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Oil Prices Drop on the Despots!

Oil prices dropped below $60/barrel this week, to the delight of American drivers and the dismay of ugly, oil-producing countries around the world. I thought of drawing a group scene with even more despots from nasty countries, like Libya, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the list – trouble is, there are too many of them, and they don’t have good, recognizable characters for the barrel of oil to bash.

So, I did three versions of this cartoon, Iran, Russia and Venezuela, which each have fascinating, and from an American point of view, encouraging stories of economic collapse with the drop in oil prices. Newspapers can pair these with Op-Ed pieces on each country’s interesting travails.

I tried combining these, but that was confusing. Simple is good. Here’s Vladimir Putin …

I love drawing Putin – he’s so creepy. Next is Venezuela and their president, Nicolas Maduro.

This is the first time I’ve drawn Maduro. I like his low forehead and widows peak. The last version is Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is a delight to draw, but like Maduro, he requires a label because people don’t know what he looks like.

Iran’s Supreme Leader makes me laugh. He also likes to throw Iranian cartoonists into jail, and my web sites are blocked in Iran – still, the Supreme Leader makes me laugh. Just the fact that he wants to call himself “Supreme Leader” is funny.

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Cartoons

Russia and Oil Price Drop

157401 600 Russia and Oil Price Drop cartoons

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Blog

Iran and Oil Price Drop

157399 600 Iran and Oil Price Drop cartoons

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Cartoons

Venezuela and Oil Price Drop

157397 600 Venezuela and Oil Price Drop cartoons

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Cartoon Round-up Ouch Gas prices

Ouch! Gas Prices!

The price of oil came close to the $100 dollar a barrel level recently as gas prices continue to climb. High gas prices are an evergreen theme for political cartoonists. Huge, menacing gas pumps have become a regular cartoon character.

After a while it gets tough. We’ve drawn every possible combination of SUV bashing, oil company logo parody; we drew paying an “arm and a leg” for gas, with actual arms and legs – or paying with your first born; or trading the college education for a tank of gas. Gas pumps are often guns pointed at the comsumers’ head – or nooses.

Just when it seems like every possible gas price gag has been done – we have another round of high gas prices and we’re all back to the drawing board.

Daryl Cagle is a political cartoonist and blogger for MSNBC.com. Daryl is a past president of the National Cartoonists Society and his cartoons are syndicated to more than 800 newspapers, including the paper you are reading. He runs the most popular cartoon site on the Web at Cagle.msnbc.com. His books “The BIG Book of Bush Cartoons” and “The Best Political Cartoons of the Year, 2005, 2006 and 2007 Editions,” are available in bookstores now.

Daryl is filling in for Susie Cagle, who is on vacation this week.