DarylCagle.comI’d like to call attention to a new cartoonist who recently joined us –Canadian Guy Parsons.
Guy joined Cagle.com and our PoliticalCartoons.com store. He has a funky style that looks like he is drawing with pastels on a piece of orange paper. Guy’s cartoons appear in the Globe and Mail and the Calgary Herald, and he has won a bunch of awards for his illustration work.
Welcome to the CagleCartoons family, Guy! See a full archive of Guy’s editorial cartoons on Cagle.com.
The New York Times’ stupid decision to stop publishing editorial cartoons is generating more articles around the world, and the world’s cartoonists are responding with lots of cartoons on the topic – some of the cartoons are more offensive than Antonio Antunes’ cartoon, and I won’t show them here, but I’ve posted some new ones here.
Courrier International, the great French news magazine that reprints lots of editorial cartoons by international cartoonists, asked me a bunch of questions for an upcoming article; I thought I would post my responses here.
1) As a cartoonist and founder of Cagle Syndicate Cartoon, what do you think of the incriminated cartoon by Antonio Moreira Antunes?
I would have killed the cartoon if it came in to us. I can also see how the cartoon could have slipped through, without notice, since the cartoon didn’t feature an obvious, anti-Semitic, Der Stürmer cliché like depicting a Jew as a rat or spider.
The Antonio cartoon illustrates the trope that Jews manipulate the world’s non-Jews, with yarmulke-wearing Trump blindly following Jews, which are broadly indicated by the Star of David the Netanyahu-dog wears on his collar, rather than having the dog wear an Israeli flag which would indicate that Trump is led by Israel. When cartoonists mix anti-Israel and anti-Jewish metaphors, the cartoons should be killed. It isn’t about the dog, although the choice of a German Dachshund is provocative; the most common anti-Semitic cartoons depict Jews as Nazis.
When we get an anti-Semitic cartoon from one of our cartoonists, I email the cartoonist letting him know why we killed his cartoon, and usually the cartoonist will say, “OK, I get it.” Over time, our cartoonists have learned where we draw the red lines and it is less of a problem for us. Anti-Semitic cartoons are so common around the world that the cartoonists are usually unaware that their cartoons are offensive.
2) Did the decision made by the NYT surprise you (that is : did you see it coming?)? What’s your reaction?
The Times doesn’t run editorial cartoons in their USA edition and has a long history of being cartoon-unfriendly, so their decision to stop running cartoons in their international edition didn’t surprise me.
I was mostly surprised that the Times suddenly cut off their relationship with their partner, Cartoonarts International Syndicate, because of the poor decision of a Times editor. Cartoonarts is a family business that has worked with the Times for nearly twenty years, with the Times handling all of Cartoonarts’ sales and online delivery services, which were suddenly cut off. The announcement that the Times would “stop using syndicated cartoons” didn’t describe how brutal their reaction was to a small business that relied on their long-running partnership and support from the Times.
3) Many cartoonists (Chapatte and Kroll, among others) reacted to the NYT’s decision saying : it is a bad time for cartoons, caricature, humor and derision. Do you agree with this appreciation?
Yes, jobs with newspapers are mostly a thing of the past for editorial cartoonists. Outrage is easy to express on the internet and often takes the form of demands for revenge on the publication and the cartoonist who offended the reader. Newspapers are responsive to organized online outrage and shy away from controversy. Cartoons draw more response from readers than words, and responses are usually negative as people who agree with the cartoons are not motivated to email the newspaper.
When did things begin to turn ugly, and why?
Editorial cartoonists are in the same, sinking boat as all journalists. Things turned ugly when the internet took the advertising revenue away from print.
Is there a US specificity in this context, especially since Donald Trump was elected president?
Not regarding Donald Trump. I’ve drawn Trump as a dog, and I’ve drawn Netanyahu as a dog. Cartoonists love to draw politicians as dogs. Anti-Semitic cartoons are common around the world but are not common in the USA where editors do a good job of recognizing and killing offensive cartoons.
4) Why is it important to defend cartoonists and press cartoons, according to you? (or: do you think a world without cartoons and caricature has become a serious eventuality? Can you imagine such a world?) What should be done to defend this form of journalistic expression?
5) As a cartoonist and founder of Cagle Syndicate Cartoon, what would you say about the role played by social medias? Do you see them rather as a useful tool or a threat to a good and sound public debate? Or somewhere in between?
It is troubling that so many people get their news through social media. Social media has taken the advertising revenue away from traditional news media – both online and in print – so journalism is being starved. Editorial cartoonists are no different than other journalists; we’re underpaid freelancers now; we draw for love rather than because of any good business sense.
I run an editorial cartoons site for readers at Cagle.com, and we stopped running advertising on the site. We rely on donations from readers to support Cagle.com. Other publications are going non-profit and relying on donations to support their journalism – I’m impressed with Pro-Publica and the Texas Tribune. The Guardian has been successful with support from their readers.
Cartoon fans who worry about our profession can support us by going to Cagle.com/Heroes and making a small contribution. We really appreciate everyone’s support!
Want to see more of my posts about the New York Times’ ugly, recent history with editorial cartoons?
Visit:
2012, The New York Times Cartoon Kerfuffle, Part 1
2012, The New York Times Cartoon Kerfuffle, Part 2
2007, The New York Times and Cartoons
2015, The New York Times, a Student Contest and Editorial Cartoons
I drew a pro-Trump cartoon again – I know how my readers hate that! Trump is getting hammered in the press today for testy comments following a testy G7 summit in Canada, with Trump saying, “We’re like the piggy bank that everyone is robbing.”
I think “suckling” is a better fit than “robbing”. Trump ran his campaign on toughening up trade relationships, which is something I like. Trump also complained about our allies not paying enough for their defense, and depending on the US military subsidizing them. I also liked that Trump promised to get us out of foreign wars. I’d like to see Trump do more to keep these promises, especially the one about keeping out of wars. Trump seems to want to meddle around the globe poking every bee hive, at least as much every other president –better that he meddles with tariffs than wars.
My readers, who strongly object when I draw something that veers out of my liberal slot, will have plenty to complain about with this cartoon.
I struggled a bit to get my caricatures of Trump and Cruz right in this cartoon, and I had over 100 concurrent viewers of my live stream on Twitch for the first time, watching me struggle. This live stream stuff can be a little stressful. Here’s the latest cartoon.
Watch me work this one through in real time in the YouTube videos below!
And here’s part two …
“This Little Piggy” is an editorial cartooning standard. Here it is with the Republican candidates as toes …
I drew this one live online. I’m going to try to do this with all of my cartoons going forward – it is a brave new day! Check out the video of my drawing session and come join me next time and I’ll chat with you while I draw!
Republicans loved it when Donald Trump led the “birthers” in their suspicions that President Obama was ineligible to be president because he was supposedly born to his American citizen mother in Kenya. Trump claims credit for forcing Obama to release his “long form” birth certificate to prove he was born in Hawaii. Now Ted Cruz, who was born to an American citizen mother in Canada actually fits the mold.
Republicans likely don’t care much about the “birther” argument applied to Ted Cruz, but I’m enjoying it. Here’s Donald Trump bashing Cruz with his Canadian-flag-speech-balloon.
As I was drawing this I noticed that Trump’s speech balloon is pointing at his crotch. Perhaps this is a visual Freudian slip.
I’m trying to live-stream all of my drawings now. Watch the YouTube video below! My apologies for this video being a little jerky in places; I’m still getting the hang of this.
We have programming on caglecartoons.com and politicalcartoons.com that makes an artist’s work disappear if he/she hasn’t posted a cartoon in the past thirty days. Cartoonists retire and disappear quietly.
But today, I noticed – for the first time in three years – my cartoonist buddy Tab from Canada posted a new cartoon, and made his old archive reappear! Tab retired when he was laid off from the newspaper in Calgary. Tab! So nice to see you’re back! I hope this won’t be the only cartoon from you! Here’s Tab’s cartoon.
And here’s Tab’s last cartoon from 2011, when he retired.
Terry Mosher (who goes by the pen name Aislin) is the long-time staff cartoonist at the Montreal Gazette (I syndicate his cartoons through the U.S. through Cagle Cartoons).
In a new video, Aislin takes us through the history and importance of political cartoons in Quebec and Canada. He is putting together a collection of cartoons for an exhibition of cartoons as part of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists 2012 convention in Montreal.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bRt4uZkcnQ]
I’ve never paid much attention to Canadian politics and I’ve never really understood the cartoons that my colleagues north of the border draw.
But lately, the Canadian political cartoons have taken on a frantic tone and I asked two of my Canadian cartoonist buddies, Thomas “Tab” Boldt, of the Sun Media newspaper chain, and Patrick Corrigan, of The Toronto Star, to explain it all to me in a way that even an American cartoonist can understand.
CAGLE: What’s happening with the crazy politics in Canada?
CORRIGAN: Well, Daryl, we don’t elect our Prime Ministers up here, our Parliament picks them, and sometimes decides to throw Prime Ministers out with a “no confidence vote,” also known as “throwing the bums out.”
Our Parliament was just about to toss Prime Minister Harper out, so Harper decided to close Parliament down, as any bona fide third-world dictator would do.
On bended knee, Harper begged the Queen’s representative to Canada, a former TV reporter who usually doesn’t do much of anything except swan around and look official, to help him out.
She agreed to “prorogue” parliament … and if you say “prorogue” fast enough, it sounds like “democracy,” or, maybe not.
TAB: Not so fast here! Technically my colleague is correct, just a little hazy on the details. First of all, we had to suffer through an eye-glazing Canadian election just a few short weeks ago. Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party got more seats than the other parties, not enough to govern with authority, but enough seats to somehow run the country in cooperation with the other parties.
As it turned out, the opposition didn’t like the results of that election; they also didn’t like that Harper was attempting to withhold their public funding. So like bona-fide-tin-pot-would-be-coupists, the opposition parties tried to overturn the results of the election, claiming that the Conservative government was not acting fast enough on the economic crisis.
Prime Minister Harper’s main opponent, a chap named Dion, lucked into the leadership job of the Liberal Party. Dion’s main platform in the recent election was to raise “green” taxes. A sure-fire winner that somehow failed to get the voters excited.
Then Dion, still unable to articulate whole sentences in clear English, thought he’d have another kick at the can, this time without having to bother the voters or having to count ballots. It’s easier that way.
Dion’s slick move to oust Harper and the Conservatives was supported by the two other opposition parties, the Liberal-Socialist-Separatist Coalition, but we’re already seeing cracks in that group. Dion just got booted and the whole coup junta will last as long as an election promise.
Speaking as a cartoonist, it’s been an exciting time. It’s a little like shooting piranhas in a waste barrel, you can’t miss, and whatever you hit probably had it coming anyways. There are no innocent parties in this spat.
CAGLE: Yikes! When will Parliament come back and try to throw Harper out again?
CORRIGAN: Not until late in January. In the meantime we’ll all just cozy up in front of our TVs and watch curling … I can explain that too if you’d like.
TAB: Anyway, Harper’s main opponent, who is from Quebec and barely speaks English, and couldn’t lead anybody to the men’s room, is walking the plank as we speak. He’ll end up on YouTube selling organic backpacks.
CAGLE: So … what do most Canadians think about this mess?
TAB: All we can agree on is 100 lashes on the foot soles for every member of Parliament (double that number for the separatists).
CORRIGAN: I think Tab is sending out a petition in Alberta to quit Canada and hook up with Idaho — or Frankfurt. Nova Scotia has returned to Scotland and pledged allegiance to Sean Connery. Toronto has acquired Buffalo on the NASDAQ .
TAB: Actually, I’m sending out petitions to join Hawaii. It’s as close as Eastern Canada is to us in Alberta, but a lot warmer.
CORRIGAN: Harper gets a second chance, but the rest of Parliament will gang up again as a rickety “coalition” and try to throw the Prime Minister out. By then the Queen’s representative will be tired of canceling her dinner parties and make the clowns have another election. That’ll be sometime next summer, and by then, Canadians will all be unemployed; record numbers will go the polls and vote for a new and truly inspiring party… the Wayne Gretzky party
CAGLE: Should I be worried about our once reliable, stable neighbor?
CORRIGAN: Naw, we’re OK. We’ve put up “no trespassing” signs around all our nuclear reactors. Rumor has it that the Queen may intervene if things get out of hand. Apparently she’s more than willing to send Prince Charles over to take charge and become the King of Canada.
TAB: Should Canadians be concerned about the U.S. would be a better question. What we have seen these past 8 years wasn’t exactly confidence and friendship inspiring. We up north are old fashioned; we believe in the Geneva Convention and basic human rights. We are such softies.
CORRIGAN: Just tell your friends south of the border that an Alberta Clipper temporarily burst the pipes of Parliament so we shut her down for a couple of weeks. No worries. Until then, you can reach all 35 million of us in the Bahamas at the Banana Republic Lounge, leg-wrestling in the back corner, near the kitchen.
CAGLE: Very good. I’m relieved to hear that there are only 35 million of you.
Cartoons by Thomas “Tab” Boldt of Sun Media Newspapers, and Patrick Corrigan of The Toronto Star.
Daryl Cagle is a political cartoonist and blogger for MSNBC.com; he is a past president of the National Cartoonists Society and his cartoons are syndicated to more than 850 newspapers, including the paper you are reading. Daryl runs the most popular cartoon site on the Web at www.cagle.msnbc.com. His books “The BIG Book of Campaign 2008 Political Cartoons” and “The Best Political Cartoons of the Year, 2009 Edition” are available in bookstores for Christmas.
See Daryl’s cartoons and columns at www.caglepost.com.
