Category: News

Freedom of Expression: A Festival In France To Celebrate Political Cartoons

In September 2015, I was fortunate to visit a beautiful village in France called L’Estaque. They have a festival every year, where they celebrate political cartoons and freedom of expression. I was honored with a solo exhibition, and I spoke at the local high school. This year, the creative leader of the team of organizers was the wonderful cartoonist Fathy Bourayou. I met many old cartoonist friends, and met many many new ones.  The hospitality and joy of the celebration was very warming. They invited me back next year, and I hope to be there!

 

New Gig Drawing Political Cartoons At Politico Europe

The cartoons below represent a new endeavor for me, one I am very excited about.  Politico Europe, Politico’s edition that focuses on countries in that region, invited me to contribute exclusive cartoons every week to their online and print editions. My drawings will focus on European culture, politics, elections, economies, and interaction with other countries, including the US. I am enjoying reading in more depth about countries and issues that are often not covered well?—?if at all?—?in the US.

All three of these cartoons were first published in Politico Europe.

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GOP Debate: Subjective Sarcastic Snapshots

-11Last night the Presidential hopefuls of the Republican Party persuasion gathered somewhere out west to debate. I should say some of the hopefuls, because there was a kiddies table again: a handful of candidates debated at 5 pm instead of 8pm. People like Pataki and Santorum (remember him?), who did not make the cut to prime time.  How debilitating, if you ask me.

I was in front of my television,  iPad and stylis in hand. CNBC turned out to be controversial in its questioning, and in the way some of the journalists shouted and over-acted their questioning. Sorry I didn’t get that in my drawing, it would have been difficult to do. But it was very unprofessional. Plus they did not start at 8:00, but made us listen to their pundits go on and on for fifteen minutes beforehand. This is what its come to, forced-pundit-listening.

No one appeared to stand out as a particular winner, from my vantage point. They all seemed to do similarly. Christie tried to out-Trump Trump with his loud bombastic statements, and Trump seemed to be quieter this time. Perhaps Carson is rubbing off on him (not something you want to picture).  Jeb seemed cantankerous, Rubio seemed angry, Huckabee is Mr. Smooth, Carly took aim at Hillary, and Cruz used his eyebrows often. We didn’t hear from Rand Paul for a long time, and I wondered if he had left. I can’t really remember the last guy’s name, and can’t remember what it was he said.

Here are the drawings that I tweeted out in real time, within minutes. Hardest to draw, you ask?  Ben Carson: he is round, very round.  I wrote that on twitter and one of my followers said  he should be easy to draw because he never moves!  Well none of them do, really.  Next debate, I am going to make a concerted effort to draw entire bodies. And maybe there will be more movement on stage for me to draw, you never know. Wouldn’t that be fun. Dancing, perhaps some tango?

 

 

 

Live Drawing the Benghazi Hearings and Hillary’s Testimony

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Last week, I watched Hillary Clinton testify for eleven hours on one day of the Benghazi Committee hearings. I drew some of what I saw and immediately shared it with Twitter and Facebook. Many of the quotes here were verbatim, others I could not help but contribute my thoughts on the situation. Hillary held up amazingly well, and many of the news outlets and observers as well as pollsters feel she benefited from the day.

Global Cartooning: A forum in Caen

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A gathering of 35 cartoonists from 16 countries took place from September 11-13th in Caen, France at the Caen Memorial Museum, and I was honored to be among the invited to participate in the events and public debates. It was a wonderful event and many conversations were had about the role of political cartooning in a world run by the internet.
Here is a video from France 3, who asked the Spanish cartoonist Kap and myself to draw and discuss the immigration crisis.
Over the course of the three days, we debated the limits of free speech and the importance of understanding one another globally. Many were in agreement that just because we have free speech does not mean we have to use it to its limits in every case.

Page Six!

 

Last week, my good friend and fellow New Yorker cartoonist, Marisa Acocella Marchetto had a terrificbook party to celebrate her new Graphic Novel, Ann Tenna.  It was held at Marisa’s husband’s restaurant, Da Silvano, and was covered on the New York Post’s Page Six, “Graphic Novel Debuts Among Media Elite”  It was fun to be mentioned as one of the New Yorker cartoonists who came to celebrate with Marisa.