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Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Taylor Jones Decade!

Here are Taylor Jones’ favorite cartoons of the past decade!  Taylor is a great illustrator for scores of books and magazines. He was the regular cartoonist for the El Nuevo Dia newspaper in Puerto Rico for many years, and he drew caricatures for US News & World Report magazine for many years. Taylor now draws for the Hoover Digest.  See Taylor’s favorite cartoons on USA Today, where you can click on each cartoon and see it blown up to fill the screen with a pretty, high-resolution image.  See the complete archive of Taylor’s syndicated cartoons here.

Look at our other, great collections of Cartoons Favorites of the Decade, selected by the artists.
Pat Bagley Decade!
Nate Beeler Decade!
Daryl Cagle Decade! 
Patrick Chappatte Decade!
John Cole Decade!
John Darkow Decade!
Bill Day Decade!
Sean Delonas Decade!
Bob Englehart Decade!
Randall Enos Decade!
Dave Granlund Decade!
Taylor Jones Decade!
Mike Keefe Decade!
Peter Kuper Decade!
Jeff Koterba Decade!
RJ Matson Decade!
Gary McCoy Decade!
Rick McKee Decade!
Milt Priggee Decade!
Bruce Plante Decade!
Steve Sack Decade!

We need your support for Cagle.com (and DarylCagle.com)! Notice that we run no advertising! We depend entirely upon the generosity of our readers to sustain the site. Please visit Cagle.com/heroes and make a contribution. You are much appreciated!

 

     

Categories
Blog Newsletter Syndicate

Favorite Cartoons of the Decade

Here is my selection of my favorite cartoons of the decade. See them on the USA Today site here.

I pitched the idea to Gannett of running collections of favorite cartoons of the decade every day in December, the last month of the decade, with a selection by a different cartoonist each day. We, along with USA Today, selected the CagleCartoonists we would invite to participate and we asked them each to choose their favorite cartoons from the past ten years. I submitted twenty-nine batches of cartoons, selected by each of twenty-nine of our CagleCartoonists.  USA Today plans on showcasing their own Gannett employee cartoonists, Thompson, Marlette, Murphy and Archer, through Thursday, with our CagleCartoonists finishing out the month, starting this Friday with Pat Bagley.

USA Today started off their daily, decade slideshows today with their talented cartoonist, Mike Thompson, who also did the work of laying all of these collections out for The USA Today Network sites (that includes the individual Web sites for all of Gannett’s 100+ daily newspapers). Visit USA Today’s Opinion page online to see these every day this month. Click on each cartoon in each slideshow to see a full-screen, high-resolution version of each cartoon, which is very nice.

It is very difficult to select a small batch of cartoons to represent an entire decade!!

Getting twenty-nine CagleCartoonists to each select a decade of favorites was challenging. Obama certainly got shorted as many cartoonists are obsessed with Trump now. A couple of cartoonists selected only Trump-bashing cartoons, which made for a poor representation of the decade –but hey, the fact that the cartoonists chose their own favorites made this project interesting.  Some cartoonists, who have been with us for less than ten years, had to dig into their personal archives to cover the whole decade, so some of the cartoons haven’t been seen on Cagle.com. New Yorker/Mad Magazine/graphic-novelist Peter Kuper joined CagleCartoons.com just a couple of months ago and had to dig up his whole collection from his magazine gag cartoon archives. Dave Whamond and Ed Wexler, who joined us more recently, reached into their vaults for some of their early-decade cartoons; Ed selected some from when he was regularly drawing for US News & World Report magazine. Mike Keefe and Bill Schorr came out of their recent retirements to contribute their selections of favorites.

I wouldn’t call these selections the “best” of the decade, they are just the artists’ choices. I also can’t say that they represent the decade well (but what the heck).

Look at our other, great collections of Cartoons Favorites of the Decade, selected by the artists.
Pat Bagley Decade!
Nate Beeler Decade!
Daryl Cagle Decade! 
Patrick Chappatte Decade!
John Cole Decade!
John Darkow Decade!
Bill Day Decade!
Sean Delonas Decade!
Bob Englehart Decade!
Randall Enos Decade!
Dave Granlund Decade!
Taylor Jones Decade!
Mike Keefe Decade!
Peter Kuper Decade!
Jeff Koterba Decade!
RJ Matson Decade!
Gary McCoy Decade!
Rick McKee Decade!
Milt Priggee Decade!
Bruce Plante Decade!
Steve Sack Decade!

We need your support for Cagle.com (and DarylCagle.com)! Notice that we run no advertising! We depend entirely upon the generosity of our readers to sustain the site. Please visit Cagle.com/heroes and make a contribution. You are much appreciated!

 

 

Categories
Blog Syndicate

I Voted

I voted today. Everything on the ballot was unpleasant. There was nothing there that I wanted – only things I dislike less than other things. Which led to this cartoon.

Yes, I know, all of my Uncle Sams look more or less like congressman Steny Hoyer.

As I was finishing this one up, I saw Rick McKee’s election day cartoon, which is basically the same gag.

Rick’s cartoon will get reprinted more than mine, because he doesn’t have any vomit. Editors don’t like vomit. I think Rick wins on this gag.

Taylor Jones drew this one a couple of years ago – it goes well with Rick’s cartoon.

I took a look in the database and I found this nice oldie by Joe Heller

Nate Beeler drew this one back in 2012.

Here’s another nice one from Nate, in 2014.

And another one from Nate, in 2015!

I think Nate wins, 3 to 1.

 

 

 

Categories
Blog Syndicate

Taylor Jones and Fox News

I was troubled to see a cartoon by our own Taylor Jones, on the front page of FoxNews.com in what seems to be a screenshot of the congressional baseball game shooter’s Facebook page, along with the headline: “HISTORY OF HATE.” I thought it was unfair of Fox News to put Taylor in that spot.

Steve Sack, the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune commented, “It could have been any cartoonist’s work there. They’re using a deranged moron’s actions to stifle satire. I’ve seen attacks on TV comedians today as well. Hang in there, Taylor.”

Steve is correct about the right focusing their ire on satire. Conservatives thrive on talk radio where liberals haven’t been able to find an audience because the nature of liberal discourse is different – morning zoo radio and late night comedians are where liberals commune. We would rather laugh at Colbert or Saturday Night Live than listen to hours of Rush Limbaugh preaching reassuringly to his choir. Liberals can laugh at themselves, while conservatives laugh at liberals. This is something we see in totalitarian states around the world, as over half of the world’s population lives in a nation that doesn’t allow cartoonists to draw their nation’s leader. Conservatives and despots both have trouble laughing at themselves. This is a worry to me when Trump talks about limiting press freedoms, and when the media picks up the right’s criticism of satire. I suspect we’ll see more examples of conservative media lumping cartoonists together with monsters.

I’m told that CNN has been repeatedly showing Taylor’s cartoon from the gunman’s Facebook page this morning.  Taylor sent me these comments …

• The fact that the alleged assailant had posted his comment, that Trump is a “mean and disgusting” person, right above my cartoon … Well, that’s the point I’ve been trying to make about Donald Trump all along. I’m less bothered by Trump’s somewhat quixotic policies, than with the impression I have that our president is a thoroughly repugnant individual. I think it’s possible that Hodgkinson might have posted numerous cartoons of mine, and others who’ve been very personal in their depictions of Trump, because of that recurrent theme.
 
• If any cartoonists, or perhaps all of us, and even more so Stephen Colbert or Rachel Maddow, helped propel Hodgkinson to his final, violent act, however minor our actual influence, it might be because Trump has personalized the presidency more than any president in our lifetime. (Perhaps Andrew Jackson, Trump’s new political hero, was on that par). Trump’s truly making these current moments of American history…all about him. And that has made reactions to Trump, whether from cartoonists or comedians, coalminers or violent madmen, all the more personal.
Categories
Blog Syndicate

Monkey on Your Back

I’ve enjoyed the recent back-and-forth sniping between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush about whether President George W. Bush “kept us safe.” Of-course the answer to that is that he kept us safe, here but not overseas, from September 12th, 2001 going forward – a couple of qualifiers that Jeb neglected to mention.

A “monkey on the back” is an editorial cartooning standard – in fact, my buddy Taylor Jones drew a better George W. Bush monkey on the back cartoon recently, that I noticed just now, after I finished my cartoon above. I might not have drawn it had I noticed Taylor’s excellent work first – oh well, there will be plenty of monkeys on the back to come.
taylorMonkey

Here’s President George W. Bush as a monkey on the back of John McCain back in 2008, by David Fitzsimmons.

This is one of my favorite monkey-Bush oldies, by Sandy Huffaker, from the good old days of 2005.

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
Blog

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Blog

Rush Limbaugh and Shrinking Penises

An Italian study released this week found that due to weight gain, smoking, stress and environmental factors, the average male penis was 10 percent smaller than just 50 years ago.

Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who got into trouble earlier this year for calling Georgetown Law Student Sandra Fluke a “slut” for her advocation of birth control, blamed the male “shrinkage” on a group he dubs the “feminazis.” (view all our Rush Limbaugh cartoons)

“I think it’s feminism,” he said. “If it’s tied to the last 50 years — the average size of [a male’s] member is 10 percent smaller than 50 years — it has to be the feminazis, the chickification and everything else.”

According to our terrific caricaturist Taylor Jones (whose cartoons I syndicate in our Cagle Cartoons package), that “chickification” has effected Limbaugh too:

"Rush

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Blog

Taylor Swift Meets… Taylor Jones?

When Taylor Swift was named entertainer of the year for the second year in a row at the Academy of Country Music Awards, I bet she didn’t think things could get much better. Unfortunately, there was no way she could foresee the chance cartoon encounter she would soon make with brilliant caricaturist Taylor Jones.

Taylor Swift

Taylor usually reserves his sharp pen skills for skewering politicians and entertainers, but just this once he couldn’t help but insert himself into one of his cartoons. I asked him why he went this route with his cartoon, and here is his response:

It’s a running joke that I’m about as skinny as an adult man can be without being terminally ill. Like most people in the comedy industrial complex (which includes editorial cartooning), I poke fun at myself to mask my pain, insecurities and stupidity.

Taylor Swift and I are EXACTLY the same height and build — though even she has a bigger chest than me! Add the fact that 90% of people with the first name of Taylor are females under the age of 30, and you have comedy gold! Well, pewter, anyway.

Categories
Blog Featured

A Revealing Portrait of Rush

The big cigar and little “junk” in this Rush Limbaugh portrait made me laugh.  I told Taylor Jones that it was a great cartoon, even though there won’t be many newspapers that will print it.

I asked Taylor what his thoughts were behind the cartoon. Here’s what he wrote me:

Rush Limbaugh’s crude, on-air rant against Sandra Fluke had me flummoxed at first. How to handle such a subject in editorial cartoon form, especially since I’d been tied up with other work and was coming late to the Rush story? Then it suddenly occurred to me that the man is just plain gross, and that simplified my task. I began to picture Rush as the late, great portrait painter Lucien Freud might have. Only Freud wouldn’t have been nearly so kind.

…Besides, I thought the depiction of a naked Limbaugh would compliment my recent caricature of Rick Santorum with a giant condom pulled over his head.

My first rough sketches actually featured Rush in more full-frontal nudity. But then I figured that a three-quarter view would have more impact. Revealing a sort of less-is-more concept, if you know what I mean.