Sometimes I wonder if Fox News will let Glenn Beck say any crazy thing he wants – but with Fox’s decision to give Glenn Beck the boot, I guess the answer is a resounding no.
Plagued by sinking ratings and an advertising boycott, Fox announced that Beck would lose his show later this year. This might be a happy day for many, but most editorial cartoonists will be sad to see Beck and his conspiracy-minded gobbledygook leave television.
So I thought it would be fun to post the top ten Glenn Beck cartoons from our archives, and remember the good old days of usurping Martin Luther King, Jr. and calling President Obama a racist.
Here’s my new cartoon about protesters in Afghanistan fighting and killing because some dumb, bigoted pastor in Florida decided to burn a Koran for some publicity.
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The whole situation reminds me of the protests and violence following the Danish Cartooning Controversy that occurred back in 2005, when 12 editorial cartoonists were commissioned by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten to draw caricatures of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in attempt to contribute to the debate regarding criticism of Islam and self-censorship. Even with a free press defined by law, there are other constraints regarding what can or can’t be published.
Here’s the cartoon I drew back then. It’s sad that for some, things never change.
Oh dear, I haven’t been good about posting my most recent cartoons – here they are. This is my annual cartoon about tax time …
This one is about the NATO bombing/no-fly-zone in Libya …
Here’s one on the Republican union bashing.
..and the looming government shutdown …
This is a local cartoon about our ridiculous, multi-billion-dollar trains to nowhere in California. Our new/old Governor Brown is eager to have an election so we can approve new taxes. With all the billions of dollars poured into the ground for a worthless Los Angeles subway, and the local $500 million dollar, most expensive high school ever built, it is hard to make a convincing argument that we need higher taxes.
Here’s my portrait of Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad.
Here’s another drawing of Bashir. He is fun to draw (his neck makes me laugh). As a manly cartoonist, I don’t like to put sissy labels on my caricatures; regrettably, most people don’t know what Bashir looks like, and he needs a label – still, I’m no sissy cartoonist.
Online dating has exploded in recent years, with everybody from busy stockbrokers to soldiers overseas using sites like Match.com and eHarmony to find their soul mates.
Protests in Afghanistan against the burning of a Quran in Florida by Pastor Terry Jones has entered a third straight day. The Taliban seem to be stoking the fires of the angry mobs, who have already killed 20 people and injured nearly 100 more.
It’s always interesting to see how the world’s cartoonists react to an event like this – a single, idiotic American motivated by religious intolerance stirring up trouble and creating violence halfway across the world out of bigotry and hatred.
Slovakian cartoonist Martin Sutovec drew Pastor Jones trying to use the flames of liberty to get his Quran-burning started…
While Signapore cartoonist Deng Meil Coy shows us the face of terrorism.
Israeli cartoonist Shlomo Cohen shows Jones responding to warnings about creating violence in a Dirty Harry moment…
While Jordanian cartoonist Emad Hajjaj suggests it’s the media that are the true fire-starters.
Bulgarian cartoonist Christo Komarnitski draws a comparison between Jones’ Quran-burning and the terrorists behind 9/11.
As questions grew about the scope and focus of the Obama Administration’s offensive in Libya, Columbia Daily Tribune cartoonist John Darkow drew the cartoon above, suggesting that the “limited target” that Obama spoke off actually included the removal of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
But Daytona Beach News-Journal reader Martin Press couldn’t get past what he refered to as the “wildly exaggerated features” of President Obama.
“The caricature… is so disrespectful to the president of the United States that it could have been drawn by one of the nutty “birthers” who infest the media,” wrote Press in an letter to the editor.
We’ve had numerous discussions here about the unique difficulties that come into play when your exaggerating features and caricaturing the nation’s first black president. Is Press right about this Darkow cartoon being “grotesque and racist,” or is he just being too sensitive to race and the art of a political cartoonist to exaggerate the features of his subject, in this case President Obama?
Florida Pastor Terry Jones threatened to burn copies of the Koran back in September as part of a publicity stunt, but it wasn’t until March 20 that Jones ordered a copy of the Koran to be torched in a portable fire pit.
On Friday and Saturday, attacks by mobs in Afghanistan incited by the burning left at least 20 dead and more than 90 injured.
It’s that time of year again. The annual ritual of trips to the ballpark, $5 hot dogs and the crack of the bat as we are greeted with a new season of professional baseball.
One man who has covered a lot of baseball opening days is sports cartoonist Drew Litton. The long-time cartoonist for the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News, Litton now draws sports cartoons for ESPN.com and The Chicago Tribune, and was kind enough to share some of his favorite opening day cartoons.
After working for several years at newspapers like the Village Voice and Michael Moore’s muckraking Michigan Voice, Lloyd Dangle took to self-publishing and saw his first “Toubletown” cartoon published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian back in 1988. Over the years, Dangle grew his list of newspaper subscribers to upwards of 30 alternate newsweeklies and lefty political magazines (and he has been a long time contributor to our site) before tough economic times hit the newspaper industry and slowly whittled his newspaper list down.
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Now, after 22 year, Dangle is retiring “Toubletown” to move on to other projects. The last strip will appear at the end of April, giving Dangle some time to squeeze in a few last cartoons.
Why are you ending “Troubletown” now, after 22 years?
I have changed over 22 years, and the thrill is gone. Having to read so much news and opinion to stay on top of events is a grind that I would like to be free of.
It has nothing to do with the state of the industry though. I’ve been satisfied with my relationships with my newspapers and thrilled that I’ve had the readership I’ve had.
What was the harshest response you ever received for one of your cartoons?
Hipsters went nuts when I did a couple cartoons about parenting. My wife and I had a new baby and I wrote about it in the strip. It was unbelievable the negativity that produced. Lately I have been gravely offending gun owners and tea party activists.
What will you miss most about ending “Troubletown?”
A platform with a population of readers is very hard to give up. That’s why I agonized over the decision.
Hipsters went nuts over this 2002 Dangle cartoon about parenting (click for full version).
How did you get your start drawing cartoons, and what gave “Troubletown” its longevity?
I did cartoons in college as an antidote to the “training” I was receiving in art school. Troubletown went on for so many years because the concept was open ended, so I was able to change the focus to accommodate my interests and my changing ideas of what was relevant.
As someone who leans far to the left, what’s your assessment thus far of the Obama administration?
Obama is a stuffed suit who put together a very convincing, even inspiring campaign, but is now governing as a moderate Republican. Why he’s so hated by the right is baffling to me.
What do you think of the current crop of conservative cartoonists?
I don’t know. I find cartoons tedious except for the ones I really like. Conservatives, when they try to be funny, annoy me, but not so much that I would write them the kind of emails I receive. I find liberals ridiculous too.
Will you still be doing any political commentary, possibly drawing the occasional political cartoon when current events drive you nuts?
After a break I imagine that I’ll get the bug from time to time. I’m going to continue blogging at troubletown.com, where I’ll post sketches and commentary and share weird things that I discover. I also tweet acerbic comments occasionally.
Who are your favorite cartoonists?
I’m loving the young up and coming cartoonists like Jen Sorensen and Matt Bors. I also love the old timer Oliphant. David Sipress is my favorite of the New Yorker style cartoons.
Do you think there’s much of a future in cartooning for them?
There doesn’t seem to be much of a future for cartooning with the models that we know. The internet hasn’t been our friend. I hope they find a way to make it work.
What exactly is “graphic recording” and how did you get involved doing it?
It’s live cartooning in front of an audience, which I do at conferences, lectures or brainstorming events. I learned about it from a colleague who had started doing it and I’ve been learning and building a practice. I can draw extremely fast and spontaneously so it’s a good fit for me and it gives me access to people and fascinating worlds I never knew existed. I just did a gig at a university that was all about the intersection between neuroscience and engineering. It’s the exact opposite of the isolation of working alone in a studio.
What will you be working on next?
I am writing a novel, which I will be happy to finish one of these days. Of course publishing is a crap shoot, but at least I’ll be able to amuse my friends with it.
When it’s all said and done, and cartoonists are drawing pearly gate cartoons of you, what would you like to be known for?
Did you hear that Elizabeth Taylor’s obituary writer died six years before she did? I’m too young to be asked that question!
Here are some of Lloyd’s recent “Troubletown” cartoons:
The President finally made his case to the nation why we needed to establish a no-fly zone in Libya. Nearly everyone agrees that Gadhafi has to go, we just need to figure out the best way to do it without becoming entrenched in another long war.
Last week, an air traffic controller fell asleep in the middle of the night at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, forcing two airplanes to land without any guidance from the tower.
Jeff Darcy, the staff cartoonist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer (click to view more of his cartoons), choose to highlight the ghost of Ronald Reagan, who fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers back in 1981 when they ignored his order to return to work.
“You liberals just can’t let it go, can you? Even after 30 years,” wrote a reader about Darcy’s cartoon. “When you put your own want and greed before public safety, you get what you deserve. The air traffic controllers had it coming then, as do the public-sector unions today. They’re nothing but greedy bullies.”
What do you think: is Darcy’s cartoon fair or foul?
As the U.S. economy limps out of a devastating recession, home foreclosures continue to be a drain on economic growth. Some estimates show that as many as 5 million properties are over 60 days late on their mortgage payments.
