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.
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 LesterThere is nothing wrong with Mike's cartoon. Ms.
Crowe, now is a different story.
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 AlexanderYou Idiot conservatives will"swallow"
anything. deficatinlgly yours,
Kelly MartinHell, no! If Crowe is stupid enough
to say something that nutty, why not make fun of it???
Tim ScottMike Lester and crew:
At least Cheryl is doing more to raise awareness about Global
Warming, and even though Mike's cartoon was in bad taste, he
does raise awareness of Global Warming, even if he does not believe
in it.....why I he would not he has not made clear....hmmm....I
feel another cartoon from Mike coming on....
I do like his cartoons usually, but potty humor is something
should be off limits for the media or Hollywood film making moguls.
Keep the editorial cartoons at a G rating please.
GEORGE DEANCrowe cartoon rocks
Never should have been censored!
Louise WisinskiI thought the original blog entry
was pretty humorous, but your cartoon was REALLY funny. I don't
know why anyone would kill something like that except that maybe
they were afraid to piss off Sheryl Crowe. Of course, I live
in a household with a former sailor for a husband and two pre-adolescent
boysyour cartoon was really tame compared to what I live with
on a daily basis
Keep at it. I love your work!
Vonnie Thompson
Monroe, WASheryl Crowe seems a tad wierd to me.
Perhaps she is sincere and has her heart in the right place,
but ack, I guess we could go back to using corn cobs too for
toilet paper. And how about cloth napkins; they can be washed.
A throw-away sleeve just doesn't do it for me. Oh, and don't
forget catalogs; they used to make excellent toilet paper. Sheryl
is just too young to know how people used to do those things.
Yep, I'm that old, old enough to remember outhouses.
I loved the cartoon...I have a better one for Cheryl, why don't
we just stop using TP altogether...just use your hands and wash
with cold water, then use one of those electric hot air fans
to blow dry...Phooey. I divorced my ex husband for the same suggestion
(among other hyper-controlling stunts).
Regina Rose, NVI loved this cartoon, if we couldn't
laugh, we'd all be crying.
D.A. GroschI think it is great! NO it should
have not been killed. By the way I sincerely hope Ms. Crowe
washes her hands after bathroom visits!
Mike Thome'Potty humor' is using 'pull my finger'
imagery that has nothing to do with the issue being addressed.
But when the issue IS... 'the pot.'
Mike's cartoon is NOT potty humor....it's just another example
that the profession is dead ...or as Mr. Cagle says....it's fading
away.
FYI- Mr. Wallis' book of Killed Cartoons
is just the tip of the of the tip of the iceberg. Milt Priggee - cartoonistShould
Mike Lester's cartoon be killed? Absolutely NOT! The cartoon
was hilarious!!!!! People need to flippin' lighten up. Potty
Humor is the very LEAST of our worries right now. Perhaps if
we all took life just a little bit less seriously, things would
be oh so much better!Go Mike!!!!!!! Thank you
for making me laugh today. I needed it!
Shannon NelsonNo problem with your Crowe cartoon.
Just be careful...don't make fun of Edward's $400 haircuts or
his carbon footprint. Now that would be really bad!
JajohnsonNo need to kill the cartoon. Blunt, strange,
and a bit crude, but neither unimportant nor repulsive.
I greatly enjoy and learn from your cartoons and commentary.
Sharp work!
Bill BagentsWas some editor afraid that Sheryl
was going to come and confiscate his Charmin?
Give me a break.
Robert E. GantsTake it like a man, use you're
hand!
Dan DickmeyerMike,
I must say that I enjoyed your cartoon. Anyone who bashes a stupid
idea gets my vote.
It is a shame that it was not published, but then I guess in
the name of global warming everything suggested to prevent global
warming is not to be made fun of. Perhaps to fight global warming
we should go back to corn cobs instead of paper.
I say publish the cartoon!
Edward J. Wittlif, RA, ICCShould it have been
killed? No.
Did it make a larger point? No.
Was it funny? No.
Gordon KentNothing wrong with the cartoon ..perhaps
...if he had shown Sheryl Crowe telling people they had to use
BOTH sides of the single sheet ..then that would have been "over
the top" ..or is that "below the bottom"?
No.., it should not have been killed !! I would have had Ms Crowe
peeking under a booth door, warning the occupant she was being
watched !!
Ray KingMike,
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, CASorry Mike, I think it should be
killed for no other reason than it's just not funny, and doesn't
seem to drive a good point.
Craig PoorkerThank God there is someone out there
not polluted by the media left! I feel like I'm in Solyent Green
in most political comics most of the time rehashing personal
vendettas plus a good smattering of general apathy amongst those
that don't want to really think ideas through.
Thanks Mike!
Paul HeckmannSHE IS LIBERAL, HE IS CONSERVATIVE,
NEED I SAY MORE? YOU, OF ALLPEOPLE, SHOULD KNOW WHY IT WAS KILLED
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 PROCTORIt should've
been published - far & wide!
J Robinson - spokane, WANice work, Mike. Crowe,
like most of these global-warming hysterics, is a bad joke and
represents the holier-than-thou enviro extremists who make Islamic
fanatics look moderate.
Regards, Carl MooreSheryl Crowe is beautiful,
you made her look like Anne Coulter. I think it would have been
funnier if you showed an extremely large woman with what looks
like 3 postage stamps on her hand and bewilderment on her face.
"I don't care how hot it gets, this aint working."
Hugh FarrellWhy, oh why,
in this country, do we get so upset about what they so delicately
call potty humor?
That cartoon was so ridiculous it was funny. Sorry, this old
ND farmgirl at nearly sixty, does NOT quite get
what offends people so much about a natural function. Reminds
me of President Truman, Bess having convinced him to use 'manure'
instead of sh**t. My comment to that - I shoveled enough of the
stuff in the cowbarn in my younger years, and it makes darn good
compost, which all these fuddy duddy biddies really like on their
gardens.
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.
"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
APRIL 23, 2007
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 brumettI just wanted you to know that at
least one person felt that your cartoon was so terrific, she
immediately forwarded it to everyone she knew would appreciate
it, as well. Please kep up the great work and don't let the narrow
minds prevent you from creating
Sandra Haas I THOUGHT THAT ALL THE CARTOONS ABOUT
J HART WERE GREAT.
ANYONE THAT DOSN`T LIKE THEM PROBABLY LIKES THE ACLU AND THE
KKK B J
Hi RJ,
__________________________________________________________
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)Your 'cartoon' of President
Bush regarding the tragedy at Virginia Tech is offensive, disgusting,
vial and repulsive.
Your hatred of this man will destroy you, before it will ever
touch him.
Jackee Allen
Randolph, NJVery tasteless. How is it George Bush's
'fault' that this happened?
V/R,
Maj. Chuck CorpeningSpare us your liberal cartoons,
please.
Mike Pettusthat was a typical liberal cartoon
and asinine.......people , kill not the guns..
Sue Bradley
(I am writing in regard to the Virginia
Tech / handgun / Bush cartoon I received in my email today.)
You might feel this is an appropriate editorial
cartoon, but I do not find this funny at all ... in fact it is
downright sick. What is wrong with our sense of perspective when
any opportunity to score political points and destroy someone
else is more important than focus on the grief that families
and students at VTech are going through?
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 Why is it, every time there's violence
involving a gun, so many are so quick to use the tragedy to advance
their Gun Control agendas? I feel much MORE secure
knowing I'm in company with armed citizens, If there had been
even one armed student in that room, the shooting would have
been stopped much sooner.
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 2003Cartoons are supposed to be humorous
or satirical. Your VT is neither.
Bob Winnett
Bowling Green KYHi Milt,
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 RE: Milt Priggee's "V.T."
logo spelled out in dead bodies
You are sick and disgusting.
David McWilliamsThis does not upset me. This act
was carried out by a VERY disturb young man. I've heard a few
comments that his disturbance was recognized early and some people
were trying to get him help. In the end it is a balance between
individual freedom and the good of the masses, I come down on
the side of individual freedom. And in doing so I realize that
events like this will happen, but it is better than living in
an Orwellian 1984 Society where the few get to choose for the
majority. I am truly saddened that this event did happen and
the few could not have gotten more help to this very disturb
young man. Enough said.
Wilfred K. Weidler
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,
KennyActually, Rob - that photo from Kent State
is EXACTLY what came into my mind when I heard about the shootings
at VT. I think you hit the nail on the head.
And given the isolation of an immigrant student, perhaps there
is a political context after all?
Sincerely,
Alison C. Vesely-RicePOWERFUL!
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 DuffyHi,
I was in college at the time of Kent State. Running around getting
high, protesting the war, the sexual freedom the whole bit. The
fact that the government, even on such a local basis, would open
fire on anybody let alone teenagers was mind boggling. Your cartoon
was an insult to those of us who came of age during the 60's
and 70' and lived thru it. What happened at Virginia Tech is
shocking also but not anything close to having armed guards with
guns at a peace rally.
The Texas massacre had the symbol of the bell tower the shooter
was holed up in and shooting at the students. It would have taken
10 minutes for you to find this image for your cartoon. You definitely
need to slow down instead of trying to be fast and witty.
Still I'll defend your rights for the 1st amendment.
KatharineOne of the doctors who was interviewed
on the news was at Kent State that year, and told reporters of
how vividly this event flashed back the images and feelings of
that terrible day in his life. I fully understand how your cartoon,
rather than making a political statement, is simply stating:
We are there again, emotionally.
Thanks for that.
Lori Lippitz
Skokie, ILI am a mournful 58 year old mom (who
remembers well the photo) of a VaTech grad (who lived in West
AJ for 4 years) and am surrounded by Americans once again mourning
a senseless slaughter on a college campus. Your cartoon was not
inappropriate.
P. Radd VirginiaRob:
I thought your cartoon was a good one, and made a good point.
Just for a little trivia on that photograph, the girl in the
picture had left
her home a couple of years prior. This photo was the first her
parents
knew anything about where she was. They located her at Kent State,
and the family eventually re-connected.
Thanks again for the cartoon(s), and keep up the good work.
Bill Marsh
Casper, WY (Yes, Dick Cheney is from Casper, but I've only lived
here
for a year or so.)Dear Mr. Rogers,
I applaud your cartoon which embodies the anguish of the lives
lost.
Thank you,
MeredythRob,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
OUR FIRST AUDIO CARTOONIST INTERVIEW, WITH MONTE WOLVERTON
We've posted a collection of Monte Wolverton's cartoons along
with audio of Monte talking about his drawings. We've gotten
lots of requests from readers who want to hear the cartoonists
"explaining" their cartoons, and who want to know more
about the cartoonists - so I'll be interested to see what the
reaction is to audio conversations on our site. If you like it,
we'll do more - if you don't like what you hear (more darn liberal
cartoonists!), you can complain to Monte at: monte@wolvertoon.com
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
Are you sure you're not really Madonna? You use her same non-thinking
go for the maximum shock value style very effectively. Keep up
the good work. Unfortunately I will miss your work since I just
canned Cagle.
dlm
I just HAD to write to you, too. I sent Mikhaela an e-mail at
the listed address for her, but I just had to say a great big,
"THANK YOU"!!! For having the guts to print this wonderful,
funny, controversial lady's cartoons, you've added an extra smile
to my face for the day. Those you sent a couple of days ago were
so funny that I forwarded them to everyone in my e-mail address
book! Keep it up!
Rebecca Terrill,
Zephyrhills, FLGee Daryl,
You give your readers a lecture on amateurs don't bother witting
to Daryl etc etc about ideas and how bad the cartoons of amateurs
are...THEN
You put up a no talent "Mikaela Reid's" cartoons
on your page. First of all her graphics are TERRIBLE and further
her ideas are SOPHOMORIC...really BAD, BAD, BAD...
Are you sure you've not been smokin' some kinda rope?
John LoganMikhaela,
I wrote a kind of "smart ass" note to Daryl Cagle in
his blog about your cartoons.
I just wanted to apologize for it. I obviously do not
agree with the subject matter, however, to attack your unique
talent is JUST PLAIN INEXCUSABLE. Your cartoons are great.
You are obviously a young person starting out...half the battle
is GETTING YOUR MESSAGE OUT...you accomplished that, by striking
a strong reaction from lots of readers one way or the other.
General Patton once said "If everyone is thinking the same
thing...SOMEONE is NOT thinking!"
Your cartoons (although I don't agree) are good. And I wish you
the best in your cartooning endeavors in the future.
With apologies to you and Daryl,
John Logan
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 am sure I will
see you defending John Evander Couey in the future.
After all he has a sexual preference and I guess that means he
gets the same rights a traditional married couples.
And in a few months or years you and your friends will be going
to court to protect these types and you will surely find a child
that says they consent this type of behavior.
And what about those the like animals, should a man and his dog,
cow, or sheep have the same rights as married couples.
After all that is some peoples sexual preference.
We surely would not want to discriminate against these people
Dick HerbertCan't tell you how much I enjoy your
cartoons. This is the first I have seen them, thanks to Cagle.
Your live of humor is right on the same line I travel. Keep it
up.
Nicholas White
Naples, FLAre you sure you're not really Madonna?
You use her same non-thinking go for the maximum shock value
style very effectively.
Keep up the good work. Unfortunately I will miss your work since
I just canned Cagle.
Donny MeansI applaud your talent and viewpoints.
Regardless of what others may say, you have an inherent right
to your opinion and more so in today's political quagmire that
has been allowed to develop and fester since Dubya and his henchmen
have taken power. We need more folks like yourself who have the
courage and ability to express our points of view
- Stay Strong!
Bob Anderson
A 55 year old left-wing liberal and proud of it!
________________________________________________________________
I find your cartoons superficial, vindictive,
vulgar, and tiresome.
Actually----I don't like them. Gloria Burnell Scarborough, MaineAloha,
Mikhaela!
Love your work!
Allan Wang, MD, PhD Hawaii Loved your work. Can't
wait to see more!
Carol Hayes 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 JohnsonReally!! 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 FridasI have never seen your cartoons before
today. They or you say it like it really is.
Thanks..... Bea HowardMikhaela,
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 EnglandSorry, but I don't see any
humor in your work. Maybe you can get a job with one of Larry
Flint's publications.
DDowdMs. 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 AdvocatesYay!
not all of us are too dumb to appreciate your cartoons...keep
up the good work! Arty Gladstone, Lauderhill, FLYou'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 HoskinsYou'll
do just fine here at Cagle country.
Just keep up the good work and welcome.
Sincerely,
Jordan HolderHope to see more of your work at
Cagle.com Based on the two we were shown you should liven things
up nicely. Cassandra KyleThe 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.
______________________________________________________________________
Well, I see Cagle has added another Liberal to the stable. We'll
just have to buy another manure fork.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 She may be new, but you can
keep her.,,,,,,,,Rita Reeder
MARCH 7, 2007
WELCOME
MIKHAELA
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:
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.
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.
APRIL
20, 2007
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.
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 
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.
Mr.
Cagle,
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.
APRIL 14, 2007
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.
There
is a little cartoon-buzz this morning, caused by 
MARCH
22, 2007
MARCH
21, 2007
