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APRIL 29, 2007

WE'VE ADDED SIX NEW CARTOONISTS!

I should take time out to introduce everyone to six cartoonists that we've recently added to the site. Two are returning to us after leaving for a while, and four are new.

Thach "Tak" Bui is a great Canadian cartoonist who draws the comic strips "PC & Pixel" and "Cheap Thrills Cuisine." Tak moved to Canada from Vietnam in 1968 for a college scholarship and he made Canada his home. Tak has an impressive drawing style and describes his editorial cartoons as "illustrations," although they seem to me to be wordless editorial cartoons in the international style. That's Tak's cartoon below. Visit Tak's archive. E-mail Tak.




French cartoonist, "Jiho" rejoins us after a hiatus. I'm happy to have him back - Jiho's cartoons are wild, and might make some readers angry, which is something we like, here at the Cartoonists Index. That's Jiho's cartoon below. Visit Jiho's archive. E-mail Jiho.




Igor Kodenko is new to our site from the Ukraine. Visit Igor's archive. E-mail Igor. That's Igor's cartoon below.




Damien Glez is a French cartoonist who lives and works in Burkina Faso, in West Africa, which Damien describes as one of the poorest countries in the world. Sometimes I have to marvel at cartoonists' career choices - it would never occur to me to look for a job in Burkina Faso. Damien works for the Journal du Jeudi in Ouagadougou (say that ten times, real fast). E-mail Damien. Visit Damien's archive. That's Damien's cartoon below.




Hamid Karout draws for the Syria Times and is the top editorial cartoonist in Syria. He'll surely be drawing some cartoons that make our readers angry and we're happy to welcome Hamid to the site. Visit Hamid's archive. E-mail Hamid. That's Hamid's cartoon below.




Stephane "Stephff" Peray from Thailand is one of my favorite cartoonists. He returns after leaving the site for a few months. I'm delighted to welcome him back. That's Stephff's cartoon below. Visit Stephff's archive to see the cartoons you missed while he was gone. E-mail Stephff.

APRIL 25, 2007

Newspapers and Cartoonists Wandering Blindly By Daryl Cagle

Every day I read something from journalists obsessing about the future of print. The internet is gobbling up newspaper readers and advertisers. The future looks bleak for ink on paper as newspapers respond by downsizing, degrading their product and hastening their own demise. There seems to be a generally accepted axiom that the internet is the future for journalism. Columnists are transforming into multimedia bloggers and cartoonists feel pressure to animate their political cartoons. It makes perfect sense to chase the shifting audience, but the move to the internet doesn't make much business sense.

Newspapers are bleeding revenue as the web enjoys a rush from new advertisers. The newspaper "group-think" solution is to move onto the internet to reclaim advertising dollars-but the money on the web is flowing to the search engines (mostly to Google) where topical ads are displayed with search results. Ads accompanying original content on the Web still pay poorly. As a political cartoonist, I run some popular Web sites that get millions of page views per month, but the ad revenue only covers the cost of my servers and bandwidth. Newspapers share this problem as they pour resources into building their Web sites and get very little revenue in return. Many try charging their readers to read archives on their Web sites, a strategy that fails almost every time as most Web surfers simply browse somewhere else where content is free.

Newspapers continue to pin their hopes on their Web sites in the belief that their brands carry goodwill into a new medium, when in fact, newspaper brands have little value on the Web. The three most popular news sites on the Web-Yahoo News, CNN and MSNBC.com-dominate the audience, with other news sites trailing far behind. The reason why is simple, each is attached to a huge audience (Yahoo, AOL and MSN.com) which feeds readers into these sites.

My own cartoon site is associated with MSNBC.com, which gets its traffic from MSN.com, which gets most of its traffic from the famous MSN.com home page, the default home page for PC buyers using the Internet Explorer browser, who don't bother to change their home page. Yahoo and Google channel their huge search engine audiences into their news sites. The trick to finding a big audience on the Web is to bring your site to the audience, not to expect the audience to find your site.

One of the most popular online newspapers, The Washington Post, understands how the Web audience works. The Post partners with MSN.com and MSNBC.com to bring traffic their way. When The Washington Post Company bought my old employer Slate.com from Microsoft, the negotiations focused on Slate continuing to receive a huge audience flow from promotions on MSN.com. The Post understands the Web where traffic flows like a river - the river has to keep flowing or the lake will dry up.

For many newspaper editors, internet strategy is a fantasy from the movie "Field of Dreams." "If you build it, they will come." Good content is nice (Slate has great original content) but securing a continuing audience for that content is more important. Yahoo and Google maintain top news sites with almost no original content. That's journalism 2.0: circulating content that is created in other media, while paying little or nothing for the content.

Reporters, columnists and editorial cartoonists are suffering from ongoing layoffs in the newspaper industry. The cartooning ranks have been thinned and the cartoonists who still have jobs are often asked to do more work online, such as starting blogs and animating their cartoons for the Web. In 2000, Gregg and Evan Spiridellis (JibJab.com) created some animated political cartoons that became hugely popular on the Web and newspaper editorial cartoonists seemed to agree that, in the future, all political cartoons would be animated. The problem for cartoonists is much the same as the problem for other content creators: there is no market for animated political cartoons when Web sites don't want to pay for content.

I run a popular Web site and I'm the cartoonist for MSNBC.com, but I still make my living selling cartoons that are printed in ink on paper from traditional clients who actually pay. I often get calls from political cartoonists who are starting to animate their cartoons, asking where they can sell their animations; my answer is, "nowhere." Even the successful JibJab guys use their political cartoons for publicity and make their living doing animations for commercial clients. The editorial cartoonists seem to be charging ahead in their aimless endeavors, typically creating animated political cartoons on the side, for newspaper employers who pay them nothing extra for the extra hours, creating content that no one wants to buy in syndication.

At this summer's Association of American Editorial Cartoonists conference, there will be two sponsored programs: "What Do You Mean You're Not Animating Yet?" and "Blog or Die."

The aimless charge to the internet extends to the Pulitzer Prizes. This is the second year the Pulitzers accepted entries that were not printed, but were posted on the Web sites of paid circulation, daily print newspapers. The winner and nominees this year were all employees of print newspapers who submitted portfolios of animated Web cartoons that could not be printed in their newspapers--a first for the Pulitzers. The editorial cartoonist community is in a tizzy. Cartoonists want to win prizes and keep their jobs, and according to the Pulitzer jury, the way to do that is to jump on an internet bandwagon that no one is steering.

Illustrations above by Angel Boligan

YOUR RESPONSES TO MIKE LESTER'S KILLED SHERYL CROWE CARTOON

We got a lot of response to Mike's Sheryl Crowe cartoon (below). Here is Mike's response to Sheryl Crowe, followed by a selection of our readers' responses.

Dear Sheryl Crow:

It appears that I was hasty in my criticism and dismissal of your suggestion that we limit our toilet paper consumption to "one square" per visit and missed the method to your madness. I am at once suitably humiliated and penitent for it would appear that any self-respecting Eco-chondriac would know that the scrap from the manufacture of bio-diesel is of course... corn cobs.

Humbly,
Mike Lester

Bob -- Robert Gray, RMCM, USN (Ret)
______________________________________________________________________

NO KILL ZONE
No humor, especially a satirical cartoon, should be "killed"; it should live or die on its own merits.
C'est la Guerre,
Mark Alexander

Never should have been censored!
Louise Wisinski

Keep at it. I love your work!
Vonnie Thompson
Monroe, WA

FYI- Mr. Wallis' book of Killed Cartoons is just the tip of the of the tip of the iceberg.
Milt Priggee - cartoonist

Did it make a larger point? No.

Was it funny? No.
Gordon Kent

While Sheryl's idea is absurd (and vastly impractical in many cases), I thought the cartoon was brilliant. Think about all the people who didn't get to see it and who would have had a great laugh along with getting the message.

Sandy Towle
Burlingame, CA

Thanks Mike!
Paul Heckmann

LET HIM DRAW ONE PORTRAYING MY PRESIDENT AS A BABY KILLER AND IT WILL PRINT.

THERE IS SO LITTLE 'TRUTH' IN CIRCULATION IN ANY MEDIA, OR FOR THAT MATTER BY ANY HUMAN, THAT THERE IS WHERE THE DOWNFALL OF OUR COUNTRY LIES

GEORGE PROCTOR

Hugh Farrell

APRIL 24, 2007

MIKE LESTER'S KILLED CARTOON

Do you think Mike's potty humor cartoon (below) should have been killed? E-mail us and let us know. Here are Mike's comments for the blog:

I didn't contribute anything to the recently published "Killed Cartoons" compilation because it rarely happens and hopefully, I usually kill my bad ideas. But today was different. First, I was surprised when I saw no cartoonists weigh in on the Sheryl Crowe suggestion of, "ONE SQUARE FOR YOUR DERRIERE" as one british publication put it. Frankly, for a conservative like me who loves whacking celebs, it was a "batting practice" fastball story.

The original Ms. Crowe's blog entry can be found here.

An excerpt:

"I propose a limitation be put on how many sqares [sic] of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required. When presenting this idea to my younger brother, who's judgement [sic] I trust implicitly, he proposed taking it one step further. I believe his quote was, 'how bout just washing the one square out.'"

Now, if you're a cartoonist and you've already drawn polar bears stranded on a tiny ice berg and the earth as a well done piece of meat on W's grill you've pretty much cast your Global Warming ticket. Me? Not so much. So I penned the cartoon below and for one very big reason was killed: Potty humor. C'est la vie.

Mike Lester

CAPTION CONTEST

The Humor Times newspaper is holding a caption contest with one of my cartoons. You can see it on the front page of their site. The winner gets a free subscription to the paper edition of Humor Times. Think you can do better than the captions below? Want to enter? Let them know what the pig and the guy are saying in the cartoon below, and e-mail your pig and guy quotes to Humor Times at info@humortimes.com.

Here are a few of the entires that have come in already:

Big Pig says: "A reduction in corporate taxation stimulates economic growth."
Worker Says: "Can I have a cookie too?"

Fat Corporate Hog: "My leg falls asleep like this every time there's an increase in the cost of living."
Squashed Worker: "Anybody got a marshmallow?"

Corp: I'm on it.             
Worker: Got my back?

Corp: Making money is such a grind!             
Worker: I'll say!

Corp: We're sitting pretty!             
Worker: We're not.

Corporations: "Princess and the what???"
Workers: (with a gasp) "Pea"

Corporations: "Life is good!"
Workers: "Better for some..."

Corporations: "The economy is doing great!"
Workers: "Yeah, uh huh"

Corporations: "Those politicians have been a good investment!"
Workers: "I wish they'd mandate a diet for you!"

APRIL 20, 2007

The First Virginia Tech Cartoons were Terrible

When a lunatic killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University earlier this week I knew what to expect from political cartoonists, who don't react well to tragedy. Some of the cartoons seemed insensitive, as today's generation of jokesters struggled to respond to a story with no lighter side.

I have some sympathy for the editorial cartoonists who have a daily deadline and must respond to the headline of the day. The first cartoons were predictable: Uncle Sam or the Virginia Tech mascot, with bowed heads and flags or the school pennant at half-mast. There were lots of riffs on the school logo (the letters "VT"), including one depicting the school logo in dead bodies. Some cartoonists launched immediately into gun control cartoons ­ "how terrible it is that guns are so widely available" and "what a shame it is that none of the victims were toting firearms to protect themselves."

I run a syndicate that distributes editorial cartoons to newspapers, and our editors were not happy. The day after the tragedy one editor from Georgia wrote: "As a Cagle subscriber, I have to tell you the cartoons sent today about the Virginia Tech shootings showed a deplorable lack of sensitivity and taste. Can't you find (someone) who isn't so quick to try to be funny or cute at innocent people's expense?"

As bad as this week was for cartoonists, it was worse for television. An army of aggressive TV reporters descended on little Blacksburg, Va., asking everyone they could find, "How do you feel?" and "Did you know him?" The television coverage reached new heights of ugliness when NBC released the killer's "Multimedia Manifesto" and all we could see on cable news was 24 hours of "non-stop nut-case." It took a day for the wallpaper killer coverage to devolve into finger pointing among the media about whether they were doing the right thing in publicizing the killer's message.

When I first heard about the massacre, I wrote in my blog that I would not be drawing any cartoons about it. But after only two days the story had matured into something I wanted to draw cartoons about because there was something for me to criticize. I drew two cartoons bashing NBC; one showed the NBC peacock dressed up as the network of gun-brandishing Seung-Hui Cho. I drew another showing two kids dressed like Cho, because "He's the only guy we see on TV now." I drew another one generally bashing people who didn't see that Cho was a psychopath, with Cho painting the giant words "STOP ME" on the ground while two oblivious college professors walk by saying, "How can we know something like this is going to happen?"

Political cartooning is a negative art form. Cartoonists and columnists work best when bashing hypocrites or speaking to issues where opinion is divided. I am fortunate to have no daily deadline. When I don't want to draw on a subject, I don't have to; that was a luxury for me with the Virginia Tech story. Unfortunately, the deadlines of the 24-hour news cycle demand that most cartoonists, reporters and commentators chime in right away.

Sometimes it pays to take a step back and hold your breath without writing, drawing or reporting anything for a couple of days - until there is something constructive to say.

- Daryl

(By the way, I got no complaints from MSNBC.com about my NBC bashing, and the peacock/Cho cartoon leads the Week in Review Slideshow.) Want to comment on my rant? E-mail us.

APRIL 18, 2007

COMMENTS ON THOSE CARTOONS

Here are some comments on RJ Matson's BC/Bush Cheney cartoon (scroll down to see the full sized cartoon) ...

you missed the whole point......you insulted Jesus Christ....and Christians, who Mr. Hart inspired with his pieces. I WOULD call you an idiot, but that wouldn't be Christian
wade brumett

I salute your memorial to Jonny Hart. Well Done. It's in the best tradition of political satire and humor, which Mr. Hart would love. Your contribution embodies the best of cleverly embracing multiple controversial issues with a tongue-in-cheek insight, which is rare moment to savor. Thanks.

Here are some of your comments on Sandy Huffaker's Virginia Tech gun control cartoon ...

Get a clue. If even one of the innocent victims had been armed instead of defenseless in their dorm rooms, there might only be one funeral this week instead of 32 - the deranged gunman's. They died because they were defenseless, so the secondary cause of their death is political correctness. Cops just can't be everywhere. Deranged killer's aren't stopped by gun control laws. They are stopped by a trained and armed citizenry.

Send a deranged gunman to my house and he'll be in for a fire-fight. The Police can come and take way his corpse. They won't need back-up or SWAT for that.

William Pope, BBA
Captain, US Army (Ret)

(I am writing in regard to the Virginia Tech / handgun / Bush cartoon I received in my email today.)

Wouldn't some expression of grief be more appropriate than trying to find more reasons to destroy another human ??? You want to attack Bush for his lack of sensitivity, but where is yours? It reminds me of a passage about taking the log out of one's own eye before taking a splinter out the eye of someone else!
Very disappointing!
tim seeber

Tougher gun control laws don't stop violence. Criminals welcome laws that reduce their risk in executing of their lawless acts. Armed citizens have stopped much more crime than the Police ever have.

Gun control only affects law abiding citizens. Criminals will always find a way to get the "tools" of their trade.

One last thought: Kitchen knives, cars, and doctors cause multiple times more deaths each year than guns. Shall we do away with them too?

Michael Hardy

Here are some of your comments on the Milt Priggee cartoon at the right.

Mr. Cagle,

I appreciate what a tough gig you cartoonists have, but my theory on why you got so many emails critical of Priggee's, Rogers', and Matson's cartoons is that they were just not that good.

Instead of playing it safe with straight (and appropriate) memorials, they all chose to take a chance, overreached, and missed awkwardly.
All humorists do it, most more often than not. It comes with the territory.

Sincerely,
Jeff Dennis

PS: "Spelling it out in dead bodies" might have legs as a cartoonist's metaphor for "too heavy handed."
____________________________________________________________________

Mr. Priggee,
As an alumni of VA Tech and as someone who knew one of the victims in Monday's shootings, I am nothing less than disgusted by your cartoon mentioned above. I am all for free speech and press, but at a time when the families have not been able to recover their loved ones' bodies, this representation is completely inappropriate.
~Laurie Fravel
Class of 2003

I was a bit perplexed to read that some people were offended by your "VT" cartoon. That really is a shame. IMHO, you were simply commenting on an American tragedy in a VERY poignant manner. And I'm SURE that you're every bit as upset about this horrible incident as the rest of us are-for crying out loud, how could anybody not be affected?!? I don't see your drawing as being insensitive at all-thank you for sharing it with us on "Cagle."

Much respect,
Barbara Roberts

it was an inspired thought. let no one suggest otherwise.

ellis glazier
la paz, mexico

Here are some comments on Rob Rogers' Kent State/Virginia Tech cartoon:

I think this drawing gives the wrong impression in that it suggests that our gov't had something to do with the senseless killings at Va. Tech. While I am old enough to realize the abstract thought of the drawing, I do not believe it is appropriate to the circumstances.

With Regards,
Kenny

I still vividly remember Kent State, but I only saw shock and tragedy in your art, nothing to do with a war.
Incredible imagery.
Len Duffy

Lori Lippitz
Skokie, IL

I just saw your cartoon from the Cagle cartoon mailing. As a Kent State graduate, I of course immediately recognized the famous and haunting photograph you reference. I think your cartoon beautifully captures the emotions - confusion, fear, anguish, fright - felt by the students at Kent State at the time of the shooting and now felt by the students at Virginia Tech in the wake of this week's tragedy. Thanks for this thoughtful piece.

Susan

BEST COLLEGE CARTOONIST OF THE YEAR

Congratulations to Kory Merritt, who won the John Locher Memorial Award as best college editorial cartoonist of the year. I got this note from Mary Locher ...

Hi Daryl:

The results of the AAEC/John Locher Memorial Award contest are in and our 2007 winner is Kory Merritt. Dick called him this week to tell him the good news and he was ecstatic about winning the award.

The runners-up are: First Runner-up: Sam Ayres, Yale University; Second Runner-up: Nathan Rohde, University of Wisconsin --Madison.

Kory is a senior at the State University of New York College at Brockport, from which he will soon be graduating with an art major and an environmental science minor. His cartoons have appeared in SUNY Brockport's student newspaper, The Stylus, since 2005. During summers he works as a counselor at Lockport YMCA Camp Kenan. He has been fascinated with the cartooning profession since early childhood, and considers the John Locher Memorial Award to be "the greatest honor he has ever received".

Thanks,
Mary

Here is one of Kory's award winning cartoons.

APRIL 17, 2007

BOY! DO WE HAVE CRAZY MAIL TODAY!

You guys are going nuts today! I'll take some time to address some of the cartoons that are driving you nutty. Some of you are bothered by cartoons about the Virginia Tech massacre - in particular, cartoons that seem insensitive, including Milt Priggee's "V.T." logo spelled out in dead bodies. E-mail Milt.

Another cartoon that has our readers' cackles up is the cartoon below by Rob Rogers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. We were getting mail on this one even before it was posted on our site. I'll explain for our younger readers: Rob's cartoon recreates a famous photo from the Kent State shootings in 1970. The image became an icon of the anti-Vietnam-war movement as protests massed though colleges across the country; the image was also a symbol of the government (the Nixon administration) suppressing dissent against the Vietnam war. National Guard troops were dispatched to quell college protests, and the overzealous troops killed student protestors at Kent State University. Rob tells me he is not using the strange metaphor to bash the Bush administration over the Iraq war with his cartoon:

Daryl,

The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph from the Kent State shooting is an iconic symbol of tragedy on an American college campus. Because Virginia Tech now has the highest death toll of any campus shooting, or any shooting for that matter, I felt using the compelling and familiar photograph would be a instant way to show the shock and mourning of a country. I realized when I drew the cartoon that this might be a problematic image to use because it is so closely associated with the quelling of an anti-war protest. The Virginia Tech shooting has nothing to do with war or protesters, but it has now become the largest campus shooting tragedy in our history. The largest campus shooting up to this point was at the University of Texas in 1966. It is more closely aligned with Virginia Tech, but there is not one indelible image that comes to mind with the Texas shooting. I hope readers of my cartoon can look past the war context of the photo and focus on the emotional context.

Rob Rogers (e-mail Rob)

The cartoon below, by RJ Matson of the New York Observer generated some mail from readers who thought it was disrespectful to Johnny Hart's memory. Here's RJ's response to an editor who questioned the cartoon:

I wanted to pay homage to Johnny Hart in an editorial cartoon. BC was one of my favorite strips when I was a boy. My editor at the New York Observer (who is a big fan of comics) was amenable to the idea but did not want to do a straight-up memorial cartoon.

Because the U.N. global warming report was in the news that week, as was the Supreme Court decision on the E.P.A.'s responsibility to enforce the Clean Air Act to limit co2 emissions, I hit upon the idea of doing a BC cartoon that took the long view on global warming, going back to 50,000 BC. I then realized that B and C are the initials for Bush/Cheney. I added the "What would Jesus do?" line as an acknowledgment of the spiritual and religious themes that suffused the strip after Mr. Hart became a born-again Christian. That was done out of respect for his convictions. The punch line is meant to satirize the Bush/Cheney position on global warming, not the beliefs of Johnny Hart, or the teachings of Jesus.

Those who say it is in bad taste to use the BC motif in an editorial cartoon that Johnny Hart might not have agreed with make a fair point. Cartoonists tend to be a very tolerant bunch, however. This is how I chose to honor an artist who was such an inspiration to me. I would be honored and flattered by a similar homage to my own work.

That cartoon is certainly not the best way to celebrate Johnny Hart's career. But in the context of all the other memorials in print, it is an appropriate way for one cartoonist to salute the passing of a legend.

Best regards

RJ (E-mail RJ)

APRIL 16, 2007

COLLEGE MASSACRE

With the college massacre today we've been hearing from editors who want a cartoon on the topic right away. I wasn't motivated to draw one. It is a terrible event, but I don't have any opinion about it (other than that it is terrible). I don't see a cartoon in it. I've seen what other cartoonists are drawing, and we've been getting the cartoons that we would expect - riffs on the college logo and mascot grieving and broken. I'll take a pass on this one.

BRANDT PARKER

About a week after B.C.'s creator Johnny Hart died, his long-time friend and partner, Brandt Parker has died. I had an opportunity to get to know Brandt through the NCS and he was a great guy. Brandt drew the Wizard of Id, which Johnny Hart wrote; his minimal, scratchy drawing were hilarious, expressive and innovative for their time. Brandt made me believe characters who's noses were bigger than the rest of their bodies. Read E&P's obit.

APRIL 14, 2007

IMUS!

I wrote our short weekly cartoon review column (below) this week, about Imus. We have a huge collection of Imus cartoons - come look!

Cartoonists Draw Blood
Cartoon Week in Review

Like most people, cartoonists love to watch stars fall. This was the week to watch Don Imus fall, in a media frenzy that was tailor made for cartoonists. Imus looks like a cartoon character already; his ugly comment, calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy headed ho's," put Imus at the center of a media feeding frenzy, with characters on all sides who wanted to see him bleed.

Many cartoonists pointed out the hypocrisy of crucifying Imus for a comment that was no worse than what we hear in rap music, and no worse than other nasty comments by other, ugly media personalities. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson demanded that Imus be fired and used the media frenzy to put their faces in front of television cameras at every opportunity.

In the end, Imus was fired by both MSNBC and CBS, and he no longer has a place on radio or television. I don't think this week's Imus rumble will do much to make the media less coarse, and I won't miss Imus, but I enjoyed the spectacle and it was great fun to draw the guy getting bashed and skewered by his own words.

JOHNNY HART INTERVIEW

Hogan's Alley Magazine did a great interview with Johnny Hart, the creator of B.C. who recently passed away. Come take a look. That's Johnny at the right.

Congratulations to our own Mike Lester for winning the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi award for editorial cartooning from the Society of Professional Journalists! Read more about it. See Mike's cartoon archive.

Mike gives me this quote for the blog:

I'm flattered and have a feeling of validation to have won, but my suspicion is that the awards committee probably just misspelled "Luckovich".

APRIL 11, 2007 NEW CARTOONIST FROM BURKINA FASO We have a new cartoonist from West Africa. Damian Glez is the cartoonist for the Journal du Jeudi in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. I first noticed Damien's cartoons in Courrier International, the French national news weekly. Damien recently e-mailed us and I was delighted to add him to the site. I think our readers will see his cartoons as very "foreign" - but that's OK, that's what we do. Damien tells us that Burkina Faso is among the poorest countries in the world. Visit Damien's site here. I'm impressed that a cartoonist can make a living in Burkina Faso, and Damien is an excellent cartoonist. Damien's drawing of Condi Rice (right) is pretty cool. Click here to see Damien's archive of recent cartoons. E-mail Damien. THE DUKE LACROSSE SCANDAL We have a great new collection of cartoons about the Duke LaCrosse scandal by Dennis Draughon, the local cartoonist in Durham, NC, who drew on the sordid story as a local story. APRIL 10, 2007 SANDY HUFFAKER SPEAKS We have a great new audio interview with cartoonist Sandy Huffaker. Click here to hear the conversation starting with the cartoon below. After we talked about the British sailors abducted by Iran, the British government announced that the sailors would no longer be allowed to sell their stories to the press - that was after the female sailor sold her story to one newspaper for $200,000.00 - quite a deal! Maybe being a kidnapped political pawn isn't such a bad deal, after all. Sandy is a great, long-time cartoonist who worked for many years for Time Magazine - which is how I got to know his work, back when I was in college in the 1970's. His style is unique among editorial cartoonists today; in our interview Sandy talks about the artists who influenced him and how he came to do what he does. APRIL 8, 2007 B.C. Creator Johnny Hart Dies from a Stroke I was sorry to read that Johnny Hart died yesterday. I'm a B.C. and Wizard of Id fan. I didn't know Johnny well, but the few times I met him, he was a lot of fun. I got to know Johnny's long-time collaborator, Jack Caprio, through the NCS, and Jack shared some funny stories with me about Johnny, who had some wild times before he was born-again. Frankly, I think B.C. was better after Johnny's conversion, it had purpose and enjoyed some controversies that made the strip even more fresh some forty years after it started in 1958. Johnny will be missed. HAPPY EASTER Be sure to visit our Easter cartoon collection. And we have a new MSNBC.com slideshow up! The Easter cartoon below is by my buddy, Peter Broelman, from Australia. APRIL 2, 20007 A CARTOON KILLED FROM THE KILLED CARTOONS BOOK There is a little cartoon-buzz this morning, caused by a column from Kathleen Parker about David Wallis' new "Killed Cartoons" book, from which a cartoon was killed. It seems that Doug Marlette's famous "What would Muhammad drive?" cartoon was too much for the editors at Norton to stomach, so they killed Marlette's cartoon from Wallis' killed cartoons book. Parker writes: As the world knows by now, some Muslims have no tolerance for irreverence when it comes to their Prophet. When Marlette, now with the Tulsa World, drew the cartoon in 2002 for the Tallahassee Democrat, the paper pulled it from its Web site and kept it out of print editions after several thousand e-mails and death threats jammed its server ... Chris Lamb, College of Charleston communications professor and author of "Drawn To Extremes: The Use And Abuse Of Editorial Cartoons," likened the Marlette omission to "writing a history of the United States and leaving out the Civil War." Editors and publishers, including Norton President Drake McFeely, typically explain their decision not to run certain cartoons with arguments about responsibility and sensitivity. McFeely said Norton's decision was based on sensitivity to the political environment: "We blinked at that one, but we did not blink on the other 282 pages of cartoons." ... Many doubtless would agree with Norton's decision, figuring that the possibility of mortal threat is a pretty good reason not to publish a controversial cartoon. But, in fact, it is the very reason to publish. ... Instead, by capitulating to intimidation (even if we call it sensitivity), we embolden the forces that have no interest in freedom. We telegraph to Islamist totalitarians, whose ultimate goal is subjugation of the West, that death threats and riots will silence us into submission - the literal meaning of "Islam." In the country that helped midwife free speech into civilization, that may be the definition of irresponsible. I asked David Wallis for a comment on Parker's column, David writes: As I told Parker, I fought hard against my publishers decision to spike Marlette's powerful cartoon "What Would Mohammed Drive?" and I lost the battle. That said, it is worth mentioning that Parker's own syndicate, The Washington Post Writer's Group decided not to post Marlette's cartoon on their Web Site. I certainly sent her the art. Also, Parker quotes Chris Lamb, hysterically arguing that publishing the book without Marlette's cartoon amounts to "writing a history of the United States and leaving out the Civil War." That's utter rubbish. I write about "What Would Mohammed Drive" in the book, and extensively cover the so-called "intoonfadah." So Grenada might be a more apt analogy. Norton left out Grenada. I wish they hadn't. By the way, I found it remarkable that Parker never read my book before writing about it. As promised, Kathleen, an autographed copy is in the mail. The Danish cartoon controversy doesn't really fit into a book about killed cartoons because the cartoons were published. Marlette's cartoon caused a furor when the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) campaigned against Marlette and his paper after Marlette's cartoon was shown briefly on the web. I published Marlette's cartoon and his comments about the cartoon in our Best Political Cartoons of the Year, 2007 Edition book. Here are some excerpts, including Doug's comments for the Jyllands Posten newspaper, that are included in our book: Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette of the Tallahassee Democrat found himself blasted by a CAIR email-Jihad when he drew a cartoon with the caption, "What Would Muhammad Drive?" The drawing showed a man wearing Arab headdress and driving a Ryder truck (a reference to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh). In response to an inquiry from Jyllands-Posten, Doug writes: I was used to negative reactions from religious interest groups, but not the kind of sustained violent intensity of the Islamic threats. The nihilism and culture of death of a religion that sanctions suicide bombers and issues fatwas on people who draw funny pictures is certainly of a different order and fanatical magnitude than the protests of our home-grown religious true believers. As a child of the segregated South, I am quite familiar with the damage done to the "good religious people" of my region when the Ku Klux Klan acted in our name. The CAIR organization that led the assault (on me), describes itself as a civil rights advocacy group. Among those whose "civil rights" they advocated were the convicted bombers of the World Trade Center in 1993. They cannot be taken seriously. For many of those who protested my cartoon, recent émigrés, many highly educated, it was obvious that there was not that healthy tradition of free inquiry, humor, and irreverence in their background that we have in the West. There was no Jefferson, Madison, Adams in their intellectual tradition. Those who have attacked my work, whether on the right, the left; Republican or Democrat; conservative or liberal; Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, or Muslim, all seem to experience comic or satirical irreverence as hostility and hate. When all it is, really, is irreverence. Ink on paper is only a thought, an idea. Such people fear ideas. Those who mistake themselves for the God they claim to worship tend to mistake irreverence for blasphemy. I should note that David's book also includes some of my own killed cartoons. I haven't seen the book yet but I'm looking forward to reading it. Purchase David's Killed Cartoons book here. SLIDESHOW! I was away for a week on vacation and now I'm back! And we have a new MSNBC.com Week in Review Slideshow! The promo image at the right is by Monte Wolverton, and you can hear him talk about this cartoon in the slideshow.

MARCH 23, 2007 OUR WEEK IN REVIEW IS UP! And this week it includes audio files for a third of the cartoons. The promo image at thie right is by R.J. Matson. MIKE LESTER SPEAKS! We have a new audio interview with our wild, conservative cartoonist, Mike Lester from Rome, Georgia! Look! Listen! Then complain to Mike at: mlester101@comcast.net And listen to what Mike has to say about the controversial cartoon below.

MARCH 22, 2007 GROUSING ABOUT THE PULITZER PRIZE Whenever political cartoonists get together the conversation soon turns to complaints about the Pulitzer Prize. I'll soon be posting an audio interview with renowned cartoonist Mike Keefe, of the Denver Post, where the conversation took that familiar turn and I thought our audience would enjoy hearing it, so I posted our Pulitzer conversation here. Come, listen. FRENCH MAGAZINE CLEARED The French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, was cleared by French courts today of charges that it insulted Muslims by reprinting the Danish Muhammad cartoons last year. French cartoonist Frederick Deligne sent me his cartoon (above right) minutes after the court made its ruling.

MARCH 21, 2007

AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH CONSERVATIVE CARTOONIST GARY McCOY

Click here to hear our newest audio cartoonist interview with conservative Gary McCoy, who starts off talking about his Dixie Chicks cartoon (below right).

MARCH 20, 2007

The Comics Reporter has the best obit I've seen on King Features' comics editor, Jay Kennedy, who drowned recently.

I've gotten reaction to my "Ransom Note" piece on the LA Times (below) from some of our more anal readers who are graphic artists; they point out that some of the fonts that I have counted are not actually different fonts, but are different members of font families, such as: italic, extra bold, or condensed siblings with the same font surname.Here's a link to some guy who thinks this is a very important distinction. I say, tell it to the pastor's sister-in-law with the new Macintosh.

AUDIO TRANSPORTATION CARTOONS!

We have a new audio interview with altie, environmentalist, leftist, anti-car cartoonist, Andy Singer. Click here to hear Andy talk about the cartoon at the right, and a dozen more.

MARCH 18 2007

LOS ANGELES TIMES - RANSOM NOTE

I've been watching my local newspaper, The Los Angeles Times, as it slowly crashes and burns. The paper is bleeding subscribers as their circulation plummets, hastened by terrible editorial decisions like firing their Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, Michael Ramirez. Every part of the paper is degraded, week by week.

Not long ago, the Times went through a "re-design" that included their front page. I thought I would reproduce it here because so many graphic artists read our blog. Every first year design student knows that it is bad form to mix too many fonts. Beginners who get their hands on a computer for the first time are usually fascinated by fonts, and produce documents that look like ransom notes. If your church newsletter looks like a ransom note, you can be sure that it was designed by the pastor's sister-in-law on her new Macintosh. So it is with the Times' front page.

I grabbed the front page of yesterday's Times and counted the fonts - twenty two different fonts - just above the fold on the front page! (there are more different fonts below the fold, but I had to stop somewhere.) Check it out ...



Here's my count:

1. The logo font, we'll excuse this one.
2. A font that's used only for the date on the left and the price, on the right.
3. A serif font used only for "Valley Edition," of-course, the Valley needs its own font.
4. Here's a different serif font for the copyright notice.
5. A condensed, sans-serif headline used for two of the stories on the front page.
6. This serif font is also used twice, in combination with the sans-serif headline font above it.
7. And then switch back to sans-serif, twice, but it's not quite the same font as that headline font above.
8. Oh! A new font, in regular and italic, just for the photographers credit, and it's a different font than the copyright notice above.
9. This font is only for the names of the reporters.
10. This bold sans serif font is printed in a halftone gray and would seem to be used for the titles of photos, "Spy Uncloaked" and "Fred Thompson" - but no, it's not just for titles, because the third time it is used to direct readers to another page, "NATION, A19."
11. This serif font is black, and goes with the gray font #10; it is used only for the caption under the photos
12. This red, bold sans serif font is used only for the words "Column One." (A great name for a column, huh? There isn't any Column Two.)
13."Column One" also has it's own, Italic headline font, which is used nowhere else on the front page.
14. Here is a serif headline font that is used only for the Fred Thompson story (it is used for two other stories below the fold).
15. This italic font is only for the words "Times Staff Writers" under the names of the reporters.
16. This Bold, serif font is used only for the name of the city where the story is filed from.
17. This is the standard body type for the text of the stories, we'll excuse this one.
18. This italic headline font is used only with "Column One," where the columnist seems to have his own font preferences.
19. This sans serif font is found on the front page only once, with the words "RELATED STORY."
20. Here we find out what the "RELATED STORY" is, and we find out in an all new font.
21. Oh! I just realized that the photographers credits are in two different fonts, regular and italic, and I only counted one of these fonts before, so I'll count the other one here.
22. Wow, here's a giant, red, Italic letter "I" - it made me jump!

My newspaper has turned into a ransom note while its disappearing readers have been kidnapped by the internet!

I won't pay the ransom, go ahead and kill the Times. And be quick about it.

MARCH 16, 2007

THERE'S AUDIO IN OUR MSNBC CARTOON WEEK IN REVIEW SLIIDESHOW!

Check out our latest MSNBC.com Cartoon Week in Review Slideshow where you can hear audio clips with many of the cartoons for the first time.

JAY KENNEDY HAS DIED

I'm sorry to report that the popular comics editor at King Features Syndicate, Jay Kennedy, died yesterday in a drowning accident while on vacation in Costa Rica. All the cartoonists knew Jay well as he was a regular at the conventions and, for many, he was their editor. Jay was a nice guy and a dedicated expert on cartoons; he will be missed.

ACCORDING TO CARTOONIST ANDY SINGER:

Q: What's the difference between a professional cartoonist and a large pizza?
A: A large pizza can feed a family of four.

AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH CARTOONIST M.e. COHEN

The verdict is in, you like our audio cartoonist interviews, but you don't like being surprised with sound when you don't expect it, so, click here to hear cartoonist M.e. Cohen discussing the controversial cartoon below (and a lot more of his cartoons too). E-mail M.e. to comment.

AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH ISRAEL'S TOP CARTOONIST, YAAKOV KIRSCHEN

Cartoon by Yaakov Kirschen

CLICK HERE AND LISTEN TO YAAKOV TALKING ABOUT A DOZEN MORE OF HIS CARTOONS.

MARCH 9, 2007

Visit our new MSNBC.com Week in Review Slideshow.

"24," 5 1/2 Seasons, One Column
By Daryl Cagle

With all the news about the military objecting to torture scenes and with cultural references to Jack Bauer everywhere in the media, I realized that it was my duty as a political cartoonist to actually watch "24." I bought all five seasons as DVD box sets, then I watched the 12 episodes from the current sixth season online; that's 132 episodes. It took me a month.

I learned four important lessons: 1.) torture works great; 2.) people always give in to the demands of terrorists; 3.) the fate of the world is always decided in the San Fernando Valley; and 4.) it takes me an hour to go anywhere in LA, but federal agents can get anywhere in minutes. Now, while it is still fresh in my mind, here is the story of "24," all in one column:

We start Season One with Federal Agent Jack Bauer who thinks his boss, George Mason at the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), is lying to him, so Jack shoots Mason with a tranquilizer dart. A terrorist parachutes from a plane that she blows up to steal a "key card" that leads to two or three assassination attempts on presidential candidate David Palmer, who has an evil, ambitious, whiny wife Sherry, and who's being blackmailed because his son murdered a guy who raped his daughter. Jack's ex-lover, agent Nina, is secretly a CTU mole controlled by an evil Yugoslav family, the Drazens, who are hunting Jack and Palmer for revenge. Jack's daughter Kim and his pregnant wife Terri are kidnapped and then escape. Jack is blackmailed. Terri gets amnesia. Kim gets into a drug deal and goes to jail with the math professor girlfriend from "Numb3rs." The evil Drazens break their patriarch, Dennis Hopper, out of a secret jail; they kill Lou Diamond Phillips and kidnap Jack. Kim is kidnapped again and escapes. Jack is blackmailed again; he shoots it out with the Drazens and kills them all. Nina, the evil mole, kills Jack's wife Terri.

In Season Two, Jack hunts for a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles (Jack says "nu-cu-lar" like President Bush). A blond Valley Girl is preparing to marry a terrorist, but it turns out she's the real terrorist. Kim is a nanny for an evil guy who kills his wife and tries to kill Kim, who tries to save the guy's annoying, abused daughter. Kim is saved by her boyfriend who loses his leg and jilts her. She's then caught in a bear trap and locked up by a lonely survivalist in a mountain cabin. She is stalked by a mountain lion and is falsely arrested for shooting a convenience store clerk. Jack goes undercover with thugs who are hired by evil Nina and kills them after they blow up CTU's offices. President David Palmer pardons Nina, who gives up the terrorists. Jack is captured and tortured by terrorists; he then escapes and kills them all. President Palmer's nasty now-ex Sherry is part of a government conspiracy to start a war; Jack catches her. Palmer has the head of the NSA tortured to find out the location of the bomb. Mason is poisoned with plutonium and has only hours to live; he gets blown up with the nuclear bomb in the desert. Palmer is poisoned by a terrorist handshake assassination attempt.

In Season Three, Palmer is fine. Jack just spent a year undercover with Mexican drug lords who want to buy a deadly virus from Ukrainian terrorists and hold the world up for ransom (so does evil Nina). Jack breaks a mobster out of prison and goes back to Mexico with him to find the virus. Chase, a CTU agent who is Kim's fiancé, and who has a secret daughter, follows, gets tortured, escapes and gets his hand chopped off. The mobster's sister in law is killed; then the mobster kills his brother; then the mobster gets blown up. Nina gives Jack trouble, and then gets killed. In Los Angeles, Harry Dresden, from "The Dresden Files" (with an English accent here) has the virus released into a hotel. Agent Michelle (who is in love with Agent Tony) is in the hotel as everyone else dies, but she is immune. Dresden demands that Jack kill his boss, Chappelle, so Jack shoots Chappelle in the head. Dresden kidnaps Michelle and blackmails Tony; Jack kidnaps Dresden's daughter and blackmails Dresden. President Palmer's ex, Sherry, kills a guy, blackmails Palmer and is killed by the guy's girlfriend, who then kills herself.

Jack starts Season Four working for Secretary of Defense Heller, who is kidnapped by terrorists along with his daughter Audrey, who is Jack's new girlfriend. Jack breaks them out and kills the terrorists, but there are more terrorists, one of whom tries to kill his own wife and son. Air Force One is shot down and terrorists steal the president's "football," which contains codes for arming nuclear bombs. Evil and incompetent Vice President Logan assumes the presidency and invites former President Palmer to run things. Jack raids the Chinese Embassy. A bad guy steals a stealth bomber to drop an A-bomb on LA, and gets shot down at the last minute.

Season Five starts with the assassination of former President David Palmer. Jack's buddies Tony and Michelle are blown up. Nasty President Logan has a complicated plan to start a war and lets his screwy wife drive into a trap with the president of Russia; Jack saves them. Russian terrorists take over Ontario Airport and threaten Jack's new girlfriend's son, who Jack saves. The terrorists are killed, but one steals nerve gas which he uses to kill shoppers in a mall. Jack finds the big bad guy is Peter Weller (Buckaroo Bonsai), a former CTU agent. The nerve gas is released in CTU, killing lots of agents, including Edgar the computer nerd and Sam the Hobbit. Jack thinks his old girlfriend Audrey is evil, but she's not. Terrorists try to release the gas again, but Jack stops them. Jack kidnaps President Logan and tortures him, and then Jack is kidnapped by the Chinese, who are still mad at Jack from Season Four.

In the current Season Six, Jack is back, after having been tortured for two years in China, and he's ready to kick some terrorist butt. David Palmer's brother Wayne is president now and one of his advisors is Tom Lennox, another math professor friend from "Numb3rs," who is tied up by his assistant while some guy blows up President Wayne Palmer along with a terrorist who decided to be a good guy. Nerdy CTU analyst Chloe is working with her ex-husband Morris, who is kidnapped, tortured and agrees to arm nuclear bombs. A nuke goes off in Valencia (Magic Mountain), there are more nukes out there and nasty ex-President Logan wants to help Jack find the bombs through the Russian Consulate. Jack breaks in, tortures the Russian Consul General and is captured.

That's where we are today, and that's all you need to know.


Cartoon by RJ Matson.

MARCH 7, 2007

YOUR COMMENTS ON MIKAELA

Our e-mail has been buzzing about Mikaela Reid's cartoons (below). The net total of subscriptions to our newsletter that have been cancelled, in response to Mikaela's cartoons, is now up to 100. We always get cancellations when we send out controversial cartoons, but this is on the high side. Even so, most of the comments were positive. Here are some selections from our mailbag.

If this is what you are selling, I'm not buying. I hope not to have to cancel, but will not put up with this crap.joanie johnson

I LOVE your satire! You really have a handle on what's happening in the Real World. Keep up the good work and please ignore the ignoramuses who are too dense to understand your messages.
Joan T. Daniels, Los Angeles, CA

I find your cartoons superficial, vindictive, vulgar, and tiresome.
Actually----I don't like them. Gloria Burnell Scarborough, Maine

Aloha, Mikhaela!
Love your work!
Allan Wang, MD, PhD Hawaii

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Loved your work. Can't wait to see more!
Carol Hayes

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Dear Mikhaela-
I am a 68 yr old broad, mother of 5 (4 males) and if there is a single issue that guarantees my vote, it's women's rights. So I very much appreciate your cartoons! And yes, I am now spending my grandchildren's inheritance on environmental causes so that there is a legacy left for them by the time these idiots get out of office. And also yes, my sons are real men who value their wives as equals. What a concept! Perhaps even more interesting is the fact my husband was from Baghdad, and also was a feminist.
Thanks for a fresh voice!
Sincerely,
Marge Johnson

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Really!! Republican pharmacists did this? Really? Not good old fashioned left wing socilaist sociopaths?!!!! The same ones who gave condoms to school kids!!! I may read your cartoons, but I do not think they are cute, clever or funny.
Jim Fridas

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I have never seen your cartoons before today. They or you say it like it really is.
Thanks..... Bea Howard

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Mikhaela,
I became aware of your cartoons today via Daryl Cagle. From what I have seen I like them very much and agree 100% with them. I wish you nothing success and freedom. Keep up the excellent work.
Also, very interesting and pretty first name.
Regards, Gary England

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Sorry, but I don't see any humor in your work. Maybe you can get a job with one of Larry Flint's publications.
DDowd

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Ms. Reid-
I was just introduced to your cartoons by an email from Daryl Cagle and MSNBC. I regret I haven't had the opportunity to view your work before but I commend you on your stand in the two cartoons included in Cagle's email. Even though as a lobbyist I am usually associated with the corporate position, I believe that the Bush administration and the former Republican majority have for too long intruded on the private personal choices of Americans. The decision to conceive or not to conceive is a personal choice between a man and a woman and the inclusion of the government in that decision represents an unholy trinity. Even though the cartoons included in the email didn't include gay rights I see by your comments that you have also taken a stand about that as well. The decision of two people of whatever sex to love each other is also a personal decision and one the government should embrace instead of regulating and prohibiting. I hope that when my children are old enough to make a choice of a mate that society will support them in whatever choice they make.
Thoughtful expressions such as yours will eventually assist in turning American attitudes towards personal liberties into mainstream thought instead of just "alternative" thinking. Thank you for helping to make America more free.
I look forward to your future work.
Jim "JJ" Lantry, California Legislative Advocates

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Yay! not all of us are too dumb to appreciate your cartoons...keep up the good work! Arty Gladstone, Lauderhill, FL

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You're attacking this issue from a completely new (to me) direction, and I love it! You bring a female viewpoint and sense of humor to this issue.
Please keep working, and I wish you great success! -- Ginny Hoskins

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You'll do just fine here at Cagle country.
Just keep up the good work and welcome.
Sincerely,
Jordan Holder

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Hope to see more of your work at Cagle.com Based on the two we were shown you should liven things up nicely. ­ Cassandra Kyle

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The sperm and pre pregnant cartoons are wonderful. I worked with a group of reproductive scientists to try to develop a contraceptive vaccine for many years. Alas, no success but I did have the privilege of handling a lot of sperm - human, monkey, bull, mouse, rat, bat, cat, dog as well as the production organs. I also did a lot with female reproductive tracts although as you know access is not nearly as convenient. Keep it up (the cartoons I mean).
Barbara Kurth, Ph.D.
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Well, I see Cagle has added another Liberal to the stable. We'll just have to buy another manure fork.

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Go for it. You have my vote ,,,,,,,,,,,Feel free to stick it to the Bush administration,,,,,,,I mean REALLY STICK IT TO THEM. Al Mellen A 78 year young guy

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She may be new, but you can keep her.,,,,,,,,Rita Reeder

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MARCH 7, 2007

I'm happy to announce that we're adding a controversial new artist to the site today, 26 year old freelance political cartoonist, Mikhaela Reid, who draws a panel for alternative weeklies across America. Mikhaela started drawing her feature as a cartoonist for the Harvard Crimson and kept it going. According to Mikhaela:

As a cartoonist for alternative newsweeklies I have a lot more editorial freedom than your average staff cartoonist. That said, I did have a cartoon killed for content last year by one of my weeklies. It was a piece called "Every Sperm is Sacred" (a reference to the great Monty Python musical number, of course), which mockingly argued that birth control is murder, and that every sperm had a right to be impregnated in a woman, whether she liked it or not:

The paper objected to the final image (below) of women on a conveyor belt tied up with their legs in the air, as a young woman in New York had recently been murdered and tied up in an incident completely unrelated to the subject matter of the cartoon.

I get the usual cartoonist quota of freakish, vicious (and generally illiterate) hate mail, especially for my cartoons on gay issues and anything related to religion (particularly, for cartoons that say religion is no excuse for bigotry, hatred or intolerance).

The saddest hate mail I ever got was from a woman who mistook my satirical pro-gay cartoons for gay-bashing homophobic cartoons (she called me hateful and said she was horrified by my intolerance).

Probably the most fan mail I've ever gotten was in response to this cartoon (below), "What to Expect When You're Pre-Expecting" which was reprinted in the Guardian and featured in the Real Hot 100 art show. The original was bought by Feministing blogger Jessica Valenti:

Visit Mikhaela's site here, and visit her cartoon archive here. Want to send Mikhaela a comment about her controversial altie cartoons? E-mail her at cartoons@mikhaela.net

MARCH 3, 2007

Visit our newest MSNBC.com Cartoon Week in Review Slideshow. The promo cartoon to the right is by John Cole.

We've started a new hybrid column/cartoon feature in our Cagle Cartoons syndicate. It is a cartoon week in review combined with a mini-column for newspapers. The Los Angeles Times has been running a similar feature by cartoonist Joel Pett on Sundays, that served as inspiration for the feature, which is written by my daughter, Susie.

I've never seen anything like this in syndication, probably because cartoons and the written word are very separate things in syndication. We deliver cartoons as suggested illustrations for our columns, so our delivery system was set up to do this. Also, all of our subscribing newspapers subscribe to all of our content as a "package," unlike some other syndicates that sell each cartoonist and columnist separately and couldn't know if a particular subscriber had purchased each cartoonist contributor to a "week in review" feature - so we're in a unique situation to make this feature work.

The question we get most often in our e-mail is "explain the cartoon to me;" we'll have to wait to see if the idea of adding commentary or explanation to the cartoons is something that editors and readers will value. So far, the reaction from editors is fairly good.

Hollywood, D.C.
By Susie Cagle

Several days after they've rolled up the red carpet, the Oscars are still making cartoon headlines. This past week, cartoonists used a spoonful of pop culture to make the politics go down a little easier: government, not entertainment politics. Al Gore's successful crossover bid from Oval Office to golden statue only strengthened the connection between the Dems and the celebs. Mike Lester's working stiff--and his kick-in-the-butt for Gore--stand in for less media-crazed Americans who equate Hollywood and the rest of the left coast with the left side of politics. And Mike Keefe's Gore gets his Oscar revoked in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision.

Al was the obvious link, but it was just a short leap to drawing conclusions between the inflated egos of Hollywood to those in the over-crowded '08 presidential race. Keefe also saw the Oscars as the Obamas, with a pissed-off Hillary, who "used to love these big Hollywood wing-dings," storming out. In RJ Matson's cartoon, Hillary is the Queen of Fundraising. Taking potshots at Hollywood is easier than whipping up the usual Hillary dig. There's a wealth of material in those little golden statues.

Susie Cagle is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York and works as a freelance writer. Reach her at susie@cagle.com.



Cartoon by MIKE LESTER

Cartoon by RJ MATSON



Cartoon by the MIKE KEEFE



Cartoon by the MIKE KEEFE

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE January/February 2007, CAGLE WEB LOG

Artwork © each artist. The Professional Cartoonists Index is ©Daryl Cagle. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.