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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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Scalia’s Empty Chair

I don’t like Antonin Scalia and I was originally going to draw Lady Liberty and Lady Justice dancing on his grave – but that was nasty and I went a softer route with the empty chair. I understand that in the upcoming Supreme Court cases his chair will be draped in black. The idea that Scalia was a doctrinaire “originalist” who was dedicated to the constitution over his own conservative views flies in the face of his Bush vs. Gore decision. Scalia was a hypocrite.

This is a revision of a cartoon I did some years ago, about the Supreme Court being partisan. I think it is better with the empty chair.

Here’s the video of my day drawing this cartoon and the one after this one! Sit back and take a look.

 

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Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court!

Here are my latest three cartoons – hot off the drawing board and Wacom tablet!

The Supreme Court heard two gay rights cases this week, California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. The pundits seem to agree that these cases will likely be decided by 5 to 4 votes, so I drew the four, ugly conservatives on the court angrily brandishing their gavels at the cowering gay couple on the cake. Fortunately, the ugly conservatives on the court are also the easiest justices to caricature!  Here is my rough sketch.

ScotusSketch600wide Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

 

Drawing caricatures like this is so much easier now than it was years ago! All I have to do is type some public figure’s name into Google Images and I get a page full of great thumbnails. In the old days I had to cut photos out of newspapers and magazines and save them in a “morgue” in case I ever needed to draw a caricature. Technology is grand.

Here is the black and white version of the cartoon, which most people will see in newspapers that still print in black and white.

129230 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

I draw everything at about 11″ x 17″ on vellum in pencil, and I scan at high contrast so it looks like ink. Then I color it in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet.  Here is the color version.

129286 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

Next I drew a Republican elephant flogging himself as his intolerant views about gay rights do nothing but give him a sore back. Here is the rough sketch.

FlogSketch600wide Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

And here is the finished drawing, in pencil on 11″ x 17″ vellum, with the gray tones added in Photoshop.

129309 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

It is better if a drawing holds up as just line art with no gray tones – but sometimes I have to resort to gray. This one needed a little tonal substance. Here is the color version.

129398 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

Lite Great Wave off Kanagaw Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoonsThe most recent cartoon is another riff on an art masterpiece – these seem to be the most popular cartoons I draw. This one is based on a famous 19th century print by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, titled the Great Wave off Kanagawa (pictured on the right).

This image made for a popular Yahtzee, in editorial cartoons, after the Japanese tsunami. One thing that is interesting about Japanese prints is that the Japanese read from right to left, so the boats in the Hokusai print are sailing from calmer seas into the big bad waves. Of-course, editorial cartoons must read from left to right, with the set-up on the left and the gag on the right.

I printed out the Hokusai image and sketched a little GOP elephant to the right for my rough sketch.

WaveSketch600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

 

I drew it up like this, then I noticed that the elephant was too big – he needed to be smaller for the wave to look more threatening. Here is the finished line drawing with a smaller elephant.

129467 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

And here is the color version.

129473 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

That Hokusai wave is a wonderful wave!

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Scalia’s Political Dissent Draws Criticism from Cartoonists

Antonin Scalia may have gone too far this time. The conservative Supreme Court justice is being roundly criticized for a highly-political 22-page dissenting opinion on the court’s ruling on the Arizona immigration law.

Here are some cartoons about the sharp-tongued Scalia, including one I drew back in 2004 after he was criticized for going on a duck-hunting trip with Vice President Dick Cheney.

Pat Bagley / Salt Lake Tribune (click to view more cartoons by Bagley)
Rob Tornoe / Media Matters (click to view more cartoons by Tornoe)
Daryl Cagle / msnbc.com (click to view more cartoons by Cagle)
Jen Sorenson / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Sorensen)
Taylor Jones / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Jones)