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Tab!

We have programming on caglecartoons.com and politicalcartoons.com that makes an artist’s work disappear if he/she hasn’t posted a cartoon in the past thirty days. Cartoonists retire and disappear quietly.

But today, I noticed – for the first time in three years – my cartoonist buddy Tab from Canada posted a new cartoon, and made his old archive reappear!  Tab retired when he was laid off from the newspaper in Calgary. Tab! So nice to see you’re back! I hope this won’t be the only cartoon from you! Here’s Tab’s cartoon.

 Tab! cartoons

And here’s Tab’s last cartoon from 2011, when he retired.

46262 600 Tab! cartoons

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Interest Rates, NSA Spying, Obama and Teacher Testing!

Here’s my weekly blog about my latest cartoons!  The last two are about the drop in the stock market and rise in interest rates after remarks by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.  Here’s another take on the Wall Street bull.

133579 600 Interest Rates, NSA Spying, Obama and Teacher Testing! cartoons

And here is Bernanke, trimming rates, only to see a little sprout of the economy bloom.

133538 600 Interest Rates, NSA Spying, Obama and Teacher Testing! cartoons

47151 600 Interest Rates, NSA Spying, Obama and Teacher Testing! cartoonsBernanke, and Greenspan before him, have been trimming rates for a long time.  This cartoon adds sprouts to a three year oldie (right).  This one amuses me because it is the kind of thing our editorial cartooning professional organization will be discussing next week – whether to ban editorial cartoons that consist of alterations to previously drawn cartoons.  The cartoon police may come down on me for ethical infractions like this one.  Cartoonists are a humorless bunch, when it comes to “cartoon ethics.”

The previous cartoon was about the NSA eavesdropping scandal.  Presidential ears tend to grow over the years in editorial cartoons, and Obama’s big cartoon ears have become absurdly huge among my colleagues.  I once met Obama’s buddy, Susan Rice when she was UN Ambassador, and all she wanted to talk about was why I draw Obama’s ears so big.  I didn’t have a good answer, except for “peer pressure.”  I may keep drawing Obama’s ears small.  Maybe the cartoon police will cite me for a small ears infraction too.

133187 600 Interest Rates, NSA Spying, Obama and Teacher Testing! cartoons

The next cartoon is about “Value Added” testing of teachers.  This cartoon is just a list of the bad things value added testing encourages teachers to do.  There have been lots of testing scandals around the country featuring these abuses, among others.  I got an interesting response to this cartoon from defenders of teachers, who saw the cartoon as “teacher bashing” rather than testing bashing.

133149 600 Interest Rates, NSA Spying, Obama and Teacher Testing! cartoons

 

 

 

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More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies

magritte pipe2 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoonsHere are my latest cartoons. Today the Pope quit, and I drew this one as a riff on Rene Magritte’s famous “This is not a Pipe” painting (right) that we all studied in art history class. We had a recent discussion on Facebook about our brilliant, Mexican/Cuban cartoonist, Angel Boligan, who drew another Magritte allegory about the Pope, which got me thinking.

We get about two phone calls per day from high school students who ask, “what does the cartoon mean?” We tell them they have to do their own homework and we can’t help them. I thought the phone might be ringing off the hook with this one.

 

NotThePope600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

Metaphors with famous paintings are meat and potatoes for editorial cartoonists. Here’s one by Nate Beeler.

79240 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

 

Magritte did lots of versions of this painting, some in English. I went with the classic French. I thought I would add this Bagley/Pope/Retirement cartoon here – I think it is the best of the bunch.

127981 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

 

And I drew these two about the sequester.

127757 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

127984 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

Wedgies are a mainstay for editorial cartoonists. Bagley draws better wedgies too.
96650 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

The stock market fell when we heard the result of Italy’s crazy election, which I drew as the Wall Street Bull tripping over Italy’s boot. It was only a one day drop, but Italy’s bonds are down the tube, so I think it still works.

 

127772 600 More Pope, Italy, Sequester and Wedgies cartoons

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Ye Olde Pot of Gold

St. Patrick’s Day is upon us once again, and with high gas prices and Wall Street shenanigans, it was inevitable that we’d have a batch of clever cartoons featuring leprechauns and their pots of gold.

So if the luck of the Irish hasn’t been with you this year, at least you can take a break and enjoy these cartoons (corned beef not included):

Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)
Chris Weyant / The Hill (click to view more cartoons by Weyant)
John Cole / Scranton Times-Tribune (click to view more cartoons by Cole)
Chris Weyant / The Hill (click to view more cartoons by Weyant)
Dave Granlund / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Granlund)