Cartooning for Peace celebrated its 20th anniversary yesterday in Paris. A special recognition was also given to Safaa Odah who recently arrived in France after two years of trying to leave Gaza. The organization came from a vision of then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and cartoonist Plantu in the wake of the violence and outrage […]
What happens to satire when press freedom shrinks? Why has satire increasingly become something institutions fear rather than defend? Those are questions Daniel Warner at CounterPunch asks as he notes that the United States has fallen to its lowest score on Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index. Major U.S. media institutions are scaling back […]
Hank Kennedy at Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) writes of the pressure being seen by U.S. political cartoonists to suppress cartoons critical of the Trump Administration in an article looking at the United States section of Under Pressure: US’s Erosion of the Right to Cartoon Is No Laughing Matter. Pointing out examples from Ann […]
A new 52-page report documents a troubling rise in threats against cartoonists worldwide has been published. The report finds threats are extending beyond arrests, imprisonment and censorship to include legal harassment and prolonged court battles. It also raises awareness that these threats are not longer confined to authoritarian regimes but are increasing in free-speech friendly […]
Jeff Koterba shares a big announcement with us: Okay, so…cartoonists don’t get promotions. The great cartoonist and friend, Mike Peters (editorial cartoonist and creator of the comic strip, Mother Goose and Grimm), once said something like, “the only promotion a cartoonist ever gets is the day he’s hired.” There’s truth in that. I mean, when […]
For reasons unexplained I have dozens of cartoonist self-caricatures. Before deleting them thought I’d share ’em. So… Not enough? Hundreds more at…
Attention Cartoonists: Your Insights Are Needed! Participate in the Most Comprehensive Survey of Political Cartoonists’ Online Experiences This is the largest survey ever conducted on political cartoonists’ online experiences. The survey covers how and where you post your work, whether you have been censored, and how often you feel insulted or threatened by other users. […]
It’s not really International Obedience Day, and this isn’t a new cartoon. It’s World Press Freedom Day and Molina’s cartoon dates from 2019. I’m featuring it because I particularly like it and because I’m sorry that Molina is still here in America, having fled Nicaragua because there wasn’t a whole lot of press freedom there.Perhaps […]
I’m surprised and a bit disappointed that more political cartoonists in Britain haven’t jumped on Robert Jenrick’s heartless order to paint over and remove welcoming cartoons for refugee kids at processing centers. It’s not simply that Jenrick has no pity on children. He’s apparently not even able to pick them out of the crowd.So good […]
First, let’s sweep up the WCHA business with this Matt Wuerker cartoon that even includes actual pearl-clutching and beautifully captures the faux outrage, or the hypocrisy, however you want to frame it.I’m not sure the weeping snowflakes are sufficiently self-aware to be hypocrites. Their outrage, however misplaced and misconstrued, seems perfectly sincere, in the same way […]
Cartoonists seem stumped by the Equifax hack. I don’t know when I’ve seen a topic inspire such a diversity of responses, and I’d be tempted to collect and discuss them, except that some are so wrong-headed that I’d run into a Prime Directive issue.Dan Wasserman has what I see as the best interpretation of it […]
Fowl Language starts off the day with a cartoon I like, even though it’s directed at people like me.I don’t like IMs and I’m certainly not very good at texting and the two factors are not unconnected. If I enjoyed it, I’d do it more often and then I’d be better at it.But I don’t, so […]
I’m not sure when crossovers in comics became “a thing,” though likely with the Comic Strip Switcheroo of April Fool’s Day, 1997. But two years earlier, apparently Zippy popped up in Family Circus, inspiring this Tom the Dancing Bug that is today’s Classic at GoComics.Crossovers generally pose the challenge that readers need to be familiar with […]
My first reaction to Brandan Reynolds’ cartoon was the realization that, while normally a South African commentary on US politics would provoke a knee-jerk “What business is it of yours?” response, Donald Trump is an international issue and not just our own problem.Which, to start with, is the natural result of our sticking our nose […]
This was an exceptionally good day on the comics page, full of doubles and triples and not a few home runs, so let me do a quick NPR rant and say that, if you don’t have a Comics Kingdom and/or GoComics account, well, you’re missing out on supporting some good work, even if you are […]