Miss Cellany Reads Political Cartoon News

Letter to The (Battle Ground, WA) Reflector:

I’m writing to express my outrage at how low the Democrats are going in attacking Republican candidate Joe Kent.

I recently saw that they’ve gone so far as to hire a really bad cartoonist to create a website to mock Mr. Kent.

It’s some of the worst and most insulting cartooning I’ve ever seen on this weirdjoekent.com website!

If I was Kent, I’d immediately get my lawyers after whoever created this website! It’s outrageous!

So naturally we went to the WeirdJoeKent.com website which was, we have to think, the actual purpose of writing the letter. I like the idea of local cartoonists cartooning about the local elections for newspapers or for campaigns. I don’t like that there are no credits for the cartoonist who doesn’t seem “really bad.”

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Since Project 2025 was mentioned above…

From Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan:

No matter where you might fall on the political spectrum during this election season, there’s one question you might have found yourself asking across the past few months: ‘What is Project 2025, anyway?’ The document — prepared by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation, and also known as ‘Mandate For Leadership: The Conservative Promise’ — is an extensive manifesto on how to reshape the federal government in the United States…

Enter Stop Project 2025, a collection of online comic strips attempting to decode and explain what’s actually in the monolithic agenda, and give people the information they legitimately need to know before headed to the ballot box. Featuring creators including Jeff Parker, Steve Lieber, Matt Fraction, Gene Ha, Denys Cowan, Greg Pak, Evan Narcisse, Lilah Sturges, Zoe Tunnell, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, and many more, the project features 15 strips breaking down and explaining what Project 2025 wants to do to the United States.

From Christopher Chiu-Tabet at Comics Beat:

With the US presidential election now less than a month away, multiple comics creators have unveiled the online anthology Stop Project 2025, designed to inform voters about Republican candidate Donald Trump‘s agenda should he be reelected this November. The comics are based on the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise, which outlines what they would want Trump to enact if he returns to the White House.

It can be read as a single PDF document, or as separate pages at Stop Project 2025.

Contributors include Karim Ahmad, Ho Che Anderson, Alejandro Arbona, Andrew Aydin & Josh Rogin, Brandt & Stein, Zander Cannon, Comicraft, Denys Cowan, Valentine De Landro, Scott Dunbier, Kieron Dwyer, Jerel Dye, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, Ben Fisher, Matt Fraction, Gene Ha, Cully Hamner, Mike Henderson, Jay Hosler, Shawn Lee, Steve Lieber, Laurenn McCubbin, Ibrahim Moustafa, Evan Narcisse, Jim Ottaviani, Greg Pak, Jeff Parker, Joe Phillips, Tobias Queck, Greg Rucka, Mark Russell, Chris Ryall, Sara Ryan, Jennifer Smith, Lilah Sturges, Zoe Tunnell, Jen Van Meter, Rick Veitch, Shannon Wheeler, and other contributors who have elected to not have their names listed here. 

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… Like members of a Delta Force chalk, they go by nicknames, all Trump-inspired — “Crazy,” “Birdbrain,” “Pencil-neck,” “Shifty” — and assigned to them by “Horseface,” the shadowy White House national security advisor staffer who put together the Operation Crooked Eagle team in late 2021.

She was, Rocket recalls, on fire from the start. Meeting in a P Street parking garage on Christmas Eve, Horseface reportedly greeted her recruits by bellowing “Avengers, assemble!” then quickly got down to business. The president had tasked her to rig the entire system of justice, she told them, enlisting district attorneys, prosecutors, investigators, judges and grand juries in four different jurisdictions to gin up fake charges against Individual One.

Not Comics: For The Washington Post Garry B. Trudeau, of Doonesbury fame, exposes The Deep State.

“I was a dark web guy and did some oppo for the Clintons when I was at Princeton,” says Rocket now. “Nothing big, unless you count doctoring the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape to make it sound worse. But a lot of my friends went to work for the Deep State after graduation. This was before Donald Trump discovered that the civil service was lousy with experts. I stayed in touch, so when the FBI started recruiting for the false flag attack on the Capitol, I was offered a spot in the lead stack. The rest is history, or would have been if Bennie and the Selects hadn’t covered our tracks.”

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Last chance!

Sheffield — The art exhibit “Poison Pens: Political Cartoonists Take Aim at the American Presidency from Jefferson to Biden” will be on display at the Berkshire School’s Warren Family Gallery until Saturday, October 19.

The exhibit includes original cartoon art, along with some art from Banevicius’s collection and reproductions of historical art.

Shaw Israel Izikson for The Berkshire Edge talks to Poison Pens curator Paul Banevicus.

Banevicius said that editorial cartoons are an important way to look at American history. “This show gives a broad survey of the American presidency for the past 200 years, along with different political issues that are still coming up,” Banevicius said. “To me, it’s interesting to see how the medium has changed; yet in many ways, it has not changed at all. I think a lot of people criticize today’s political cartoons sometimes for being too ‘haha funny’ and not biting enough. But I think you’ve always seen that. You’ve seen some cutting and scathing cartoonists over the years, and you have also seen derivative cartoonists copying other people’s styles, just going for the laugh.

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The Daily Cartoonist reported on Morten Morland leaving The Spectator.

So now:

The Spectator magazine is running a competition offering a £500 prize in their search for a new political cartoonist – and there’s not much time left to enter their challenge.

If you are a terrific caricaturist, fantastic storyteller and wit who doesn’t take anything too seriously, please throw your hat in the ring. Submit your best cartoons and join the legendary illustrators who have graced the pages of The Spectator. They include Michael Heath, who has been the Spectator’s cartoon editor for 33 years and is co-judging the competition.

Rules and details (deadline October 21) are included with The Spectator story.

“Cartooning is a noble profession; fame, bragging rights and a place in the magazine all await.”

How better to prove cartooning “a noble profession” than to hold an open-to-all contest for the position.

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From the Association of Canadian Cartoonists:

For the Atwater Library Lunchtime Series, beloved Montreal cartoonists Aislin (Terry Mosher) and Boris (Jacques Goldstyn) discuss their takes on Montreal characters and institutions. This presentation is in conjunction with the current Atwater Library Montreal Cartoons exhibition.

From the Atwater Library and Computer Centre:

Thursday, October 17, 2024 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
IN PERSON AND BY ZOOM: MONTREAL CARTOONS – Esteemed Montreal political cartoonists Aislin (Terry Mosher) and Boris (Jacques Goldstyn) discuss their takes on Montreal characters and institutions. In conjunction with the Atwater Library’s Montreal Cartoons exhibition.
To REGISTER and get the Zoom link, click here.

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Cartooning The Middle East

A Quebec cartoonist who has been previously accused of racism and problematic representations of his subjects is once again demonstrating his poor grasp of geopolitics. In Yannick Lemay’s September 29 cartoon in Le Journal de Montréal entitled: War in Lebanon,” the cartoonist depicted a tank operated by the Grim Reaper leaving Gaza in ruins, and turning toward Lebanon.

Honest Reporting Canada, “ensuring fair & accurate media coverage of Israel,” takes exception to a cartoon.

It has been an exact year since Israel launched a devastating and destructive attack on Palestine, especially Gaza. The Palestinian group Hamas or the Islamic Resistance Movement, carried out an attack on Israel on 7th October, 2023 where about 1,139 people were killed and around 250 people taken hostage as per Israeli authorities.

However, in response to that, Israel launched an attack that has been active since then, completing one full year and resulting in a horrible level of destruction in various regions of Palestine.

ED Times, “a youth media publication,” from India “take[s] a look at some of the most heartbreaking cartoons and art created for the Palestinians and their suffering.”

A Brooklyn mom was horrified to find a book of antisemitic and anti-American political cartoons as part of a kids display on world cultures at a Bed-Stuy library this week.

“A Child of Palestine,” by Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali, is filled with disturbing Jewish stereotypes and offensive images — including Jesus Christ on a cross kicking an Israel soldier.

The parent found it on a table at the Macon branch of the Brooklyn Public Library on Tuesday, along with titles like “The Rough Guide to the 100 Best Places in the USA” and books on Tanzania, Ecuador and Samoa.

The New York Post, “one of the country’s most provocative, impactful, and beloved news brands,” is outraged that a book about war from a different viewpoint as the paper was on a children’s table in a library.

The book was since taken out of the library and hasn’t been returned to the display.