The pundits say that cues from former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn’s lawyers tell them that he is ready to “flip” and testify against someone higher up – presumably President Trump. Flynn has been under a lot of heat –or as I draw it, on top of a lot of heat, from special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
Flynn is a wonderful character. His harsh face seems to perfectly describe his harsh character. Sometime you can tell a book by its cover. Here are a couple of Flynn cartoons from my archives. I drew the first one when Flynn “resigned.”
Last Spring I had a lovely exhibition in Virton, Belgium, with my France-Cartoons buddies, who you can see below, lined up around a sign promoting the exhibition.
The organizers of the exhibition are Raphael Donay Rafagé (just to the left of the sign) and Angelo Frade, third from the right.
The exhibition included about 100 framed prints of my cartoons in a cool, medieval labyrinth with nifty vaulted ceilings.
The French and Belgian cartoonists know how to party. They have an annual festival in Virton and neighboring Rouvroy, charming places that were the home of some of the most savage fighting in World War One.
There was a nice municipal building with more exhibitions, in neighboring Rouvroy, where we sat at tables drawing for the public, as they do at the French cartoonists’ other big festival in St Just le Martel.
Drawing for the public is a strange concept for American editorial cartoonists. Most visitors ask for caricatures of themselves; American cartoonists might think this is more appropriate for a caricature artists’ convention or an amusement park, but editorial cartoons are much appreciated in Belgium and France and I enjoy doing the caricatures. It gives the public a way of interacting with the “press-cartoonists” at festivals throughout the day, and it is great fun. We don’t charge for the drawings, although some cartoonists ask for a beer in exchange for a caricature.
The French cartoonists argue among themselves about why they draw free caricatures at their festivals; they don’t draw caricatures as part of their regular press-cartooning business, these drawings are only a schtick for festivals. I’m told that the festivals often insist that cartoonists don’t charge for drawings and this annoys some cartoonists who want to be paid (I don’t know if Virton/Rouvroy had this policy and cartoonists regularly sell their books at the festivals). The “press cartoonist” festivals make an ongoing circuit for the Euro-cartoonists who enjoy getting together to party much more frequently than their American colleagues do.
I think the free caricatures make municipalities feel like they are providing something special for the public in return for their support for the festivals. Some cartoonists argue that, as their print clients crash and burn, and their business model collapses, they should be able to make income from drawing at the festivals. Others complain that there are sometimes not enough visitors at the festivals, and they end up drawing each other –this is true, but cartoonists drawing each other is fun. It is all fun for me.
Eating and drinking are the most important activities at “press cartoonists” conventions in Belgium and France. Here’s I’m sitting down for dinner with some charming colleagues, from the left, Nol (from France and Holland), Marilena Nardi (Italy), me, Kap (Barcelona, Spain), Antonio Antunes (Portugal) and Christina Sampaio (Portugal).French cartoonist, Alain “Nalair” Roche, asked me to draw him as an elephant squirting wine – something I draw all too often, but Nalair makes a handsome elephant and the wine was excellent.These charming Belgian ladies, Olivia and Zoe, asked me to draw them together, as ice skating penguins.I should have put this young lady’s name into the drawing so I would remember it. She did a lot of traveling and likes kitties, so she is a traveling kitty with stickers on her suitcase showing where she has been. For some reason, I’m asked to draw lots of kitties when I take requests.
The festival in Virton happens every Spring. Everyone who loves editorial cartoons should go! Many thanks to all the France-Cartoons guys, and to Raphael and Angelo for a wonderful festival and a great exhibition!
Celebrities and politicians are getting slammed with sexual harassment allegations from years ago. It must be the same in the doggie world.
I hate to draw cartoons about crime. Cartoons about bad guys are usually lousy cartoons because they only bash the bad guys, and it doesn’t add much to the public debate to say “that bad guy is bad” in a cartoon. The sexual harassment debate is different because it looks like tribal loyalty “trumps” moral conviction. One accuser against Senator Al Franken, who accepts his apology, is a cause célèbre for Republicans who call the many Trump accusers “fake news.” The same was true of president Bill Clinton; Democrats dismissed Clinton’s many accusers as liars. It seems there are no tribes in Hollywood as accused celebrities are dropping like flies.
Here’s a cartoon I drew about Judge Roy Moore’s supporters last week. The air is thick with hypocrisy these days.
It may seem like sexual harassment hasn’t been in the news until now, when there is little else in the news – but sexual harassment is an evergreen topic with cartoonists. Here’s one I drew about Bill O’Reilly.
And here are two I drew about sexual harassment in the military.
Here’s one on Bill Cosby.
Here’s one on Trump and his infamous Access Hollywood tape.
And I’ll round this out with a couple of Anthony Weiner cartoons.
I’ll give a lecture at California State University Northridge (CSUN) next Monday (November 20th) from 4:30pm to 6:00pm at Manzanita Hall Room 213, on the west side
of campus. It is free, but visitors need to buy a parking pass at an information booth or at a kiosk. Anyone can come who wants to come.
This is being put on by the University’s student SPJ chapter; their journalism professor, Stephanie Bluestein, is my local Los Angeles SPJ Chapter Chairman. I’ll give a PowerPoint presentation with lots of cartoons, and I’ll talk about my work, how my syndicate works, and issues for editorial cartoonists around the world. There will be a one-hour lecture with a half hour of Q&A. The map of where to go at CSUN is below.
I don’t get out much so this is a rare opportunity to see the real me. Don’t be shy. Come on by.
Trump was in China this week. A large part of Trump’s presidential campaign was China bashing, but now Trump’s China bashing is warm and fuzzy, and a bit inconsistent.
I suppose it is obvious that I just wanted to draw a goofy Chinese dragon. I’ve done dragons a few times before. One of my favorites was the cartoon below, about the umbrella revolution in Hong Kong. I was looking at this dragon as I drew and colored today’s dragon, which is why they look like cousins.
I did a speaking tour in China where the audiences were very interested in how I depict China in cartoons. I told them I drew china as a dragon, or as the Great Wall, or as a panda bear, or as that guy standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square (which usually made the crowd gasp, because they don’t mention the Tiananmen Square massacres). At one venue I went through my list and a couple of guys in the crowd got very excited, waving their arms, saying, “Oh! Oh! What kind of dragon?!” That still strikes me funny, although I’m not sure why. I don’t know the answer to that question.
Here’s the dragon I drew when Trump was elected.
And here’s one I drew when Obama finally got Bin Laden, who was hiding out in Pakistan, protected by his Pakistani cronies, who should have also been seen as bad guys for hiding Bin Laden, but we just kept giving a bunch of money to Pakistan anyway.
My “Bad guys, watch out” cartoon is a favorite oldie that I updated.
The recent shootings in Texas, where a good Samaritan with a rifle shot the evil bad guy, then chased him down with the help of another good Samaritan, seems to give weight to the gun-nuts’ argument that we’re all safer when more people carry guns, so I thought it was a good time to bring back this oldie.
Now, I suspect we’ll see more people who are motivated to carry their guns everywhere, to be ready in case a bad guy comes along. I may be bringing this cartoon back every few years, as this issue never goes away.
The new Republican tax plan takes away the deduction for state income taxes, which will hit the high-tax blue states hardest. The red states that voted for Trump are the federal welfare cases.
This cartoon features very blue California and very red Tennessee, two great examples of blue-donor and red-dependent states. I drew this one as a local cartoon for the weekly Nashville Scene when I was living in Nashville and I updated it a bit to apply to the issue today. Things don’t change much.
If this was an issue of fairness, the income tax should be reduced in hight-tax donor states and increased in low-tax dependent states. Of-course this is not an issue of fairness. The red states voted for Trump and now it is time for them to get some payback, at the expense of the Hillary states.
I’ve drawn lots of peeing dog cartoons. One of my favorite oldies is George W. Bush as a dog marking his territory around the world. So naturally I wanted to draw a bull, as Spain, peeing on Catalonia. The problem is, that on the map, Catalonia is in the upper right hand corner of Spain, and for the Spanish bull to pee on Catalonia I would have to have the Spain-Bull stand in France, which doesn’t make much sense. The bull could be standing up to pee, in an arc up to Catalonia, but that’s a little nasty. We have a new “no penises” policy here at Cagle Cartoons, which means that strategic parts of the bull have to be concealed.
So I settled on the doggie style leg up peeing, with the map of Spain in perspective and the pee puddle above the bull. I know that’s a stretch.
Here’s my old favorite Bush peeing cartoon. Bigger map. Smaller doggie. No puddle under the doggie.
Sometimes it’s hard to pee when geography gets in the way – so my Catalonia cartoon is not one of my best. Still, I look to draw peeing “doggies” whenever I can.
