Tag: The New Yorker

International Women’s Day is Every Day

I love drawing cartoons of all sorts:  silly, wacky, mysterious, introspective,  fun, cultural, political, single panel, multi-panel, titled, caption-less, captioned. There are so many ways to go.  The New Yorker has published many of them for over 20 years, some of them political. I also draw a political cartoon for Medium.com every Monday.  Most every week, I create one that is about women’s rights around the world.  Below is part of this week’s cartoon, which I drew with International Women’s Day in mind.   I think about that subject just about every week.

This image was inspired when I read about a rapist in India who said his victim deserved it.  He is in jail, to be killed by the government.  He was found guilty;  but the culture is guilty for perpetuating these perceptions, and I don’t mean just Indian culture. Ours is guilty of fostering  tragically wrongful perceptions of others, too.  To see more of this cartoon, and my others, click here. too late raped

Live Drawing The Golden Globes After Tragedy

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I often draw political events and awards shows on television. It seems to be something I enjoy and people enjoy seeing my quick sketches.  I have done it for a few years now for The New Yorker, BET, Theatermania, Fusion and Medium.  This time I did it for myself and my own personal audience….as I wasn’t even sure I could do it at all. The Golden Globes this year followed an incredible tragedy: it was so close to the deaths of the four cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, and I was in such a fog about that, and still very sad. It seemed odd to being doing something so frivolous. But I decided–or imagined–that the four irreverent cartoonists who were killed would approve of my lampooning Hollywood. They would have done a much more forceful job of it than I, but that’s neither here nor there.

Above and below are the results.  I have a feeling that cartoonists were on people’s minds as they watched the Golden Globes (some actors commented on the tragedy), because my work got more attention than usual.  Cartoonists are being thought of.  It’s nice, I hope it lasts, but for better reasons.  Cartoonists are a wonderful asset to our society, I must admit.  I like cartoonists: they are, generally speaking,  good people. And we provide a much needed service.

My tweet drawings for the Golden Globes got a shout out on twitter from @NBC, and Retweeted and favorited by thousands of others.  The following day, my drawings were shown on the Today Show, I was profiled in People and also on USA Today.  Quite something.

It seems that people like cartoons, no matter whether they are hard hitting or silly. We all need to laugh.

 

Olympic Live (well, 9-hour delay live) Tweet Drawing

-1I have come to love live tweet drawing, and it seems that others enjoy watching me do it. My latest foray into this world was last night’s Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics.   The New Yorker’s website blog, The Sporting Scene, asked if I would tweet draw for them, so as the evening progressed, my editor there posted them on the site. You can see all of them here!  The above drawing was done before the ceremonies began, but during the huge extravaganza, I tweeted Putin, David Remnick, Meredith Vieira, Matt Lauer, and many of the athletes in their colorful (and often very odd) outfits.

Follow me on twitter, because I will be doing more Olympics….and then I will be tweet drawing the Academy Awards!

Cartoon Marriage Script Bought by ABC Studios

 

Cartoon Marriage, the book I did with my husband, Michael Maslin,  based on our life together as New Yorker cartoonists, is in the process of becoming a television show. Just last night we heard that ABC Studios bought the script as written by the wonderful and talented Terri Minsky (Lizzie McGuire and Less Than Perfect creator). It all began about a year ago, when actress Jennifer Garner saw our book (via our agent David Kuhn) and fell in love with the idea.  The show will be produced by Jennifer’s production company, Vandalia Films. We are thrilled.   To read about it, go to Deadline Hollywood, or Hollywood Reporter

So far, it’s been a fun and wild ride interacting with Hollywood. All good so far. I love entering into new fields, trying new things. We got to meet Terri Minsky for a day at our home, and it was great fun. She is hilarious and thoughtful and I know is writing a wonderful script. We are crossing our fingers for the next step! My hope is that the world is ready for another terrific comedy with lots of playful humor, and it will become a show that brings laughs and diversion.

DSK: One More Tip of the Iceberg

Most weeks, I just do cartoons that are about life, culture and are sometimes indirectly political. However, there are issues in the news that I can’t ignore, like the one above. Since I do a weekly cartoon for Womens Enews, there are events I feel I have to do a cartoon on, particularly when it involves women’s rights. The above cartoon is appearing there now– as a daily web-based magazine, they post my cartoon right away. The New Yorker is a weekly, and they would most likely not run a cartoon like the one above, although I show them everything I do.

Maybe we need a magazine totally dedicated to the stupid things powerful men do.

Being Worried Still

copyright Liza Donnelly and The New Yorker Magazine, 2002

 

This cartoon was published in The New Yorker in the months following September 11th, 2001. I think it’s appropriate to publish here again, with news of the death of Osama Bin Laden yesterday.  The little girl in this cartoon would be about eighteen now, and would probably still be worried today. New York City, and those who lost loved ones in the attacks on 9/11 may feel some relief, but the people who listened to and followed Bin Laden are still out there, hating Americans. President Obama is doing an a remarkable job to make our country new again, to work with our allies and the world to solve problems and rid the world of terrorism. But it’s not going to happen with the death of one individual, no matter how powerful he once was. Let’s hope the Arab Spring continues and combined with this news, we are one step closer to peace.