middle east – Page 2 – DarylCagle.com

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Cartoon Bombs … Really

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date March 26, 2015

Nothing makes Islamic radicals more angry than cartoons, so, why not drop cartoon bombs on the enemy? Looks like the Pentagon already thought of that.

According to the Daily Mail in Britain, the U.S. Air Force recently utilized an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet to drop a specially designed “leaflet-dispenser-bomb” for the first time in Syria, dispersing 60,000 copies of the cartoon below on the town of Raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State, IS or “Daesh”.

The sign in the cartoon reads, “Daesh Recruiting Office,” the word on the meat grinder is “Daesh”. The wording on the monitor at the right of the cartoon reads, “now serving 7001” and the ticket dropped by the first person in line has the number “7001.”

This cartoonist could have a promising career as a conservative – just put donkey heads on these two Daish guys, change the wording on the meat grinder to “Obamacare” and I could see this cartoon being reprinted in Tennessee.

Tags daesh, Daish, democrat, donkeys, isil, isis, islamic state, meat grinder, middle east, Obamacare, radical Islam, Raqqa, republicans, Syria, tennessee

Blog

Eeeeww! So nasty!

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date March 25, 2015

The French weekly newsmagazine, Courrier International, is a great customer and, if I draw a cartoon only in black and white, I’ve been OK with their coloring my cartoons – if they want. This has never been a problem before. Today I saw this cartoon I drew back in 2006, in black and white, showed up in Courrier with very nasty coloring.

Eeeeww! Yuck! I think I need to rethink being so generous about my coloring policy. Both BW and color versions are below.

Tags Boko Haram, Courrier International, daesh, hezbollah, Iran, Iraq, isil, isis, islam, islamic state, Libya, middle east, Mosul, Syria, Tikrit, Yemen

Cartoons

Dove Jet

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date October 2, 2014

154455 600 Dove Jet cartoons

Tags Cartoons, dove, jet, middle east, olive branch, peace

Cartoons

Obama Transforms Into Bush

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date September 25, 2014

154201 600 Obama Transforms Into Bush cartoons

Tags Barack Obama, Cartoons, George W. Bush, Iran, Iraq, metatmorphosis, middle east, president transformation

Cartoons

Media Pushes Toward War

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date September 5, 2014

153259 600 Media Pushes Toward War cartoons

Tags Barack Obama, Cartoons, Iran, Iraq, isil, isis, islamic state, middle east, News, reporters, syria.president barack obama, television, War on Terror

Blog

This Land Is Mine

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date August 11, 2014

Thanks to Jonatan Krovitsky for posting this animation as a comment on my Facebook page. The clever, editorial cartoon video is by longtime animation stalwart, Nina Paley, and since, in the credits, it urges people to copy and post, I’ll do just that.

This Land Is Mine from Nina Paley on Vimeo.

Tags animation, Arabs, Hamas, Israel, middle east, Nina Paley, vimeo

Blog

Israel Cartoons That Gave Me Some Trouble

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date August 10, 2014

I’ve been occasionally accused of anti-Semitism in my cartoons criticizing Israel, here are a couple of examples. I drew this cartoon below during the last Israel/Hamas battle a few years ago.

My critics claimed that the helmet on the soldier resembled a Nazi soldier’s helmet, because of the jag at the base that covers the top of the soldier’s ear. I did a Google search at the time, to see what Israeli helmets look like, and they had the ear jag – still, Nazi helmets have a strong visual image. I also got complaints about the nose on the soldier being too big.

The second complaint was that I put the Star of David on the Israeli soldier’s helmet, rather than the Israeli flag, which is a rectangle with the Star of David with a blue stripe above and below. Putting the Star on the helmet implied that he was any Jew, rather than an Israeli soldier. I guess I would have done the whole flag on his helmet, if I had it to do over again.

Later, when a bunch of ships tried to break the blockade of Gaza and were attacked by Israel, I drew this related cartoon and didn’t get so much criticism – maybe because I softened the shape of the helmet over the ear (his nose is a little smaller, too).

Tags doves, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, middle east, Palestine, Palestinians, peace, rifle, soldier

Blog

Gaza Missile Defense System

Post author By Daryl Cagle
Post date August 9, 2014

I recently drew this cartoon about the “Gaza Missile Defense System” which got 3,044 shares on my Facebook page – that’s a lot of shares for one of my cartoons. I guess it struck a nerve.

In general, American cartoons are supportive of the Israeli side and international cartoons are supportive of the Palestinian side in the conflict, with some of the foreign cartoons getting pretty anti-Semitic. The theme of Hamas hiding behind babies has been popular among the American cartoonists, with a grand Yahtzee of babies tied to missiles and babies as suicide belts. Here’s one by Randy Bish.

Here’s one I drew years ago when Israel was fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon …

(My color was pretty lousy in those days, I know.) The baby-belt theme has been big.

I thought this anti-Israel cartoon (right) by Malcolm Evans in New Zealand was powerful – it brings up the “Jews Killing Babies” anti-Semitic theme in cartoons that has a rich history so it is something that I would have stayed away from, that said, the current circumstances are bringing out a lot of classic, anti-semetic cartoon themes with the international cartoonists.

Among the anti-Israel international cartoons, I thought this David and Goliath cartoon by Mexican cartoonist Dario Castillejos, was a nice, fresh take.

The theme of a ruined Gaza declaring victory over Israel is another Yahtzee. Here’s one by my buddy Bruce Plante …

And here’s a stylish match from Arend Van Dam …

I like how the debris is arranged to have little, equi-distant margins around each little piece.

I can see the reader fatigue about Israel vs the Palestinians. Most readers prefer celebrity cartoons. When the news turns to international events, most of the cartoon fans turn off – frustrating for the cartoonists who want to draw about “important issues.” I can tell our traffic will be up with the news is about entertainment or sports. The more turmoil we have in the Middle East, the worse our traffic gets. Oy. But don’t miss our great, and little seen, collection of cartoons about the latest Israel/Palestinian flare-up.