DarylCagle.comI imagine that the grandpa of the Republican Party, the Party of Lincoln, would respond to the current Republican primaries like this.
Watch me draw this one in real time in the video below. This one was a quickie.
We just put up an all new design for Cagle.com – a very big project for us. Please come and take a look, let us know what you think. The site is finally up to date and all device friendly (take a look on your phone). I think the layouts for the topical sections and artist sections are fun.
The new site has been in the works for a long time, and I should thank our contributing “Heroes” for their support over the last year and have made it possible for Cagle.com to continue. (Notice that there are no ads on the new site?)
This Trump/Cruz cartoon shows the poor Statue of Liberty reacting to the rhetoric. I hesitate every time I draw Liberty now. The Onion has made Lady Liberty into a symbol of third-rate editorial cartooning, always appearing with a tear in her eye. There’s some truth in that.
This cartoon is an update of the oldie below, where I had a Republican elephant at the left. This one needed an update!
Watch me draw this one in real time in the video below!
What? I drew a cartoon with Trump losing Wisconsin – before we know if he wins or loses in Wisconsin? When there are major elections we typically get cartoons in advance that anticipate the outcome of the contests. If Trump loses Wisconsin tonight, editors will have this one in the can, ready for tomorrow morning’s paper on short notice. If Trump does well in Wisconsin, this cartoon goes to waste.
Want to see me draw this one in real time? Check out the YouTube video below. This cartoon turned out to be about the Donald’s hair, without my really intending to do that, but it was fun. I need to look for windy gags for Trump.
Here’s a pro-Trump cartoon. This has been a bad week for Trump as he fumbled a question about abortion and his campaign manager was charged with assaulting a reporter.
I’m sympathetic to Trump in his fumble of the abortion question. The pro-lifers insist that abortion is murder, except that they don’t want to respond to the “murderers” with punishment, as though they are actual murderers. “Murder” is just a meaningless word for pro-lifers, chosen because it evokes a strong, emotional response. The abortion debate is like a religion, where arguments are honed over years of practice. Trump is new to the abortion debate, as a new politician, and hasn’t polished his responses to conform to the hypocrisy of the pro-life conservatives he is courting. I’m fine with him dialing his comments back after being advised of the equally ridiculous, acceptable response he should have given to woo his new, pro-life audience.
This cartoon also responds to the media kerfuffle over Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski’s alleged assault of reporter Michelle Fields, formerly of the conservative news site Breitbart News. I have to agree with Trump on this one. From the videotape, the incident looks like nothing more than an opportunity for Fields to cause some trouble for Trump – the media clowns have certainly run with it.
Want to see the real-time live-stream video of me drawing this cartoon? Check out the video below.
In the next video below, you can watch me coloring the cartoon in Photoshop.
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?
Many thanks
D
ear …,
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?
Cartoonists 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
Sometimes I get emails from college students who are studying editorial cartoons; they often ask the same questions so I thought I would post this recent response I wrote to a student.
Hi James,
1. How many hours of research go into each of your cartoons?
Sometimes I’ll look for photo reference for the art, which doesn’t take long. You can see the whole process in real time by looking at my videos on DarylCagle.com. I live-stream on Twitch when I draw each cartoon now. Each cartoon takes about six hours.2. How much time do you spend reviewing the news everyday?
3. What are two things that make you different from other cartoonists?
4. Who is your favorite person to portray?
Right now both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are gifts to cartoonists.
5. What experiences do you gain in traveling and how does traveling affect your work?
Editorial cartoons are much more important and more highly regarded internationally than they are in America. I am inspired by my brave colleagues around the world and it is great fun to meet them – especially those who put themselves at risk with their cartoons. In most of the world a cartoonist can’t draw the president of his own country or he’ll be fired, sued, beaten, jailed or killed. Friends of mine have been jailed by their governments and murdered by terrorists because of their cartoons. I enjoy the best press freedoms in the world in America. I have it easy – I only get attacked by hackers.
6. If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking at a career as a political cartoonist what would it be?
It is the same advice I would give to any aspiring, young journalist. Newsroom jobs are in decline. New journalists and cartoonists need to create a place where their work is seen by a loyal audience on the Web; they need to develop a reason why their voice is important for their audience. Journalists have to be entrepreneurs now. The days of getting a job at a newspaper and having a big publisher take care of your career are gone. There are more opportunities now, and it is simplistic to look at the decline in employee jobs as a decline for the cartooning profession. It is a big, exciting new world out there.
I have more freedom and a much bigger audience now that I have not been working for a newspaper for over sixteen years. There is no single path for everyone, as there was in the days when making a career meant applying for a job at a newspaper.
About your project … Think of editorial cartoonists as columnists who speak with images. We rarely see students analyzing columns because it is assumed that the columnist has clearly said what he meant to say. Cartoonists depend on their readers already knowing the news. Unlike columnists, we don’t convey facts; we convey simple, visual arguments. People cut the cartoons out to stick them on their fridge; they don’t do that with columns. Images are more powerful than words.
Cartoons are often analyzed by students because cartoons are on state mandated, AP Social Studies tests in 8th and 11th grade, in all 50 states, and teachers “teach to the test.” High school kids typically don’t think much about the news and often don’t have the background to understand what political cartoonists are drawing about. Cartoonists strive to make their points clearly, so the idea of editorial cartoons as puzzles that need to be solved and need an explanation or analysis is disappointing. If a cartoon needs to be explained, it is a poor cartoon or, more often, the reader is not well informed.
Daryl
I responded to a request from National Cartoonists Society (NCS) president Bill Morrison, to do a drawing thanking the city of Memphis for their support of the upcoming NCS convention. The original will be sold at a fundraising auction. Bill sent cartoonists a list of “Memphis stuff” including the pyramid, the Memphis skyline, Elvis, fried chicken and craft beer. I’m more drawn to the old, fat Elvis – I wonder why.
Watch me draw this one in real time in the video below. I drew two cartoons in this video, and this Youtube link is queued to start when I start drawing Elvis.
There has been a lot of talk about Donald Trump’s foreign policy advisors. Trump says he consults himself on foreign policy issues, which makes for a nice Easter cartoon. The cartoon harkens back to Jimmy Stewart’s “Harvey” the invisible bunny friend.
The video below shows me drawing the whole thing, from start to finish in real time!
Democracy can be annoying when the guy who gets the most votes is the guy you really, really don’t want to win.
In the real-time video below you can see me drawing the cartoon, from rough sketch to finished color, ready for print. People like to ask me how long it takes to draw a cartoon – here is the answer! Keep an eye on Cagle.com where you can see me draw live in a popup window when I do a new cartoon, or follow me on Twitch.tv/darylcagle to get an alert when I draw live, and join the live chat while I draw!
As the economic problems facing newspapers continue, it is easy to presume that cartoonists are sacked because of tight budgets. Money troubles shouldn’t give cover to publications that dump cartoonists because of politics, particularly when the politics involve corrupt governments strong-arming the press.
My cartoonist buddy, Gado, is probably the best known African cartoonist. He recently lost his job, according to a report in the Times of Africa. Here is a notable quotes from the article:
In 2009 President Kenyatta, then the finance minister, tried to sue Gado over a cartoon pillorying him for a $100 million accounting error. In 2005 Gado outraged Muslims with a drawing of a woman suicide bomber asking: “I’m also going to get the 72 virgins… right?!”.
Gado was persuaded by his bosses to take a sabbatical last year after the Nation’s sister paper, The EastAfrican, was banned in Tanzania over a cartoon mocking President Kikwete. When he tried to return to work, Tom Mshindi, the editor-in-chief, said his contract would not be renewed.
Mr Mshindi denied that the decision was a reflection on the freedom of the press, which he said was “no better or no worse” than under Kenya’s previous government.
Gado said Mr Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, had often put pressure on the paper’s management. “Freedom of the press is being rolled back and it’s dangerous,” he said. The Nation’s managing editor, Denis Galava, was sacked in January for an editorial attacking the government’s “almost criminal negligence”.
I’m hearing a lot about Trump the “strongman” from the pundits, both for his muscling his way through the primaries and for his “authoritarian” persona. OK. I can draw that.
The hair looks right on a body builder. You can watch me draw the whole thing live, in the video below. We’re working on editing these long streams into a short podcast, since watching me draw for five hours seems a little daunting – that said, jump around the video and you can get a sense of it.
When I draw live, there is a pop-up window on Cagle.com where you can watch and join in the live chat. Please join me and follow on http://twitch.tv/darylcagle
Everyone asks me how long it take me to draw a cartoon, this is how long!
