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Kim Jong Un and his Sony Hackers

The Sony Pictures hacker attack and the cowardly withdrawal of “The Interview” movie has been dominating the cartoons. I drew two!

A universal truth about evil dictators is that they have no sense of humor, so I suggest we mock the despots mercilessly. In fact, mocking mercilessly is really the only tool in my cartoonist tool belt – you know, if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

My second cartoon was quite popular on Facebook, featuring Kim Jong Un and the entertainment industry chickens. This one reminded me of my old Muppet days drawing Gonzo’s girlfriend, Camilla and all her chicken friends.

Today we got the news that North Korea’s internet service went down. Not much of a surprise – and probaby only a dozen people in North Korea have access to the internet – still interesting. North Korea makes a target of itself, which reminds me of a favorite Kim Jong Un oldie I drew below, which I should take out of mothballs.

And here’s one last Kim Jong Un oldie:

History keeps repeating itself! See more great North Korea cartoons on Cagle.com!

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Bill Cosby RIP

Readers love celebrity obituary cartoons, and until now I’ve waited for the celebrity to die before I drew an obit cartoon. Bill Cosby seemed like the perfect opportunity to make an exception to that rule.

Drawing celebrities is easier now than in the old days. I used to struggle to build a “morgue” of photos of everyone I might have to draw on short notice. I had a lot of file drawers dedicated to scraps of paper with little photos of everyone who might find their way into a cartoon. Those days are over, now every cartoonists simply goes to Google, does an image search and a page full of wonderful photo scrap comes up. Easy research!

In fact, since everyone does the same research now, I’ve noticed how common it is for caricatures to resemble one another. Here’s a recent Bill Cosby cartoon by my buddy, Taylor Jones.

With a Google Images search it usually turns out that one photo is better than all the others – and cartoonists often pick out the same one to work from. Here’s a link to the Cosby photo from the Google Images search.

Taylor’s cartoon is better than mine; Taylor wins. But I have the satisfaction of making Cosby go to Hell.

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More Troops for Iraq

I voted for Obama because he promised to get the US out of Iraq – now he’s creeping us back in. With the Republicans controlling Congress, I’m guessing that the mission creep will continue. What is so bizarre is that everyone seems to recognize that Iraq (and the rest of the Middle East for that matter) is an endless quagmire – but still public opinion is solidly behind jumping back in to bash “ISIS-ISIL-IS-Islamic State-Daesh”.

It is fascinating to me that the vast majority of editorial cartoonists draw cartoon after cartoon about how bad the “ISIS-ISIL-IS-Islamic State-Daesh” guys are, and seem to be on the mission creep bandwagon, headed back to Iraq. Here’s today’s cartoon about the 1,500 additional troops Obama is sending to Iraq now.

Here’s a tiny detail, so we don’t lose track of the troops.

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We’re bombing “ISIS-ISIL-IS-Islamic State-Daesh” in Syria also – but not bombing Bashar Assad. It wasn’t long ago that Obama was eager to bomb the Assad regime, after they used chemical weapons and crossed his “red line”. At the time, I drew this one …

and this one …

maybe these two cartoons were right for a few minutes – Obama seemed to back off and lose interest in bombing Assad. That red line nonsense seemed less important.

But now it has gone full circle – and the press, reflecting public opinion seems to be pushing Obama. I can’t really tell if Obama is reluctant or not. I suppose it doesn’t matter whether he’s being pushed or leading the charge when the direction is clear.

 

 

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ISIS, Ebola and the Media!

Here’s Isis/Isil/I.S./Islamic State, Ebola and the fickle media.

I like fickle media cartoons. It is fascinating how ebola has taken over cable news – to the exclusion of all else. That has to be frustrating to those media hog/hams over at Isis/Isil/I.S./Islamic State.

The fickle media serves me well.  Here is the media pushing Obama into war …

Here’s the school shooting in Connecticut back in 2012…

Here’s Obama, the media and the Secret Service prostitution scandal …

In the 2012 election, here’s the media focus moving from the Iowa Caucuses to the New Hampshire Primary …

Remember back in 2009, when the media was obsessed with the Obama girls getting a new puppy, when they should have been paying attention to Obama dumping money on his evil Wall Street buddies?

I love the media.

 

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ISIS or ISIL or IS or Islamic State, War and Opinion Poll Zombies

Public opinion polls show the vast majority of Americans support our jumping into the war in Syria and Iraq. No wonder. TV news nowadays is constant cheerleading for war. I wonder if cable news is as successful in selling us adult diapers, catheters, supplemental health insurance and gold. See our Obama and ISIS or ISIL or IS or Islamic State cartoons here:http://www.cagle.com/news/obama-and-isis/

The vast majority of hypnotized, zombie, idiot Americans support the war in Syria and Iraq.
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The Media’s Push for War

During the run up to George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, I drew a bunch of cartoons that I regret, supporting the rush to war. One of my biggest regrets was believing the reporting of Judy Miller and the New York Times about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I won’t make that mistake again – I have no trust left for the New York Times and when the media all jumps in pushing for war, my inclination is to push back. Here’s my latest on the media press for war.

I seem to be all alone on this. I notice that just about all of our other cartoonists are jumping on the war-bandwagon – even the liberal doves who I would expect to resist. When the war-drums play, it seems that everyone wants to dance. See our Obama and ISIS/ISIL cartoons here.

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Press Jerk or Bitch?

Here is my newest cartoon, with the media as an abused spouse of our petulant president. I did two versions of this one, with Obama saying “Bitch” for brave editors, and one with Obama saying “Jerk” for timid editors. I hope they will print “Bitch” but I expect that they will choose to print “Jerk.”  Here is the rough sketch.

BeatenPressSketch600wide Press Jerk or Bitch? cartoonsHere it is in black and white, as most newspapers readers will see it – “Bitch” version.

132467 600 Press Jerk or Bitch? cartoons

And color, “Bitch” version …

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Here’s the color “Jerk” version …

132483 600 Press Jerk or Bitch? cartoons

Editors can be pretty darn timid, and I suspect that both versions of this cartoon might scare them off.

My grouchy editorial cartoonist colleagues, who lambasted me for my two-version Miranda cartoon, will be debating banning two versions of editorial cartoons as “unethical” at our upcoming convention. I must admit that, if some kinds of cartoons are banned, I’ll be motivated to draw them anyway, just to break the rules.

Another thing my colleagues will discuss banning are cartoons that are similar to other cartoons a cartoonist has drawn in the past. This abused press cartoon is similar to an oldie I drew about high gas prices.

26211 600 Press Jerk or Bitch? cartoons

It will be interesting to see how the cartoonists plan to enforce their new ethical rules.

The abused spouse gas cartoon generated some angry mail from actual abused spouses who were upset with me for not taking them seriously, in some strong and emotional language.  I actually apologized for this one, since people were so upset.  For any readers I offend with my new cartoon, you again have my apology – it is not my intent to criticize abused spouses – the cartoon is only about Obama and the press!

 

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Puppies, Elephants, Bunnies and Sexual Assault

Here are my last four cartoons.  The most recent is below, on the press growing less cute and adorable for Obama.  I think if I drew puppies in all of my editorial cartoons, my work would be much more popular.  I didn’t quite know how I would handle this one when I started drawing, so the rough sketch is a bit of a mess.

poppusketch600 Puppies, Elephants, Bunnies and Sexual Assault cartoons

I was thinking of making this a four panel cartoon at first, with the doggie growing progressively bigger and a caption, but the simple two panel format won out.  here is the line art that most people will see in their newspapers that print in black and white.

131966 600 Puppies, Elephants, Bunnies and Sexual Assault cartoons

And here is the color.  Readers love the doggies.

131967 600 Puppies, Elephants, Bunnies and Sexual Assault cartoons

I drew the cartoon below when Obama made his first statement about the IRS scandal.  here’s the black and white most people see.

131778 600 Puppies, Elephants, Bunnies and Sexual Assault cartoons

And here’s the color.

131782 600 Puppies, Elephants, Bunnies and Sexual Assault cartoons

Before that I did this one on the ongoing, outrageous, sexual assault scandals in the military.

131798 600 Puppies, Elephants, Bunnies and Sexual Assault cartoons

And I drew this “Energizer Bunny” cartoon about the Benghazi Scandal that the Republicans can’t bear to see fade away.

131506 600 Puppies, Elephants, Bunnies and Sexual Assault cartoons

There was a time when I would see an Energizer Bunny cliche editorial cartoon every week. Alas, those were the good old days.

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Sandy Hook, the Cliff and Unions

 

124345 600 Sandy Hook, the Cliff and Unions cartoonsThe cliff is such a natural cartoon that I have to keep drawing it.  This cartoon (right) was from December 20th, when the fiscal cliff negotiations were going nowhere, and I was drawing John Boehner hanging off the cliff where the elephant is, and my son came by and asked me who that was.  It was fine when I explained it, but he didn’t know John Boehner, and I thought I needed to draw and elephant.  We’ve had lots of Boehner cartoons, even a great Boehner section – but he hasn’t risen to the level where young people know him, and I’ve been sticking to the elephant in his place. I hate that our cartoons are puzzles for schoolkids to suffer through.

I’ll draw Boehner soon enough.

The two cartoons below were drawn about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I hate that I have to draw cartoons about heinous crimes, because we all agree on how awful the murders were and the issues are all side issues … comments about grieving, and cartoons about gun control are appropriate, I just wasn’t inspired for another round of redundant gun control cartoons.  Then I watched a horrendously insensitive interview on Fox News with parents of a surviving child, and a couple other, awful interviews with grieving parents that made me angry. The hype around this was pretty ugly, and inspired the media vultures cartoon below.  I think it is good to bash another bad guy than the shooter in cartoons – best not to mention the shooter at all – the few news outlets that don’t mention the murderer’s name are being responsible journalists.

124021 600 Sandy Hook, the Cliff and Unions cartoons

The next cartoon is another riff on the same theme. I got a lot of response to these cartoons from readers who were also disgusted by the media reaction to the tragedy.  Ugly stuff.

124055 600 Sandy Hook, the Cliff and Unions cartoons

The next cartoon was about the passage of “right-to-work” legislation by Michigan’s Republican governor and legislature. I know this cartoon won’t get reprinted much, but when you gotta pee, you gotta pee.

123758 600 Sandy Hook, the Cliff and Unions cartoons

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Benghazi Media Monkeys

This cartoon by conservative cartoonist Glenn McCoy motivated me to draw my cartoon below. Glenn forgot the most obvious monkey and I thought I needed to correct the oversight.

Last month I corrected an error in a cartoon by Glenn’s even-more-conservative brother, Gary.  The McCoys are such an inspiration!

123219 600 Benghazi Media Monkeys cartoons

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An Homage to Gary McCoy

I ripped off our ultra-conservative cartoonist Gary McCoy with my new debate cartoon. See Gary’s cartoon below mine. I love you, Gary.

DarylBoxing An Homage to Gary McCoy cartoons

119770 600 An Homage to Gary McCoy cartoons

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Newspaper Shakeup Down Under

Newspapers in the U.S. aren’t the only ones suffering from a steep decline in revenue as advertisers move online. Australian media company Fairfax, owners of Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, sent shockwaves through the country by announcing it would layoff 1,900 members of its staff and put its online versions behind a paywall.

I asked Aussie cartoonist Paul Zanetti (whom I syndicate through Cagle Cartoons) to sum up the latest for our American readers. Here’s what he wrote:

With Fairfax, there are a planned 1900 job losses. 1500 of these are from the Sydney and Melbourne printing plants – which are being sold off (who will buy if the majors are getting out of print?).

The rest of the job losses will be journalist redundancies (400) over all their titles. The plan is to go hard into digital and with a content pay wall.

This has been on the cards for years. I’m surprised it’s taken so long. It’s not that there’s no demand for news and information, which is as strong as ever. It’s the delivery method that’s changing. Information and news has to be instantaneous in this competitive and fast-moving world. Newspapers can’t compete with the internet, radio and TV (particularly cable TV).

Fairfax’s Greg Hywood seemed to be reacting to the inevitable, looking frightened at his news conference this week, with an air of gloom and doom.

In contrast, News Ltd’s Kim Williams looked relaxed and confident, when he announced yesterday a bid for another major media company and various future plans, saying, NEWS is not a newspaper company but a media company. He also added that NEWS sells 11 million newspapers a week (in a country of 22 million and Fairfax sells 3 million newspapers). Having said that, it’s the online ads, not circulation decline, affecting the bottom line.

The internet is changing, not just the newspaper industry, but retail, music, travel, local video / dvd stores, telecommunications etc.

We should embrace and move with change. It’s exciting. The internet provides opportunities for all. It’s a great equaliser putting more control and choices into the hands of the every man (and woman – and kid for that matter).

Those crying out for the status quo to remain, are the latter day luddites. The news media will continue to grow. Only the delivery will change.

I see the glass half full. Bring on the exciting future of media.