Daryl’s 2020 Top Ten

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date December 25, 2020

Here are my Top Ten cartoons of the year that were most reprinted in newspapers. We keep statistics on how many editors, who subscribe to our syndicate service at CagleCartoons.com, download each cartoon. Over the next few days I’ll post Top Ten cartoons from some of our other CagleCartoonists – for today, here are mine! See my cartoon archive on Cagle.com

Merry Christmas!

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers sink too, and along with them, our Cagle.com site.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate Top 10

Top Ten Cartoons of the Week – December 19, 2020

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date December 19, 2020

Here are our most reprinted cartoons of last week (December 27th through December 19th 2020).

Five of the cartoons have Christmas themes, eight of the cartoons are about COVID19. As usual, no drawings of Trump or Biden made the Top Ten. No cartoons about foreign issues were popular. There are three ties which is quite unlikely considering the large number of editors downloading cartoons.

The Top Ten cartoons are what readers see since only 20% of the cartoons get 80% of the reprints.

John Darkow won the week with a Christmas/COVID cartoon, Jeff Koterba had two cartoons in the Top Ten. Great work, gentlemen!

Congratulations to the other cartoonists with the most reprinted cartoons of the week: Gary McCoy, Dave Whamond, Steve Sack, Dave Granlund, Bruce Plante, Dave Fitzsimmons and Pat Bagley.

Our Top Ten is a measure of how many editors choose to reprint each of our cartoons, from the 62 cartoonists in our CagleCartoons.com syndication package. Just about half of America’s daily, paid circulation newspapers (around 700 papers) subscribe to CagleCartoons.com.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.

#1

John Darkow wins the week with this Christmas/pandemic cartoon.

#2

Gary McCoy is tied for second place with another Christmas Pandemic cartoon.

#2

Dave Whamond shares the tie for second place with another Christmas/COVID combo cartoon.

#4

Steve Sack takes 4th place with yet another Christmas/COVID combo cartoon.

#5

Dave Granlund shares a tie for 5th place with this COVID vaccine cartoon.

#5

Bruce Plante shares the tie for 5th place with this vaccine cartoon.

#7

Jeff Koterba claims 7th place with a “what a bad year 2020 was” New Years cartoon – a theme that editors love.

#8

Dave Fitzsimmons wins 8th place with yet another Christmas/COVID combo cartoon.

#9

Pat Bagley ties for 9th place with an oldie that he strategically reposted to the syndication flow. This is the first time I can recall that a reposted oldie made the Top Ten. A heavy snowstorm hit the northeast, and Washington DC this week.

#9

Jeff Koterba shares 9th place with this vaccine cartoon, which is Jeff’s second cartoon in the Top Ten this week.

Tags Christmas, coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID19, dove, holiday, mistletoe, New Year's, pandemic, Santa Claus, snow, Social Distancing, Times Square, vaccine, Xmas, Zoom

Blog Newsletter Syndicate Top 10

Top Ten Cartoons of the Week – December 12, 2020

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date December 12, 2020

Here are our most reprinted cartoons of last week (December 5th through December 12th 2020).

Six of the cartoons combined Christmas with Covid themes, which is clearly what newspaper editors want to see right now. As usual, no drawings of Trump or Biden made the Top Ten, even as transition problems and Trump’s last lawsuit dominated cable news. No cartoons about foreign issues were popular, despite some excellent cartoons about Boris Johnson, the EU and failing Brexit trade negotiations.

The Top Ten cartoons are what readers see since only 20% of the cartoons get 80% of the reprints.

Rick McKee won the week with a strong #1 cartoon, Jeff Koterba and John Darkow each had two cartoons in the Top Ten. Great work, gentlemen.

Congratulations to the other cartoonists with the most reprinted cartoons of the week, RJ Matson, Pat Byrnes, Nate Beeler, Dave Granlund and John Cole.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.

#1

Rick McKee wins the week with this very popular Christmas/pandemic cartoon.

#2

RJ Matson takes second place with this impressive cartoon that he tells me he created in Photoshop in only two hours. Unbelievable.

#3

Jeff Koterba snags third place with this Christmas/COVID combo cartoon.

#4

Jeff Koterba takes 4th place with another Christmas/COVID combo cartoon.

#5

Nate Beeler takes 5th place with this Christmas/COVID combo cartoon.

#6

Pat Byrnes claims 6th place with this COVID cartoon.

#7

John Darkow claims 7th place with a cartoon implying that 2020 was a bad year and 2021 will be better – one of the most popular themes for editors.

#8

John Darkow wins 8th place with this Chuck Yeager memorial cartoon. There was a time when obit cartoons were the most popular with editors, but those days have been drowned out by the pandemic.

#9

Dave Granlund nabs 8th place with the only cartoon about the ugly presidential transition that dominates the news, but not the ink. The candy coating of a 2020 year cartoon makes it a cartoon that editors will swallow.

#10

John Cole takes 10th place with a cartoon about virtual learning during the pandemic. Education during the pandemic is another favorite theme for editors.

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Trump Doggie!

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date December 9, 2020

Here’s my new cartoon, “What the Doggie Hears”.

I’ve actually drawn quite a few Trump Doggies. I remember when Trump hired his The Apprentice contestant, Omarosa, in the White House, then he called her a “dog” and she bit back, writing a tell-all book.

Here is Trump as Putin’s dutiful doggie, when Trump was congratulating Putin on his re-election.

Here’s a Christmas cartoon from 2016 with Trump and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as Putin presents.

Here are some of my favorite Trump Doggies from the CagleCartoonists. This one is from Bill Day.

Here’s a Trump doggie oldie with ex-Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, by Ed Wexler.

Here is a great one from Taylor Jones.

This one with Trump and France’s President Macron is by Dutch cartoonist Joep Bertrams.

Tags coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID19, dog, doggie, donald trump, election fraud, election-2020biden-2020, election-fraud-2020, fake news, pandemic, president, Rex Tillerson, rigged election, trump-and-covid, Uncle Sam, Vladimir Putin

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COVID Keeps Growing

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date December 8, 2020

Here’s my cartoon comparing the sizes of the worst pandemics in history.

The cartoon may look familiar; I’ve been updating it as deaths from COVID-19 have been growing through the year, with deaths now rounded off at 300,000 in the USA and 1,600,000 worldwide. That’s our coronavirus in the lower right corner – here’s what he looked like a couple of months ago on September 20th when there were “only” 950,000 worldwide deaths and he didn’t even merit legs.

Moving back to August 3rd, COVID-19 was looking pretty tiny at only 690,000 worldwide deaths.

Our coronavirus was little more than a speck back on March 30th when the worldwide death estimate was only “thousands.”
COVID deaths are skyrocketing now and I’ll keep updating the cartoon every month or two. It is likely that our COVID-19 character will grow larger than the combined 17th Century Great Plagues (bottom row left) that were resurgences of the Bubonic Plague in Europe. Later this Spring, COVID-19 may stand taller than the Antonin Plague (top row right) that killed as much as one third of the population of the Roman Empire in 165 to 180 AD and was suspected to be either smallpox or measles.

With so many people who won’t have access to a vaccine, or who reject taking a vaccine, there’s no telling how long I’ll keep updating this cartoon, and how big COVID will grow.

Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Cartoon Journalism in The Nation

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date December 6, 2020

My brilliant cartoon-journalist daughter, Susie Cagle, graces the cover of the current issue of The Nation magazine. Susie does original reporting in cartoon form.

Most cartoon-journalists draw in an autobiographical format, drawing themselves reporting a story or depicting themselves as part of a story. Cartoonists often illustrate the work of journalists; the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartoons in 2018 was awarded to a cartoonist who illustrated the work of a journalist, something many cartoonists don’t consider to be either editorial cartooning or cartoon-journalism, rather it is simply “illustration.”

Traditional editorial cartoonists, who draw their own opinions, consider themselves journalists; we are graphic columnists – but original, non-autobiographical reporting by cartoonists is very rare. It is great to see The Nation embrace real cartoon-journalism.

Susie’s cover article reports on how hospitals are crippled by big-money monopolies at a critical time. Here are some excerpts. See the whole article.

Support Susie on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/susie

Tags cartoon-journalism, coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID19, Eli Lilly, Gilead Systems, HCA Healthcare, health care, magazine cover, medicine, monopolies, pandemic, Providence, Pulitzer Prize, Scension, Susie Cagle, The Nation, vaccine

Blog Newsletter Syndicate Top 10

Top Ten Cartoons of the Week – November 28, 2020

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date November 28, 2020

Here are our most reprinted cartoons of last week (November 21st through November 28th 2020). The Top Ten cartoons dominated newspaper editors’ choices again this week. The top three cartoons did especially well.

Six holiday cartoons made the list; seven of the cartoons were about the pandemic. No drawings of Trump or Biden were popular with newspaper editors. No cartoons about foreign issues were popular. The Top Ten cartoons dominated the choices of editors, again this week.

Dave Granlund had a great week with a very popular #1 cartoon and two cartoons in the Top Ten. Dave Whamond and Jeff Koterba also had impressive weeks, each with two cartoons on the list.

Congratulations to the other cartoonists who had the most reprinted cartoons this week: Steve Sack, Dave Fitzsimmons, John Cole and Rick McKee.

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes. We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!

#1

Dave Granlund with this Christmas/pandemic cartoon. Editors started printing Christmas cartoons before Thanksgiving.

#2

Dave Whamond takes second place with this sad and charming winter pandemic cartoon.

#3

Steve Sack snags third place with this Thanksgiving/pandemic cartoon.

#4

Jeff Koterba wins 4th place again this week with this Thanksgiving/pandemic cartoon – and again this week, it is Jeff’s first of two cartoons on the list.

#5

Dave Fitzsimmons takes fifth place combining three things that resonate with newspaper editors: Grandma, Thanksgiving and the pandemic.

#6

John Cole takes 6th place with this vaccine cartoon.

#7

Jeff Koterba is tied for 7th place with this Thanksgiving/pandemic cartoon.

#7

Rick McKee shares the tie for 7th place.

#9

Dave Whamond takes 9th place, even though editors tend to avoid cartoons that criticize Trump.

#10

Dave Granlund takes both 10th place and first place this week.

Tags carry out, Christmas, coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID19, grandma, most popular, most reprinted, pandemic, pilgrims, Santa Claus, snow globe, stay at home, Thanksgiving, travel, Trump Hotel, vaccine, Zoom

Blog Newsletter Syndicate Top 10

Top Ten Cartoons of the Week – November 21, 2020

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date November 21, 2020

Here are our most reprinted cartoons of last week (November 14th through November 21st 2020). The Top Ten cartoons dominated newspaper editors’ choices this week with all ten tightly bunched, close to equally popular and far ahead of the rest of the cartoons in reprints.

Thanksgiving/pandemic combo cartoons were most popular this week, with six of these making the Top Ten. Again, no drawings of Trump were popular with editors, even while Trump continues to dominate the news. Editors avoided scores of cartoons about the messy presidential transition, crazy Rudy Guiliani and claims of election fraud. As usual, no foreign topics were popular with American editors. Only one cartoon on the list (Bob Englehart at #2) expresses a political view, however mildly – unless concern about the pandemic is considered a political view.

Congratulations to Dave Whamond for his #1 cartoon. Kudos to Jeff Koterba and Dave Fitzsimmons who both have two cartoons in the Top Ten!

And congrats to the other cartoonists who made the Top Ten list this week: Bob Englehart, John Darkow, Dave Granlund, Bruce Plante, and me.

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes. We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!

#1

Dave Whamond’s Thanksgiving/pandemic/Rockwell cartoon takes first place.

#2

Bob Englehart takes second place with one of the few political cartoons mentioning politics that editors liked this week.

#3

John Darkow snags third place with this Thanksgiving/pandemic cartoon.

#4

Jeff Koterba wins 4th place with another Thanksgiving/pandemic cartoon, the first of two cartoons on the list for Jeff.

#5

Dave Granlund takes fifth place with yet another Thanksgiving/pandemic cartoon.

#6

Bruce Plante nabs 6th place with yet another Thanksgiving/pandemic cartoon.

#7

Jeff Koterba mixes up 7th place with a New Years/pandemic cartoon. Editors love cartoons about how bad 2020 is. This is the first of two cartoons on the Top Ten about the new vaccines and it is Jeff’s second cartoon in the Top Ten this week.

#8

Daryl Cagle (that’s me) takes 8th place with the second vaccine cartoon on the list.

#8

Dave Fitzsimmons is tied for 8th place with this Pandemic/Back to School/Zoom/Kitty cartoon. Gotta love kitties.

#10

Dave Fitzsimmons takes 10th place with his second Top Ten cartoon and the sixth Thanksgiving/pandemic cartoon on the list this week.

Tags Baby New Year, cats, coronavirus, COVID-19, health care workers, herding cats, holiday, kitties, norman rockwell, pandemic, pilgrims, Thanksgiving, Turkey, vaccine, VODIV19

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VACCINE!

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date November 17, 2020

Today we got news of a new vaccine, from the drug giant Moderna, that is 95% effective against COVID19. This comes shortly after the news from drug giant Pfizer of a vaccine that is 90% effective, but more difficult to deal with – both are great news. Here’s my cartoon …

This one is from Kevin Siers …

This one is by Jordanian cartoonist, Emad Hajjaj.

This is by Emad’s CagleCartoonist brother, Osama Hajjaj, also from Jordan.

This one is by Dutch CagleCartoonist, Joep Bertrams.

This new vaccine bomb comes from our CagleCartoonist in Oaxaca, Mexico – Dario Castillejos.

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes. We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!

Blog Newsletter Syndicate Top 10

Top Ten Cartoons of the Week – November 14, 2020

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date November 14, 2020

Here are our most reprinted cartoons of last week (November 7th through November 14th 2020). This week the editors flocked to the same cartoons, as usual, with the few, most popular cartoons far outpacing the rest.

This week’s #1 cartoon by Jeff Koterba is the second most reprinted editorial cartoon of the year, and it may yet overtake Dave Granlund’s #1 cartoon of the year so far, from three weeks ago. The #2 cartoon by Dave Whamond would have been a strong #1 in a typical week where the usage curve wasn’t quite so steep.

Dave Whamond and Dave Granlund both impress with two cartoons each on the Top Ten. Hearty congratulations to the other cartoonists with the most reprinted cartoons this week, Dave Fitzsimmons, Pat Byrnes, Monte Wolverton, Randy Enos and Gary McCoy.

The most popular topic this week was Alex Trebek. Only two cartoons referencing the pandemic made the Top Ten list. Cartoonists drew scores of cartoons about Trump’s refusal to accept the election results this week, but only three were popular with editors who ignored most of these cartoons.

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes. We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!

#1

Jeff Koterba‘s #1 cartoon was the most reprinted cartoon of the week by far.

#2

Dave Whamond has the first of three Alex Trebek obit cartoons in the Top Ten. Editors seem to love cartoons that marvel at what a bad year 2020 is.

#3

Dave Whamond also nabs third place. In a week where Trump’s refusal to accept the election results dominated the news, few cartoons on the topic were popular with newspaper editors.

#4

Dave Fitzsimmons takes 4th place with the second Alex Trebek cartoon on the list.

#5

Dave Granlund takes fifth place with the third Alex Trebek obit cartoon.

#6

Dave Granlund also takes 6th place.

#7

Pat Byrnes nabs 7th place.

#8

Monte Wolverton takes 8th place.

#9

Randy Enos nabs 9th place with this nice pandemic cartoon.

#10

Gary McCoy wraps up the Top Ten with this Veterans Day cartoon. In other years, Veterans Day got more attention from both editors and cartoonists.

Tags Alex Trebek, autumn, Biden, coronavirus, COVID19, editorial cartoons, election 2012, fall, Jeopardy, Joe Biden, oval office, pandemic, political cartoons, trump, Veterans Day, White House

Blog Newsletter Syndicate Top 10

Top Ten Cartoons of the Week – October 31, 2020

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date October 31, 2020

Here are our most reprinted cartoons of last week (October 24th, through October 31st, 2020). Newspaper editors flocked to the same, few cartoons and most of the cartoons got little or no exposure. Cartoons mentioning Trump or Biden were unpopular with editors again this week.

Editors’ collective preference for a handful of cartoons was never clearer to see as the #1 and #2 cartoons this week were also the #1 and #2 cartoons of the year, since we started keeping comparative usage statistics last January. Congratulations to Dave Granlund for his runaway #1 cartoon and to Dave Whamond for his #2 of the week and year.

Special congratulations to John Darkow who has two cartoons in the Top Ten this week, and kudos to the other cartoonists with the most reprinted cartoons: Gary McCoy, Jeff Koterba, Chris Weyant, Pat Bagley, Bob Englehart and Dave Fitzsimmons.

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes. We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!

#1

Dave Granlund’s #1 cartoon was a runaway hit with newspaper editors and our most reprinted cartoon of the year.

#2

Dave Whamond drew the #2 most popular cartoon of both the week and the year.

#3

Gary McCoy takes 3rd place with the first of four Halloween cartoons in the Top Ten.

#4

Jeff Koterba claims 4th place.

#5

John Darkow takes the five spot with the first of two cartoons in the Top Ten.

#6

John Darkow also takes 6th place with his second of two cartoons in the Top Ten.

#7

Chris Weyant nabs 7th place.

#8

Pat Bagley is tied for 8th place.

#8

Bob Englehart shares 8th place.

#10

Dave Fitzsimmons caps off the Top Ten with this cartoon.

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Tags campaign, coronavirus, COVID19, editors, election 2012, Fauci, Halloween, Moon, most popular cartoons, Most reprinted cartoons, newspapers, pandemic, Uncle Sam, vote, water

Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Church Superspreaders

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date October 28, 2020

Here’s my new one about COVID super spreader churches.

This is a recurring theme, where big, conservative churches that take a Trumpy, casual attitude about the pandemic, insist on holding their indoor, massless, mass events with singing, no distancing, and lots of disease spreading.

This church/hands thing is a kind of standard for editorial cartoonists, like the Hokey Pokey or the theme from Gilligan’s Island, or the Cats Cradle game. Some years ago I drew a similar cartoon about Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate, and I lifted the first panel for the new cartoon. The perspective on the hands in the first panel is odd, because we usually see the other side, with the thumbs as doors, but that is the view of the person who is performing this, and not the observer, and I like flipping it open with the thumbs on the close side. Yes, I think about all this stuff.

The oldie wasn’t a very strong cartoon. The first panel was fine, but I didn’t like the awkward second panel hands – that needed a redo, so I drew my own hands today. (There seems to be some disagreement about whether the “people” should properly be presented upright or upside-down.)

And I drew some coronavirus and assembled this in Photoshop.

That’s your recipe for a church pandemic cartoon.

Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes. We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!

Tags christian, Christianity, church, contraception, coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID19, hands, health, medical, nursery rhyme, Obamacare, pandemic, religion, steeple, superspreader

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