drew a sad, wordless image. It is interesting how the hoodie, Arizona Iced Tea and Skittles have become so well known that no explanation is necessary.

The grander message I see in all of this is that guys who should never have guns, should never get guns; regrettably, I don’t hear many of the talking heads on TV coming to that conclusion.  See more Trayvon Shooting cartoons here.

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Cartoons

Trayvon

Trayvon © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,race,african american,black,Crime,Race,Trayvon Martin,hoodie,Arizona Iced Tea,Skittles,Sanford,Florida,George Zimmerman

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Best Political Cartoons Of The Week

Every Friday, we collect the best political cartoons of the week and stuff them into one big, glorious slideshow.

So just relax and catch up on a week’s worth of news with our Best Cartoons of the Week slideshow.

Nate Beeler / Washington Examiner (click to start slideshow)
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Conservative Cartoonist Says Obama Lies

Michael Ramirez

Move over Joe Wilson. Conservative ink slinger Michael Ramirez, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for Investor’s Business Daily (View Ramirez’s cartoons here), called the president a liar while speaking to the Capistrano Valley Republican Women, Federated club at the Marbella Country Club in San Juan Capistrano, California.

According to Patch, Ramirez was talking about the President ridiculing the Republican’s three-step energy plan – “Step 1: drill. Step 2: drill. Step 3: drill.”

Ramirez said Obama has a three-step plan of his own: “Step 1: lie. Step 2: lie. Step 3: lie.”

Ramirez also said he likes Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney and his track record at Bain Capital, and said, “He’s created more jobs at Bain Capital than Barack Obama has in four years with the entire federal government behind him.”

Here’s a short video of Ramirez presenting some of his cartoons:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZDTCVbndlQ]