My Missing Donald Trump Cartoon
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Sarah Palin and McCain Rogue Pit Bull
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Muslims Condemn FtHood Violence
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Obama and Unemployment Rate UP
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Obama and Unemployment Rate UPOUCH
Veterans Day Cartoons to Warm an Editor’s Cold Heart
I run a syndicate, Caglecartoons.com, that distributes political cartoons to newspapers, and every year at this time we hear from editors complaining that there are few or no Veterans Day cartoons.
Some editors think of editorial cartoons as nothing more than little, topical jokes — this is troubling to political cartoonists who want to draw cartoons about solemn topics and bring a tear to the reader’s eye.
Unfortunately, editors for some of the biggest, most influential publications treat editorial cartoons as trivial jokes; a good example is Newsweek magazine, which likes to reprint cartoons that are like Jay Leno jokes, about a topic in the news but conveying no opinion that anyone would disagree with. Jay Leno jokes about the news all the time, and I have no idea what his personal opinions are.
Another wretched publication that diminishes editorial cartoons is The New York Times, which prints a weekly round-up of insipid cartoons under the title “Laugh Lines.” Don’t expect to see any thoughtful Veterans Day cartoons under the title “Laugh Lines.”
So, if a cartoonist wants to get his cartoons reprinted in The New York Times, Newsweek or some other big, national publication that likes funny, trivial jokes, he won’t be drawing any Veterans Day cartoons.
I have gathered a batch of some of my favorite Veterans Day cartoons from cartoonists who don’t care what New York Times and Newsweek editors think. These cartoons will bring a patriotic glow to even the dimmest editor as the cartoonists express their appreciation to our veterans.
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’s books “The BIG Book of Campaign 2008 Political Cartoons” and “The Best Political Cartoons of the Year, 2010 Edition” are available in bookstores now.
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Love Those Lemmings
Lemmings are an evergreen concept for an editorial cartoons. Â Here’s my latest lemming cartoon, about Obama and the Dems pushing for a health care plan. Â First, the rough sketch:
Then I do a nice finished line drawing on a overlay, which is what most readers see in the newspaper.
… And then I color it for the web and the minority of newspapers that print political cartoons in color.
Here’s a lemmings cartoon I drew about the housing crisis …
And here’s a lemmings cartoon I drew about college graduates and the job market …
I learned that people love lemmings all around the world -sometimes people love lemmings a little too much.  After I drew the graduation lemmings cartoon, the cartoon was plagiarized by cartoonist Ali al-Ghamdi for a major newspaper in Saudi Arabia, the Alwatan.
Lemmings. Â Ouch.
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Lockerbee Cartoons …
I got the interesting note below from my buddy, Danish cartoonist Werner Wejp Olsen. Â See our Lockerbee Bomber Freed cartoons here.
Hi Daryl:
I wonder if this story may be relevant/suitable for your newsletter:
I have a rather strange and macabre story to tell in connection with the release of the terrorist responsible for the Pan Am Flight 103’s crash at Lockerbie in Scotland on December 21, 1988.
At that time I was still living in Denmark, my home country. My comic strip “The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen” was syndicated in 30-40 US and Canadian papers by Asterix Features. Once a week I mailed my strips by Special Mail to American Color in Buffalo. And so I did on December 21.
A few weeks after Christmas I got a call from Tim Rosenthal at American Color. They were missing my package. I checked with Special Mail and they could only track my letter to London. After that they lost track of it. Apparently it had disappeared into thin air.
Six months later I got a letter from the FBI. The content was the package I had mailed on December 21. FBI had found it in he wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103. It was intact but for few smoke-colored spots here and there.
The package is still in my files reminding me that even though most of us normally find ourselves far, far away from major world events, we are often closer than we wish for.
Best,
Werner
That’s one of Werner’s cartoons below. Â See more of Werner’s cartoons.
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More of My Sketches
Readers seem to like it when I post my rough sketches, so here we go again, with my sketches for my last couple of cartoons. Â The first one is the Obama Healthcare Caduceus. Â I do the rough sketch in hard pencil on slick paper, so I’m not tempted to do details and render.
Then I trace over the sketch on drafting vellum, with a hard pencil that I scan to look like ink and save as a bitmap file for black and white printing. Â The image below is what most readers see in the newspaper.
Then I add the color in Photoshop. Â I use rather unsophisticated colors because newspaper printing is lousy, and if I use anything that isn’t pastel and bright I get complaints from editors.
Here’s the sketch for another health care cartoon. Â Same thing here, hard pencil on slick paper.
I did the same thing with the pencil on vellum, but this time I just added a bit of gray tone to the drawing because I wasn’t quite inspired to color this one.
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Whacking Hope in Iran
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Iran Cartoons from Mana
Here are three recent cartoons from Mana Neyestani, the Iranian cartoonist who was jailed by the government for his cartoons, and who fled Iran to Malaysia.  Read more about Mana here and see the cartoon that landed him in jail.  (Thanks to Nik Kowsar.)
