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Trump as King Henry VIII

Here’s my King Trump …

King Henry the Eighth by Hans Holbein the Younger.

This is Donald Trump as King Henry VIII, from the famous portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger, shown in the image at the right. That Henry was quite the dresser. Notice that Trump, and Henry VIII have tiny hands and a little purse. I may do a series with more famous king portraits as Trump.

One thing that I have to keep in mind as a newspaper cartoonist, is how the color cartoons look when printed in the papers – the cartoons darken up, with heavy details filling in and cyan (or blue) coming in heavy; this is why I lighten and warm up the colors, which is especially apparent in Trump’s brown, furry vest. I also feel I need to make the flesh tones lighter and I’m always getting mail about how I should make Trump look more “orange.” I added a little white feather on Trump’s cap, which wasn’t in the painting – surely this was an oversight by Holbein the Younger as the feather seems to be necessary!

This isn’t the first time for me with Holbein the Younger and Henry VIII. Ten years ago I did a similar take on George W. Bush as Henry VIII in the 2006 cartoon below. I see that I took even more liberties with the king’s outfit in this earlier, cartoonier version.

There are always a lot of cartoons depicting presidents, and presidential candidates as kings (or queens). During the Obama years the few conservative cartoonists enjoyed drawing Obama as a king as their vision of Obama was vain, self-absorbed and autocratic.

At the beginning of the last campaign there were lots of cartoons with Hillary and presumed GOP frontrunner Jeb Bush as dynastic royalty, including this one I did below …

We saw lots of “Trump Card” cartoons, but Trump was always the Joker in those cartoons, not the King.

 

 

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Cagle’s 2016 Year in Review

Here’s my year in review! The year started off with Donald Trump knocking off his opponents one by one, in a big Republican field.


Trump attacked his fiercest rival, Ted Cruz, for being born in Canada, arguing that he was not “native born” and constitutionally ineligible to be president.

Trump had a famous, short-lived feud with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, which led him to boycott a presidential debate that was sponsored by Fox News. Trump’s absence seemed to amount to a victory for him.

Bernie Sanders started out strong and threatened to steal the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton.

The Democratic establishment couldn’t grasp why young women voters rejected Hillary and flocked to Bernie.

Bernie hung on until the end – Hillary just couldn’t put him away.

Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia died, and the Republicans would not allow a vote for Obama’s nominee for nine months, in the hope that a Republican would win the election.

The terrible Zika virus spread north from South America.


Ted Cruz and John Kasich tried teaming up for a last ditch effort to derail Trump. It didn’t work.

Trump won the Republican party nomination for president – a concept that many Republicans found difficult to accept.

Trump’s fashion model wife, Melania, gave a speech at the GOP convention that seemed to match a speech by Michelle Obama.

Trump attacked a Muslim “Gold Star Family” that spoke against him at the Democratic Convention.

The media was obsessed with Trump, giving him lots of costly air time – but after he won the GOP nomination, the media turned on Trump and Trump’s support surprised all of the pundits.

Many Republicans couldn’t bring themselves to support their new nominee.

The Party of Lincoln was horrified.

“Pay to Play” allegations about the Clinton Foundation stung Hillary.

In other news, Civil War freedom fighter Harriet Tubman was selected to grace the $20.00 bill, kicking slave plantation owner Andrew Jackson off.

Great Britain voted for “Brexit” – an exit from the European Union.

Highly publicized, and unjustifiable police shootings led to attacks on police and nationwide demonstrations.

Greedy drug companies raised priced and screwed customers.

The Summer Olympics were dominated by news of the success of the American swim team, and then by news of the American swimmers vandalizing a bathroom and lying about it.

The Trump vs. Clinton campaign was possible the ugliest presidential contest ever.

Trump made a surprise visit to meet the president of Mexico – to the horror of Mexicans.

Trump seemed to be fond of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, as the Russians hacked the Democratic party boosting Trumps campaign by releasing embarrassing emails through their proxy, Wikileaks.

The race was tight, focusing on swing-states.

Hate groups endorsed Trump – and I heard from many of them by e-mail.

Trump accused Hillary of being too sick to be president.

The presidential debates drew the biggest audiences ever.

“Access Hollywood” recordings of Trump bragging about sexual assaults dominated the headlines.

Trump claimed that the election was “rigged” against him, suggesting that he wouldn’t “accept” the election results if Hillary were to win.

Days before the election, FBI Director James Comey reopened the e-mail investigation of Hillary, an event that Hillary’s supporters believe cost her the election.

Trump won!

Half the nation was shocked.

The election was a Democrat apocalypse.

Trump’s transition was just as crazy as his campaign, with untraditional cabinet picks of generals and billionaires who seem to defy his promise to “drain the swamp.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Trump Christmas

Trump will have a nice Christmas morning!

This Christmas morning scene is something I bring back every four or five years. Here’s an oldie from a Christmas when the GOP was suffering from some Obama successes …


Here’s one from when Obama was eager to get Obamacare through congress, back in 2009.

The next one is from back in 2001 – before I had settled on a good caricature of George W. Bush, when 9/11 was still fresh and all the talk was about the hunt for Osama Bin Ladin.

Notice that there are thick, cathode ray TVs in W’s holiday stash? This cartoon is fifteen years old. Times have changed.

Gotta love Christmas morning!

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Puppies for Putin

Kids dream of getting a puppy for Christmas and Putin is certainly no different. This year, Putin’s dreams come true with puppy Trump and puppy Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson.

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Trump’s Cabinet Picks

Trump’s cabinet picks are heavy with generals and billionaires. Saturday Night Live’s depiction of Breaking Bad’s Walter White as the choice to head the Drug Enforcement Agency made me laugh and let to this cartoon.

It is said that some artists drawings all look like themselves, or all look like their wives – for me, everything I draw harkens back to my Muppet days – and all my chickens look like Camilla. (Camilla is the chicken girlfriend of Gonzo.) I can’t get her out of my head; Camilla haunts me.

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Strong Dollar!

I’ve drawn a lot of dollars over the years – usually when the dollar goes down. Now the dollar is on a tear, close to the value of the Euro, and leaving other currencies in the dust. For us, that means our foreign Cagle Cartoonists get a raise (from their perspective) – but American businesses are suffering from seeing cost of their products and services rise around the world. It looks like this is all happening because the economies in the rest of the world are pretty lousy, compared to ours.

I wanted to make George Washington look like a wrestler, and I made is head a little small – it is about brawn, not brains.

Here’s a recent one, when it was announced that Harriet Tubman would be kicking Andrew Jackson off of the twenty dollar bill …

Here’s another recent one, imagining Lincoln’s reaction as Donald Trump won over the “Party of Lincoln.”

This one is from back in 2011, when it looked like the value of the dollar was being chipped away.

This one is from 2010, when the news was about the Chinese keeping their currency artificially low to steal business away from America.

This one is from 2009 – for some reason those dollars China was eating up weren’t tasting so good. Now I forget why I drew this one; dollars are always yummy to pandas.

When I drew this one back in 2007, we were on the eve of the great recession and the dollar was sinking.

Here’s another one from 2007 when the fall of the dollar was a big story.

This one from back in 2004 was more of a reflection of George W. Bush’s War on Terror.

I actually have more – but this is plenty!

 

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To Scam a Cartoonist

 


hajocomputerdump
This cartoon is by Hajo from Holland.

To Scam a Cartoonist
By Monte Wolverton

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from a woman who called herself, generically enough, Mary. She said she wanted to hire me to “make cartoony of” a portrait of her family, so she could give it to her husband for his birthday. She attached a photo of her husband, two kids and herself. (See the photo at the top of this web site). She also let me know that she was engaged in humanitarian work, shuttling between Nepal and Australia, helping earthquake victims. Commendable. Damn commendable.

Why not? I thought. I can squeeze it in. I quoted her a price—not cheap, but I have bills to pay, Mary’s humanitarianism notwithstanding. I followed my standard policy for people I don’t know (and some I do)—credit card only, half up front. She got right back to me and said she would be paying by check, and therefore needed my cell phone number. I got right back to her and said sorry—credit cards only and I don’t give out my cell phone number. I never heard back, and didn’t give it a second thought.

A day or two later I learned that a cartoonist friend had taken her assignment. He did the requested family portrait and received a check for the amount he had agreed upon—plus $4,000. He emailed her and she said no problem—she had miswritten the amount. Go, ahead, she said. Cash the check, send her another check for $4,000 and keep the rest. At this point my friend realized that scamminess was afoot. He never cashed the check, but he lost valuable time doing work for nothing.

I can cast no aspersions because I myself almost fell for it. In retrospect, as usual, I could see four red flags. Who can tell me what they were? Okay, never mind—I’ll tell you.

1) Mary’s family photo was a little too cute. An ecstatically happy Caucasian family at the park—all grinning idiotically, with exceptionally good teeth. It had that slick stock-photo quality. Further, a Canon digital SLR is strapped around Mary’s neck. She’s white and blonde, yet she writes in broken English. “Make cartoony of”? Okay, maybe she’s Latvian, but probably not.

2) Why doesn’t she have a credit card? After all, she’s got a spendy camera, she shuttles between countries, and the kids in her photo have designer jeans. She writes checks for this stuff?

3) Why does she need my cell phone number to write a check?

4) Why do I need to know about her humanitarian work? Perhaps she was just sharing.

Oh, I almost forgot. Mary’s initial email came through the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) website. She was apparently looking for cartoonists to scam. Really — why editorial cartoonists? C’mon! We don’t make a ton of money. Most of us need other sources of income to support our cartooning habit. We fight for the oppressed and downtrodden. We stand against injustice, greed and exploitation. For that we get hate mail and death threats. Why not scam greedy hyper-capitalists and human traffickers instead? Here’s a suggestion for cartoonists. The next time a scammer emails you, go ahead and agree to do the work. Then send them a terrible, poorly rendered cartoon with awful perspective, garish colors, bizarre anatomy and confusingly tangent lines. Sign it as Marc Chagall. Few people will be able to tell the difference, but the scammer will likely be arrested when he or she tries to pass it off as genuine. And you’ll feel good.

Just kidding. I love Marc Chagall.


I’d be interested to know how many cartoonists fell for this one. I got this e-mail too.

I Googled the scammer’s e-mail address and found a post on the “Grand River Woodturners Guild” Facebook page, dated October 5th, warning of basically the same scam and noting that “all woodturners are getting this e-mail.” For the woodturners, the e-mail came from a man who was asking for a vase to be made for his wife. 

Thanks to Monte for writing this for us.

Daryl

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Betsy Devos and the Department of Education

Donald Trump’s choice to head the Department of Education is Betsy DeVos, who I drew in the cartoon below.

I may draw caricatures of the other Trump cabinet picks. DeVos is an enthusiastic champion of facing down teachers unions and tearing down public schools in favor of privately run charter schools that suck resources away from the needier kids in public schools – sound like standard Republican stuff? Just remember my Common Core cartoon from a few years back …

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Romney Kisses Trump Butt

Last week’s news was filled with Mitt Romney meeting and having dinner with Donald Trump, after their history of badmouthing each other during the campaign. Romney certainly wants the Secretary of State job, and we may find out if he get the position next week. Trump’s former campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway said today that the job search is expanding, after warning of a popular revolt among Republicans if Romney is the choice.

To be evenhanded (a word seldom applied to editorial cartoonists) I should point out that it isn’t unusual for me to draw butt kissing. Here’s Obama kissing the butt of the King of Saudi Arabia.

There’s a lot of butt-kissing to go around these days.

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Malaysia Harassing Cartoonist Again

My Malaysian cartoonist buddy, Zunar, is suffering again from the thin-skinned government thugs. Zunar has been butting heads with humorless, Malaysian authorities for years. Here’s an interview I did with Zunar a couple of years ago at Ohio State University.

Last week Lunar was assaulted and detained by government goons at at exhibition of his work, leading to a renewed flurry of posts among cartooning organizations in support of Zunar; here’s the update from Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) and here’s the translated post from Cartooning for Peace in Paris. Zunar sent a timeline of his experiences to his supporters in a mass email that I’ve pasted below. Good luck, Zunar!


From Zunar:
10th Sedition charge is on the way
On 26 November 2016, I was arrested, detained and investigated under two laws: the Sedition Act and the Penal Code. The arrest was made a day after an attack on me and my exhibition by the pro-government thugs. The exhibition was held at Komtar Mall in Penang, about 4 hours drive up-north from Kuala Lumpur. All 20 drawings that were exhibited have been confiscated by the police and now placed under their custody.
Even though I have been released, the harassment from the Malaysian government is far from over. I have to report back to the police in Penang on 27 December 2016 for further investigation. And yesterday (26 November), two peeple who assisted me in organizing the exhibition were also called up by the police for questioning.
I can smell that the 10th charge of the Sedition Act is on the way. I am already facing 9 charges under that draconian act and the trial is set to be on 24 January 2017.
Zunar
Political cartoonist
27 Nov 2016)
*****************************************
ZUNAR
Zunar (Zulkiflee Sm Anwar Ulhaque) is a political cartoonist from Malaysia. With slogan, “How Can I be Neutral, Even My Pen Has a Stand”, he exposes corruption and abuse of power committed by the government of Malaysia through his art.
Malaysian government is now imposing a travel ban on Zunar to prevent from travelling abroad.
Zunar is also now facing nine charges under the archaic Sedition Act and facing possible 43 years imprisonment and the court proceeding will start on 22nd Nov 2016. He was detained and locked behind bars twice under the Sedition Act – first time was on September 2010 for two days and on 10th of February 2015 for three days.
Five of his cartoon books have been banned by the Malaysian government on the ground that the
contents are “detrimental to public order.” His office in Kuala Lumpur has been raided a few times and
thousands cartoon books were confiscated.
The printers, vendors, and bookstores, have been harassed. Their premises have been raided and they have been warned not to print or carry any of his books or their bussiness licence will be revoked.
Three of his assistants were arrested. The webmaster, who manages his website and online bookstore, was called in by the police for questioning.
Zunar is the only Malaysian selected by Amnesty International as the first Malaysian for their biggest annual international campaign, ‘Write for Rights (#W4R) 2015′.
zunar
THE HARASSMENT
17 Oct 2016 – Zunar was banned from traveling abroad by the Malaysian government.
He will file a legal proceeding to challenge the ruling.
2 April 2015 – Zunar was slapped with nine charges under the archaic Sedition Act and facing possible 43 years imprisonment and the court proceeding will starts on 22nd Nov 2016.
Feb 28 2015 – More than 20 policemen raided his launching event in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur and treaten to detain him and confiscate the book, ROS in Kangkong Land if he proceed. He had to cancel the program.
Feb 14 2015 – Hundreds of the books, ROS in Kangkong Land were confiscated by the police from the printer’s lorry en-route to the launching venue.
Feb 10, 2015 – Zunar was detained and locked up for three days under the Sedition Act. He was accused to have tweeted seditious comments in relation to the Federal Court’s decision which upheld the conviction of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.
The police opened up two separate investigations on him under the Sedition Act.  One is on the tweet criticising Mr Anwar’s sentence under the D5 Unit (Classified Crime). Another is on his cartoon books ‘Pirates of The Carry-BN’ and ‘Conspiracy to Imprison Anwar’.
28 Jan 2015 –  There was a raid on his office while he was on a speaking tour in London. More than 150 books were confiscated. Laws used: Printing Presses and Publications Act, Sedition Act, Penal Code.
6 Nov 2014 –  Three of his assistants were arrested and taken to the police station for selling his latest cartoon books. Law used: Sedition Act.
16 Nov 2014 –  The webmaster, who manages his website and online bookstore, was called in by the police for questioning. Law used: Sedition Act.
18 Nov 2014 –  The police have asked the online payment gateway that handles his book transactions to disclose the list of customers who have purchased his books through the official website www.zunar.my. The company was given no choice but to disclose it.
Law used: Sedition Act.
20 Nov 2014 –  Zunar was brought in for questioning to the Dang Wangi Police Station in Kuala Lumpur under the ‘Classified Crime Section’ involving three different laws.
Laws used: Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Sedition Act, Penal Code.
24 Sept 2010: Zunar was detained and locked up for two days after the publication of his book ‘Cartoon-O-Phobia’. Law used: Sedition Act.
July 2010: Five of his books – ‘Perak Darul Kartun’; ‘1 Funny Malaysia, ‘Isu Dalam Kartun’ Vol.1, 2, and 3 – were banned by the Home Minister on the grounds that the contents are “detrimental to public order.” Law used: Printing Presses and Publications Act.
Sept 2009: His office was raided by the authorities. Five hundred (500) copies of his book titled ’Gedung Kartun’ were confiscated. Law used: Printing Presses and Publications Act
THREAT AGAINST PRINTERS
Three companies which printed his books were raided. They were warned to not print his books in the future or their licence will be revoked. As a result, no printer dares to print his book. He has resorted to redacting the name of the printer to protect them. This is against the law, but he has no choice. The law in Malaysia requires both names of printing company and publisher on all publications.
Laws used: Printing Presses and Publications Act, Sedition Act.
Assault on vendors/book stores
Bookstores’ premises around the country were raided by authority and they were warned to not sell his books in the future or thier licence will be revoked.
Law used: Printing Presses and Publications Act, Sedition Act
PHILOSOPHY
1. How Can I be Neutral, Even My Pen Has a Stand
2. Talent is not a gift, talent is a responsibility
3. The can ban my books, they can ban my cartoon, but they cannot ban my mind, I will keep drawing until the last drop of my ink
Award:
1)  “Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award 2011” by Cartoonists Right
Network International
2) “Cartooning For Peace Award 2016” Geneva
3) Human Rights Watch Hellman/Hammett Award for 2011 & 2015
4) International Press Freedom Award, Committee to Protect Journalist, New York 2015