There have been a couple of okay cartoons about the Notre Dame fire and then a raft of weeping gargoyles. I’m going to hold back for a day or so to let more cartoonists weigh in.
There’s plenty more out there to comment on, starting with …
I was glad to see Darrin Bell recognized with a Pulitzer. DD Degg did a roundup of the cartooning awards elsewhere on this site, and I’ll strongly suggest you go there, where you can see the portfolios of the artists, not not just Bell’s but runners-up Rob Rogers and Ruben Bolling.
I’m not too moved by the “first African-American winner” thing, because it’s not like a thousand black artists have been pounding on this particular door, though we can talk about why there aren’t more. But I’m deeply moved by the fact that all three finalists are “freelance” because that sure feels like the future of editorial cartooning.
Topic for another day, because I watched that happen and it’s … well, it’s a topic for another day.
Meanwhile, you can pick up Michael Cavna’s interview with Darrin here, and an NPR interview with him here, and they’re both worth it.
When we were together for the Kenosha Festival a few years ago, Darrin was frequently squirreled away in his motel room trying to keep up with his multiple deadlines. He’s a good guy, but he’s way too busy and I wish I thought combining Rudy Park and Candorville into one strip had done more to relieve that.
OTOH, his prodigious output has not resulted in his cranking out crap, which is not only evidenced by the Pulitzer but, more prestigiously, with how often he is featured here.
(For the benefit of any editors reading this, that last thing was a “joke.”)
Juxtaposition of the Cloth-Eared Idiots
Speaking of people in authority who don’t get it, both of the above cartoons were stricken from Facebook for violating its terms of service.
Which apparently include a clause about avoiding wit, sarcasm, parody and posting things a humorless automaton — mechanical or meat-based — would not understand.
I can understand how Bennett got pinged by an automated pinger, but, having touched off the “uh-oh” sensors, shouldn’t the piece then go before a human for final evaluation?
Meanwhile, Ruben Bolling’s piece is more of a mystery, since it’s neither a condemnation of those companies nor an endorsement, simply an acknowledgement that they are large corporations which have intelligent people in place.
Unlike, say, Facebook.
Meanwhile, despite hundreds, perhaps thousands, of reports, Twitter allowed a despicable, out-of-context tweet encouraging hatred towards Muslims in general and Rep. Ilhan Omar specifically, to remain in place, sparking this commentary from Pia Guerra.
Which, predictably, received plenty of venom in the comments.
I’m sorry to see the hatemongers given that solid base of approval from the President (see Darrin Bell’s cartoon, above) and, for that matter, the New York Post, and, yes, I have a dog in this fight.
On September 11, 2001, my immediate reaction was “Oh, the bigots are going to go nuts over this,” and I immediately began work on a full-page explainer, which we got into the paper within a few days. I then modified it (as seen here) and offered it free to other papers, and, IIRC, about two dozen ran it.
This down-sized version is hard to read, but it’s noting, and tallying, the nations in which Muslims make up 10 percent or more of the population, the point being that they aren’t all Arabs, don’t all ride camels and certainly don’t all blow things up.
Which intelligent people who didn’t happen to know much about Islam could learn from.
I didn’t expect the bigots to be convinced, but hoped it would provide a little counterpoint for thoughtful people who might run into loudmouthed idiots.
Ed Hall suggests the same thing and, I’d guess, with about the same probability of success. And, BTW, Trump could not have been seeing anything in Jersey, because he was on the phone with a radio station, describing what he was seeing and hearing from his vantage point in his Manhattan office.
War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.
Hail to the Chief.
Speaking of Juxtapositions
Today’s Andertoons was surely drawn well before Dear Leader sent out this mind-blowingly ignorant veto letter:
Apparently, that whole thing about Congress declaring war is not in the Constitution after all. Perhaps it’s like all the Christian attributes that aren’t in the Bible after all.
How removing our troops from a war zone endangers the lives of “brave service members” (or even average ones) is a different mystery, though we should note that, if a brave service member dies in the line of duty, we’ll make sure to take care of her grieving family.
As the meme says, if you’ve ever wondered what you’d have done in Germany in the Thirties, you’re doing it now.
Everything Old is New Again
It’s a sad state of affairs to note that, with all that’s going on, this is a small point, but Adam Zyglis‘s recent cartoon about the NRA’s efforts to quash legislation protecting victims of domestic violence sent me back in time to the 80s or 90s, when New York attempted to confiscate the weapons of physically abusive spouses.
To which the police unions objected because an officer who beat his wife was nevertheless required to carry a gun on the job.
Again, it’s not that you can’t make this shit up.
It’s that you don’t have to.
If the IRS doesn’t laff, I will
I don’t know what this cartoonist would have done in the Thirties, but here’s a reason to file on paper rather than electronically: The paper forms leave space for graphic commentary.
I don’t think he wants a phone call at 7 am asking permission to use them, so I’ll just observe that such Japes make me laugh and I hope don’t put him on some sort of list.
Though it would be a list of honor.