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Blog Syndicate

Media Bopper

The White House Correspondents Dinner was even more of a show this year as President Trump chose to have a competing rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trump seemed to pull out all the stops on bashing the press, so I decided to pull out the bopper clown.

I almost did two versions of this cartoon, one with a media clown, and another with a normal looking reporter as the bopper. A few years ago I drew conservative and a liberal version of a cartoon because I changed my mind about the issue and I was assailed by some of my cartoonist colleagues who accused me of creating a new business plan to get twice the value at half the cost, by drawing two versions of cartoons while abandoning my principals.  I was tempted to do two versions of this one, to annoy my colleagues, rather  just for fun – but the clown version was better.

I’ve also been rethinking the way I draw Trump to be more how I feel Trump than how I actually see Trump, so I’m making him fatter, with a longer, bigger, bottom of the face just because the bottom half of his face is more interesting and when cartoonists find something interesting, we make it bigger. Big hair. Big bottom of the face. Big poochy lips.

Boxing with an inflatable bopper character is a standard editorial cartooning cliché. Here’s another one of mine from ten years ago …

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Blog Syndicate

Off the Record TRUMP DISASTER and Cavemen Cartoonists

Today’s cartoon isn’t really an exaggeration – this is what “on-the-record” and “off-the-record” interviews with GOP politicians are really like these days. Sometimes a cartoon is nothing but a slice of life.

I’m setting up my studio again in Los Angeles after my move back from Nashville and I’ll hopefully be drawing more cartoons! This is the first one I’ve live-streamed from my new setup. There are too many things to remember with the streaming; with this one, I forgot the little sandpaper that I like to have on the side as I draw, to make the chisel points on my pencils – so I went outside and grabbed a couple of rocks. I can draw with rocks instead of sandpaper, just like the caveman editorial cartoonists used to do, back in the days of newspapers and dinosaurs as I saw depicted on my recent visit to the Creation Museum in Kentucky, where they recently opened a $100 million full size replica of Noah’s Ark, funded by taxpayers. The project is supported by $60 million in tax-free municipal bonds and ongoing tax support from a sales tax rebate and a tax on wages of all the employees who work for businesses in the Ark’s tax district, along with an $18 million tax rebate from the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority. Here’s a nice article about it.

Gotta love Kentucky. The video below shows me drawing the “Off the Record” cartoon, rocks and all.  Thank God.

In the next video I color the cartoon, like a modern cartoonist on my Wacom Cintiq.

 

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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.