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Cartoonists are Casualties of War Too

People who like to draw serious political cartoons for a living – people like me – have to be extra careful in these divisive times.

In just the last month three major newspapers – the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Guardian in Britain – have pulled down or decided not to publish cartoons drawn by the best editorial cartoonists in the world.

Michael Ramirez, Monte Wolverton and Steve Bell each bravely applied their talents and opinions to the brutal war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas that started Oct. 7.

For their troubles, they were charged with being Islamophobic, anti-Semitic or racist by readers, their fellow journalists and editorial boards. Bell was even fired.

The most recent example was at the Washington Post, where my good friend Michael Ramirez ran his caricature of a Hamas spokesman, Ghazi Hamadi, in a suit with five women and children roped to his body.

“How dare Israel attack civilians…” the Hamas spokesman was saying.

You’d think it’d be easy for anyone to get the point Ramirez was making. Many cartoonists have used the same idea of Hamas or Hezbollah wearing children as human shields, including me.

But many readers immediately expressed outrage on social media and bombarded the paper’s comment section from their silos.

Ramirez was charged with excusing Israel’s war crimes and pushing Israeli military talking points and accused of being a racist for his malicious, offensive and “grotesque caricature” of a Palestinian.

The reader outrage was so intense that the boss of the Post’s opinion section, David Shipley, “re-evaluated” his decision.

He didn’t just pull it down from the paper’s web site. He issued an apology for having “missed something profound, and divisive” and published a selection of critical comments by readers.

Ramirez ably defended himself on Michael Smerconish’s Nov. 11 show on CNN.

Calling the charges against him “ridiculous,” he said, “The cartoon was very specific. It pointed out the hypocrisy of an organization that uses civilians as shields” and said his critics “used the race card as a way to eliminate a contrary political opinion they don’t agree with.”

I agree with Ramirez. It was outrageous how quickly – and abjectly — the Post caved to the complaints of its noisiest, most partisan and most sensitive readers.

What happened last month at the Philadelphia Inquirer to my good friend Monte Wolverton was another example of how careful editorial cartoonists have to be today.

My small business represents Wolverton and syndicates his work. His Oct. 18 cartoon showed an oversized Israeli army boot crushing Hamas terrorists.

It ran in many other newspapers without any complaints, but the Inquirer reconsidered and decided to take it down and apologize because its editors thought the cartoon reinforced “pernicious anti-Semitic tropes about Israeli aggression.”

I suggested to Monte that he withdraw the cartoon and apologize for it because I think any big military boot in an editorial cartoon could be seen as a Nazi boot and portraying Jews as Nazis is an anti-Semitic trope.

The most outlandish – and unjustified — case of cartoon cancelling happened to the highly respected Steve Bell of the Guardian newspaper in Britain. He was fired after 40 years at the paper, over a cartoon that was never even published.

His fatal cartoon depicted Benjamin Netanyahu carving the map of Gaza on his bare belly with a scalpel and saying “Residents of Gaza get out now.” The cartoon drew upon a famous photo of Lyndon Johnson, lifting his shirt to show a scar from a recent surgery, which formed the basis for a famous cartoon by David Levine, with LBJ showing a scar shaped like Vietnam on his belly – an image familiar to all cartoonists and a good analogy.  Gaza is Netanyahu’s Vietnam.

Bell quoted his bosses as saying the cartoon could be seen as anti-Semitic because somehow they believed it was playing on the “pound of flesh” line spoken by Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s 1596 play The Merchant of Venice.

On my “Caglecast” podcast I asked the top three editorial cartoonists in Israel if Bell’s cartoon qualified as anti-Semitic and they agreed it wasn’t even close. Declaring Bell’s cartoon anti-Semitic was a ridiculous stretch.

But it shows how political cartoonists of today really have to know where to draw their lines.

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate Videos

Top Israeli Cartoonists Discuss the War in Cartoons

In our newest Caglecast I discuss the war with Hamas with three of the top Israeli cartoonists, Michel Kichka, Uri Fink and Moshik Gulst. Watch the video to see what they say about the cartoons below.

This one is by Tom Janssen from the Netherlands

Remember, watch the video and subscribe on YouTube!

 

Michel Kichka

 

Marian Kamensky

 

Chris Weyant

 

Emad Hajjaj

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate Top 10

Top Ten Cartoons of September 16th, 2022!

While cartoonists have been covering the invasion since February, Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia last week drew new attention on a conflict that’s raged on for nearly seven months.

This week’s most reprinted cartoon was a funny poke at the debate over daylight saving time drawn by cartoonist Guy Parsons. Back in March, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023. But like everything else in Washington these days, nothing has happened since.

Here are our top ten most reprinted cartoons of the week:

#1. Guy Parsons, Cagle.com

 

#2. Dave Whamond, Cagle.com

 

#3. Bruce Plante, Cagle.com

 

#4. Dave Granlund, Cagle.com

 

#5. Guy Parsons, Cagle.com

 

#6. Dave Whamond, Cagle.com

 

#7. John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

 

#8. Pat Byrnes, Cagle.com

 

#9. Adam Zyglis, Buffalo News

 

#10. John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

Our weekly Top Ten is now a newspaper column!  Subscribing editors can find it at CagleCartoons.com with download links to grab the cartoons in high resolution.

Want to get EVERY new CagleCartoon from our 62 syndicated newspaper editorial cartoonists, in your email box every day? Just become a Cagle.com HERO and you get the exclusive daily emails of ALL THE CARTOONS!  See all the cartoons before the newspapers print them and never miss a cartoon!

 

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Iwo Jima and Baby Formula

Here’s my new cartoon about the military delivering baby formula.

I think of the Iwo Jima memorial being a standard cliché for editorial cartoonists, and I looked back in my archive for some Iwo Jima oldies to put into this post, and I couldn’t find any –maybe I haven’t done one before. Crazy.  It’s like an editorial cartoonist never drawing the Statue of Liberty.

So I started looking for some favorites among the CagleCartoonists, and I didn’t find as many as I expected –but I would some oldies I liked. This one is by Bill Schorr, who was drawing about the sexual assault scandal in the military, twelve years ago.

This oldie is by Dutch cartoonist, Hajo, with the Iwo Jima positioning a general symbol of America.

This one is by Dave Granlund, who doesn’t like President Trump, when Trump referred to US solders buried in France as “Losers” and “Suckers”.

This one is by cartoonist Gary McCoy, who doesn’t like President Obama.

Want to get EVERY new CagleCartoon from our 62 syndicated newspaper editorial cartoonists, in your email box every day? Just become a Cagle.com HERO and you get the exclusive daily emails of ALL THE CARTOONS!  See all the cartoons before the newspapers print them and never miss a cartoon!

 

 

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Our Ukrainian Cartoonist Kazanevsky Wins New Award

Congratulations to our refugee, Ukrainian, CagleCartoonist Vladimir Kazanevsky, who shared the inaugural Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award, presented by the Cartoonists Rights Network International and the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation; he shared the award with Hungarian cartoonist Gábor Pápai.

Here’s a video about Vladimir, followed by some of Vlad’s latest cartoons about the war.

 

Want to get EVERY new CagleCartoon from our 62 syndicated newspaper editorial cartoonists, in your email box every day? Just become a Cagle.com HERO and you get the exclusive daily emails of ALL THE CARTOONS!  See all the cartoons before the newspapers print them and never miss a cartoon!

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

My Favorite Ukraine Flag Cartoons

Here are my favorite Ukraine Flag cartoons, starting with three of my own.  The first is my memorial cartoon for Ukraine’s civilian deaths.

This one is on America’s support for Ukraine …

This is my first Ukraine flag cartoon, drawn 28 years ago in 1984 for the Muppets and Hasbro/Playskool. I claim this as the first Ukraine flag cartoon! (Considering that Ukraine was founded as an independent nation in 1991, 21 years ago.)

Here are more favorites by the CagleCartoonists …

This Picasso inspired cartoon is by Emad Hajjaj, from Jordan.

 

This Van Gogh inspired cartoon is by Emad’s brother, Osama Hajjaj, from Jordan.

 

This one is by Ed Wexler, from Los Angeles.

 

This one is by Kap, from Barcelona, Spain.

 

This one is by Hajo, from the Netherlands.

 

… and this one is by Jeff Koterba, from Nebraska.


Our weekly Top Ten is now a newspaper column!  Subscribing editors can find it at CagleCartoons.com with download links to grab the cartoons in high resolution.

Want to get EVERY new CagleCartoon from our 60 syndicated newspaper editorial cartoonists, in your email box every day? Just become a Cagle.com HERO and you get the exclusive daily emails of ALL THE CARTOONS!  See all the cartoons before the newspapers print them and never miss a cartoon!

 

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Easter and Ukraine!

Here’s my new Easter/Ukraine cartoon and four of my favorite cartoons about Easter and Ukraine from the CagleCartoonists.  Happy Easter!  (See my cartoon archive here.)

These two are by Dave Granlund

This one is by Bob Englehart

This one is by Jos Collignon …

… and this one is by Bill Day


Want to get EVERY new CagleCartoon from our 62 syndicated newspaper editorial cartoonists, in your email box every day? Just become a Cagle.com HERO and you get the exclusive daily emails of ALL THE CARTOONS!  See all the cartoons before the newspapers print them and never miss a cartoon!

 

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Blog Editorial Newsletter Syndicate Top 10

Top Ten Cartoons of the Week – March 13th, 2022

Yet again, editorial cartoonists were frustrating as editors preferred light cartoons to the more substantive cartoons about the War in Ukraine.

Here are the cartoons that editors chose to print – for the seven days ending  March 13th, 2022. Congratulations to Dave Whamond who again took the #1 spot this week, by a whisker over Bob Englehart’s #2 — but it wasn’t close on the overall measure as Dave dominated this week with three cartoons in the Top Ten.

Just about half of America’s daily, paid circulation newspapers (around 700 papers) subscribe to CagleCartoons.com. These are the cartoons that editors picked last week.

 

#1

Dave Whamond took the #1 most reprinted spot, by a wide margin.

#2

Bob Englehart took second place with his first of two in the Top Ten.

#3

Dave Whamond also took third place.

#4

John Cole (that’s me) nabbed 4th place.

#5

RJ Matson claims the five-spot.

#6

Rick McKee came in sixth.

#7

Jeff Koterba nabs seventh place.

#8

Dave Whamond took 8th place with his third cartoon in the Top Ten.

#9

John Darkow takes 9th place.

#10

Rivers wraps it up at number ten with his second cartoon in the Top Ten.


Want to get EVERY new CagleCartoon from our 62 syndicated newspaper editorial cartoonists, in your email box every day? Just become a Cagle.com HERO and you get the exclusive daily emails of ALL THE CARTOONS!  See all the cartoons before the newspapers print them and never miss a cartoon!


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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Cartoons from our CagleCartoonist in Ukraine – Drawn as a Refugee

Here’s an update on our friend and world renowned editorial cartoonist, Vladimir Kazanevsky.  We syndicate Vlad’s work to newspapers, see a complete archive of his work here.

Vlad and his wife fled from their home in Kiev last week because of the bombing around them. Vlad tells me he’s waiting for his sons and grandchildren to leave the city. Vlad says he doesn’t plan to leave Ukraine and he writes that he “believes in Ukraine’s victory,” but emphasizes that he “must emigrate rather than live under a Putin regime.” Vlad writes, “Cartoon art is a strong weapon in fighting for Peace. Many thanks to cartoonists from all over the World who help people to open eyes on Putin’s terroristic regime.”

Since he left his studio behind, Vlad has been doing line drawings on the road in Ukraine, and he has been sending them to us by email from his cell phone.  Here’s is the cartoon he sent today …

And two from last week, as a refugee …


Want to get EVERY new CagleCartoon from our 62 syndicated newspaper editorial cartoonists, in your email box every day? Just become a Cagle.com HERO and you get the exclusive daily emails of ALL THE CARTOONS!  See all the cartoons before the newspapers print them and never miss a cartoon!

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

I vote for NO WITNESSES!

On Friday the Senate is expected to vote on whether to call witnesses for the impeachment trial. As of now, it is possible that four Republicans can be found to vote for witnesses, in particular, John Bolton –but it is likely there will not be four Republicans who vote for witnesses. Here’s my cartoon …

I was reminded that people like to see my rough sketches, so here you go.

You can see I fiddled with making the elephant’s butt bigger and moving his head forward, and whether or not to put the tie in front of his shoe. This is an odd angle to draw, but it is the best angle for effective mooning –I’ve done it before. Here’s one that I drew over 20 years ago, during the Florida recount in the Bush vs. Gore election.

My biggest regret from my career as an editorial cartoonist is that I supported the run-up to the war in Iraq, and I believed The New York Times‘ bogus stories about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. (I won’t make the mistake of trusting The New York Times again.) Here’s one of my run-up to war in Iraq cartoons, about Saddam obstructing the weapons inspectors in Iraq –we later learned that what Saddam was hiding was his fragile ego, since he had no such weapons.

I think it is a general rule for editorial cartoonists that whenever there is a good excuse to draw a butt, a dog or a Statue of Liberty, you gotta grab it and run.

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Kurds Screwed!

I’m back from our annual CagleCartoons trip to France!  I’ll post about that soon.  Sorry for the time away from the blog!

While I was gone, President Trump betrayed the Kurds and invited Turkey to invade Syria, setting up a chain of events that essentially hand all of Syria to Russia and Iran. Right when I should have been at the drawing board, I was away, and then bogged down in doing the quarterly artists royalties. Arrgh! Here’s my “Kurds Screwed” cartoon.

A lot of cartoonists drew the Kurds being stabbed in the back. I liked this one by Adam Zyglis …

This is a nice one from Rick McKee

This realistic cartoon by Bart van Leeuwen –I’m not sure I understand this one, but I know how much it hurts to step on Legos.

This one by RJ Matson made me laugh and cry.

Everything by Steve Sack is great …

 

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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Taliban Talks

President Trump abruptly cancelled a planned meeting for peace talks at Camp David with the Taliban and the president of Afghanistan. Here’s my cartoon …

Here are some of my other favorites about the Taliban. This one is by Steve Sack

 

This one is by Taylor Jones

This one is by John Cole

Afghanistan would seem like it should be a big issue, but judging by the news coverage, and the number of editorial cartoons drawn on the subject, it is not. I had to go back in time quite a ways to find my favorites. This one is by RJ Matson

And here’s Dave Granlund