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  • Leslie Neilsen Cartoons

    The death of actor Leslie Nielsen brought back an interesting dilemma that crops up often among cartoonists - drawing the same idea. In this case, it's a play off the famous "Don't call me Shirley" line from Airplane!

    Matching cartoons isn't a case of plagiarism, it's simply "group-think" by cartoonists who, due to different circumstances, end up drawing the same gag or idea. When five or more cartoonists draw the same gag, we call it a "yahtzee."

    Some cartoonists also hate the idea of "obituary cartoons" and drawing the pearly gates, but I'll leave that debate open for another time.

    Jeremy Nell / The New Age, South Africa

    Joe Heller / Green Bay Post-Gazette, PoliticalCartoons.com

    Steve Kelley / New Orleans Times-Picayune

    Dave Granlund / PoliticalCartoons.com

    UPDATE: Thanks to Mark Streeter of the Savannah Morning News, we now have Leslie Nielsen "Shirley" YAHTZEE!

    Mark Streeter / Savannah Morning News

     

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  • Star-Ledger Cartoonist Sheneman Takes Buyout

    Drew Sheneman / Star-Ledger

    Drew Sheneman, the The Star-Ledger's talented editorial cartoonist since 1998, opted to take a buyout offer in the wake of possible staff layoffs and salary reductions. He spoke with Rob Tornoe about why now was the right time to walk away, and what he thinks the future of the profession will look like.

    So you decided to take a buyout from the Star-Ledger. You survived one round of cuts. Why leave now?

    It just seemed like the right time. I’m 35 years old and over the past few years it became increasingly obvious that I wasn’t going to make it to retirement as a staff cartoonist. I figured now would be as good a time as any to start reinventing myself and figuring out what’s next.

    Will you continue to draw cartoons for The Ledger as a freelancer? Will you still draw for your syndicate?

    The Ledger has been extremely generous and offered me the chance to freelance two local cartoons a week. I produce a full page comic strip for our monthly magazine InJersey which I’ll continue, as well. I’m also going to keep syndicating my national cartoons. In reality, my work load won’t change all that much in terms of the number of cartoons I do. What will change, quite drastically, is how and when I do them. No more commuting, no more edit board meetings. If I want flop down at my drawing board in my underoos and bang out three cartoons in a day, freeing up the rest of my week to pursue other work, I can do that. And when I say ‘pursue other work’ I mean playing Xbox.

    What will you miss most about the job?

    I certainly won’t miss the actual work, because I’m going to keep on doing it. I’ll miss the people. It’s a lot different drawing from home while listening to the Cartalk on iTunes, when you’re used to the sound and feel of the newsroom. It’ll probably take a little while to adjust. On the upside, I don’t have to worry about HR finding out what I’ve been downloading on my computer.

    Drew Sheneman / Star-Ledger

    What was the most memorable moment during your time at the Ledger?

    Memorable moments…hmmm… There was the first time a marching band came through the newsroom towing a six foot hot dog. I say ‘first time’ because it’s now an annual event. There was watching the staff kick into action on 9/11. There was the excitement in the room when the paper won it’s first Pulitzer (photographer Matt Rainey won for his excellent work on “After the Fire” a series about the aftermath of the Seton Hall dorm fire).

    But, most memorable was probably the day Governor McGreevey came out on national television. We sat there huddled around televisions and in offices watching this event unfold and no sooner were the words “I am a gay American” out of his mouth that the room kicked into gear and everyone busted there ass covering that story. Another memorable moment was months later when that same staff received the Pulitzer for breaking news coverage of the McGreevey story.

    What do you plan on doing next?

    I plan on continuing to draw editorial cartoons for as long as someone is willing to print them. Beyond that, there are a number of different fields of illustration I’d love to take a whack at. I’d love to write and illustrate a children’s book, for example. Maybe do some work in animation or film and video game concept art. There are all sort of interesting outlets for an illustrator to express themselves through, it’s convincing someone to pay you that’s the tricky part.

    What are your opinions about the future of editorial cartoons? Where do you see the business model going?

    First and foremost, the editorial cartoon isn’t going anywhere. It’s been a vital form of opinion and satire for hundreds of years and will continue to be for many, many more. But, we’re back to that convincing someone to pay you thing. In terms of the business model, I think cartoonists will move towards a freelance based economy. To a large extent, that’s already happened. I think editorial cartoons will be one of a variety of things an artist will do to earn a living. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure out a way to make a living that still involves me getting up and drawing everyday. If not I could always become a Somali pirate.

  • Harry Potter Cartoon Madness

    Over the years, Harry Potter has become a lovable cultural obsession that cartoonists have been able to play with and comment on. With the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in theaters, I decided to take a look back at our archives and post some oldie-but-goodies that are still relevant today.

    Here's the cartoon I drew back in 2001 when the first Harry Potter movie was released. Not much has changed, other than Potter's age and maybe a larger dollar sign...

    David Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Daily Star suggests a whole new line of Harry Potter movies as star Daniel Radcliff gets older and older...

    Joe Heller of the Green Bay Post-Gazette addresses the aging of the Harry Potter franchise from a different perspective...

    Heller also re-imagines Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, changing the main character and replacing Lord Voldemort with a different type of evil...

    Australian cartoonist Peter Lewis paints a nice picture of Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling as she nears the end of her movie franchise...

    Canadian Cartoonist Thomas Boldt (knows to most people as Tab) addresses Harry Potter's hype and consumerism with these two funny cartoons...

    Mike Lester of the Rome News-Tribune suggests that not all kids enjoy Harry Potter...

    Austrian cartoonist Petar Pismestrovic sees Harry Potter as a welcome diversion from everything going on in the world...

    Patrick Corrigan of the Toronto Sun suggests a new title for Harry's ongoing pursuits...

     

  • My Favorite Intrusive Body Scanner Cartoons

    Those new body scanners that show our naked bodies to TSA security personnel are an embarrassment to most travelers, but they are welcomed by cartoonists.  Here's a sampling of naked scanner cartoons from around the world, starting with my own cartoon which gave me the rare opportunity to draw Lady Liberty's boobs.

    Cartoonist, Luo Jie, of the China Daily newspaper, sees the scanners as a natural evolution…

    This one by French cartoonist, Frederick Deligne of the Nice-Matin newspaper, made me laugh …

    Cartoonist John Darkow of the Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune may be spending too much time on the internet …

    Cam Cardow, the cartoonist for the Ottawa Citizen in Canada, sees the scanners as especially revealing …

    Cartoonists relish every opportunity to draw naked public officials.  Here is Janet Napolitano by Taylor Jones, the Staten Island based cartoonist for Puerto Rico’s El Nuevo Dia newspaper.


    J.D. Crowe     of the Mobile (AL) Press-Register sees the romance in the TSA …

    This one is from my buddy, Jimmy Margulies of the New Jersey Record …

    … And Joe Heller of the Green Bay (WI) Press-Gazette has some scanner holiday spirit …

  • Abusing the California Bear

    Our California flag is a gift to editorial cartoonists. The poor bear on the flag has become a personal character for me, suffering every imaginable abuse as a metaphor for our dysfunctional and bankrupt government. I've started to feel sorry for the poor bear. Here he is in the hospital, in my latest cartoon.

     

    Our outgoing governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has called a special session of the legislature to deal with our fiscal emergency, with California's deficit ballooning to over 25 billion dollars. We don't know where the money will come from ...

     

    No one but the governor seems to think the legislature will do anything about the problem. Each year the legislature "papers over" the problem, like this ...

     

    ... the legislature simply won't face reality ...

     

    ... and our beloved bear continues to drown in a sea of red ink ...

     

    ...leaving us all feeling like this ...

     

    ... and this ...

     

    ... and this ...

     

    ... we all have our own way of facing up to the ugly, fiscal reality.

     

     

  • Gays in the Military

    Few issues currently create as much debate as allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the United States military. Even President Obama doesn’t seem to know which side of the debate he’s on!

    So when cartoonists weigh in on such a controversial subject, as Mike Keefe of the Denver Post did with the cartoon to the right (view more of Keefe's cartoons here), you can expect some readers to respond in kind.

    Allowing gays to serve openly in the military has become an important issue to Keefe. Here is what he has to say on the subject:

    "The question of whether gays should be permitted to serve in the military is basically a question of civil rights. I know of no study that says sexual orientation affects job performance in any legitimate area of employment including military service. Twenty-two of the twenty-six countries that contribute military forces to NATO permit gays to serve. Denying gays the opportunity to serve their country is denying them a basic right of citizenship."

    Keefe has weighed in with multiple cartoons about gays in the military. Here are some of his best. What's your opinion?

  • That Poor Dollar!

     Here's my cartoon for today, with Mao on the 100 Yuan note slugging George Washington.  The poor dollar takes a lot of abuse in cartoons.

     My buddy, Luo Jie, who draws for the government owned "China Daily" national newspaper in China, sees the dollar as the threat...

    Another Chinese cartoonist, Jianping Fan from Guangzhou, sees  dollars as Obama’s garbage.

    As I see it, dollars are something bitter for the Chinese to swallow...

    I can see why China might be upset...

    Around the world, Americans are cowboys, as with this world dollar cartoon by Hajo from Holland.

    Romanian cartoonist, Pavel Constantin, shows a poor Washington on the lam...

    George Washington has been beaten, burned, drowned, squashed ... between George and the dove of peace, it is hard to imagine a character who has been more abused in editorial cartoons.

    I counted about a dozen examples of Washington under water, from other cartoonists, after I drew this one...

     Mexican cartoonist, Angel Boligan, sees the dollar as the Titanic...

     Manny Francisco, a Filipino cartoonist working in Singapore, shows George Washington in hard times...

    Here's the same sentiment from French cartoonist, Frederick Deligne...

    Canadian cartoonist, Thomas Boldt sees the dollar reduced to mere Monopoly money...

    Brazilian cartoonist, Simanca sees some lunchtime envy between the dollar and Euro.

     A billion dollars in paper bills would probably fill a football stadium.  The scale of spending and deficits is so huge that there is little for cartoonists to exaggerate.  If Obama threw money away at only the rate of cash flowing through a fire hose, we'd have spending under control.

     The problem with drawing dollar bills stretching from the Earth to the moon a few times over is that it makes for a dull cartoon.  Fill the Grand Canyon with dollars?  Dull. 

    When fiscal reality becomes a cartoon, there isn't much left for us cartoonists to do - except abuse poor George Washington.

     

     

     

     

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