Adventures in Editooning
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Molton’s Mettle
So we got more mean insensitivity via Molton’s cartoon, mocking our North Carolina state elected representatives being nervous about their personal safety [“Government Grit,” July 30, Xpress]. Political violence has boomed against elected Democratic representatives and others who take an unfavorable stand to the current Republican regime, and that violence has directly been ignited by the hate media of the MAGA right and by the current fuhrer on his Truth Social propaganda machine.
Let’s view this cartoon in light of the horrible June murders and attacks on two Minnesota state representatives and their spouses in their own homes.
So what is funny about that cartoon? What is anything short of cruel about that cartoon?
The Mountain Xpress in Asheville N.C. received a letter of comment about a Randy Molton cartoon.
Editor’s note: There seems to be room for more than one interpretation of the cartoon in question. We checked with cartoonist Randy Molton about the writer’s points, and he offered the following response: “If the reader took the time…
Israeli Cartoonist as Voice of the Hostage Families
It was only a short while after the 7 October attack when illustrator and cartoonist Michel Kichka sat at his desk and began drawing. “As a political cartoonist, I couldn’t allow myself to sit in silence until I recover, like other artists did.”
“I understood that I am betraying my responsibility if I’m just channel-surfing, paralyzed in front of panelists on my screen, and not present,” says Kichka, 71. “I forced myself to react.”
Ofer Aderet for Haaretz tells of Israeli cartoonist Michel Kichka‘s service to the hostage families. (Or here.)
The first hostage he drew was Itzhak Elgarat from the Gaza border community of Kibbutz Nir Oz. He was taken hostage after being shot in the hand while desperately trying to hold the door handle of his safe room shut to keep out terrorists on the morning of October 7, 2023.
Then came a request from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum: that he draw Ariel Bibas on the day marking his fifth birthday, still in captivity. At the time, the Bibas children’s deaths had not been confirmed. Kichka drew Batman, who Ariel adored, coming to save the boy.
Mexican-born Cartoonist Feggo Censored at The Smithsonian
From Felipe Galindo’s Facebook page via Badi’s Blog:
The White House published the article: “President Trump Is Right About The Smithsonian”, to my surprise, an artwork of mine, displayed at the Smithsonian American History Museum is on a “list” of objectionable artworks (selected by The Federalist, a conservative publication,) stating that the image is “promoting open borders by depicting migrants watching fireworks through an opening in the US-Mexico border wall.”
I created that image in 1999 and it has been exhibited and reproduced extensively…
Isa Farfan at Hyperallergic reports on the story and interviews Felipe Galindo:
On Friday morning, August 22, illustrator Felipe Galindo Gómez opened his email to find a note from his friend. “Have you seen this?” the message read, and linked to the White House’s bullet-pointed list targeting Smithsonian artworks and exhibitions. There it was: an image of his 1999 illustration “4th of July from the south border.”
After the White House featured his work in its hit list, Galindo, who also goes by the name “Feggo,” said he traveled from New York City to Washington, DC, to see whether it was still up. When he arrived at the museum on Tuesday, he found the exhibition closed.
Censored cartoonists speak out on book bans and death threats
How do artists hold the powerful to account? Graphic novelist Alison Bechdel and editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes have been grappling with that question for decades, in their own very different ways. Bechdel is the creator of the seminal comic strip, “Dykes to Watch out For,” which she self-syndicated for 25 years. She’s also the author and illustrator of four graphic novels, including “Fun Home,” which was adapted into a five-time Tony-winning Broadway musical. She is a professor at Yale, and her latest book is Spent. Telnaes is a two-time Pulitzer winner and the winner of the Herb Block Prize for editorial cartooning in 2023. Earlier this year, she made international headlines after resigning from The Washington Post when her cartoon mocking tech billionaires for bending the knee to President Trump, including Post owner Jezz Bezos, was spiked.
Alison Bechdel and Ann Telnaes discuss “free speech, book bans, censorship, and the growing threats artists face today” at On with Kara Swisher.
Kara, Alison and Ann discuss everything from politics and money in art, to South Park, book bans, drawing Kristi Noem’s flowing extensions, art making, and AI drawings.
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