My Missing Donald Trump Cartoon
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North Korea China and Missile Cigar
That First Amendment can be Soooooo Annoying
I syndicate the cartoons of Rick McKee, the brilliant, conservative cartoonist from The Augusta Chronicle, to newspapers around the world. Today Rick sent in a cartoon about a local Georgia legislator that was so nutty, I asked him to explain. Rick writes:
“Sticks and stones may break my bones” and apparently, Internet Photoshops can really get under the thin skin of Georgia State Rep. Earnest Smith, D-Augusta. Recently he became upset, to say the least, over a manipulated photo in which a blogger digitally pasted his head onto somebody else’s very naked body.
So, he’s co-sponsoring a bill that would make it illegal to alter a photograph so that it “causes an unknowing person wrongfully to be identified as the person in an obscene depiction.” I understand where he’s coming from. Nobody wants their head stuck on an obscene image. Problem is, it’s perfectly legal and protected by the Constitution under the First Amendment. You’d think a guy in his position would know this.
Of course, he’s brought the wrath of the Internet down upon him. Bloggers and forums are trying to outdo one another with lewd images featuring the noggin of Rep. Smith.
But then Smith goes further and says, “No one has a right to make fun of anyone. It’s not a First Amendment right.”
Wow. This is truly embarrassing coming from an elected official. If that’s true, then as a political cartoonist I am breaking the law every day. Go ahead and lock me up. Jon Stewart and David Letterman can be my cellmates.
Perhaps, in the future, our elected officials should be required to take a basic middle school-level civics class. Or, at the least, we could include a disclaimer in their job description, “Warning: This occupation may be a hazard to those with thin skins!”
Daryl Cagle runs the CagleCartoons.com newspaper syndicate distributing editorial cartoons to more than 850 newspapers around the world including the paper you are reading now; he is a past president of the National Cartoonists Society. Comments to Daryl may be sent to [email protected]. Read Daryl’s blog at www.cagle.com/daryl.
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Obama Has Fleas State of the Union
We’ve gotten some crazy and provocative cartoons about Pope Benedict XVI in the last eight years. We have a great new topical collection on the Pope’s resignation called “The Pope is Pooped” – come take a look.
Lots of the craziest Pope cartoons came from Latin American cartoonists. There were lots of cartoons showing the German Pope as a Nazi, showing him as a devil, and showing him doing all kinds of things with condoms. Mexican cartoonist Dario Castillejos saw the Pope as an evil Holocaust denier.
This one by Cuban/Brazilian cartoonist Osmani Simanca depicts Pope Benedict XVI as the devil – a common theme.
Simanca also drew this devil Pope with condoms …
Cartoonists just love the idea of condoms on the Pope’s shoe. here’s one by Taylor Jones.
There are a lot with the Pope blowing up condom balloons, here by Rainer Hachfeld …
And here by Taylor Jones …
There were dozens of cartoons about the Pope and condoms. Here’s another one by Bulgarian cartoonist “Christo.”
This Pope and condom cartoon by Dutch cartoonist, Hajo, made me laugh …
French cartoonist, Jiho, drew the Pope with a condom/suicide vest.
Here’s another Simanca/Pope/Condom cartoon …
Swedish cartoonist, Riber Hanssen, drew the Pope bungee jumping with condoms.
When the Pope gave a speech denouncing “comsumer culture” Simanca drew this cartoon about the Pope’s fancy wardrobe, which made me laugh …
There were a lot of cartoons about the Pope’s role covering up the Pedophile Priest Scandals. This one is by also by Riber Hansson.
Here’s another one by Taylor Jones that impressed me. Taylor is the cartoonist for El Nuevo Dia on Puerto Rico, who works from Staten Island, NY.
There are loads of cartoons with the Pope being crucified. This one is by French cartoonist, Frederick Deligne.
That poor Pope. Here the poor Pope is crucified by Islam, and Mexican cartoonist Nerilicon.
Here the Pope suffers from Islam by Cuban/Mexican cartoonist Angel Boligan – this has gotta hurt.
Mr Fish brought his potty-mouth to his depiction of the Pope.
I think Simanca had the biggest bug in his ear for the Pope. Here’s Simanca’s Pope shark.
Simanca’s Nazi Pope …
I’ll add this one by Pat Bagley, because it made me laugh.
I drew one that was a compilation cartoon of all the Pope Yahtzees.
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Mail, China, Immigration and More!
Here are my most recent cartoons! Here’s the rough sketch for today’s cartoon, a little snarkiness pointed at troubled newspapers. I drew the three characters on the left, and then took a piece of tracing papers to make some changes for the panel on the right, to keep them looking consistent.
Then I drew it up as line art, in pencil on vellum. This black and white version is what most people will see in the newspaper – if newspapers will print this one. I always like the black and white version best.
And here I added color, in Photoshop layers behind the black line art.
Those young people are so disrespectful of Grandpa! Here is yesterday’s cartoon …
My wife’s Uncle Keene e-mailed this idea to me, which he tells me was given to him by a friend who prefers to remain anonymous. I usually don’t draw other peoples ideas, but what the heck, I liked this one. Thanks, Keene. Here it is as it looked in my local newspaper this morning.
I notice they picked up some gray scuzzy tone in the background. Yuck. Why do newspapers take pretty, clean crispy cartoons and muck them up? Here’s a previous cartoon, about the terrible air pollution in China.
This one was fun, and it is nice to do cartoons with no words. The previous cartoon was this quicky for Groundhog’s Day.
I didn’t bother doing color for this one. The previous one was about the immigration debate …
Now I’m caught up! I need to post more often.
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Valentines day
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Obama the Groundhog
Lemmings jumping en-masse off of a cliff are one of the great chichés that editorial cartoonists rely upon – like the Iwo Jima memorial, clown cars, the Statue of Liberty, movie posters, peeing dogs – it is no surprise to see a new lemming/cliff cartoon and it is fun to see the familiar metaphor with a new twist. I end up doing a new lemming cartoon once every two or three years.
My lemming cartoon yesterday was about the ongoing tumult in Egypt, and protesting Egyptians running their country off of a cliff.
Back in 2009, during the Obamacare debate, I drew the Democrat/lemmings jumping off of a political cliff. Of-course, their cliff was on the left.
Back in 2007 at the onset of the mortgage collapse, I drew house/lemmings jumping off of a cliff …
Way back in 2003 unemployment was on our minds (things never change much) and I drew this graduation lemmings cartoon.
The lemming metaphor is popular around the world too. Here is how my graduation cartoon was plagiarized by a cartoonist at a top newspaper in Saudi Arabia.
It amuses me to see how the positions of all of the characters in the Saudi cartoon match my own drawing.
Here are some lemmings by some of my favorite cartoonists. This one is by Mike Keefe from back in 2007 …
Here’s Colombian cartoonist “Matador” (Killer) with the Eurozone countries as lemmings.
Joe Heller did the lemmings as a Martin Luther King Day cartoon …
This lemming/shoppers cartoon by Andy Singer made me laugh …
This mortgage crisis cartoon that I drew back in 2007 is a twist on the lemmings …
I did a search on the word “cliff” in our cartoon database and came up with 440 results. Yipes! There are cliffs everywhere!
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Editorial Cartoonists are Like Chickens
Click to see an even bigger cartoonist chicken.
I’m often asked what editorial cartoonists “are like.” We’re a rare breed; there are only about 60 of us with full time jobs. What we do and how we do it can seem strange to most people.
I think the best way to explain it is with chickens. Editorial cartoonists are like chickens.
A flock of chickens is typically all female, with only one male. Editorial cartoonists are the opposite, all males in the flock with only a couple of females. We work in little cubicles, for chickenfeed. Editorial cartoonists and chickens are all white (it is possible that you might see a brown chicken, but I don’t remember ever seeing a brown one).
When there is a weak chicken in a flock, the weak chicken’s colleagues will peck it to death. Why? Social Darwinism. Killing the weak strengthens the flock – a noble cause. Chickens are little sociopaths, convinced of their righteousness and operating without feelings of guilt or empathy for what they believe is the betterment of the flock.
Chickens strut around like they are important, knowing their heads will soon be on the chopping block. Like chickens, when you cut off an editorial cartoonist’s head, he will keep running around. I haven’t tested that last fact, but I’m sure it is true – and it gives us hope for the future of our profession.
Here are my most recent cartoons and the sketches that, for some reason, you like to see. The first one is on Obama’s apparent transformation into a more liberal Obama in his second term. First the pencil sketch.
Then I trace the sketch for line art on vellum. This is what most people see in the newspapers that still print in black and white.
… and here it is in color.
Obama also seems to be getting more of a spine. Here is the previous cartoon, on Hillary’s testimony in congress.
That’s really Hillary’s testimony in the small type in her speech balloon, and that’s what she was really thinking in the thought balloon. Hillary is fun to draw, and the glasses are great.
At the right is my most recent cartoon about Defense Secretary Panetta’s announcement that all areas of the military, that had previously been closed to women, will now be open to qualified women – a change that is long overdue.
We have a great collection of cartoons on Women in Combat – come look!