DarylCagle.comPresidents as clowns are a cartoon cliché that we’ve all drawn. They never get old. Here’s my new juggling Trump …
Way back in 2006 I also drew president Bush as a juggling clown. It looks like Iran and North Korea are still being juggled after 13 years. (I could have added quite a few more countries, but Trump’s four are most talked about at the moment.) Trump makes me miss George W. Bush.
The Democratic National Convention seems to have all boiled down to one speaker, Khizr Khan, who’s son was killed in action in Iraq, and who’s speech wasn’t even scheduled in prime time. Trump wants to strike back at anyone who criticizes him, without regard to who is giving the criticism. Tone-deaf Trump compares his own “sacrifice” as a businessman to the Kahn’s sacrifice.
And on the other side, it is interesting to see the GOP stalwarts stand up for a “gold star” family in this case, given how nasty they have been to Cindy Sheehan over the years.
Watch me draw this one in real time in the video below.
Wasn’t that great? Now watch me color it in Photoshop!
The Sony Pictures hacker attack and the cowardly withdrawal of “The Interview” movie has been dominating the cartoons. I drew two!
A universal truth about evil dictators is that they have no sense of humor, so I suggest we mock the despots mercilessly. In fact, mocking mercilessly is really the only tool in my cartoonist tool belt – you know, if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
My second cartoon was quite popular on Facebook, featuring Kim Jong Un and the entertainment industry chickens. This one reminded me of my old Muppet days drawing Gonzo’s girlfriend, Camilla and all her chicken friends.
Today we got the news that North Korea’s internet service went down. Not much of a surprise – and probaby only a dozen people in North Korea have access to the internet – still interesting. North Korea makes a target of itself, which reminds me of a favorite Kim Jong Un oldie I drew below, which I should take out of mothballs.
And here’s one last Kim Jong Un oldie:
History keeps repeating itself! See more great North Korea cartoons on Cagle.com!
Cartoons by Rick Detorie who draws the comic strip, "One Big Happy."
California congressman Brad Sherman is in a tough election battle with another incumbent Democrat, Howard Berman, this year in a contest that has drawn national attention to two candidates with hot tempers. Cartoonists have known and despised Sherman for many years, since he was the Chairman of California’s “Board of Equalization” (BOE) which writes regulations governing state taxes. Sherman doesn’t like cartoonists much either, for good reason.
Cartoon by movie industry cartoonist, Tim Burgard.
Sherman championed a set of confusing, contradictory and punitive tax laws that punished California’s artists for many years. California charges a sales tax on “tangible” property, but charges no tax on services; in Sherman’s days on the BOE, authors weren’t charged tax on the copyrights to their written works, but artists were charged tax on their copyrights, even though neither was tangible. Newspaper political cartoonists were exempt from the sales tax, but other cartoonists weren’t, except if they wrote the words that appeared in their cartoons themselves, and didn’t have a separate author. The rules were different than the sales tax rules for rights to artwork in all other states, leading to even more confusion, and the regulations were not applied to artwork by big corporations, like Disney; the taxes were randomly imposed only on little, freelance artists.
Cartoon by nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist, Jeff Stahler.
Sherman took his cartoon frustrations out on a clown – a cartoonist named Rhoda Grossman, who performed at children’s parties, a service that isn’t taxable, except that Rhoda made the mistake of drawing caricatures of the children as a small part of her performance. Sherman and the BOE went after the poor clown for sales tax and penalties on her entire gross income as a performer for the preceding seven years, because of the part of her show that included drawing – a devastating, unexpected, huge, tax bill for poor Rhoda the clown.
Rhoda appealed the tax decision to the BOE, chaired by Sherman, who had been a big supporter of the crazy tax laws imposed against artists and who had just won a race for congress. Sherman moved to Washington, DC and didn’t attend the meeting to hear Rhoda’s plea before the board – he was keeping his salary from the tax board until the last possible day before switching to his new salary from congress, and he cast the deciding vote against Rhoda in absentia, crushing the clown.
Cartoon by Rick Kirkman, who draws the comic strip "Baby Blues."
Top cartoonists from all across America joined in a campaign to draw unflattering cartoons of Sherman, protesting his longtime support of California’s crazy, inconsistent art tax laws. The National Cartoonists Society had determined that Sherman was the one person most responsible for the ugly tax burden that California artists suffered under. Some of the cartoons that were drawn at that time are displayed here, my favorites are the ones below, by Russell Myers, the cartoonist who draws the comic strip “Broom Hilda.” There were some great ones, inspired by the callous indifference of Sherman, the petty tax bureaucrat.
Cartoon by Cathy Guisewite, who drew the comic strip, "Cathy."
The cartoonists were disappointed to see Sherman move on to serve more than a decade in congress, but the story actually has a happy ending. Soon after Sherman left the BOE, the tax board voted to reverse their
Cartoon by Mort Walker, who draws the comic strip, "Beelte Bailey."
decision on Rhoda’s case. Then the California Supreme Court overturned Sherman’s regulations taxing the transfer of intangible reproduction rights to artwork. (Sherman had also cast the deciding vote against the tax appeal of artist, Heather Preston, who went on to overturn the regulations in the courts.) California artists were saved from their tax purgatory, no thanks to Sherman.
And we’re left with a legacy of some great, Brad Sherman cartoons!
Cartoons by Russel Myers who draws the comic strip, "Broom Hilda."
Cartoon by nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist and Mad Magazine artist, Monte Wolverton.
