above: Gary Varvel
President Trump made news last May when, in an interview with Politico, he said his new nickname for Pete Buttigieg was Alfred E. Neuman, a reference to the youthfully grinning MAD magazine mascot. Yet a month earlier, cartoonist Gary Varvel had already drawn that comparison.
The right-leaning political cartoonist’s first contribution to the Indianapolis Business Journal last April was of the former South Bend, Ind., mayor as a cover boy for MAD. “Buttigieg is kind of a cross between Alfred E. and Howdy Doody,” he says, referring to two humor icons born, like baby boomers, at the American midcentury.
Michael Cavna, at The Washington Post, talks to cartoonists (Adam Zyglis, Barry Blitt, Jack Ohman, Steve Benson, Scott Stantis, Matt Davies, Gary Varvel, Daryl Cagle, Mike Luckovich) about the pros and cons of caricaturing the current crop of Democratic candidates (Biden, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg).
Mike Luckovich, the cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, says that Trump has provided such consistent satiric fodder that only recently has he begun to zero in on the Democratic candidates.
This week, “As I was drawing Bloomberg,” the left-leaning Luckovich says, “I was thinking, ‘Thank God for new material.’ “
Last month Michael talked to cartoonists about impeachments – Clinton vs. Trump.
Featuring Rob Rogers, Mike Luckovich, Matt Davies, Steve Breen, Matt Wuerker
hat tip: Mike Rhode