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Editorial cartooning

Election Coverage from a cartoonist’s perspective

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Through out the day I’ll be posting coverage of today’s presidential election from cartoonists around the country. Keep coming back here throughout the day for updates.

First up: Ted Rall, the man conservatives LOVE to hate, has posted his second cartoon animation depicting GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin trying to take John McCain out ala Road Runner style.

Note: to speed up download time on this page, I’ve removed Ted’s video. You can check out on YouTube.

Tomorrow’s Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury has caused consternation among newspaper editors who are reluctant to run the comic strip because of fear that the election results won’t be known before the comics pages are printed and Garry’s prediction of an Obama victory might not ring true. It’s not the first time a publication has had to deal with issue. MAD magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond offers a insider story about how MAD magazine had to push back the printing of their November 2000 magazine because that election wasn’t decided on election night or the day after, or the day after. Read his blog to learn how they finally went to press.

9:15 a.m.: Comics Riff has a list of the 11 comics strips that mentioned voting today.

9:20 a.m.: Jim McCloskey, cartoonist for The News Leader’s writes an op-ed piece on the roll of the editorial cartoonist in the community.

5:49 p.m. Just received an email from Sherry Stern at the L.A. Times. They’ve reversed their prior decision to hold off on the Wednesday Doonesbury. It will run as scheduled.

5:55 p.m. Rob Tornoe, of Politicker, has been kicking out the sketches all day long.

6:00 p.m. Matt Davies of the The Journal News, tells me that his site is being clobbered right now with 10 thousand hits an hour. Last check – still not up, but I love the cartoon he did here.

6:04 p.m. Daryl Cagle has already posted a round up of cartoons depicting an Obama victory.

6:10 p.m. CNN projects Obama has taken NJ, IL, and CT; McCain takes SC, OK, and TN.

6:20 p.m. Houston Chronicle’s Nick Anderson is live blogging/sketching tonight.

7:20 p.m. Clay Jones is tossing up sketches tonight.

7:25 p.m. Ed Hall reminds us that the last tall lanky politician from Illinois didn’t do so bad.

7:30 p.m. Stacy Curtis is heading up to “Obamapalooza” also known as Grant Park in Chicago where he’ll be there when Obama makes either a concession or victory speech. He tells me he’ll be posting sketches on Three Men in a Tub blog

7:42 p.m. Nick Anderson nails the economic undertones in this year’s election.

7:50 p.m. Free Press cartoonist Mike Thompson is spending the evening at Democratic Central. He’s got three cartoons in the can – one if Obama wins, one if McCain wins and probably thanks to the last two elections – one if no winner is announced tonight.

8:00 p.m. Ed Hall tells me that he and Clay Jones have formed a “virtual bar” where they trade sketches and post them on each other’s blog.

8:05 p.m. Matt Bors is blogging tonight as well. He’s already called the election for Obama and posted his cartoon offering the GOP stages of grief.

8:20 p.m. Ohio goes to Obama. Clay Jones sketches: “Now Ohio is Unamerican”

8:30 p.m. Marshall Ramsey and Rob Tornoe are both thinking about a Palin campaign in 2012.

8:45 p.m. I see that Walt Handelsman is live blogging/sketching.

8:50 p.m. Mike Thompson has posted the cartoon that will run in the first edition of the Free Press. Since no presidential candidate has been named the winner, this cartoon deals with campaign commercials.

9:00 p.m. Most major networks call it for Obama.

9:15 p.m. This cartoon from Nick Anderson made me laugh.

9:18 p.m. Senator John McCain gives is concession speech.

9:30 p.m. Ed Hall posts his final cartoon for the night: McCain defeats McCain.

9:57 p.m. President-Elect Barack Obama gives his victory speech.

10:23 p.m. Calling it a night.

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Comments 13

  1. Re: Rall’s animation.

    I like how bouncy the animation are, especially how the French Ambassador’s head turns after tasting the yogurt. Reminds me of the early Simpsons from the Tracy Ullman years.

    That said, the voices need work, especially Dick Cheney’s at the end. Its too low and not gruff enough.

    McCain’s voice sounds too young for a 72 year old man. McCain’s real-life voice is somewhere between Ronald Reagan’s and Dubya’s. If you can find someone who can imitate both, chances are they can imitate McCain’s too.

    Sarah Palin’s voice is OK, but not deep enough.

    So yeah, the animation’s good, but you might want to tinker with the sound more.

  3. Spot on comments, Charles. I totally agree.

    Probably the toughest part so far has been finding the right people to do voices. This is only my second attempt, so I hope they’ll keep getting better.

  4. Serious question, Ted… how do you find the time to do this?

  5. Wiley,
    It isn’t easy. I’m fairly self-disciplined, but there are never enough hours in the day to do everything I’d like. Of course, I’m not animating this stuff myself–David Essman is doing the hard stuff. That’s huge. And I don’t watch sports.

  6. My take on this…

    Like nearly all of the animated editorial cartoons I’ve seen, it’s geared more for entertainment than editorializing. It works fine as an animated cartoon, but not as an editorial cartoon.

    Secondly, why does Sarah Palin have 3 breasts (Oval office scene with the cup of TCBY)?

  7. “why does Sarah Palin have 3 breasts”

    Yeah, I was wondering that too. Shouldn’t she have five?

  8. There’s a typo in the voice credits.

  10. Thanks, everyone.

    I dunno, Wiley, it seems to me like the editorial comment is obvious: it’s about mocking Palin’s ambitions. As for why Palin has three breasts, who knows? God made her that way, not me.

  11. Like nearly all of the animated editorial cartoons Iâ??ve seen, itâ??s geared more for entertainment than editorializing. It works fine as an animated cartoon, but not as an editorial cartoon.

    Animated editorial cartoons probably have more in common with a cartoon strip in that they both have the elements of story – beginning, middle, end, that a single pane cartoon does not. Telling a story -is- entertainment and has to maintain the dramatic questions; What’s going to happen next? How is this going to end?

    The editorial ‘take’ on the subject determines the story to be told, and message is everything when selecting that story to tell. But, IMO, message should not ride out on the surface and clobber the audience. We have the luxury of letting the editorializing ride under the entertainment. Subtle cues, like the three breasts thing, can be included to hint at the author’s attitude toward the subject.

    It’s a balancing act between message (editorializing) and entertainment. I’d rather err on the side of entertainment any day. A message with no audience is the falling tree in the woods.

  12. ” Serious question, Tedâ?¦ how do you find the time to do this? ”

    Indeed…

  13. � Serious question, Ted� WHY did you find the time to do this? �

    Indeedâ?¦

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