My Missing Donald Trump Cartoon
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The is not a Pope
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Jimmy Margulies and More Grim Cartoon News
I’m sad to report that one of my favorite cartoonists, Jimmy Margulies, is the latest editorial cartoonist to lose his job. This is a long term trend as less profitable newspapers cut back the ranks of political cartoonists. Jimmy wrote this for us:
After almost 22 and 1/2 years at The Record in northern New Jersey, I became the latest editorial cartoonist to lose a full time staff job at a daily newspaper. Despite having won a few national awards, syndication and frequent appearances in some high profile places like USA Today, as well as being a popular local speaker and using social media to become one of the most popular features on the paper’s web site, it was not enough to save me from the paper’s decision to trim expenses.
I plan to continue my syndication with King Features as well as self syndicating my New Jersey cartoons around the state. The Record and I have reached an agreement that I will do a Sunday cartoon for them, as well as possibly be asked to do additional work if a big story happens in the region.
Here are five of my favorite Margulies cartoons. See Jimmy’s whole archive here.
Want to reprint Jimmy’s cartoons? All of his cartoons are searchable by keyword and available in high resolution instantly at Politicalcartoons.com.
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Chinese Dragon and Me
I drew a self-portrait in today’s cartoon. All the news about Chinese hacking strikes close to home as we’ve had lots of trouble with hacker attacks on our servers, that our ISP has traced to China. I’m guessing that the Chinese junta doesn’t like American editorial cartoons much. I drew a Chinese dragon looking over my shoulder.
I did a State Department sponsored speaking tour in China some years ago, and I told the Chinese audiences that when I draw cartoons about China I represent China with a Panda, or a dragon, or the Great Wall, or that guy standing in front of a tank in Tienanmen Square. The Chinese audience would always murmur and look at each other when I mentioned the tank in Tienanmen Square, which was quite provocative for them and always stirred up the crowd. At one college I said that line and one excited college kid stood up and asked in English, “Oh! Oh! What KIND of dragon?!” That still makes me laugh.
Here’s my very rough pencil sketch.
Next I do the finished line art, in dark, hard pencil on a 14″x17″ piece of Duralene drafting vellum. This is what most people will see in the newspapers since most of them still print in black and white.
Here is the color version. The color on this one was fun. I grabbed a bunch of Chinese dragons from Google Images for scrap on the dragon, and I pulled details from three or four different dragons that I thought were cute.
I don’t know what kind of dragon it is. Sorry.
Here are my newest cartoons. Fans always tell me that they like to see my messy rough sketches, so here we go again.
Here’s my quick and dirty sequester cartoon sketch. I drew it up first in hard pencil, I wasn’t happy with my Obama so I drew over him in soft (darker) pencil, made a note to move his position, and fiddled with just how he should be twiddling his thumbs. I often don’t get things right the first time.
Then I drew it up in finished line art, in hard pencil on nice drafting vellum. This black and white line art image is what most people see in the newspaper and I always like the BW version best. I think about the heavy blacks to be sure the image pops and I saw that the speech balloons needed to be reversed to black to give the words more weight.
Then I saved it with the white background transparent, and colored behind the image in layers in Photoshop to get this …
The previous cartoon was about former Senator Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be Defense Secretary being held up by angry Republicans. I threw the sketch for this one away. Sorry. Here’s the black and white, which looks better.
I thought about how much cross-hatching to put into the elephant skin. Elephants have interesting, textural skin, and I think I got to the point where he started to look like a rhino – maybe I went too far. It was fun to draw, though. Here it is in color.
And here it is a couple of days later in my local newspaper, The Santa Barbara News-Press – printed nicely this time. I like how they put my liberal cartoon sneering at wing-nut Linda Chavez’s Hagel-bashing column.
The previous one was about North Korea’s “Li’l Kim” annoying China with his missile and bomb tests. Here’s the rough sketch. You can see I fiddled with the position of the missile-cigar and the Panda’s hand.
Here is the black and white art. I made the missile-cigar smoke the only gray part of the image, so it would stand out as extra annoying.
… and here’s the color version, with a nice Chinese red background.
The previous cartoon is an oldie that I reposted with the news of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation. I drew this one the last time the College of Cardinals met to choose a new Pope and we were all told that the Cardinals don’t really pick the Pope, it is God picking the Pope through the Cardinals. That struck me as funny.
It is pretty common for editorial cartoonists to use Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel image of God in editorial cartoons. Here’s a recent one by Nate Beeler.
… and a conservative one by Rick McKee …
… but I digress. I should post the new cartoons more often! Here’s the previous one, Obama has GOP fleas.
I didn’t do a color version of this one. That’s it – I’m all caught up!
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That First Amendment is SOOOOOO Annoying
Rick McKee, our brilliant, Conservative cartoonist from the Augusta Chronicle in Georgia, drew this interesting cartoon today, and I asked him to explain.
Rick writes:
“Sticks and stones may break my bones” and apparently, internet Photoshops can really get under the thin skin of Georgia State Representative Earnest Smith, (D-Augusta). Recently, he became upset, to say the least, over a manipulated photo in which a blogger digitally pasted his head onto somebody else’s very naked body.
So, he’s cosponsoring a bill that would make it illegal to alter a photograph so that it “causes an unknowing person wrongfully to be identified as the person in an obscene depiction.” I understand where he’s coming from. Nobody wants their head stuck on an obscene image. Problem is, it’s perfectly legal and protected by the Constitution under the First Amendment. You’d think a guy in his position would know this.
Of course, he’s brought the wrath of the Internet down upon him. Bloggers and forums are trying to outdo one another with lewd images featuring the noggin of Rep. Smith.
But then Smith goes further and says, ““No one has a right to make fun of anyone. It’s not a First Amendment right.”
Wow. This is truly embarrassing coming from an elected official. If that’s true, then as a political cartoonist, I am breaking the law every day. Go ahead and lock me up. Jon Stewart and David Letterman can be my cellmates.
Perhaps, in the future, our elected officials should be required to take a basic middle-school level civics class. Or, at the least, we could include a disclaimer in their job description, “Warning: This occupation may be a hazard to those with thin skins!”
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North Korea China and Missile Cigar
That First Amendment can be Soooooo Annoying
I syndicate the cartoons of Rick McKee, the brilliant, conservative cartoonist from The Augusta Chronicle, to newspapers around the world. Today Rick sent in a cartoon about a local Georgia legislator that was so nutty, I asked him to explain. Rick writes:
“Sticks and stones may break my bones” and apparently, Internet Photoshops can really get under the thin skin of Georgia State Rep. Earnest Smith, D-Augusta. Recently he became upset, to say the least, over a manipulated photo in which a blogger digitally pasted his head onto somebody else’s very naked body.
So, he’s co-sponsoring a bill that would make it illegal to alter a photograph so that it “causes an unknowing person wrongfully to be identified as the person in an obscene depiction.” I understand where he’s coming from. Nobody wants their head stuck on an obscene image. Problem is, it’s perfectly legal and protected by the Constitution under the First Amendment. You’d think a guy in his position would know this.
Of course, he’s brought the wrath of the Internet down upon him. Bloggers and forums are trying to outdo one another with lewd images featuring the noggin of Rep. Smith.
But then Smith goes further and says, “No one has a right to make fun of anyone. It’s not a First Amendment right.”
Wow. This is truly embarrassing coming from an elected official. If that’s true, then as a political cartoonist I am breaking the law every day. Go ahead and lock me up. Jon Stewart and David Letterman can be my cellmates.
Perhaps, in the future, our elected officials should be required to take a basic middle school-level civics class. Or, at the least, we could include a disclaimer in their job description, “Warning: This occupation may be a hazard to those with thin skins!”
Daryl Cagle runs the CagleCartoons.com newspaper syndicate distributing editorial cartoons to more than 850 newspapers around the world including the paper you are reading now; he is a past president of the National Cartoonists Society. Comments to Daryl may be sent to [email protected]. Read Daryl’s blog at www.cagle.com/daryl.
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Obama Has Fleas State of the Union
We’ve gotten some crazy and provocative cartoons about Pope Benedict XVI in the last eight years. We have a great new topical collection on the Pope’s resignation called “The Pope is Pooped” – come take a look.
Lots of the craziest Pope cartoons came from Latin American cartoonists. There were lots of cartoons showing the German Pope as a Nazi, showing him as a devil, and showing him doing all kinds of things with condoms. Mexican cartoonist Dario Castillejos saw the Pope as an evil Holocaust denier.
This one by Cuban/Brazilian cartoonist Osmani Simanca depicts Pope Benedict XVI as the devil – a common theme.
Simanca also drew this devil Pope with condoms …
Cartoonists just love the idea of condoms on the Pope’s shoe. here’s one by Taylor Jones.
There are a lot with the Pope blowing up condom balloons, here by Rainer Hachfeld …
And here by Taylor Jones …
There were dozens of cartoons about the Pope and condoms. Here’s another one by Bulgarian cartoonist “Christo.”
This Pope and condom cartoon by Dutch cartoonist, Hajo, made me laugh …
French cartoonist, Jiho, drew the Pope with a condom/suicide vest.
Here’s another Simanca/Pope/Condom cartoon …
Swedish cartoonist, Riber Hanssen, drew the Pope bungee jumping with condoms.
When the Pope gave a speech denouncing “comsumer culture” Simanca drew this cartoon about the Pope’s fancy wardrobe, which made me laugh …
There were a lot of cartoons about the Pope’s role covering up the Pedophile Priest Scandals. This one is by also by Riber Hansson.
Here’s another one by Taylor Jones that impressed me. Taylor is the cartoonist for El Nuevo Dia on Puerto Rico, who works from Staten Island, NY.
There are loads of cartoons with the Pope being crucified. This one is by French cartoonist, Frederick Deligne.
That poor Pope. Here the poor Pope is crucified by Islam, and Mexican cartoonist Nerilicon.
Here the Pope suffers from Islam by Cuban/Mexican cartoonist Angel Boligan – this has gotta hurt.
Mr Fish brought his potty-mouth to his depiction of the Pope.
I think Simanca had the biggest bug in his ear for the Pope. Here’s Simanca’s Pope shark.
Simanca’s Nazi Pope …
I’ll add this one by Pat Bagley, because it made me laugh.
I drew one that was a compilation cartoon of all the Pope Yahtzees.
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Mail, China, Immigration and More!
Here are my most recent cartoons! Here’s the rough sketch for today’s cartoon, a little snarkiness pointed at troubled newspapers. I drew the three characters on the left, and then took a piece of tracing papers to make some changes for the panel on the right, to keep them looking consistent.
Then I drew it up as line art, in pencil on vellum. This black and white version is what most people will see in the newspaper – if newspapers will print this one. I always like the black and white version best.
And here I added color, in Photoshop layers behind the black line art.
Those young people are so disrespectful of Grandpa! Here is yesterday’s cartoon …
My wife’s Uncle Keene e-mailed this idea to me, which he tells me was given to him by a friend who prefers to remain anonymous. I usually don’t draw other peoples ideas, but what the heck, I liked this one. Thanks, Keene. Here it is as it looked in my local newspaper this morning.
I notice they picked up some gray scuzzy tone in the background. Yuck. Why do newspapers take pretty, clean crispy cartoons and muck them up? Here’s a previous cartoon, about the terrible air pollution in China.
This one was fun, and it is nice to do cartoons with no words. The previous cartoon was this quicky for Groundhog’s Day.
I didn’t bother doing color for this one. The previous one was about the immigration debate …
Now I’m caught up! I need to post more often.
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Valentines day
