Quiet the Hate: Top Ten Cartoons of the Week
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Obama Attack Dog
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Usain Bolt Cartoons
Four years later, and runners still can’t catch Usain Bolt. The Jamaican runner became the first man to repeat as 100-meter champion with his first place finish at the London Olympic Games.
Check out what our cartoonists think in our Usain Bolt cartoon collection:
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Election Sprint and Romney Taxes
We’ve received a lot of great cartoons about Chick-fil-A from both sides of the argument. Some cartoonists supported the First Amendment rights of a CEO voicing his own personal opinion, while other cartoonists thought spending corporate profits on anti-gay causes was bigotry that deserved to be called out.
The largest response came in reaction to this tough cartoon by Jimmy Margulies of The Record:
I asked Jimmy to comment on the cartoon, and here’s what he wrote:
I received both praise and condemnation for this cartoon. Those who agreed with me seemed to really like it. Those who did not expressed their disagreement in a few different ways. Some took the cartoon literally, suggesting I was saying that Chick-fil-A discriminates against its gay customers. I explained the cartoon was an exaggeration. Others felt that I was supporting the boycott of the restaurant and that I was denying the owner his freedom of speech. I explained that the cartoon took no position on the boycott, and that the owner is free to express his views, as well as give money to fund opposition to same sex marriage, but that I found this position objectionable, so I was using my cartoon to speak out about the injustice on the issue of same sex marriage.
Given the potency of the issue, I was glad my cartoon became part of the debate.
As you can imagine, readers on both sides of the argument weighed in on this polarizing cartoon:
Edward Bartunek: Disguesting and a insult to honest, god fearing, hardworking, Americans!
Teri Lesesne: I elect to boycott companies that spew inaccurate information and use their “fame” as a platform for hate. You are free to support them. That is what freedom is all about. But freedom has to be for everyone.
Kerry Wilson Cook: It doesn’t matter. Us gay people don’t go to chickfila anyway. We are all too health conscious to eat the slop that is fast food!!
Jamie Lockett: I wonder how political cartoonists would feel about mayors banning newspapers that carry their cartoons simply because those mayors didn’t like the content.
Robot Anna: Let’s please not appropriate the civil rights movement, thanks.
Jordan Fouts: I like how the same people who suck the invisible thumb of the free market get so mad about boycotts.
Joyce Linnae Crady: I hate boycotts. They hurt innocent workers & the economy. I vote for religious freedom and freedom of speech. As long as Chick-fil-A doesn’t discriminate in their establishments, they have a constitutional right to their beliefs and a right to express them.
Sunny Arts: This comic is an affront to the efforts of the civil rights movement – when segregation was truly being preached and enforced. Nobody is shoving gays to the ‘back of the bus’.
Steve Paysen: Have you seen the support of Chic Fil A today? I’d say you first of all are wrong in your portrayal, and who are you to take away the right of any man to answer a question with his conscience?
Terry Lee: Talk about rhetoric. Let’s be clear. People aren’t upset or up in arms about a man’s opinion or religious belief. People are boycotting this business because the BUSINESS donates large sums of money to anti-gay political/hate groups. He is free to express his opinion, certainly. I also am free to take my money elsewhere and encourage others to do the same.
What’s your opinion of the cartoon? Comment below, or drop us a note on our Facebook page.
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My Muppet Cartoons
I just drew another Muppet themed editorial cartoon, about Chick-Fil-A, below. I worked for the Muppets from the 1970’s into the 1990’s; the Jim Henson organization made my career as a cartoonist so whenever the Muppets make the news I feel nostalgic.
I drew this one when Congress was cutting funding to PBS.
I remember when Stephen Colbert testified before Congress, in character, and Republicans complained that they might as well have Elmo testify before Congress, another good occasion for a Muppet cartoon.
This one was when the evil Goldman-Sachs traders derisively called their customers “Muppets,” for them, synonymous with “suckers.”
The Children’s Television Workshop folks announced that Cookie Monster would no longer eat unhealthful cookies.
I drew this one when I was a local cartoonist in Hawaii, and Hawaii was running up to a vote to legalize gay marriage (which failed). A conservative Christian group was outraged by the cartoon and organized a noisy protest outside my newspaper, the Midweek, demanding that the cartoonist “come out!” (I wasn’t really inside, I was at home in California, pretending to be a local Hawaii cartoonist.)
Here are some examples of what I drew and designed back in my Muppet years … the good old days. I still love the Muppets.
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Chick Fil A Muppets
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The Do Nothing Congress Olympics
With the Olympics in full-swing, I thought I’d share this clever mini-series of cartoons from our own R.J. Matson, the political cartoonist for Roll Call. Sadly, these cartoons are right on the mark about a Congress with an approval rating of just 12 percent:
Brilliant Canadian cartoonist Cam Cardow, the staff cartoonist for the Ottawa Citizen, had the cartoon below rejected for being too cynical and unfair. “I think it’s fair comment,” Cam wrote on his Facebook page, “but I’ll accept the cynical tag.”
Cam expanded his thoughts behind the rejected cartoon:
It’s not that I think Canadian athletes are mediocre, (because they are not) it’s just got to do with them up against some really tough competition this year,” Cam wrote. “As a result, some of Canadian coverage I’ve seen has been the proverbial making lemonade when given lemons. There hasn’t been a lot to celebrate from a Canadian perspective so far. In contrast, we have the U.S. coverage which can’t keep up to their medals and victories. It’s not a criticism, just pointing out the reality of it.
Here is the cartoon Cam drew in place of the rejected one:
We’ve heard a lot about the NRA and gun control in the wake of the tragic shooting in Aurora, Colorado. Lots of our cartoonists have already weighed in on the issue (check out our collection of Gun Control cartoons), but readers seem polarized by conservative cartoonist Gary McCoy’s cartoon about the call for increases gun control laws following the shooting:
Here’s a sampling of some of our readers’ comments on Facebook:
David Wilder MaGoo: Sorry, don’t see the correlation. Guns don’t fall out of the sky.
Suzanne Chiles: When it’s easier to buy 6000 rounds of ammunition than it is to buy a box of Sudafed, I’d say that yes, we probably do need some more laws concerning the ownership and operation of firearms.
Ivy C Maile Boley: you can’t make laws that make people less crazy, less mean, less marginalized – – laws are supposed to step in when society has failed to uphold our inherent cooperativeness.
Tim Campbell: Stopping deranged people from killing – (left solution) harder access to guns. Stopping teens from having sex – (right solution) harder access to birth control.
Steven Pennella: Total cheap shot considering Democrats are pro-solar power and the fossils of the GOP are pro fossil fuel.
Michael A. Cooper: Why are ALL the gun laws aimed at the law abiding and NOT the criminals?
Rick Wade: If the existing laws were enforced the situation would improve dramatically.
Bob Jones: Cartoon is a non sequitur. Guns and gun violence, unlike sunshine, are not naturally occurring phenomena.
Eric Nelson: Here’s a thought, let’s enforce our laws on the books and close loop holes for gun shows. Tax ammunition like talons out of existence and bring back an assault weapons ban. For those enthusiasts who love assault weapons, I’m sorry. Hell pot is illegal.
What do you think? Comment below or drop us a note on our Facebook page.
On Friday, Lee Enterprises announced it was laying off nearly two dozen employees at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 14 of which came from their newsroom. Among the laid-off journalist is someone familiar to Cagle.com readers – their staff cartoonist, R.J. Matson.
Matson, whose cartoons I syndicate to newspapers nationally with Cagle Cartoons, moved to St. Louis in 2007 to become the staff cartoonist at the Post-Dispatch, and has survived many cutbacks and layoffs along the way.
“I had a good seven year run. No regrets. I had the honor of working with a lot of great journalists, many of whom were laid off or jumped ship, during my time at the Post-Dispatch,” Matson said. “When my number came up, I didn’t take it personally.”
We will continue to syndicate Matson’s great cartoons. He’ll continue to draw four cartoons a week for Roll Call, but he’ll miss drawing cartoons about the local politics of St. Louis and Missouri.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Matson said. “But desperate measures won’t bring in new readers and will alienate a lot of loyal readers, many of whom really like to see their community reflected in local editorial cartoons.”
You can view Matson’s terrific cartoons here.
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Cartoonists Love Michael Phelps
I drew this cartoon of Michael Phelps during the 2008 Olympics. The swimmers wore body suits then (which have since been banned) and I thought the body suits were funny.
Phelps seems to be having some troubles this time around, but it seemed to all the cartoonists that he swam like a dolphin in Beijing.
Many cartoonists drew Phelps sinking to the bottom of the pool under the weight of his gold medals. Many more drew him as a super hero.
Soon after the olympics there was a little scandal about Phelps smoking marijuana – not something most people would care about, but cartoonists love to draw marijuana cartoons.
I thought this Phelps cartoon was charming …
I’m rooting for Michael Phelps to get it together and come back. He’s good for cartoonists.
I’m sad to report that my friend, cartoonist Dave Thorne, often refered to as the father of Hawaiian cartooning, has died at the age of 82.
Thorne was well known in Hawaii for his funny cartoons and his commitment to educating and reaching out to kids with his work. He would often travel around the island and give “chalk talks” to young people, inspiring them to grab a pen and start drawing.
Up until October of last year, Thorne had been drawing “Thorney’s Zoo”, a gag strip filled with funny animals, for Sunday’s edition of Honolulu Star-Advertiser. I can probably count on one hand the number of newspapers across the country that commission cartoonists to draw local comic strips. Thorn also taught cartooning regularly at UH Manoa for twenty-three years before retiring in 2001.
Here’s a video from 2011 of Thorne as he sketches for kids at the McCully-Moiliili Public Library in Hawaii:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzvPzbzQ1-E]
There’s a nice Facebook tribute page up with people from across the country weighing in and drawing cartoons in Dave’s honor.