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Obama’s Big, Manly Pen, Again

Fox News is aghast and aflutter about President Obama saying he’ll unilaterally enter into an international agreement on Climate Change.  Obama touts that he has a “pen and a phone” to do business without congress.  The pen amuses me.

Barack Obama,pen and a phone,congress,GOP,Republicans,elephant,ink,Climate Change,environment,global warming
President Obama’s pen annoys the GOP.

Like almost every cartoon I draw, I think the black and white line version looks better – and it is what most people will see in the newspaper …

President Barack Obama, phone and a pen,GOP,Republicans,elephant,Climate Change, Global Warming
Black and white always looks better, huh?
ObamaFaceDetail350
My Obama has grown to be gray-haired and weary.

I realized that kids these days might not be familiar with fountain pens, and how they would occasionally squirt by mistake. I was reading Classic Peanuts recently as Charlie Brown was writing to his pen-pal with a fountain pen, squirting all over the page. I can’t remember the last time I wrote a letter on paper, or the last time I used a fountain pen. Charlie Brown is a classic, but the strip seemed to define the elderly audience of the newspaper.

At the right is a close-up detail view of Obama’s head from this cartoon. Over the course of his presidency I’ve been drawing Obama more gray haired and more weary looking. He’s having a visual transformation in cartoons as well as in reality. Also, in his news conference yesterday Obama was wearing a light tan suit. I’ve never seen Obama wear anything other than a black suit! For cartoonists the tan suit should have been the big story of the day.  I like to draw pinstripes and I’ve gotten comments that Obama doesn’t wear suits like the ones I draw him in – artistic license – the cartoon above would have been lousy with a black suit, the composition needs the black pen and black ink to work – a black suit would ruin it.

The renewed talk about Obama’s “pen” got me thinking about a cartoon I drew when the “pen and phone” talk first came out …

Obama with his manly, phallic pen.
Phallic Putin by Taylor Jones.

My new Obama-pen cartoon is also phallic.  Editorial cartoonists love to make phallic references in their cartoons. At the right is one of my recent favorites from Taylor Jones.

International cartoonists draw a whole lot of phallic cartoons. A recurring image is a warlike character holding a missile in a manly position.  Below is one by South African cartoonist Jeremy Nell …

 

The charmer below is from German cartoonist Rainer Hachfeld …

International cartoonists make me feel subtle.

And yes!  We now have a cartoon about Obama’s tan suit from Nate Beeler. I knew that tan suit would find its way into cartoons.

Tan Suit by Beeler!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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South African Political Cartoonist Fired For Being Too Political

 

jerm zuma South African Political Cartoonist Fired For Being Too Political cartoons

South African political cartoonist Jeremy Nell, whose cartoons I syndicate in our Cagle Cartoons package, was fired from his job at The New Age newspaper for being too political.

“The New Age‘s editorial stance became increasingly out of sync with mine,” Nell wrote on his blog. “This was particularly apparent when the current editor recently told me that he doesn’t “like cartoons [that make] political judgements or statements.” My satire can’t really function under such constraints.”

The move has been greeted with lots of outrage from observers that suspect the paper is editorially aligned with the President Jacob Zuma and ruling African National Congress, someone Nell (and other South African cartoonists) have been harshly critical of.

One noted Zumba critic, the great South African cartoonist Zapiro, drew a cartoon today in The Times in support of Nell. Zapiro famously draws Zuma with a showerhead coming out of his head, after the African President claimed taking a shower after having unprotected sex helped cut the risk of contracting HIV.

Its nice to see professional cartooning camaraderie in such a public venue.

120668 600 South African Political Cartoonist Fired For Being Too Political cartoons

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South African Cartoonist on the Lonmin Massacre

In South Africa, the country has been gripped by an deadly incident last week that has been dubbed the “Hill of Horror.” Police shot and killed 34 striking miners in the deadliest security incident since apartheid ended in 1994.

This story has largely gone unnoticed in the U.S., where the news has been dominated by Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin. So I thought I’d turn to Jeremy Nell (who goes by the pen name “Jerm”), a South African cartoonist I syndicate nationally through Cagle Cartoons, to describe the event and showcase some of his cartoons.

Jerm writes:

To tell you exactly what happened is a tricky. This is why there is an official investigation ordered by the president.

In short, unionised workers at the Lonmin platinum mine, in the north west of the country, engaged in very aggressive strike action over wages. Temperatures escalated and the standoff between the miners and police ended in tragedy, with some armed miners (wielding sticks, pangas and guns) attacking the police who then fired live ammunition into the crowd. (The question of “who fired first” is being investigated.) On Thursday, 34 miners were killed (and another 10 were killed on the days leading up to it), and nearly 80 were injured. Furthermore, 2 police officers and 2 security guards were killed.

My cartoon, that followed, is really just one of disappointment in my fellow South Africans. Instead of pointing fingers, I felt it necessary to reflect on the freedoms for which Nelson Mandela fought. What happened at Lonmin is one of the bloodiest moments in South Africa’s post-apartheid history. Actually, I think it is.

Looking at the photos and footage, one would be forgiven for thinking that South Africans are still oppressed.

My second cartoon wonders about the type of language South Africans throw around. With anti-apartheid songs like “Kill The Boer”; with the president singing songs such as “Umshini Wami [bring me my machine gun]”; with politicians telling cops to “shoot to kill”; and with “kill for Zuma” rhetoric (Jacob Zuma is South Africa’s president) being vomited out of Julius Malema’s mouth, is it any wonder that many South Africans are filled with hate?

Perhaps we should look inside ourselves and think about the words we say and the songs we sing.

Speaking of former ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema, I opted for a slightly more lighthearted approach after he grabbed the opportunity to selfishly address the Lonmin miners and fire them up (as he typically does) by blaming the police (and mine bosses and Jacob Zuma and anyone else who slots into his populist strategy).

The phrase “tjatjarag” is homegrown and difficult to explain. Urban Dictionary defines it as ” To be over-eager and excitable in an annoying manner.” (which is kind of on the money).

If you want to follow more of Jerm’s South Africa cartoons, bookmark his blog.