September 12, 1984: The first issue of The Santa Cruz Comic News is published. In a rare moment of clarity, founder Thom Zajac had come up with the idea of using only syndicated material — primarily editorial cartoons — to create the first newspaper of its kind, and it becomes an instant hit. Over the […]
Kevin Necessary offers the first of a planned sequence of cartoons going through the stages of grief, and he seems to speak for a lot of his fellow political cartoonists, as well as a lot of civilians. Kyle Bravo expresses much the same feeling on behalf of those outside the trade, who face different challenges […]
For our re-boot of The Cartoonist’s Cartoonists, I was excited that Ann Telnaes agreed to provide us a list of her 10 cartoonists who influenced or inspired her work and career. Ann is the award winning political cartoonist for The Washington Post. She has won every major prize in editorial cartooning including The National Headliner […]
Christopher Downes offers some laughs as the Trump administration begins to take shape, but his exaggerations are well grounded.Trump truly is advancing Christian nationalism despite having no real sense of what’s in the Bible. He went to church as a kid, but the Trumps were congregants of Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote The Power of […]
Matt Pritchett has a talent for reducing complexities to simple imagery.Journalistic neutrality is a polite fiction, but it works if you take it seriously, as we once did.Walter Cronkite is often held up as the model for broadcasters. When he took off his glasses in announcing the death of JFK, or when he showed boyish […]
As of today the comics division of the Washington Post Writers Group (WPWG) no longer exists. The distribution of the last Fort Knox comic strip for November 10, 2024 effectively shutters the comics and cartoon division of the WPWG that began in 1979. The Washington Post Writers Group itself began in 1973 as an outgrowth […]
Patrick Chappatte calls the Trump election a wake-up call for Europe, which demands more analysis than a first reaction might suggest.I invoke Robert Burns in today’s headline, the full closing lines of To A Louse, On Seeing one on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church being “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us To see […]
Michael deAdderBen GarrisonWe won’t get through all the emerging political cartoons about the election today, but here are the bookends: de Adder sees it as the monster returning, referencing Poltergeist, the 1982 horror film about a gateway opening up to the other side, while Garrison cites the Magnificent Seven, in which a group of heroes […]
From thomasnast.com, where the cartoon is explained: As mentioned in the above quote, while the first Thomas Nast Republican elephant cartoon appeared in the Harper’s Weekly issue dated November 7, 1874, that edition of the magazine appeared on the newsstands 10 days earlier – on October 29, 1874.Like the Democratic donkey, Nast did not create […]
… an item of interest in the humour section: a hardcover volume entitled Dahl’s Brave New World, published 1947. Spare but effective cartooning, plenty of imagination and wit. By way of biography, Mr. Dahl (1907-1973) thankfully rated an obit in the New York Times on May 7, 1973. Allow me to quote liberally from it: […]
Oh well. Wiley anticipated the outcome of yesterday’s vote with a Non Sequitur (AMS) that didn’t try to predict the winner but just observed that the Electoral College count doesn’t reflect the popular vote. There have been several cartoons over the past weeks suggesting we abandon the Electoral College and I think it’s a remnant […]
Guy Venables speaks for the world and most of us in America as well. I wasn’t even going to address the election today, because I’m burned out on it and there’s nothing new anyhow.At this stage, you’re either on the bus or you’re off the bus. I saw somebody on Facebook — a grownup, mind […]
Cartoonist and comics historian Tim Jackson has passed away.Timothy Lee (Tim) Jackson January 16, 1958 – November 3, 2024Social media was sharing the sad news of Tim’s passing yesterday: Comics community–I am very sorry to report that the cartoonist Tim Jackson has passed away. Tim, cartoonist for the Chicago Defender as well as many other […]
Even Edison Lee (KFS), though far too young to vote, understands what’s at stake tomorrow. I remember the anticipation and sense of helplessness in 1968, when we were, as the song said, “old enough to kill, but not for voting.”Lowering the voting age to match the draft age made sense, though — technical point — […]
Editorial cartoons are being seen by more people than ever, but the income that supports them is drying up. Fresh after being let go from his 30-year newspaper job, renowned editorial cartoonist Michael de Adder talks to The National’s Ian Hanomansing about the perils of his profession in the age of social media. Ian Hanomansing […]