Here on Cagle.com we’re big fans of Arizona Republic cartoonist and Steve Benson. But one of his readers didn’t appreciate the following cartoon about George W. Bush’s canceled trip to Switzerland.
Jacqueline J. Allen wrote into the paper, complaining that Benson “…has forgotten about 9/11 and what Bush authorized in order to keep the citizens of this country safer in the future.”
Flowers die, candy gets eaten, but cartoons last forever. So this year, why not share our collection of terrific Valentine’s Day cartoons with that special someone.
With Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepping down on Friday following weeks of demonstrations, protesters have rushed to the streets to celebrate. As opinion makes around the world weigh in on this important moment in history, and what comes next, let’s turn to cartoonists from all corners of the globe for their unique perspective on yesterday’s events.
Manny Francisco, who draws for the Manila Times newspaper in The Philippines, shows the sand in Mubarak’s hourglass running out.
Australian cartoonist Peter Broelman humorously comments on Mubarak securing his fortune before stepping down.
Singapore cartoonist Deng Coy Miel wonders what’s next after Mubarak’s withdrawal.
French cartoonist Frederick Deligne shows the wave sweeping across the Middle East.
Jordanian cartoonist Emad Hajjaj shows the eventual outcome of a revolution driven by social media.
Scottish cartoonist Brian Adcock draws one of the funniest Mubarak caricatures and illustrates the people of Egypt as a great wonder of the world.
Here’s my take on Mubarak, who flees Egypt under fire.
Hosni Mubarak, the embattled president of Egypt for the last 30 years, finally succumbed to 18 days of protests against his rule and announced he would be stepping down. As the streets of Cairo erupt in celebration, the world’s cartoonists have begun to weigh in on this historical moment in history. Come check out their cartoons about Mubarak calling it quits.
I met Iranian cartoonist Kianoush Ramezani (view Kianoush’s blog here) at the recent RIDEP editorial cartooning festival in Carquefou, France.
Kianoush drew cartoons supporting the anti-dictatorship Green Movement in Iran, and regularly criticized the Iranian leadership. The government began cracking down on intellectuals, journalists and bloggers, and after seeing many of his close friends incarcerated, Kianoush made the decision to flee Iran; he was given asylum in France, where he is able to speak about the importance of cartoons and the media environment inside of Iran.
“(In Iran) all the newspapers belong to the government, directly or indirectly, he says. “All are afraid of the power of cartoons. Publishing cartoons is an impossible thing inside of Iran.”
Last night, over 100 million viewers tuned in to see the Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25, bringing the Vince Lombardi trophy back to title town.
As commentators droned on incessantly with uninteresting commentary about the game, some of the nation’s best editorial cartoonists were hard at work penning their thoughts about the game.
Nationally-syndicated sports cartoonist Drew Litton focused on Super Bowl XLV MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Lombardi trophy returning home.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review cartoonist Randy Bish lamented the Steelers’ loss and their quest for a record seventh championship.
Cartoonist Dave Granlund saw the defeat as a steel-mangling triumph for the Packers.
While Pittsburgh Post-Gazette cartoonist Rob Rogers (view Rob’s cartoons here) turned the Vince Lombardi trophy into the ultimate Cheesehead. Rob also attended this year’s Super Bowl, and posted some terrific cartoons throughout the week on his blog.
There are very few women editorial cartoonists, and I’m not sure why. At this time, there is only one woman who has a full time job drawing editorial cartoons for a print newspaper, out of about 75 newspaper cartooning positions in America. The disparity extends to the unsolicited submissions I get from aspiring cartoonists, who are 99.9 percent male; the same is true among the almost-all-male cartoonists around the world. Naturally, a rare woman editorial cartoonist gets special attention, just because she is a woman.
When discouraged political cartoonists sit behind a beer and complain, sometimes the talk turns to the idea of pretending to draw as a woman, to take advantage of affirmative action minded editors who might prefer cartoons by a woman, and affirmative action minded award juries who might be more inclined to give awards to a female cartoonist – but I had never heard of a cartoonist actually going through with the scheme.
One of the top editorial cartoonists in Austria is Rachel Gold, who draws for the national Wiener Zeitung and Tiroler Tageszeitung newspapers. Rachel is remarkable, not only because she is a rare, female editorial cartoonist, but also because she’s not female, and she doesn’t really exist. Rachel Gold is a fictional character, created by Austrian cartoonist Markus Szyszkowitz.
Rachel was created in response to Markus’ frustrations, working under editorial constraints at his former newspaper, the Kronen Zeitung. Rachel got a job, and a paycheck, as a cartoonist at the Wiener Zeitung, replacing Markus, who was forced to leave his editorial cartooning job under pressure from his editor, because his cartoons had offended a politician who would later become Austria’s chancellor.
Drawing in a different style, with a different political point of view, Rachel could draw cartoons that Markus could never get past his editors. Markus is convinced that his editors, and the Austrian readers, were willing to accept more hard-hitting, liberal cartoons from the young, pretty, Jewish immigrant girl from Israel. Given Austria’s harsh history, Markus believes that Rachel gets more editorial leeway because she is Jewish, rather than because she is a woman.
According to her Wikipedia page, Rachel was born in Tel Aviv in 1978, she was raised in Israel and moved to Vienna in 1999, where she has been a freelance artist since 2004 and is one of only two, female, political cartoonists in Austria.
Markus’ editor began to suspect that something funny was going on with the mysterious woman cartoonist, who suddenly appeared in 2 other Austrian Papers – not only making jokes bashing the new Austrian chancellor but also about the Kronen Zeitung, which Markus tells me, took great care to protect the chancellor’s image. The Kronen Zeitung editor hired an off-duty policeman to investigate Markus and, after a year of digging, the gig was up. The cop had uncovered evidence that Markus was actually Rachel. Rachel’s secret identity was revealed and the editor fired Markus/Rachel.
Markus landed on his feet with another editorial cartooning job, both as himself and as Rachel, for other Austrian newspapers including Die Presse, while his alter-ego Rachel draws for Wiener Zeitung and Tiroler Tageszeitung. Rachel’s cartoons continue to be more liberal and hard-hitting than Markus feels he can get away with (which is evident in Tiroler Tageszeitung, in which both Rachel’s and Markus’ cartoons appear on alternating days).
Rachel’s identity, although not a secret, isn’t known outside of a small community of Austrian cartoonists and journalists. Readers have no idea that Rachel is actually Markus. Rachel has a nice Web site, has published collections of her work in books and has an audience of Austrian fans, who have no idea that she doesn’t exist.
Here are a few cartoons by Markus Szyszkowitz and his alter ego, Rachel Gold. We’ll feature more cartoons on the site from Markus and Rachel soon. Â The cartoon below shows the tighter style that Markus uses for Rachel – this cartoon will run in the newspaper on Monday.
In the Rachel cartoon below, Obama says, “What do you mean the world hasn’t become any more secure?” and Russian President Medvedev says, “After all, we can be destroyed only 30 times over, instead of 44 times over!”
Here’s another Rachel Gold cartoon about China …
The cartoons below shows Markus’ looser style for the cartoons he draws under his own name.
Are you ready for some football? It’s finally Super Bowl weekend, with the Green Bay Packers taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers in a snow-covered Dallas. Check out our terrific collection of Super Bowl cartoons.
With other forms of media shut down, Twitter has come to the rescue for journalists who are in Egypt and reporting on the protests. It seems the movement to oust Mubarak isn’t on TV or radio, but instead pushing the President our of power 140 characters at a time.
Here are my cartoons on the continuing protests in Egypt. The best part about covering a story that “has legs” is it allows you to explore multiple aspects of an event from different perspectives as it develops.
I just received a bunch of cartoons about the continuing unrest in Egypt by Omar Abdallat, the cartoonist for the Addustour newspaper in Jordan. Much like fellow Jordanian cartoonist Emad Hajjaj (view his cartoons about the Egyptian protests here), Omar’s cartoons are bold and powerful, and the imagery is both simple and direct.
Jordan is experiencing protests as well, as demonstrators rally against food prices and poor living conditions. King Abdullah has already responded by replacing his prime minister, so as we watch the protests in Egypt and Tunisia grow, we should ask ourselves if Jordan is next?