Classic Grover Cleveland political cartoon by New York illustrator Frank Beard from The Judge magazine.
Arnold Schwarzenegger may be bearing the brunt of our 24-7 news cycle with the revelation that he fathered a “love child” with a former household staffer 10 years ago, but he’s hardly the first politician to admit to such a scandal. From Jesse Jackson to John Edwards, numerous politicians have fallen victim to their own selfish urges.
And some have even survived politically.
During the 1884 presidential election, then New York governor Grover Cleveland admitted that he had fathered a child with a store clerk while unmarried. Frank Beard, a widely known cartoonist at the time, drew this infamous cartoon of a baby crying, “I want my Pa!” on the cover of The Judge magazine. Quickly, Cleveland’s opponents took up the cry and started bringing children to Cleveland’s rallies to chant: “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?”
However, Cleveland went on to win the Presidency, and following the electoral victory, the “Ma, Ma …” attack phrase was countered with the slogan, “Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!”
I was interested to read that my former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child more than 10 years ago outside of his marriage to Maria Shriver. It is fascinating that someone who attracts as much media attention as Schwarzenegger was able to hide something like this. Here is my new Arnold Love Child cartoon …
Looking back at our cartoon archives, we have a lot of terrific cartoons about Arnold. In fact, Cam Cardow of the Ottawa Citizen drew a cartoon back in 2003 showcasing Arnold’s “love child.”
The Los Angeles Times supported Gray Davis and came out with the story of Arnold groping women just before election day. Here was my take then:
And this was a cartoon I drew about the groping story at the time …
Arizona cartoonist Brian Fairrington touched on the groping issue in this cartoon about Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial victory:
He also drew a funny cartoon about Arnold’s famous gap:
Regardless of the rumors, our former first lady, Maria Shriver defended Arnold during the campaign against allegations of groping and sexual abuse. Here’s Austrian cartoonist Petar Pismestrovic’s take on Austria’s favorite child …
Pismestrovic draws a terrific Arnold for Arnold-crazy Austrians. Here are a couple more of his caricatures:
I think Ottawa Citzen cartoonist Cam Cardow sums it all up with Arnold’s bumper sticker:
The baby of the space shuttle fleet, the Endeavor, lifted off from Cape Canaveral for the last time, carrying a physics experiment and spare parts to the International Space Station. It’s under the command of Mark Kelly, husband to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was on site to cheer the launch on.
Will gas at the pump costing most Americans $4 a gallon, it’s hard to be sympathetic for “big oil.” Yet that’s what it seems like Republicans and the C.E.O.’s of these companies want, as they attempt to make the case against a Democratic proposal to remove $2 billion in tax breaks to these extremely profitable companies.
Yogi Barra and George Steinbrenner in one of Bill Gallo's cartoons. Bill drew Steinbrenner as General Von Steingrabber.
I was saddened to read the news that legendary sports cartoonist Bill Gallo has passed away. Bill worked at the New York Daily News, drawing cartoons sports and editorial cartoons for more than five decades.
Bill’s rendition of George Steinbrenner, or as Gallo labeled him, General Von Steingrabber was a regular character that I got to know every day when I lived in New York City; Bill was a New York institution. I got to know Bill through the National Cartoonists Society, we were both past presidents. He was a great guy. Old timers in the NCS tell stories of Bill introducing the cartoonists to sports stars, taking his cartoonist buddies to sports parties and big boxing matches. Bill was a cartoon party animal.
Gallo’s passing leaves a hole in the profession of sports cartooning. Other than a few freelancers, and some staff political cartoonists who occasionally draw a sports cartoon or two, most newspapers no longer print any sports cartoons.
Drew Litton, the former sports cartoonist for the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News, draws cartoons now for The Chicago Tribune and ESPN.com, and wrote some of his thoughts on Bill for us:
Bill Gallo owned New York. At least the heart of it. He was a legend in the once vibrant field of sports cartooning. He left his lasting mark on a sports hungry city in thousands of cartoons, done thousands of different ways about thousands of elite athletes, coaches, franchises and fans. To say he will be missed is an understatement. He closes a chapter in history. He was the last daily sports cartoonist publishing in an American newspaper. Yes, we still have Tank McNamara and In the Bleachers, (thankfully) but the era of the full-time staff sports cartoonist is over.
I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Gallo at a National Cartoonist Society convention in Toronto in the 90’s. I was up for the award for best sports cartoonist that year along with Gallo and Eddie Germano I think. I had, of course, a snowball’s chance in hell of actually winning the category because Gallo’s name had been permanently etched on the thing for like 20 years running. He told me I would win it. I looked at him as if he had lost his mind. He smiled and said kindly “just not this year.” He was right. Gallo took home the award again that night. But the following year, Gallo’s prediction came true, and they found some way to etch a different name than Gallo on the award. They Put an L and an I over the G and the A, crossed the two L’s to make them into two T’s and added an N on the end. And I won my one and only award in the sports cartoon category, I’m convinced only because Gallo told them he had run out of wall space. The NCS killed the sports cartoon division award for the following year which I took as a sign that I had killed the entire genre of sports cartooning previously kept very much alive by the humble but happy and enormously talented Bill Gallo.
I will always consider meeting Bill Gallo one of the greatest highlights of my career and honors of my career. He was a genuine American hero, dining with Mantle and Maris and Namath and all of the sports icons of the day. And he stood tall is stature, above them all.
Longtime illustrator and syndicated cartoonist Randall Enos drew a tribute cartoon to Gallo:
Along with the brave fireman who gave their lives on 9/11, the members of Navy SEAL Team 6 have been elevated into the pantheon of American heroes for conducting one of the bravest missions in our country’s history.
I always find it fascinating to take a quick peek at how cartoonists across the world handle big news events. Obviously, the death of Osama bin Laden has been the biggest news story of the year, so nearly every cartoonist has their own take and spin on it.
Here are some cartoons by the great South African cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, who goes by the pen name ‘Zapiro‘ (view more cartoons by Zapiro). You might remember his cartoon about Lady Justice getting raped by South African president Jacob Zuma. One of his trademarks is to draw Zuma with a shower head coming out of his skull, after Zuma revealed during his rape trial that he had sought to prevent himself from contracting HIV by showering after having sex with his accuser.
Zapiro’s cartoons about bin Laden’s death are interesting, viewing the events from a different perspective than an American cartoonist might. His first cartoon is the most “American,” showing bin Laden’s face as one of the twin towers:
Next, Zapiro chose to draw his own conflicted thoughts about the bin Laden mission and the larger meaning of his death:
Finally, he places bin Laden’s death in the context of the “Arab Spring” movement that is washing out dictators throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa:
Newt Gingrich finally made it official, announcing on both Facebook and Twitter that he’s going to run for President in 2012. Actually, his message to his followers was to tune into Fox News on Wednesday night, where he will “talk about my run for President of the United States” with host Sean Hannity (once a Fox shill, always a Fox shill).
The editor of the Daily Lobo, the student newspaper of the University of New Mexico, issued an apology in response to criticism from students after it published this Hajo cartoon about the death of Osama bin Laden. Many of the protesters said they thought the cartoon resembled images used in the past to justify slavery.
Cartoon by Hajo (click to enlarge)
The cartoon parodies a famous scene from “The Lion King,” having Obama play the role of Rafiki, the baboon. Instead of holding up Simba to announce his birth, Obama is holding up the head of Osama bin Laden, announcing his death. It’s the same scene that Obama tweaked Donald Trump with as a joke at the White House correspondents dinner last week.
We syndicate Hajo’s cartoons. Hajo is based in the Netherlands and draws for the Dutch newspapers NRC Handelsblad, NRC Next and de Pers.
“I’m so NOT racist,” Hajo said via email. “I see Obama a president and a person. And therefore I think it’s OK to let the president act in the Lion King.”
As a European cartoonist, Hajo is less aware of the sensitivity among readers when they see Obama as a monkey. Still. he said he should have known better.
“Not everyone can ‘read’ a cartoon,” Hajo said. “Some people get stuck in simple stereotypes. And that’s too bad, because a lot of the humor and insight lies behind the obvious.”
“Regrettably, this cartoon offended the African-American community — along with many others — who interpreted Obama’s representation as racist,” write Chris Quintana, the editor of the Daily Lobo. “For this oversight, I sincerely apologize.”
In 2009, New York Post cartoonist Sean Delonas drew the now-infamous cartoon showing a chimp shot by two policeman, who say “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” The prevailing view among the bloggers and talking-heads back then was the cartoon was a racist depiction of Obama as a monkey.
Back then, I suggested that every cartoonist should make a list of every racial stereotype to avoid regarding African-Americans, then go through the check list before putting pen to paper on any Obama cartoon, like a pilot goes through a check list before taking off in his plane.
The difficulty of course is that many cartoonists drew George W. Bush as a monkey. The cartoonists all chose to draw Bush with big monkey ears and a huge, monkey-like upper lip, so drawing Bush as a monkey was a natural progression. Now the cartoonists are all drawing Obama with similar, big monkey ears and we’re starting to hear complaints from readers about how we draw Obama’s lips. Presidents also get shorter in cartoons if they don’t perform well, and chimps are short, forcing cartoonists to have to tiptoe through a racial-metaphor-minefield.
