For the Library of Congress Stephen Winick traces the origins of Uncle Sam. “In a pair of posts, I’ll look primarily at the stories behind the name “Uncle Sam,” and in a third post look more closely at his iconic image.” In two parts Winick retells the truth and the “metafolklore” about Uncle Sam: Part […]
Kal wrote a piece about depicting democracy in the form of strong women, the top cartoon here being from four years ago, the second being current.I like the basic concept, but prefer the second because the first seems to put three symbols into a belligerent stance that doesn’t fit their traditional roles, at least for […]
Adam Zyglis accuses Donald Trump of profiteering in office, and suggests a number of reasons he gets away with his grift, including the Supreme Court’s grant of immunity, his subjugation of the Department of Justice and the loyal support of the MAGA movement, all of which are factors in it, to be sure.The grift isn’t […]
Movie News In August 1958 Charlie Brown first took pen to paper to write to a far away friend. That relationship lasted for forty years. Now, as they did with The Little Red-Haired Girl, the animated Peanuts is about to show us Charlie Brown’s mysterious pen pal. From Mark Kennedy at The Independent: The identity […]
For whatever reason this list from the Freedom Forum of seven months ago popped up in my feed recently. The headline says “most famous” while the body of the article merely says “famous political cartoons.”Scott A Leadingham puts his list in chronological order and it is hard to argue with his first and last choices. […]
Anderson starts us off with a challenging cartoon, specifically targeting Trump’s Evangelical supporters, and accusing them of blissfully ignoring a variety of serious offenses against the commands of the Bible, but then mocking them for finally becoming incensed over what Anderson apparently sees as a somewhat trivial violation.He often combines his cartoons with an essay, […]
“The best cartoonists aren’t side commentary. They’re critics with a sharper tool.”Nik Kowsar dismisses efforts to belittle editorial cartooning as a lesser form of journalism.Nik Kowsar is an Iranian-Canadian residing in Washington, D.C. and sentenced to prison in absentia for his cartoons about Iranian regimes. He recently used his Subtack to praise the art of […]
The top tier of Jeff Mallett‘s treatise on Christmas traditions in today’s Frazz hits on the American Santa Claus as a long-standing part of Yuletide season, ending with Thomas Nast‘s personification of the elflord. The Birth of a Holiday and the American Santa ClausYesterday Talmadge Boston for The Dallas Morning News told us the story […]
Bookstores are rebounding, The Philosophical Implications in Calvin and Hobbes, Go with King Features’ Popeye, The Phantom, and others on a Sea Cruise, and cherished children’s book covers are transform into ecological posters. But we start with the non-anniversary of a political animal.November 7, 1874 – First cartoon of the Republican Party elephant (Not)While some […]
In the early nineties, I spent countless hours digging through foreign publications, hunting for lessons and inspiration. I translated articles, wrote essays, and hoped my fellow Iranian artists would catch the spark I felt. I wanted them to see the magic tucked between the lines, the way Western cartoonists held power to account with nothing […]
Call it media illiteracy. It’s the pervasive lack of knowledge about what a political cartoon is supposed to be, and what it’s supposed to do — provoke thought and, yes, even disagreement. Instead of understanding that, many people leap to the faulty conclusion that since the editorial commentary comes in the form of a cartoon, […]
For reasons unexplained I have dozens of cartoonist self-caricatures. Before deleting them thought I’d share ’em. So… Not enough? Hundreds more at…
Throughout the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the early years of the Gilded Age, Thomas Nast used his political cartoons published in Harper’s Weekly to satirize current events, expose corruption, and even influence elections. Kaleena Fraga for All That’s Interesting (ATI) takes a positive look at cartoonist Thomas Nast and his career. Nast’s career began in […]
It’s not often I find myself agreeing with the McCoy brothers, but this 2013 strip echoes my feelings. Back when I was in an Irish pub band, we had mixed feelings about March 17, because it was an excellent payday but one we hated for just the reason the McCoys illustrate above.In fact, a year […]
AdExchanger “facilitates the exchange of ideas between all members of the ecosystem, including marketers, agencies, publishers, data providers, advertising and marketing technology companies, analysts, the investment community and the press.” As such it is, on the whole, non-political, wishing to be a resource for all advertisers. On Friday though… I wonder if this is cartoonist […]