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Blog Newsletter Syndicate Top 10

ELECTION CHOICES: TOP TEN CARTOONS OF THE WEEK

We’re about a month away from the first votes in the Republican primary being cast in Iowa, and it’s safe to say the country isn’t very excited about the likely choices for president.

Joe Biden, the incumbent, will likely face Donald Trump in a rematch of the 2020 election, which Biden won by more than 7 million votes. Our two most popular cartoons this week were about the lack of enthusiasm at the top of both presidential tickets. It’s going to be a long year.

Here are our top ten most reprinted cartoons of the week:

#1. Chris Weyant

Don’t miss our new TRUMP CHRISTMAS SPECIAL podcast on YouTube!

#2. Rick McKee

#3. John Darkow

#4. Doug Plante

#5. Dick Wright

#6. Jeff Koterba

#7. John Darkow

#8. Chris Weyant

#9. Adam Zyglis

#10. Dave Granlund

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Become a Cagle.com HERO!

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate Top 10

Peter Kuper 2020 Top Ten

Here are Peter Kuper’s  Top Ten cartoons of the year that were most reprinted in newspapers. Peter Kuper is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, The Nation and MAD Magazine where he has written and illustrated SPY vs. SPY every issue since 1997. He is the co-founder and editor of World War 3 Illustrated a political graphics magazine that has given a forum to political artists for 40 years. He has produced over two dozen books including The System, Diario de Oaxaca, Ruins (winner of the 2016 Eisner Award) and adaptations of many of Franz Kafka’s works into comics including The Metamorphosis and Kafkaesque (winner of the 2018 Reuben Award) . His latest graphic novel is an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. He has lectured around the world and has taught comics courses at The School of Visual Arts in NYC and Harvard University

We keep statistics on how many editors, who subscribe to our syndicate service at CagleCartoons.com, download each cartoon. Over the next few days I’ll post Top Ten cartoons from some of our other CagleCartoonists!  See Peter’s cartoon archive on Cagle.com


Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you!  Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers sink too, and along with them, our Cagle.com site.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.

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Want to get EVERY new CagleCartoon from our 62 syndicated newspaper editorial cartoonists, in your email box every day? Just become a Cagle.com HERO and you get the exclusive daily emails of ALL THE CARTOONS!  See all the cartoons before the newspapers print them and never miss a cartoon!


Categories
Blog Newsletter Syndicate

New CagleCartoonist, Pat Byrnes

I’m happy to write that we have just added a great new cartoonist to our CagleCartoons.com newspaper syndication package!

Pat Byrnes is best known as a regular for The New Yorker – he’s drawn gag panels for all the major magazines and is an NCS Silver Reuben winner.  This will be Pat’s first foray into editorial cartooning for newspapers and he’s got a running start.  Here are some of Pats first cartoons for us.  See more on Pat’s site.  And check out Pat’s new archive on Cagle.com as it updates with new cartoons.

Welcome Pat!


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Please forward this to your friends – tell them our

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you!  Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.  We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Planet COVID-19, Part 1

A “global pandemic” brings to mind images of the globe, and for cartoonists who like to exaggerate everything, the coronavirus takes on Earthly dimensions! So many cartoonists (especially the international cartoonists) are drawing planetary metaphors that I decided to do four posts in a row about “Planet COVID-19”! Here’s part one!  Click on each cartoonists’ name to view their archive on Cagle.com.


Please forward this email to your friends – tell them our Cagle.com email newsletters are FREE and FUN! They can join the newsletter list at Cagle.com/subscribe.


We need your support for Cagle.com (and DarylCagle.com)! Notice that we run no advertising! We depend entirely upon the generosity of our readers to sustain the site. Please visit Cagle.com/heroes and make a contribution. You are much appreciated!



Petar Pismetrovic, Austria

 


Emad Hajjaj, Jordan

 

 


Terry “Aislin” Mosher, Canada

 

 


Gatis Sluka, Latvia


Angel Boligan, Mexico City, Mexico


Osama Hajjaj, Jordan

 

 


Milt Priggee, Washington

 

 


Dario Castillejos, Oaxaca, Mexico

 

 


Petar Pismetrovic, Austria


Don’t miss my other Coronavirus posts:
School and COVID-19
Broken Quarantine
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 23rd, 2020
Hydroxychloroquine
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 16th, 2020
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Pandemic through May 4th
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 2nd, 2020
Best of the Grim Reaper, Part 1
Best of the Grim Reaper, Part 2
Dr Fauci PART 2
Dr Fauci PART 1
Trump and Disinfectant PART 2
Trump and Disinfectant PART 1
Most popular Cartoons of the Week through 4/26/20, (all coronavirus)
Forgotten Biden – Part 2
Forgotten Biden – Part 1
Most popular Cartoons of the Week through 4/18/20, (all coronavirus)
Blame China! Part Three
Blame China! Part Two

Blame China! Part One
Most popular Cartoons of the Week, through 4/11/20 (all coronavirus)
Planet COVID-19, Part 4

Planet COVID-19, Part 3
Planet COVID-19, Part 2
Planet COVID-19, Part 1
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week, 4/4/20 (all coronavirus)
Toilet Paper Part Two
Toilet Paper Part One
Trump and the Easter Bunny
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week, 3/29/20 (all coronavirus)
Tsunami Coming
Pandemics Compared
See, Hear Speak No Virus
The Best Coronavirus Sports Cartoons
New Coronavirus Favorites
The Most Popular Coronavirus Cartoons (as of May 4th, 2020)
My Corona Virus Cartoons
Corona Virus Quarantine Blues in China

Categories
Blog Newsletter Syndicate

McKee Decade!

Rick McKee’s favorite cartoons of the past decade are below!   See Rick’s favorite cartoons of the decade on USA Todaywhere you can click on each cartoon and see it blown up to fill the screen with a pretty, high-resolution image.  See the complete archive of Rick’s editorial cartoons here.

Look at our other, great collections of Cartoon Favorites of the Decade, selected by the artists.
Pat Bagley Decade!
Nate Beeler Decade!
Daryl Cagle Decade! 
Patrick Chappatte Decade!
John Cole Decade!
John Darkow Decade!
Bill Day Decade!
Sean Delonas Decade!
Bob Englehart Decade!
Randall Enos Decade!
Dave Granlund Decade!
Taylor Jones Decade!
Mike Keefe Decade!
Peter Kuper Decade!
Jeff Koterba Decade!
RJ Matson Decade!
Gary McCoy Decade!
Rick McKee Decade!
Milt Priggee Decade!
Bruce Plante Decade!
Steve Sack Decade!


We need your support for Cagle.com (and DarylCagle.com)! Notice that we run no advertising! We depend entirely upon the generosity of our readers to sustain the site. Please visit Cagle.com/heroes and make a contribution. You are much appreciated!


 

 

Categories
Blog Newsletter Syndicate

The Funniest Cartoon I’ve Ever Seen

This column is by the great Randy Enos about his favorite gag cartoons.

Email Randy Enos Visit Randy’s archive –Daryl


My interest in cartooning started when I was a wee small child and on Sunday mornings, my dad and I would lay out the big newspaper comics on the rug in our parlor and go over them carefully with him pointing out some of the finer details of the artwork along with both of us laughing at the antics of the poor Dagwood and Major Hoople and the Toonerville folks. My father and I also greatly enjoyed the political cartoons of Shoemaker and Herblock.

I started looking at, what we in the business call “gag cartoons”, in The Saturday Evening Post which came to my house every week. I was a big fan of Virgil Partch (who I got to meet later in life).

When I worked at The Famous Artists Schools in the 50’s and 60’s, I got to work with a fellow instructor named Frank Ridgeway who was a gag cartoonist for Saturday Evening Post and other magazines and wrote gags for The New Yorker. At lunchtime, Frank would sometimes make roughs for his cartoons. One time I said, “Hasn’t that idea been done before?” He replied, “Of course it has but has it been done this week?”

He showed me some of his tricks in coming up with ideas. One was “gag switching” where you would take a cartoon you found in a magazine and, in essence, take the general idea of the joke and just re-do it using different characters, locale etc.. No honor among thieves.

One day, he showed me another technique. He said for me to get a magazine and he’d show me how he can quickly put an idea together. I got a magazine and was instructed to flip through and at random just pick out three images. I found a picture of a cowboy in a cigarette ad, a picture of a little boy and finally a picture of a store or market. In a few minutes, he had the gag. A kid dressed in a cowboy outfit is talking to a butcher in a market. The kid says, “WHAT… no buffalo meat, and you call yourself a meat market!” This was before we actually had buffalo meat in the markets. Not a great idea, by his own admission, but it quickly demonstrated a method that could be used. I’ve used it a few times myself. Frank sold a comic strip “Mr. Abernathy” while he was working there at the school and he was off to fame and fortune.

When I would go into New York to deliver my illustrations or pick up work, I often rode the train with several New Yorker guys who were going in to their weekly meeting to sell their cartoons. They would NEVER talk about cartoons on the train. Their heads were buried in the New York Times except for Bob Weber who would be doing his roughs because he always waited until the last minute.

In this column, I’ve included some of my favorite cartoons from recent times. My favorite of this bunch is the “tango” cartoon by P.S. Mueller. I find Hillary Price‘s cartoons always funny and likewise with Dan Piraro who seems to never draw an un-funny cartoon (how does he do that?). Both of these guys, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

I’ve done very few single panel “gag cartoons” in my career but I’ve included a few of them here also. I’ve sold some of them abroad but never in the U.S..

The very very VERY funniest cartoon I’ve ever seen was a long long time ago and I don’t remember who drew it and I don’t remember where I saw it but I often think of it to this day.

Here’s what it was. Two hippos are in the Nile. Only the tip of their snouts and a little bit of their eyes are showing above the water in this very plain, gray, steamy atmosphere. There is nothing around… just grayness… quietness… boredom. One hippo says to the other, “Y’know, I keep thinking today is Thursday!” I crack up every time I think of it… like just now!

Email Randy Enos   Visit Randy’s archive


Here are Randy’s favorite gag cartoons, along with his reviews …

Ahab and the swatch… My good friend Arne Levin, the New Yorker cartoonist sent this great cartoon to me because of my interest in whaling history and Moby Dick, of course.

 

The slinkies… it took me a while to figure out what was going on with the ski lift. I wasn’t reading it as a ski lift, but THEN, when I figured it out, I haven’t stopped laughing. (Mark Parisi is one of my favorites, too -Daryl)

 

The cowboys robbing the bank… great cartoon by Piraro. I think this is the best one of his that I’ve ever seen.

 

The tango… my all-time favorite cartoon of past years. A lot of people don’t agree with me but I think it’s brilliant.

 

The last supper… Best take-off on the Last Supper that I’ve ever seen and there have been many.

 

Litter box and cat… Hillary Price put me on the floor laughing with this one. Anyone who has ever had a cat has got to love this.

 

Crash dummies in car … Dan Piraro again at his best. Anyone who has had children has to love this.

 

Retractable dog leash… This one rivals the Tango cartoon for best of recent years for me. I love this guy Parisi. Simple, clean and hilarious. (I love Mark Parisi, too. –Daryl)

 

Seeing-eye dog … A great one by Drew Panckeri!

 

Dog with walkman apparatus… Another great one by Mark Parisi.

 

Retractable dog leash… This one rivals the Tango cartoon for best of recent years for me. I love this guy Parisi. Simple, clean and hilarious.

We need your support for Cagle.com! Notice that we run no advertising. We depend entirely upon the generosity of our readers to sustain the site. Please visit Cagle.com/heroes and make a contribution. You are much appreciated!

Read many more of Randy’s cartooning memories:

The Beatles had a Few Good Tunes

Andy Warhol Meets King Kong

Jacques and the Cowboy

The Gray Lady (The New York Times)

The BIG Eye

Historic Max’s

The Real Moby Dick

The Norman Conquests


Man’s Achievements in an Ever Expanding Universe

How to Murder Your Wife

I Yam What I Yam

The Smallest Cartoon Characters in the World

Chicken Gutz

Brought to You in Living Black and White

The Hooker and the Rabbit

Art School Days in the Whorehouse

The Card Trick that Caused a Divorce

The Mysterious Mr. Quist

Monty Python Comes to Town

Riding the Rails

The Pyramid of Success

The Day I Chased the Bus

The Other Ol’ Blue Eyes

8th Grade and Harold von Schmidt

Rembrandt of the Skies

The Funniest Man I’ve Ever Known

Read “I’m Your Bunny, Wanda –Part One”

Read “I’m Your Bunny, Wanda –Part Two”

Famous Artists Visit the Famous Artists School

Randy Remembers Tomi Ungerer

Randy’s Overnight Parade

The Bullpen

Famous Artists Schools

Dik Browne: Hot Golfer

Randy and the National Lampoon

Randy’s Only Great Idea

A Brief Visit to Outer Space

Enos, Love and Westport

Randy Remembers the NCS

Categories
Blog Newsletter Syndicate

More NYT and We Need Your Support!

The cartoons bashing The New York Times for banning editorial cartoons continue to come in. The foreign press seems to be picking up steam on the issue also. This article is one of a nice batch from the current French news magazine Liberation which did a cover story with art by Chappatte. They include an interview with Antonio Antunes, who drew the cartoon that started all of this – and here is a nice editorial.

The cartoon museum at St Just le Martel will be doing an exhibition of cartoons about The New York Times banning editorial cartoons. I wouldn’t be surprised if they also do a book. We’ve collected over 40 cartoons just from our CagleCartoons group to contribute to their show that will be up for their “Salon” this Fall. The cartoons keep pouring in. Some of my newest favorites are displayed below.

The New York Times isn’t alone in being timid about editorial cartoons. Cartoonists are buffeted on all sides by: timid liberal editors who don’t want to offend anyone; by conservative editors who say “we don’t like any of the cartoons anymore;” by offended readers who demand retribution against cartoonists and their timid publishers; and by cost cutting accountants at newspapers who see editorial cartoons as a troublesome expense that isn’t bringing in any advertising revenue.

We’re doing another fundraising push for our Cagle.com site – notice that we don’t run advertising on Cagle.com; the site is supported entirely by contributions from our readers. Cagle.com is the face of editorial cartooning to the world; we offend despots; we defend free speech. Editorial cartoons are important and endangered – we would really appreciate your support at this important time! Please visit Cagle.com/Heroes and consider making a donation to the cause.

My old buddy Jeff Parker retired from editorial cartooning some years ago, but came out of retirement to draw this one …

 

This one is by my pal, Steve Sack

 

This one is from the brilliant John Darkow

 

From my buddy and conservative, press-freedom loving pal, Gary McCoy

 

From French cartoonist, Robert Rousso

 

From our frequent blogger, Randy Enos

 

Here are new chickens from Milt Priggee

 

This one is by Portuguese cartoonist, Cristina Sampaio …

 

And Bulgarian virtuoso, Christo Komarnitsky …

 

Categories
Blog Newsletter Syndicate

NY Times Trashes Cartoonists

Yesterday we learned that the NY Times terminated the contracts with their two cartoonists who have been regular contributors to the NY Times International edition, Swiss Cagle Cartoonist Patrick Chappatte and Heng Kim Song from Singapore.

The offending Antonio Antunes cartoon that lost a job for Patrick Chappatte, crushed a syndicate and lost a top venue for all editorial cartooning.

This is another over-the-top reaction to the stupid decision of a Times editor to run an anti-Semitic cartoon. Here’s a quote I gave to the Washington Post:

By choosing not to print editorial cartoons in the future, the Times can be sure that their editors will never again make a poor cartoon choice. Editors at the Times have also made poor choices of words in the past. I would suggest that the Times should also choose not to print words in the future –just to be on the safe side. –Daryl Cagle


Patrick learned that he lost the gig in an online announcement from the Times, which later expanded on the subject with a self-serving statement from their editorial page editor, James Bennett, bragging that the Times won a Pulitzer Prize in the editorial cartooning category – though he fails to mention that the prize was for a non-fiction piece where a writer wrote a script that was illustrated by a cartoonist –not what I would call a prize for an editorial cartoonist.

Patrick gave me permission to re-post this announcement from his blog:

Patrick posted this Charlie Hebdo cartoon with his announcement.

 

 


The end of political cartoons at The New York Times

All my professional life, I have been driven by the conviction that the unique freedom of political cartooning entails a great sense of responsibility.

In 20-plus years of delivering a twice-weekly cartoon for the International Herald Tribune first, and then The New York Times, and after receiving three OPC awards in that category, I thought the case for political cartoons had been made (in a newspaper that was notoriously reluctant to the form in past history.) But something happened. In April 2019, a Netanyahu caricature from syndication reprinted in the international editions triggered widespread outrage, a Times apology and the termination of syndicated cartoons. Last week, my employers told me they’ll be ending in-house political cartoons as well by July. I’m putting down my pen, with a sigh: that’s a lot of years of work undone by a single cartoon – not even mine – that should never have run in the best newspaper of the world.

I’m afraid this is not just about cartoons, but about journalism and opinion in general. We are in a world where moralistic mobs gather on social media and rise like a storm, falling upon newsrooms in an overwhelming blow. This requires immediate counter-measures by publishers, leaving no room for ponderation or meaningful discussions. Twitter is a place for furor, not debate. The most outraged voices tend to define the conversation, and the angry crowd follows in.

Over the last years, with the Cartooning for Peace Foundation we established with French cartoonist Plantu and the late Kofi Annan – a great defender of cartoons – or on the board of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, I have consistently warned about the dangers of those sudden (and often organized) backlashes that carry everything in their path. If cartoons are a prime target it’s because of their nature and exposure: they are an encapsulated opinion, a visual shortcut with an unmatched capacity to touch the mind. That’s their strength, and their vulnerability. They might also be a revealor of something deeper. More than often, the real target, behind the cartoon, is the media that published it.

“Political cartoons were born with democracy.

And they are challenged when freedom is.“

In 1995, at twenty-something, I moved to New York with a crazy dream: I would convince the New York Times to have political cartoons. An art director told me: “We never had political cartoons and we will never have any.“ But I was stubborn. For years, I did illustrations for NYT Opinion and the Book Review, then I persuaded the Paris-based International Herald Tribune (a NYT-Washington Post joint venture) to hire an in-house editorial cartoonist. By 2013, when the NYT had fully incorporated the IHT, there I was: featured on the NYT website, on its social media and in its international print editions. In 2018, we started translating my cartoons on the NYT Chinese and Spanish websites. The U.S. paper edition remained the last frontier. Gone out the door, I had come back through the window. And proven that art director wrong: The New York Times did have in-house political cartoons. For a while in history, they dared.

Along with The Economist, featuring the excellent Kal, The New York Times was one of the last venues for international political cartooning – for a U.S. newspaper aiming to have a meaningful impact worldwide, it made sense. Cartoons can jump over borders. Who will show the emperor Erdogan that he has no clothes, when Turkish cartoonists can’t do it ? – one of them, our friend Musa Kart, is now in jail. Cartoonists from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Russia were forced into exile. Over the last years, some of the very best cartoonists in the U.S., like Nick Anderson and Rob Rogers, lost their positions because their publishers found their work too critical of Trump. Maybe we should start worrying. And pushing back. Political cartoons were born with democracy. And they are challenged when freedom is.

“The power of images has never been so big.“

Curiously, I remain positive. This is the era of images. In a world of short attention span, their power has never been so big. Out there is a whole world of possibilities, not only in editorial cartooning, still or animated, but also in new fields like on-stage illustrated presentations and long-form comics reportage – of which I have been a proponent for the last 25 years. (I’m happy, by the way, to have opened the door for the genre at the NYT with the “Inside Death Row“ series in 2016. The following year, another series about Syrian refugees by Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan got the NYT a Pulitzer prize.) It’s also a time where the media need to renew themselves and reach out to new audiences. And stop being afraid of the angry mob. In the insane world we live in, the art of the visual commentary is needed more than ever. And so is humor.

Patrick Chappatte
June 10, 2019

Categories
Blog

Today’s E-mail Interview with a Turkish Newspaper

When I take the time to write responses to a questions from reporters, I think I’ll post them here. This one is from a Turkish newspaper today.

Hi Daryl,

Thanks so much. Here’s a few questions. I’m really interested in your views and opinions:

Do you think Le Monde cartoonist (Jean Plantureux) purposely left out Turkey – from his recent image?

Do you think cartoonists must ensure that symbols like flags are correctly interpreted?
 
Do you think Twitter and Facebook followers really understand why they are changing their Facebook profiles to various flags etc.

Besides Turkey, Paris and Belgium – there’s been attacks this past year in Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Chad,  Tunisia, Egypt, etc – across the globe. Do you think there are double standards when it come to Western media response to such attacks?

Many thanks


DPlantu france belgiumear …,

Do you think Le Monde cartoonist (Jean Plantureux) purposely left out Turkey – from his recent image?

I think Plantu draws exactly what he means to draw.

Do you think cartoonists must ensure that symbols like flags are correctly interpreted?

 

France Belgium Turkey flag cartoonCartoonists want readers to correctly understand their cartoons. Cartoons that are misunderstood are ineffective cartoons. Cartoonists are in the business of communicating their ideas. There is nothing we can do to insure that readers correctly interpret our cartoons, except to strive to draw good cartoons. I don’t think of “flags” as something to interpret, except that I generally understand that American readers don’t recognize the flags of other countries. Worldwide cartoonists typically use flags to represent countries more often than American cartoonists

Do you think Twitter and Facebook followers really understand why they are changing their Facebook profiles to various flags etc. 

I’m aware of the French flags in the profile pictures on Facebook in response to the attacks in France; the Facebook users intended to make an expression of solidarity with the French in response to the terror attacks. I haven’t followed other instances of flags in Facebook profile pictures.

Besides Turkey, Paris and Belgium – there’s been attacks this past year in Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Chad,  Tunisia, Egypt, etc. – across the globe. Do you think there are double standards when it come to Western media response to such attacks? 

Terror attacks in countries that have frequent terror attacks are not as newsworthy as attacks in countries where these events are a new trend. I suppose this can be argued to be a double standard in the respect that human life should have the same value everywhere.

President Obama reportedly argues that deaths from “slipping in bathtubs” accounts for more lives lost than terrorism. Surely more people die from bathtub falls in China than anywhere else, simply because there are more people in China; by that measure, the news should always be dominated by bathtub deaths in China rather than terrorism. It is the role of editors to decide what news is most important; I don’t consider these editorial decisions to be a “double standard.” I’m more interested in news on the Brussels attacks than I am in news about still more carnage in Chad.

I don’t know the origin of the altered Plantu cartoon that you sent to me, including the Turkish flag character. I’m guessing it wasn’t drawn by Plantu, but rather by a copyright-infringing reader who wanted to make a different point, that Turkey has suffered more terrorist attacks than France and Belgium.

Please send me a copy when you come out with your article.
Best,

Daryl

Categories
Blog

A brave woman cartoonist was imprisoned in Iran for posting this cartoon on Facebook

Brave Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani was imprisoned in Iran for posting this cartoon on her own Facebook page. Please share the video and the cartoon – everyone should see it.

Read the latest news about Atena on the Cartoonists Rights Network site.

You can e-mail Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations at [email protected]. Here is a suggested letter:

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei,
President Hassan Rouhani
Head of Judiciary Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani

Honored Sirs;

I am writing to protest the outrageous sentence handed down against Iranian artist Atena Farghadani, and to urge her conviction be overturned and Ms. Farghadani freed.

Freedom of expression and association are universal human rights recognized by all civilized nations, including Iran as a signatory to the UN’s International Human Rights Conventions. The arrest and sentencing of Atena Farghadani is a clear violation of those rights, and also of Iran’s own statutes and international agreements. It cannot be allowed to stand.

In the interest of justice and to demonstrate its recognition of universal human rights, Iran must release Atena Farghadani.

Respectfully,

your name
your city/state/country 

Aetna-Image

Categories
Blog Columns

“Gotcha” Questions for Scott Walker

I get lots of e-mails with the same message, like this one from little Johnny in Nashville, who writes, “Dear Mr. Cagle, Please explain your cartoon to me. My paper is due tomorrow.”

I hate having to explain myself. So does Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker.

Walker doesn’t like “gotcha” questions from the media. When a reporter asks a politician a question, and knows that an honest answer would be an answer that many people won’t like hearing, that is a “gotcha” question. Walker has been clumsy while learning to avoid “gotcha” questions.

I drew a cartoon showing a reporter interviewing Walker.

Reporter asks, “Gays?”

Walker says, “I don’t wanna answer that.” Walker thinks, “Homos are so nasty.”

Reporter then asks, “Evolution?”

Walker says, “I won’t answer.” Walker thinks, “This liberal ape doesn’t know that evolution is only a ‘theory’.”

Reporter asks, “Do you think Obama is a Christian?”

Walker says, “I never asked him.” Walker thinks, “I never asked that liberal, Muslim, Kenyan atheist.”

Journalists must be accurate and report the exact words a politician says. My job is better. As an editorial cartoonist, I have the freedom to put any words into the mouths of politicians that I want; I can even choose to put any thoughts into their brains.

Republican candidates must pander to the basest of their conservative base, especially in the presidential primaries. My worry is that politicians really believe the blather that they spew. I would like to hear honest answers to the “gotcha” questions.

The problem with avoiding “gotcha” questions is that I’m left with the impression that Walker really believes the knuckle-dragging nonsense that I write into his thought bubbles.

An even bigger problem is that cartoons are not so funny when they are explained.

Sorry, Johnny.

Categories
Cartoons

GOP Second Opinion

GOP Second Opinion © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,President barack Obama,Elephant,GOP,Republican,health care,medicine,Uncle Sam