DarylCagle.comHappy Earth Day! Each April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. The idea came to founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the aftermath of the horrific 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.
Every year around this time, cartoonists weigh in on the fate of the planet, so I thought I’d pull together five terrific cartoons about Earth Day for your environment-loving enjoyment…
Readers of Cagle.com should already be aware of the cartoons of Jonathan Shapiro, who goes by the pen name “Zapiro.” He is the most famous cartoonist working in South Africa, and his hard-hitting cartoons have garnered the attention of the entire country, including its president Jacob Zuma.
Using a tactic often employed in oppressive regimes to crack down on freedom of the press, Zuma is currently suing Zapiro for five million rand (about $640,000) over his 2008 “Rape of Lady Justice” cartoon. The lawsuit is set for trial in the South Gauteng High Court on August 28.
I sat with Zapiro while attending this year’s Cartooning for Peace event in Caen, France, and we spoke about lawsuits, freedom of the press in South Africa and the origin of the famous showerhead that Zapiro always draws on top of Zuma’s head.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3mx_wQqVPk]
Here are some of Zapiro’s famous cartoons, including the famous rape scene. To view our collection of his cartoons, click here. You can also visit his Web site here.
Every Friday, we collect the best political cartoons of the week and stuff them into one big, glorious slideshow.
So just relax and catch up on a week’s worth of news with our Best Cartoons of the Week slideshow.
Yesterday, The Daily Caller “broke” the story that while living in Indonesia with his stepfather, a young President Obama ate many adventurous meals, including dog meat.
From a passage of his book “Dreams From My Father,” Obama recounts that he “learned how to eat small green chili peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy).”
Romney supporters leaped on the news, as the former Massachusetts governor has been dogged by the story of the family’s Irish setter Seamus, who traveled in a crate strapped to the top of the family’s station wagon on a 1983 trip from Boston to Canada.
Leave it to our terrific conservative cartoonist Eric Allie to nail the president with his latest cartoon:
Nate Beeler, the new staff cartoonist for the Columbus Dispatch, also weighed in on “Dogmeatgate”:
I asked Nate about his dog meat cartoon, and if he thought either dog story were fair game for reporters. Here are his thoughts:
The “Obama ate a dog” story was too juicy (apologies) to ignore. It’s just plain funny. Adding to the comedy is the fact that people are talking about the candidates’ decades-ago treatment of dogs in the first place. Obama’s campaign is “obsessed with the dog thing,” as even liberal commentators like Chris Hayes acknowledge. And now Romney supporters will obsess over the ate-a-dog thing. There are much bigger fish to fry — and like most people, I prefer seafood over canine. When it comes to election politics, fairness goes out the window. I hope my cartoon helps highlight how silly it is.
So what do you think – is it fair to attack Obama on something he did as a child? Comment below and let us know, or leave a note on our Facebook page.
Yesterday, the nation seemed fixated by images of the space shuttle Discovery flying over Washington on the back of a 747. The shuttle program has long been an symbol of American innovation and captured the imagination of millions across the globe, but with nothing in the pipeline to take its place, seeing the old workhorse circle around the Capital seems just like a sad reminder of an America in decline.
Here are five terrific cartoons that comment on our suddenly listless future of manned space flight.
While in Frace for this year’s Cartooning for Peace meeting, I had the honor of sitting down and chatting with Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat. Ferzat was beaten and had both of his hands broken by government thugs in Damascus last August, as part of a brutal crackdown of the Syrian Uprising. The beating came as the subject of his cartoons changed from general ridicule of Syria’s much-maligned political system to specific caricatures of President Bashar Assad and his inner circle.
Ferzat has since recovered, and is now living in exile in Kuwait. I spoke to him about the attack and his outlook on cartooning in countries with oppressive regimes, including Syria. It’s also worth noting that he seems to be no fan of President Obama…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU0i0Pda9Zk]
Here are a handful of Ferzat’s cartoons. To view more, check out his Arab-language Web site or visit his Facebook page.
Unless you’ve been buried under receipts trying to finish your taxes, you’ve been following the news that members of President Obama’s secret service protection allegedly availed themselves of the services of Columbian prostitutes prior to a summit meeting there last week.
From news reports, these guys acted like numbskulls, bragging about protecting the President to the prostitutes, then creating a ruckus when the $50 bill arrived. Here are five funny cartoons that I thought commented on the case nicely…
Late last week, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen unleased a firestorm of criticism on Twitter when she said it was wrong for Mitt Romney to be using his wife Ann as his guide to women’s economic struggles because she “had never worked a day in her life.”
The Romney campaign quickly spun the incient as an attack on stay-at-home moms, creating some cover from the “war on women” moniker Democrats have tagged Romney and the GOP with.
This cartoon by John Cole, the cartoonist at the Scranton Times-Tribune, has received a lot of traffic and feedback, both positive and negative, from our readers…
I asked John to comment on the cartoon, and here’s what he said:
Rosen’s comments unleashed one of those tidal surges of political spin that one only sees in an election year. I personally don’t think she insulted stay-at-home moms, but that’s another argument.
What I found and continue to find hilarious are the repeated, stumbling attempts by Mitt Romney (and now his wife, Anne) to portray himself as the Average Joe (and now Josephine). They’re obviously not. That said, I hope they keep the act up; it’s provided great fodder for many a cartoonist.
What do you think of the cartoon – fair or foul? Comment below or leave a note on our Facebook page.
Why are you reading this post? Shouldn’t you be finishing your taxes?!? As millions of Americans rush to finish their taxes by Tuesday’s deadline (well, everyone but Mitt Romney, who filed an extension), cartoonists had to split their time between the calculator and the drawing pad, finishing their best IRS cartoons.
Check out their thoughts of 1040 and standard deductions in our new Tax Time cartoon collection.
With the announcement that George Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Trayvon Martin, we can finally begin to figure out what really happened the night a Florida teenager was shot and killed in a gated sub-community.
[ VIEW OUR COLLECTION OF TRAYVON MARTIN CARTOONS ]
Unfortunately for some, the case has become a media firestorm, where advocates on both sides seem to be determined to present their views of the case (although many credit the media outcry for bringing enough attention on the case to lead to an arrest in the first place.)
John Cole, the cartoonist for the Scranton Times-Tribune, does a nice job of rounding up all the usual suspects and hanger-ons, from both the left and the right, that have tried to use this case for their own political advantage…
Conservatives have bemoaned an NBC tape that was revealed to be heavily edited in order to portray Zimmerman in a harsher racial light. NBC has since apologized and fired those responsible, but to cartoonist Eric Allie, the bias is still present and the damage is already done…
Liberals, on the other hand, have pointed at Rush Limbaugh and Fox News as trying to portray Zimmerman as the victim of civil right advocates run amok. Interestingly, Fox News was silent about the Trayvon Martin case in the beginning, but once President OBama spoke about the shooting, they seemed to put things into high gear. Media Matters cartoonist Rob Tornoe presents what he sees as their perspective of the case…
As a cartoonist, I’m already predisposed to dislike numbers and math, but running a business means filing my taxes has gone from an annoyance to downright torture. Just the thought of having to print out those arcane, maze-like forms, rummage through boxes of reciepts, and finally figure out what sized check you have to write to Uncle Sam can make any sane person cry. It’s no wonder that I’ve drawn my fair share of cartoons comparing doing your taxes to torture.
Here are a couple of my cartoons about dreaded tax season. Hope they bring a smile to your face as you waste this weekend adding and deducting…
Every Friday, we collect the best political cartoons of the week and stuff them into one big, glorious slideshow.
So just relax and catch up on a week’s worth of news with our Best Cartoons of the Week slideshow.
