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Bad Guys, Watch Out!

My “Bad guys, watch out” cartoon is a favorite oldie that I updated.

The recent shootings in Texas, where a good Samaritan with a rifle shot the evil bad guy, then chased him down with the help of another good Samaritan, seems to give weight to the gun-nuts’ argument that we’re all safer when more people carry guns, so I thought it was a good time to bring back this oldie.

I originally drew this one in response to Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law that allowed George Zimmerman to kill Trayvon Martin – and to get away with it. The characters were originally saying, “I’m standing my ground.” The point was a little different, but not much different.

Now, I suspect we’ll see more people who are motivated to carry their guns everywhere, to be ready in case a bad guy comes along. I may be bringing this cartoon back every few years, as this issue never goes away.

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Blog

Question: PICK ONE

Here’s my newest cartoon on the police shootings protests. Just pick one, from 1 to 4, then turn your computer over to read the answers. I don’t think that will work if you’re looking at this on your cell phone or tablet, because the screen will pop to right side up if you turn your computer over. I’m an old, desktop computer guy so it works for me. Heavy, though.

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Cartoons

Pick One Police Shootings

Pick One   Police Shootings © Daryl Cagle,CagleCartoons.com,Police,violence,brutality,shooting,Michael Brown,Trayvon Martin,Tamir Rice,Eric Garner,George Zimmerman,Skittles,Arizona Ice Tea,looses,plastic gun

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Get Out of Jail Free!

Every couple of  years it is time for another Monopoly metaphor cartoon. Here’s my cartoon today about the police violence protests.

I get contacted by doctoral students who write their dissertations on the usage of particular metaphors in editorial cartoons – they like to count how many times they occur. Takes the joy out of a cartoon, huh? Well, that’s what doctoral students do. I might suggest that if anyone wants to do their thesis on Monopoly metaphors in editorial cartoons, they will have a lot of counting to do.

Here’s one I did back in 2008, on the Sarah Palin VP choice.

1121-PalinCommChestC

The next one is a rare cartoon where I had something positive to say, touting what was then the biggest charitable donation in history – Warren Buffet’s multi-billion dollar donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

887B-BuffetDonation_

 

The 1930’s era rich guy character in Monopoly, “Rich Uncle Pennybags“, is classic cartoon fodder whenever news about rich people comes along, and a pig character won’t do. Usually he doesn’t appear in political cartoons that are too flattering to him. I drew this next one with the George W. Bush stock market crash and subsequent bailout of the evil bankers (who, by the way, were never prosecuted).

1130B-BailoutMonopol

 

Remember when five Gitmo prisoners were traded for sketchy American POW, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl? I drew this one with little caricatures of the released Gitmo prisoners.

GitmoJail

Back when I was working with msnbc.com I rarely got a call from an editor asking for anything, so I was surprised one day to hear from an editor at the Today Show, which was planning lots of coverage on Paris Hilton, who was being released from jail that day. They really wanted a quick cartoon, so I gave them this one.

1086B-Hilton_Jail_CM

When George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, not so long ago, I drew my most recent “Get Out of Jail Free” cartoon.

ZimmermanJail

So, doctoral students – start counting!

 

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Blog

Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot

Here’s my weekly batch of new cartoons.  The first one is my “Stand Your Ground” cartoon.  Any cartoon about guns gets a lot of crazy response – as this one did.  People are such nuts.  Here is the rough pencil sketch.

SketchStandGround600wide Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

 

Next I did the finished line art. I dragged three different speech balloons into position in a layer in Photoshop, rather than actually drawing all the speech balloons.

134920 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

I had mixed feelings about whether to leave it as line art for the black and white version. There is something elegant about line art with no tone – but I couldn’t make up my mind, so I did a gray version, and I made both versions available to the syndication customers. Interestingly, half of the editors downloaded the line version, and half went for the gray version. Go figure.134921 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Here it is in color.  I added some subtle texture to the ground.134922 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Here is how it looked the next day in my local newspaper, the Santa Barbara News-Press.

NewPressStand600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Lots of cartoonists were drawing cartoons that were critical of the media attention paid to the new baby future king of England. I thought I would go with cute rather than critical. I don’t have any angry feelings about this subject. Cute is fine with me. Here is the line art that most people will see in the newspaper.

134962 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

And here’s the color.  I’m trying to do more color that looks like I’m using a sponge, as I used to do back in the days when i painted with gouache.

134967 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

We almost saw the “Nuclear Option” happen in the Senate, when Senator Harry Reid threatened to get rid of the filibuster rules that Republicans were using to block Obama nominees.  There was a compromise, but I suspect we’ll see this Nuclear Option thing happen again soon.  Here’s the gray version, with sponge texture (the line art was too spare on this one, it needed gray tone).

135011 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Yes, that’s a very Herblockian “Mr. A-Bomb.”  Gotta love Herblock.  Here’s the color version, with spongy texture.

135021 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

 

Most of the country had a crazy heat wave last week, which is always a good excuse for a trite, Global Warming cartoon.  This one was fun to draw, and I went with the line art – no gray tone for the black and white version of this one.

134866 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

And here’s the color version …

134879 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

That’s it!  I think I’ll draw Detroit tomorrow.

 

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Uncategorized

Standing My Ground

134922 600 Standing My Ground cartoons

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Blog

Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare!

Here is my weekly post on my new cartoons.  My most recent cartoon, on George Zimmerman’s acquittal, was a quickie.  Here is my rough sketch – I took a scan of the Community Chest Get Out of Jail Free card, made it light in a print out, and did a rough sketch on top.

MonopolySketch Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

Then I dropped in the color.  I had it all done in ten minutes, a new record for me.  If only all of the cartoons were so quick and easy.  Usually I muddle and fiddle for a long time with each cartoon.  This one got a lot of attention in social media because it was fast.

134528 600 Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

The previous cartoon was Obama in the Arab Spring bathtub, with lots of dangerous appliances.  Don’t stick a fork in the toaster!  Here is the rough sketch – this one took some muddle and fiddle time to get the position and appliances to be the way I wanted them.

ObamaTub Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

 

Then I did the finished line art, and added a bit of gray to make it read a bit more clearly. The black and white image is what more readers see in the newspapers.

134523 600 Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

And here is the color that you see on our site, and the newspapers that print in color. I had fun with this cartoon.

134524 600 Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

The previous cartoon was about the one year postponement in the employer mandate on Obamacare.  Republicans “jumped on this” as evidence of Obamacare’s “failure” and “chaos.”  Here is the rough sketch.

ObamacareSketch600wide Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

… And here is the line art, that most people will see in the newspapers that print black and white.  I always like to black and white version better.  There is something more elegant about black and white.  Readers always tell me that color is better.

134422 600 Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

And here is the color.  I did this one a little differently, with quick, transparent colors.  I think I’ll probably do messier color like this going forward.  I really like Pat Bagley’s sponge texture – that’s the next thing I’ll try.

134536 600 Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

POSTSCRIPT: Well, after writing that, I couldn’t get the sponge thing out of my head and I added a subtle bit of Bagley texture to the background.  I should do more of that.  And more boldly.  I’m timid starting out.  Here’s the revised version, not too different, but nicely textural. Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

Here’s a detail from the revised version.

detail Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

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Uncategorized

Zimmerman Get Out of Jail Free

134528 600 Zimmerman Get Out of Jail Free cartoons

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George Zimmerman: Three Different Cartoons

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…

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Blog

Best Cartoons of the Week

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.

John Cole / Scranton Times-Tribune (click to launch slideshow)