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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Barr and the Mueller Report

I drew this Mueller Report cartoon last week.

This is actually the first time I’ve drawn Attorney General William Barr, and he is a great character to draw. I thought I would share some of my other favorite William Barr cartoons by my buddies.

The burning Hindenberg Baby Trump is a great backdrop for this one by Pat Bagley.

 

Here are two by the great Ed Wexler! I don’t think Ed likes Barr much.

 

This one is by John Darkow.

 

This Easter Barr-Bunny is by RJ Matson.

 

This charming puppet is by Monte Wolverton.

 

And Rick McKee.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Columns

The Clinton and Bush Dynasties – and Cards in Cartoons

This is my cartoon about the Clinton and Bush dynasties. Note that Hillary is on the left and Jeb is on the right.

Hillary is a great character for cartoonists; I’m still getting comfortable with Jeb Bush, who really looks very little like George W. and his parents.

Playing cards are a metaphor staple among editorial cartoonists. Here’s a nice oldie, from Taylor Jones, with Obama and McCain.

I got mail in response to my cartoon, from readers asking why both Hillary and Jeb were not Jokers. I suspect Taylor got some angry mail for calling Obama a “spade,” I would have avoided that. Still, nice cartoon.

As I was writing this, I did a search on our CagleCartoons.com site for cards, and I came up with the lovely Boligan cartoon below. Clearly, Boligan has in mind that the fat, happy tourist is flying around the world, spreading the money around from his many credit cards.

Sometimes I look at a cartoon and think, if only he had done something different, that would have made for another great cartoon. With this one, I would have had a consumer Sysiphus, with too many credit cards flying too close to the sun, with his credit card wings melting, falling apart. Maybe I’ll do that, with a “thank you” to Boligan.

Cards are great for cartoons, huh?

Categories
Cartoons

Clinton and Bush Dynasties

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Categories
Blog Featured

Jesus, Freddie Mercury and Gay Marriage

Following the big news events last week surrounding gay marriage, we received lots of great cartoons, from both the right and the left, about whether gay marriage should be legal in this country (check out our complete collection here).

Mr. Fish is one of my favorite cartoonists and probably the farthest left of any cartoonist on our site; his gay marriage cartoon included the unlikely paring of Jesus Christ and former Queen frontman Freddie Mercury:

I asked Mr. Fish to write up his thoughts about the cartoon, and here’s what he had to say:

The cartoon was drawn in reaction to the vote in North Carolina approving a constitutional ban on same sex marriage. It took me a full day to work through my rage before figuring out the cartoon.

Like so many other progressive cartoonists, my initial instinct was to attack all Southerns in the United States and to classify them as backwoods hicks crippled by a history marred by prejudice and intolerance and legislative buffoonery. Not wanting to join the chorus of such vitriol, though I didn’t find it at all disagreeable, I decided to illustrate the hypocrisy that I heard when listening to those in support of the ban who insisted that their decision was Biblically motivated.

While I don’t believe in the Gospel and think that the subjective nature of Scripture allows for innumerable interpretations and conflicting readings, I do appreciate the historical significance of there having been a big-mouthed radical hell-raiser named Jesus Christ living in Bronze Age Palestine who got in trouble with the political and religious elite for saying that the poor and the sick and the homeless and the misunderstood minorities and the unjustly vilified riffraff were NOT worthless human beings.

It seemed to me that such a committed revolutionary thinker, if presented with contemporary culture, might tend towards acceptance of our glorious differences as human beings rather than condemnation.

What are your thoughts about the cartoon? Either comment below, or drop us a line on our Facebook page.

Categories
Columns

Cartoony Politics in Canada

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.