Category: Political cartoons

How A Not Funny Cartoon About Hurricanes Might Happen: video

Everyday, ideas present themselves. Sometimes I don’t notice them. Sometimes I have to chase them down. The best ones are ones that present themselves, I let them develop but don’t chase them. Chasing often leads to false sounding/seeming ideas. Forced.

Here is a case where I wanted to do a regular old cartoon about whatever, not political, I was open to anything. As you see from the cartoon above, it ended up being about the hurricanes we are experiencing in this country and in the islands. It may not be funny, you may think it’s stupid, doesn’t work, etc. But the process shows how it came about. In this way, I don’t think it’s forced. And it’s about a topic I eventually wanted to draw about anyway at some point: the pain and suffering we are witnessing, and the tremendous empathy we are witnessing in this country.

Here is a video of my process as I did the cartoon on my tablet (I posted this on Instagram and retreaved it a little late so the first piece is gone, sorry) Umbrella video

 

 

 

The Politics Of Women And Clothing

I drew this sketch recently for my New Yorker’s Daily Cartoon submission. They didn’t take it, but I wanted to publish it anyway. It’s in response to the woman in Saudi Arabia recently who posted a video of herself in a mini skirt and subsequently got arrested. She was eventually released. While we in this country are aghast at what is policed re women in Middle Eastern countries, it is important to remember what Western countries do, and how they police what women should and shouldn’t wear.

Women are told what to wear and if we are not wearing what a culture deems “correct,” we are “corrected,” so to speak. Society is beginning to notice how wrong victim blaming is, when a woman who is sexually assaulted while wearing a short skirt is?—?in many parts of the country?—?accused of “asking for it.” CBS News reported last week that in the US Congress, sleeveless dresses are not considered “proper business attire,” and thus women are open to being barred from entry if so clothed. In response, Representative Martha McSally wore a sleeveless dress in Congress, in violation of a rule that women are not to do so; and there was even more pushback. There are more examples, and many of them are much more subtle.

Every day is a political day for women around the globe. Here’s to more pushback.

Trump’s Promises: His First 100 Days

100 Dayscopy3_640X480We are approaching President Trump’s first 100 days in office?—?a traditional milestone used to judge how a new president is doing. It seems as if he is hell-bent on a) trying to push through promises he made b) creating drama to distract us from the fact he has not done a whole lot, all the while promising more than he could deliver.

In an AP interview , Trump claimed “I’m almost there on most items.” He’s not. In an interview with CBS News, President Trump said he thought being president would “be a lot easier.” Well, it’s not.

For some fact checking of his claims on progress in the first 100 days of his presidency, read this.

I drew the above gif for CBS This Morning/CBS News, and here is the tweet.

The News Is Hair Raising: The Evolution of a New York Times cartoon gif

Cartoons often evolve from real situations or emotions. I want to show you how a recent drawing happened.
The other day,  I came home to find my husband, Michael Maslin, glued to the television set, sitting on the edge of the sofa close to the screen.  We are both riveted (and not in a good way) by the news that is emerging at a fast clip out of Washington as of late.
The next day, another news story broke about the Trump administration, and  I decided to draw a cartoon about this because I could feel it was something our country was grappling with in various ways on many levels. There was drama happening on an hourly basis.  I thought of Michael and I drew this:
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When I drew it, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was going to do with it. Looking at my sketch above,  I thought I should simplify it. And make the person a woman, because, well, why not. I try to make my protagonists female when I can. In this instance, gender had no meaning.IMG_3401
I looked at the hair that I drew and thought:  it should go straight up!   I drew this:

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I thought:  I can make it a two paneled cartoon with these two images. But then wait!  I remembered that I now know how to animate!  So I will just animate it!  I opened my animation app and drew this video. Then….

 

 

 

… I sent it to The New York Times to see if they wanted to run it, mentioning that I could also do it as a gif. They said yes,  they wanted to publish it with Nicholas Kristof’s column, which was about to be published.  After an hour of fine tuning about where my signature or credit line should go, I made a gif and it ran with Mr. Kristof’s column, “What Did Trump Know, And When Did He Know It?” 
It was an honor to have my gif on the front page of the New York Times with Mr. Kristof’s Op-Ed piece,  in commentary about an historic time in our country’s history.  Bottom line was: this gif represents exactly how I feel right now. It seems to represent others’ feelings.  And for an editorial cartoonist,  that’s often the best place to find ideas: in your heart.

#ShePersisted: Women’s Voices

COretta and Elizabeth

While taking a walk yesterday, an image for a cartoon came to me and I seized it. I stood on the sidewalk and drew it on my phone. Sometimes I feel an idea has to go out right away and be a part of the national (or global) conversation. To wait is to lose an opportunity, a chance to hopefully contribute to the conversation. It depends on the idea of course, but this topic was one that I wanted to be a part of.

While giving a speech in the Senate chambers, Senator Elizabeth Warren read the late Coretta Scott King’s letter critical of Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for Attorney General. Senator Warren was told to stop talking by Senator Mitch McConnell. McConnell’s reason for instructing Warren to sit down and stop talking was based on a Senate rule from 1902, wherein members are not supposed to speak ill of other members?—?however, there are many examples online of just this being done at other times by male members of the Senate, and not being censured. This act on the part of Senator McConnell?—?a white man shutting down two women, one black, one white?—?was so odd and alarming that it immediately gave Warren and King’s words much more power. Even though Sessions was confirmed the next day.

Their voices were amplified.

Bravo, Elizabeth Warren and Coretta Scott King.