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Superbug, Obama’s Budget Battle and more L’il Kim!

Here is the back story on my last three editorial cartoons!

With Obama’s “middle of the road” budget that was attacked by both sides last week, there have been lots of budget cartoons showing both the left and the right angry at Obama. This is much the same thing, but without picturing the budget, so it might last a little longer.

Notice that in my drawing, Obama is not exactly in the middle … from the reader’s perspective, Obama is a little to the left of the middle -although, from Obama’s perspective, he has moved a bit to his right.

Maybe I’m overthinking this. Here is the rough pencil sketch, on tab sized copier paper in pencil.

MiddleSketch600wide Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

Next I drew the finished line art for the cartoon (below), also in pencil, on drafting vellum. This is what most people will see in the newspapers, that still usually print in black and white.

There is something lovely about a black and white editorial cartoon, particularly if it is only line art, without gray tone. I know that people will choose any color over black and white – but I think it is kind of like a classic sail boat vs. a speed/power boat – the sail boat is slow and classy, the power boat is fast, flashy, and people will choose it over the sail boat – still, the sail boat has more class and is nicer to look at.

130233 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

Here’s a detail – isn’t the black and white nice? It is saved as 1000 dpi tiff and has a nice pencil line quality, up close.

detail Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

Then I add the color, for the image most online visitors see.

130234 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

The previous cartoon was another one about L’il Kim. Here’s the black and white – I thought I had to resort to gray to make the multi-panel format work. I like to avoid gray when I can.

130080 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

Here’s the color …

130081 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

The next cartoon was intended to be an evergreen. There was a big, Sunday section front in my local newspaper Health section about  “superbugs” – antibiotic resistant diseases that are a new plague in hospitals. The newspaper didn’t run one of our nice cartoons or illustrations with the feature article, they had some lousy clip art; and I noticed that we didn’t have good “superbug” art in the database – so this is an attempt to fill the “Superbug” void in the CagleCartoons.com/PoliticalCartoons.com databases. Here is the rough pencil sketch on 11″x17″ paper.

SuperbugSketch600wide Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

I know, I know, bacteria don’t look like this kind of bug. Here is the black and white line art.

129945 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

And I thought it might need a bit of gray tone – I’m not sure on this one.

129946 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

And here is the color, added behind the line art in layers in Photoshop.

129947 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

This one was fun to draw. Here is a detail.

BugDetail Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

 

 

 

 

 

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Taxes, France and Boobs

LibertyClip Taxes, France and Boobs cartoonsHere are my last two cartoons, the first one is French President Francois Hollande shrinking. He is wildly unpopular in France after being elected recently, and our world cartoonists draw him all the time, so I thought I would give it a shot. That is “Liberty” from Eugene Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People” who is in the Mom role, measuring Hollande’s growth on the door frame – and that’s a clip of the real Liberty at the right.

Jean Plantu, the cartoonist for Le Monde in Paris, likes to chide me about how I can’t draw bare breasts as an editorial cartoonist in America. Of-course, I am my own editor, and I can draw anything I want – the only problem is getting editors to print what I want.  This cartoon has a triple whammy: boobs, foreign subject matter and a character (Hollande) who American readers don’t know, and I drew it on a Saturday, the dead day for editorial cartoons.

Who cares?! I can draw what I want even if no one will print it.  Here is the messy rough sketch.

HollandSketch Taxes, France and Boobs cartoons

There were lots of corrections I made when I traced over this for the final line art, below.

HollandeLine600 Taxes, France and Boobs cartoons

Here is the color version.

129824 600 Taxes, France and Boobs cartoons

Umbrella350wide Taxes, France and Boobs cartoonsRemember you saw it here first, and you may not see it anywhere else.

The previous cartoon is an evergreen for Tax Day, April 15th. It would be better as an evergreen if the IRS Form 1040 didn’t mention the tax year at the top – I’ll have to make that suggestion to them.

For some reason, cartoonists like to put the year into their cartoons, as part of a copyright notice with their signature, which makes their new cartoons look new but makes their old cartoons look old, devaluing them as evergreens for sale online. I’m always telling artists not to put the year into their cartoons – but do they listen? No. That’s the rough sketch at the right.

129741 600 Taxes, France and Boobs cartoons

I downloaded the tax form from the IRS as the backdrop, and clipped some text in Photoshop. That’s how I feel this time of year. The tax form looks pretty gloomy, huh?

 

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My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies!

My last two cartoons have been about Kim Jong Un. The first was Li’l Kim making himself into a target.  Here’s the rough sketch.

Kim600TargetSketch My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

 

Here he is as line art. Most newspaper readers will see the cartoon in black and white like this.

129508 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

I thought I would be bold with the color on this one – to make it more powerful with only line art and red.  I’m sure some editors won’t print it because of my color choice. Editors like lots of “pretty” and “bright” colors. Editors generally avoid anything that can be called “bold.”

129506 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

Since North Korea is still dominating the news I drew another one. This one with Li’l Kim as a doggie, with President Obama and the new Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Dog600Sketch My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

 

I’ve done a whole lot of cartoons with leaders as doggies. In this case, i thought it would be interesting to have Obama reacting to Li’l Kim’s threatening barking, while Jinping reacts to Li’l Kim’s pee, with exactly the same body language. Here is the line art that most people see. Yes, I decided to move Obama closer, and I realized that I needed a label on Jinping, because he’s new and I didn’t know what he looked like until I looked him up.

129677 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

Here is the color version – which is never as good as the simple black and white.

129678 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

We have a wonderful collection of more than 250 North Korea cartoons here! I’ve drawn lots of leaders as doggies in the past.  Here’s is Li’l Kim’s dad, Il, biting Obama’s butt from 2010. Things don’t change much.

78711 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

Here’s one where Obama is the doggie on Wall Street’s leash.

77319 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

Here’s Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as the doggie.

75799 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

I drew this one back in the 2008 primary season, with President Clinton as the doggie on Hillary’s leash. Ugh, I hate looking at my old, early Obama.

46393 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

I drew a lot of doggie cartoons with President Bush. The military was W’s doggie.

41666 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

Drawing Muslims as doggies is deeply insulting to them, which is why so many cartoonists do it, I suppose. Here are the Sunnis and Shiites fighting at the height of Bush’s Iraq Mess, with Iraq’s president Maliki.

32763 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

I drew lots of W as a doggie.  Here he is marking his territory.

1541 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

And here is W the doggie, during the run-up to war in Iraq.

7541 600 My Very Own Kim Jong Un and Doggies! cartoons

I’ll bet my cartoons would be much more popular if I drew nothing but doggies. I’ve considered it.

 

 

 

 

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What’s Up With Those Cagle Post Ads Everywhere?

FacebookAd What’s Up With Those Cagle Post Ads Everywhere? cartoons

This is what the Cagle Post/Mediapass ads look like on Facebook, in the column on the right.

This weekend, visitors to our site probably noticed that there are ads for Cagle Post appearing on web sites everywhere – even on Facebook.  What’s up with that?

We’ve been trying some new things since our partnership with msnbc.com was dissolved recently – trying some because we can now, and couldn’t before, and trying others things because we no longer have the income from our nice, former partners at msnbc.com so we’re forced to make some tough choices.

We’ve redesigned the site to optimize ad revenue and social networking; part of this change was putting many cartoons onto single pages so that we can have comments and permalinks with the cartoons. This change has resulted in better ad revenue and SEO, even though I, and many of our readers preferred multiple cartoons on the pages, multiple cartoons on a page is a lousy layout for SEO – and without our traffic-heavy partners at msnbc.com, we have to pay attention to SEO now.

Another thing we’re trying, which has bothered some of our readers, is a paywall. Everybody hates paywalls, and many of our readers tell me that all content on the web should be free – and until recently, our site has been totally free because msnbc.com wanted it that way.

728 What’s Up With Those Cagle Post Ads Everywhere? cartoons

I see this banner ad frequently as I browse other web sites. It shows up for users who have a cookie showing that they have visited Cagle.com in the past.

160 What’s Up With Those Cagle Post Ads Everywhere? cartoons

Here is the Cagle Post/Mediapass Donkey Skyscraper.

I’d like to see paywalls work. As a content creator and syndicator, the idea that readers should pay a little for content is how I make a living, and advertising on the internet doesn’t pay much. If paywalls could work, it would be great for newspapers, magazines and cartoonists. I’m trying it because I’d like for it to work, but the jury is still out on paywalls.  I remember the feedback from when I was with Slate.com, about when they tried a paywall – it worked, and they made more income, but their traffic fell to a tiny fraction of what it had been, and their underpaid writers were no longer interested in contributing for poor pay plus a poor audience.  Slate gave up the paywall.

300 What’s Up With Those Cagle Post Ads Everywhere? cartoons

Here’s another one I see often around the Web.

Most of our readers probably haven’t encountered our paywall, because most readers just look at the current cartoons, which don’t trigger the paywall.  Right now, if you look at ten pages of archives, you’ll hit the paywall.  We’re asking for a small payment as a “premium subscriber” to keep looking at our hundreds of thousands of cartoons in the database on cagle.com. We’ve chosen settings for the paywall that are very generous to the free content audience. The new way of looking at paywalls is to leave a generous amount of content available for free, and apply the paywall to only the most ardent fans who want to stay on the site for a long time.

We’re using Mediapass.com for our paywall.  So far, they have been nice to work with. They are prodigious advertisers and, as our paywall partners, they have started advertising on our behalf.  Their ads look for cookies in a user’s browser; if the user has visited Cagle.com in the past, it displays the ads for Cagle.com shown above, linking to our e-mail subscriptions page. We have one free daily e-mail newsletter and other newsletters for premium subscribers who can subscribe to individual cartoonist feeds as well as our special “premium” e-mail newsletter, and who, of-course, have unlimited access to the archives behind the paywall.

So, if you are reading this, you probably have cookies on your browser that bring up the Cagle post ads on lots of different sites, and Facebook. It may seen like we’re advertising everywhere – but we’re not, it just looks that way.

Hopefully we’ll stumble our way into finally finding a plan for making the Web work for us. Our little business still depends on print customers who have a tradition of paid content and of paying their bills, and the mortgages of cartoonists. That is a big difference between us and Slate; our cartoonists and columnists are with us because of our 850+ subscribing newspapers, and not because of our audience on the Web, so we can afford to lose some audience to the paywall, without losing our contributors, as Slate did.  That said, so far we haven’t lost audience with our new paywall and layout changes, so I’m hopeful.

And I enjoy seeing the Cagle Post ads everywhere I go on the Web, even if it is only a cookie-driven illusion and everybody isn’t really seeing them.

 

 

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Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court!

Here are my latest three cartoons – hot off the drawing board and Wacom tablet!

The Supreme Court heard two gay rights cases this week, California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. The pundits seem to agree that these cases will likely be decided by 5 to 4 votes, so I drew the four, ugly conservatives on the court angrily brandishing their gavels at the cowering gay couple on the cake. Fortunately, the ugly conservatives on the court are also the easiest justices to caricature!  Here is my rough sketch.

ScotusSketch600wide Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

 

Drawing caricatures like this is so much easier now than it was years ago! All I have to do is type some public figure’s name into Google Images and I get a page full of great thumbnails. In the old days I had to cut photos out of newspapers and magazines and save them in a “morgue” in case I ever needed to draw a caricature. Technology is grand.

Here is the black and white version of the cartoon, which most people will see in newspapers that still print in black and white.

129230 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

I draw everything at about 11″ x 17″ on vellum in pencil, and I scan at high contrast so it looks like ink. Then I color it in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet.  Here is the color version.

129286 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

Next I drew a Republican elephant flogging himself as his intolerant views about gay rights do nothing but give him a sore back. Here is the rough sketch.

FlogSketch600wide Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

And here is the finished drawing, in pencil on 11″ x 17″ vellum, with the gray tones added in Photoshop.

129309 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

It is better if a drawing holds up as just line art with no gray tones – but sometimes I have to resort to gray. This one needed a little tonal substance. Here is the color version.

129398 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

Lite Great Wave off Kanagaw Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoonsThe most recent cartoon is another riff on an art masterpiece – these seem to be the most popular cartoons I draw. This one is based on a famous 19th century print by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, titled the Great Wave off Kanagawa (pictured on the right).

This image made for a popular Yahtzee, in editorial cartoons, after the Japanese tsunami. One thing that is interesting about Japanese prints is that the Japanese read from right to left, so the boats in the Hokusai print are sailing from calmer seas into the big bad waves. Of-course, editorial cartoons must read from left to right, with the set-up on the left and the gag on the right.

I printed out the Hokusai image and sketched a little GOP elephant to the right for my rough sketch.

WaveSketch600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

 

I drew it up like this, then I noticed that the elephant was too big – he needed to be smaller for the wave to look more threatening. Here is the finished line drawing with a smaller elephant.

129467 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

And here is the color version.

129473 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

That Hokusai wave is a wonderful wave!

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Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Li’l Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More!

 Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Lil Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More! cartoons

Saturn/Bankers Eating Cyprus, by Goya and Daryl. Click on the image for a larger view.

It has been too long since I have posted my new cartoons in the blog; so here is a big batch, with some comments.

The Cyprus bank crisis is great fun, and a good excuse for another cartoon abusing an art masterpiece. This time it is Saturn Devouring his Children by Francisco Goya. Of-course, Saturn knew one of his children would kill him, so eating the kids was the obvious thing to do. Goya painted this on the wall of his dining room. A charming, dinnertime feast for the eyes.

Saturn’s son, Zeus, escaped being eaten, came back, cut open Dad’s belly (or induced Dad to vomit, depending on the version of the story) freeing his siblings, who emerged just fine from their digestive confinement. This is an apt metaphor for Cyprus bankers, who consumed Cyprus’ economy, only to have the EU cut their financial belly open sometime next week, freeing the Cypriot economy which will come out of its digestive confinement, looking no worse for wear. By some accounts Zeus also went on to castrate his father, also an apt metaphor for the EU and Cyprus.

GoyaClip Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Lil Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More! cartoons

A clip from Goya’s Saturn Devouring his Children.

That’s a clip from Goya’s unaltered painting on the left. The problem I had was that I couldn’t just replace Saturn’s child/dinner with a map of Cyprus, because the child and Cyprus aren’t the same shape. And people want to see me draw in my cartoons, not just retouch masterpieces, so I decided to obviously draw over the painting.

What are public domain masterpieces good for, if not a lack of respect?

It is common for cartoonists to use famous paintings as metaphors in cartoons, and I notice that when I do it the cartoons are reprinted much more than any others.  Editors seem to love it – and it amuses me.  So there should be more to come.

My previous cartoon defaced a famous 1632 painting by Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. The cartoon mocks the GOP “autopsy” this week by GOP Chair Reince Priebus – it amused me that Priebus chose to use the word “autopsy,” acknowledging that the patient was already dead. It was actually a pretty good GOP autopsy, and the reaction from the GOP old-guard made me laugh.

129098 600 Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Lil Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More! cartoons

The previous cartoon was about President Obama’s trip to Israel, and how I imagined his conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu would go. “Overstating the obvious” always works in cartoon.

128867 600 Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Lil Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More! cartoons

 

Bellicose rhetoric from North Korea dominated the news the day I drew the cartoon below. I enjoy drawing the crazy, comicana cursing. This story doesn’t change much. I think North Koreans and Li’l Kim look for slow news days when they can make crazy threats and get some attention.

128777 600 Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Lil Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More! cartoons

The cartoon below is a Euro-evergreen. When I draw “everyman” characters in cartoons, I try to make them look like real people, rather than big-nosed-nobodies. I thought the girl looked kind of like Penny from The Big Bang Theory. Some readers commented that she looked more like Chelsea Clinton, with a “There’s Something About Mary” hairdo, having lunch with young Nicolas Cage. Oh well …

128609 600 Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Lil Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More! cartoons

Everyone drew something about Rand Paul’s filibuster. I thought John McCain’s strained reaction, calling Rand Paul a “Wacko Bird” was great fun, and I drew this … I think McCain is hard to draw. His face is like pudding, with no particular shape to it. And, whatever he has to say, he has a “GET OFF MY LAWN” expression on his face.

128537 600 Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Lil Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More! cartoons

The cartoon below is about Obama’s recent “charm offensive” where he invited GOP leaders over for dinner or lunch. We saw lots of smiling faces.

128475 600 Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Lil Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More! cartoons

This is another “charm offensive” cartoon about Obama’s dinner with Republicans. This was a quickie and I didn’t bother to color it. I got comments from conservatives who thought it was funny that I drew Obama in the role of Jesus at the last supper. hmmm.

128425 600 Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Lil Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More! cartoons

128663 600 Cyprus, GOP Autopsy, Netanyahu, Lil Kim, the New Pope, Europe and So Much More! cartoons

Pope Francis as a gaucho.

One last one and I’m caught up! I drew this one (on the right) as fast as I could, when the new Pope was announced, and we learned he was from Argentina. I went to Google Images and looked up all I could find on gaucho costumes. So here is Pope Francis as a gaucho.

I won’t fall so far behind again!  I promise!

 

 

 

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Daryl’s Letter to Israel’s Ambassador

MuhammadSabImage Daryls Letter to Israels Ambassador cartoons

Cartoon by Mohammad Saba’aneh.

TELL ISRAEL’S EMBASSY TO FREE SABA’ANEH

TWEET #FREECARTOONIST TO ISRAELI AMBASSADOR OREN

Here is my letter to Israel’s Ambassador …

March 16, 2013

Daryl Cagle
Cagle Cartoons, Inc.

Ambassador  Michael Oren
Embassy of Israel to the United States
3514 International Dr. N.W.
Washington, DC 20008

Dear Ambassador Oren,

I am writing to urge Israeli authorities to release a Palestinian political cartoonist, Mohammad Saba’aneh, who was jailed by the Israeli Defense Forces, on February 16th, at a border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan. He is being held without charge and is denied access to an attorney. Under Israeli law, Muhammad may be held indefinitely without charge. Only Israeli authorites know why he is imprisoned.

Muhammad is a cartoonist for Al-Hayat al-Jadida, the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, and he works at the Arab American University in Jenin on the West Bank. He is a respected cartoonist; he is not a terrorist or a criminal. Arab cartoonists often draw ugly, racist, offensive cartoons about Israel, but Muhammad’s cartoons are not among those; his work, although critical, is more balanced and artful.

2SabaanehPhotoWashington Daryls Letter to Israels Ambassador cartoons

Click on the photo above to read more about Saba’aneh’s plight from the Cartoonists Rights Network site.

I met Muhammad in 2010, when the U.S. State Department sent him to our Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention in Florida, where he got to meet many of his American colleagues. Muhammad told me he was a fan of my work; he is a charming guy, eager to show his own cartoons to all of his new friends. Muhammad is active in the global cartooning community and cartoonists around the world are closely following the story of his plight in Israel.

I run a small business, Cagle Cartoons, Inc., that syndicates the work of cartoonists from around the world to over 850 subscribing newspapers, including half of the daily, paid-circulation newspapers in America. Among the cartoonists we distribute is Yaakov Kirschen, the cartoonist who draws Dry Bones for The Jerusalem Post; Yaakov’s cartoons run in Jewish newspapers throughout the USA. Our American editorial cartoonists are great supporters of Israel, in contrast to cartoonists from the rest of the world who harshly criticize Israel. The contrast is easy to see as editorial cartoons reflect world opinion. American cartoonists are Israel’s most visible suporters, and my own small business is the leader in distributing these views for America and the world to see.

It seems clear that Muhammad has been jailed to chill his cartoons that are critical of Israel. Instead, this ugly incident risks chilling Israel’s most visible supporters in America’s press, at a time when Israel needs our support more than ever.

American cartoonists like to see Israel as a champion of democracy and press freedom in a hostile Middle East – Muhammad’s case undermines that perception and seems to be a clumsy attempt to silence the press. This incident makes Israel appear to be no better than its repressive neighbors.

I’m writing to you in the hope that you will urge the authorities in Israel to release Muhammad, return him to his family and allow us to again see Israel as a democracy that respects a free press.

Truly,

Daryl Cagle
Editorial Cartoonist
President, Cagle Cartoons, Inc.

—————————————————————

Want to hear more about Mohammad Saba’aneh? An interesting audio report from The World, including an interview with my Israeli cartoonist buddy, Uri Fink, is posted below. Here is another recent report about Saba’aneh.  Here is a nice blog that follows the case at Cartoon Movement, including cartoons drawn in support of Saba’aneh.

 

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Cartooning for Peace

PLANTU 2010 texte 6cfc6mug Cartooning for Peace cartoons

Le Monde’s editorial cartoonist, Jean Plantu, and his trademark mouse.

I’m a big supporter of French cartoonist Jean Plantu’s Cartooning for Peace organization. It sounds a little silly, because all of the cartoonists are in favor of peace, and the nature of cartoons seems to be frivolous, while peace is a serious topic.

That said, Cartooning for Peace does a lot of great stuff; they organize meetings of editorial cartoonists and hold impressive exhibitions all over the world. I’ve made a lot of worldly, cartoonist friends through Cartooning for Peace. Plantu is the star cartoonist of France – that’s him at the right, with his trademark mouse that appears in the corner of every Plantu cartoon.

One of Plantu’s recent projects is a weekly page in his newspaper, Le Monde, with cartoons from around the world about a topic in the news. Plantu does a great job with it, soliciting the newest cartoons from member cartoonists every week.  I have pasted some pages below.  They look great and show the power of editorial cartoons at their best.

We syndicate a bunch of international cartoonists to about 850 newspapers, and they tend to be less popular than our American cartoonists. Americans aren’t much interested in events outside of the United States, unless we’re at war or threaten to be at war with someone. Passionate cartoons about water issues or the European Union don’t generate much reader passion in the USA.

On the topics that penetrate our borders and generate interest here, collections of international cartoons are a wonderful way to show a variety of world opinions at a glance. My local newspaper, the Santa Barbara News-Press does an international week in review with world cartoonists regularly. I would urge more editors to consider doing it.

The page below is “Egypt: an explosive cocktail”. It includes the Adam and Eve cartoon by Doaa El Adl, that has led to her prosecution by Islamist authorities. I’d love to see newspapers all around the world reprint Doaa’s cartoon.

Egypt Cartooning for Peace cartoons

Gay marriage has recently been a hot topic in France.

GayMarriage Cartooning for Peace cartoons

Here is the most recent one, on International Womens Day.

IntlWomensDay Cartooning for Peace cartoons

 

 

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Cardinals, Scalia and Hugo Chavez

Here are my most recent two – I think cardinals are great fun.  See more Pope Retirement cartoons here.

128296 600 Cardinals, Scalia and Hugo Chavez cartoons

And Justice Scalia likened the Voting Rights Act to a racial “entitlement” … we have a great collection of Scalia cartoons, here’s mine …

128175 600 Cardinals, Scalia and Hugo Chavez cartoons

The big cartoon news this week was the death of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez – and we’ve gotten lots of Chavez cartoon traffic. The death of a despot is always great fodder for cartoons.  The most popular Chavez cartoon, by far, is this gem by Hajo
128266 600 Cardinals, Scalia and Hugo Chavez cartoons

We have a great collection of Chavez Obituary cartoons here.  Come enjoy!

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More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies

magritte pipe2 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoonsHere are my latest cartoons. Today the Pope quit, and I drew this one as a riff on Rene Magritte’s famous “This is not a Pipe” painting (right) that we all studied in art history class. We had a recent discussion on Facebook about our brilliant, Mexican/Cuban cartoonist, Angel Boligan, who drew another Magritte allegory about the Pope, which got me thinking.

We get about two phone calls per day from high school students who ask, “what does the cartoon mean?” We tell them they have to do their own homework and we can’t help them. I thought the phone might be ringing off the hook with this one.

 

NotThePope600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

Metaphors with famous paintings are meat and potatoes for editorial cartoonists. Here’s one by Nate Beeler.

79240 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

 

Magritte did lots of versions of this painting, some in English. I went with the classic French. I thought I would add this Bagley/Pope/Retirement cartoon here – I think it is the best of the bunch.

127981 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

 

And I drew these two about the sequester.

127757 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

127984 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

Wedgies are a mainstay for editorial cartoonists. Bagley draws better wedgies too.
96650 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

The stock market fell when we heard the result of Italy’s crazy election, which I drew as the Wall Street Bull tripping over Italy’s boot. It was only a one day drop, but Italy’s bonds are down the tube, so I think it still works.

 

127772 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

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Jimmy Margulies and More Grim Cartoon News

Jimmy%20Margulies Jimmy Margulies and More Grim Cartoon News cartoonsI’m sad to report that one of my favorite cartoonists, Jimmy Margulies, is the latest editorial cartoonist to lose his job. This is a long term trend as less profitable newspapers cut back the ranks of political cartoonists. Jimmy wrote this for us:

After almost 22 and 1/2 years at The Record in northern New Jersey, I became the latest editorial cartoonist to lose a full time staff job at a daily newspaper. Despite having won a few national awards,  syndication and frequent appearances in some high profile places like USA Today, as well as being a popular local speaker and using social media to become one of the most popular features on the paper’s web site, it was not enough to save me from the paper’s decision to trim expenses.

I plan to continue my syndication with King Features as well as self syndicating  my New Jersey cartoons around the state. The Record and I have reached an agreement that I will do a Sunday cartoon for them, as well as possibly be asked to do additional work if a big story happens in the region.

Here are five of my favorite Margulies cartoons.  See Jimmy’s whole archive here.

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Want to reprint Jimmy’s cartoons? All of his cartoons are searchable by keyword and available in high resolution instantly at Politicalcartoons.com.

 

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Chinese Dragon and Me

I drew a self-portrait in today’s cartoon. All the news about Chinese hacking strikes close to home as we’ve had lots of trouble with hacker attacks on our servers, that our ISP has traced to China. I’m guessing that the Chinese junta doesn’t like American editorial cartoons much. I drew a Chinese dragon looking over my shoulder.

I did a State Department sponsored speaking tour in China some years ago, and I told the Chinese audiences that when I draw cartoons about China I represent China with a Panda, or a dragon, or the Great Wall, or that guy standing in front of a tank in Tienanmen Square.  The Chinese audience would always murmur and look at each other when I mentioned the tank in Tienanmen Square, which was quite provocative for them and always stirred up the crowd. At one college I said that line and one excited college kid stood up and asked in English, “Oh! Oh! What KIND of dragon?!” That still makes me laugh.

Here’s my very rough pencil sketch.

DragonSketch600wide Chinese Dragon and Me cartoons

 

Next I do the finished line art, in dark, hard pencil on a 14″x17″ piece of Duralene drafting vellum. This is what most people will see in the newspapers since most of them still print in black and white.

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Here is the color version. The color on this one was fun. I grabbed a bunch of Chinese dragons from Google Images for scrap on the dragon, and I pulled details from three or four different dragons that I thought were cute.

127672 600 Chinese Dragon and Me cartoons

I don’t know what kind of dragon it is. Sorry.