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Bill Day Fundraising Update – Closing in on $30,000

Click here to make a contribution to save Bill Day!

bill day Bill Day Fundraising Update – Closing in on $30,000 cartoonsOur fundraising campaign to pay a salary to brilliant, unemployed cartoonist Bill Day is now in its final stretch. With only 19 days left in our campaign, we really need your help to get to the goal of a $35,000 for Bill, to keep him drawing cartoons and avoid foreclosure on his house! Bill is an important cartoonist, we can’t afford to lose him!  Please help!

This weekend, Bill filmed a short video of his own, where he talked a bit about the history of political cartoons and their importance in the growth of our society. It would be a shame to lose Bill’s unique voice in our increasing homogenized media environment.

I’ve been struck by some of the heartwarming comments posted by people who have already donated to Bill’s campaign. “Bill Day is a brilliant political voice and I hope others will join in to keep that voice heard,” a donor named Gerald wrote.

Another donor named Jean commented, “Support Bill Day – he is a national treasure! He helps us see into the heart of things in a way no one else does.” I couldn’t agree more.

Picture 13 Bill Day Fundraising Update – Closing in on $30,000 cartoonsThe good news is you still have time to contribute to this worthwhile cause. Not only would you be helping to keep our dwindling profession alive, there are some really great perks you can receive for doing so – everything from signed prints of Bill’s work to an actual original piece of Bill Day artwork, suitable for framing.

Click here to make a contribution to save Bill Day!

So please, considering donating today, or even making a second donation – there is nothing more cool than an original Bill Day cartoon hanging on your wall – except TWO original Bill Day cartoons hanging on your wall!

And thank you all for your generosity and commitment to political cartoons!

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Cartoons

Hate Hate Hagel

Hate Hate Hagel © Daryl Cagle,CagleCartoons.com,Senator Chuck Hagel,Secretary of Defense,Defence,Barack Obama,elephant,Republican,Senate Confirmation,GOP

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Welcome Steve Sack!

I’m happy to announce that we have added my cartoonist buddy, Steve Sack, of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, to our newspaper syndication package.

Steve has been one of my favorite cartoonists for decades. Steve’s style is deceivingly cute and sweet, masking some nasty, hard-hitting commentary.  Here are a few of my favorites from Steve’s last year.  I’m still laughing at “Rice Konspiracies” below.

%7BC4704203 DC86 4A57 8CCC 586DEF250BC6%7D Welcome Steve Sack! cartoons

This one surely made Republicans growl …

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Looney Michelle Bachmann is a local favorite for Steve in Minnesota …

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This Donald Trump hair cartoon is great …

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I thought this one was wonderful just because of the way Steve draws helicopters …

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I’d suggest that a cool way to spend New Years Day is a stroll through our
Steve Sack cartoon archive.  It is great fun.

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Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso

Here is my latest cartoon, about the Republican infighting while Obama just sits back and waits for a deal.

BattlingGOP 600wideCOLOR Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

 

This Fiscal Cliff mess came about because of the failure of the “Super-Committee.” I remembered a drawing a did of the Super-Committee some time ago, with a nice fight scene between super donkeys and elephants …

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I liked that Super-Committee cartoon. Super political stuff is always great for cartoonists, especially when super-politicians fail. It occurred to me that I could use the fight scene again, if the donkeys were elephants, so I printed it out lightly and sketched in some rough changes, adding Obama and making the donkeys into elephants in the same, fighting positions …

Sketch600wide Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

… and then I drew over it for finished line on vellum.  This black and white line drawing is what most people see in the newspaper …

BattlingGOPlineart600wide Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons
… and then I colored it in layers on Photoshop. The line drawing is always better than the color, but readers and editors never seem to think so.

The previous cartoon was also about GOP angst, this time in the form of Picasso’s Guernica (below).

guernica600wideforweb Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

Oh the GOP suffering; oh the humanity!  I did pretty much the same thing with this one. I printed out the Guernica painting and traced a nice line drawing on vellum.

124469 600 Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoonsI wanted it to look like it came from my hand, which is why I did all the cross hatching and un-Picasso like line quality.  Then I added the gray tone …

124470 600 Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

Oh!  Those poor Republicans! My most recent one was the New Years Fiscal Cliff cartoon below. This one probably works better on the Web because you have to scroll down to get to the gag.

124677 600 Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

My wife thought this one was too cruel to babies. She told me I shouldn’t draw it. My Australian cartoonist buddy, Peter Broelman did a similar one today, without being cruel to the baby – and his will get reprinted more because it isn’t in a vertical format.  My wife likes Peter’s better too.  Oh well.

124642 600 Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

 

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Sandy Hook, the Cliff and Unions

 

124345 600 Sandy Hook, the Cliff and Unions cartoonsThe cliff is such a natural cartoon that I have to keep drawing it.  This cartoon (right) was from December 20th, when the fiscal cliff negotiations were going nowhere, and I was drawing John Boehner hanging off the cliff where the elephant is, and my son came by and asked me who that was.  It was fine when I explained it, but he didn’t know John Boehner, and I thought I needed to draw and elephant.  We’ve had lots of Boehner cartoons, even a great Boehner section – but he hasn’t risen to the level where young people know him, and I’ve been sticking to the elephant in his place. I hate that our cartoons are puzzles for schoolkids to suffer through.

I’ll draw Boehner soon enough.

The two cartoons below were drawn about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I hate that I have to draw cartoons about heinous crimes, because we all agree on how awful the murders were and the issues are all side issues … comments about grieving, and cartoons about gun control are appropriate, I just wasn’t inspired for another round of redundant gun control cartoons.  Then I watched a horrendously insensitive interview on Fox News with parents of a surviving child, and a couple other, awful interviews with grieving parents that made me angry. The hype around this was pretty ugly, and inspired the media vultures cartoon below.  I think it is good to bash another bad guy than the shooter in cartoons – best not to mention the shooter at all – the few news outlets that don’t mention the murderer’s name are being responsible journalists.

124021 600 Sandy Hook, the Cliff and Unions cartoons

The next cartoon is another riff on the same theme. I got a lot of response to these cartoons from readers who were also disgusted by the media reaction to the tragedy.  Ugly stuff.

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The next cartoon was about the passage of “right-to-work” legislation by Michigan’s Republican governor and legislature. I know this cartoon won’t get reprinted much, but when you gotta pee, you gotta pee.

123758 600 Sandy Hook, the Cliff and Unions cartoons

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Cartoons

GOP uernica Gray

GOP uernica Gray © Daryl Cagle,CagleCartoons.com,GOP,republican,elephant,Pablo Picasso,painting,Spanish Civil War,fiscal cliff,congress

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Cartoons

GOP uernica

GOP uernica © Daryl Cagle,CagleCartoons.com,GOP,republican,elephant,Pablo Picasso,painting,Spanish Civil War,fiscal cliff,congress

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Bill Day’s Gun Control Cartoons

Back in May, columnist Tina Dupuy (who I syndicate to newspapers and Web sites nationwide) wrote about the need for gun control in America, noting that the NRA was for gun control over its first hundred years and only recently started to mention the Second Amendment as their cause.

There’s no cartoonist who cares about the issue of gun control more than Bill Day. Here are some of Day’s best cartoons about guns in America, including some of his recent cartoons following the tragic school shooting in Connecticut.

(Donate to our Bill Day fundraising campaign and help keep the him drawing!)

123796 600 Bill Days Gun Control Cartoons cartoons

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What do you think – do we need more gun control laws, or less? Comment below or weigh in on our Facebook page!

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Cartoons

Media and the Connecticut School Shooting

Media and the Connecticut School Shooting © Daryl Cagle,CagleCartoons.com,guns,media,news,newspapers,television,victims,Sandy Hook Elementary School,school shooting,children,connecticut shooting, Education, gun debate 2012, school violence

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Cartoons

School Shooting Vultures

School Shooting Vultures © Daryl Cagle,CagleCartoons.com,Connecticut,CT,Sandy Hook Elementary School,school shooting,gun,guns,violence,murder,gun control,media,television,

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Bill Day Fundraising Update – $23,000 And Climbing

Click here to make a contribution to save Bill Day!

As our campaign to help unemployed cartoonist Bill Day from losing his home enters its third week, we need your help more than ever to achieve our goal of raising $35,000.

123796 600 Bill Day Fundraising Update – $23,000 And Climbing cartoons

Bill Day’s most recent cartoon

So far, we’ve raised over $23,000, but we’re also at the point where many campaigns start to lose steam. Don’t let that happen to Bill!

If you haven’t donated yet, please consider doing so today. Not only would you be helping one of America’s top political cartoonists continue working, you can receive some great gifts in return, such as an eBook featuring Bill’s work, a signed print or even an original piece of Bill Day artwork.

Click here to make a contribution to save Bill Day!

If you have already contributed, consider forwarding this post to a friend or co-worker, or sharing it on Facebook and Twitter. With Christmas approaching, what better gift can someone give than helping a brilliant cartoonist in his time of need?

Thank you again for your generosity and commitment to political cartoons! The outpouring of support for Bill has been tremendous, and if we can keep this momentum going, I’m sure we’ll be successful in keeping Bill drawing!

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Off The Cliff

By popular demand I’ve been posting my messy pencil sketches.  There have been lots of cartoons about the fiscal cliff, which is an ideal and flexible metaphor for cartoons.  Obama seems willing to go off the cliff; this cartoon says, “if we go off the cliff, we all go off the cliff.”

I know this cartoon won’t get reprinted widely,  just because it is in a vertical format; but some newspapers will take advantage of the cartoon and do some interesting layouts, nesting type in the space at the bottom right. I like to mix up layouts – that’s one of the freedoms of not having an editor and a fixed hole to fill in print every day.

Here’s my messy sketch in pencil, hard pencil for a light layout and soft pencil for darker details.

CliffSketch Off The Cliff cartoons

Next I trace over the sketch in pencil on vellum for finished line art, which is what most people see in the newspapers that print in black and white.

123626 600 Off The Cliff cartoons

And then I color it in layers in Photoshop, with the black line art as the top layer, for the Web and for the newspapers that print in color, and I save it as a 400 dpi, CMYK tiff file, 9 inches tall and about 6 inches wide.

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I debated with myself about putting in a background color, or just a white background, and settled on a subtle bit of airbrush blue to make the air/motion/cloud pop out and give a little sense of space.

Below is the messy pencil sketch for my previous cartoon. Yes, i’ve gotten e-mails from some kids who “didn’t get it.” I explained the idiom “cutting off your nose to spite your face” and, somehow, I don’t think that explanation was satisfying to them.

SpiteFaceSketch Off The Cliff cartoons

Here’s the final line art, which most people see in the newspaper …

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I always think the line art looks best.  Here is the color …

123563 600 Off The Cliff cartoons

A couple of people e-mailed me to say that they thought it was clever how I turned the elephant into a pig. Actually, I didn’t think of that, but I’ll take credit for it.  Subliminal cartooning.