Drawing the Line: An Evening with Political Cartoonists

From Media and Democracy Project.

Since before the founding of the country, there have been political cartoons, often mocking the powerful with sharp humor, capturing the absurdity of the moment, shaping public opinion, and even exposing corruption. 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in today’s fast paced digital world an image can be shared in the blink of an eye, changing hearts and minds.

With censorship and threats on the rise for the press, including political cartoonists, join us for this special evening with three award-winning political cartoonists who will take us behind the scenes on how they distill the news into a single image and the role that political satire plays in defending democracy.

Ann Telnaes Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize

Ann Telnaes wins the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Illustrated Reporting and Commentary.  She earned the honor “for delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years.” What makes it all the more striking that she won the Pulitzer for The Washington Post — the very paper she left earlier this year in protest over editorial freedom. Here’s a few of the cartoons from the winning portfolio.

The end of Artizans

 

Edmonton Sun editorial cartoonist Malcolm Mayes informed his clients yesterday that he was pulling the plug on Artizans, the cartoon syndicate he created decades ago.

Artizans carried the works of mostly Canadian cartoonists but also counted on its' roster the late American cartoonist Ed Hall as well as Cuba's Alfredo Martirena.

Dale Cummings, Sue Dewar, Paul Fell, Jake Fuller, Graham Harrop, Marian Kamensky, Chuck Legge, Graeme Mackay, Bruce MacKinnon, Theo Moudakis, Dan Murphy, Adrian Raeside, Vance Rodewalt. Harley Schwadron and Wes Tyrell will now have to distribute their own work.

A few had already lost full-time positions in the past and relied on the syndicate for a modest income.

Clay Jones A Casualty of CNN Downsizing

From The Daily Cartoonist. 

Clay Jones informed fans and supporters last night that his CNN engagement has come to an end:

… One of the assistant editors, Jane, informed me last Friday (July 12) that after five years, I no longer had a freelance gig with CNN. The editor of the opinion section, Rich, gave me a courtesy call this morning to express his appreciation and to wish me well. 

I’m going to miss working with the Opinion team at CNN, but I never allowed myself to believe this would last forever…

BBC Scotland removes cartoons of politicians from social media

From BBC News.

Caricature of Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater

The assault on ‘nasty’ cartoonists and the censorship of their work continues unabated. The latest bowing to political pressure and culling of satirical commentary comes from BBC Scotland.

The AAEC has a new website

From the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

Welcome to the newest iteration of the AAEC website. 

Here you can find the latest news on the “dying art” of political cartooning — sometimes it’s even good news! — along with profiles of those who still endeavor to create it, as well as connections to other cartoon, free speech and journalists’ rights groups. 

The story behind Twitter's logo rebrand

From Mother Jones.

The new logo on the left and Monotype font on the right.

Yesterday, Twitter launched its logo rebrand, turning its famous bird logo into an “X.”

Since 2022, Elon Musk has said he hopes to make Twitter into a “super app” called X. 

In theory, this would mean the social network would become a catch-all for connecting us in a state of “unlimited interactivity—centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking,” as CEO Linda Yaccarino buzzworded. 

But when the new logo went live, users on Twitter (or X, whatever) noted an interesting facet of the new logo: It looks like shit.

"The Flying Sailor" nominated for an Oscar

From The Calgary Citizen.

The Flying Sailor, Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

The film The Flying Sailor by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), is nominated for an Oscar in the category of best animated short film.

Two ships collide in a harbour, an explosion shatters a city, and a sailor is blasted skyward. With ears ringing, blood pulsing and guts heaving, he soars high above the mayhem and towards the great unknown. 

A bold blend of comedy, suspense and philosophy, The Flying Sailor is an exhilarating contemplation of the wonder and fragility of existence.

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus Videos

From the AAEC website.

If you missed this year’s Cartoon Crossroads Columbus in October, the Festival has now posted all of the sessions on their YouTube channel.

Clay Jones banned on social media

From Clay Jones's Twitter account.

Editorial cartoonist Clay Jones is reporting he's been banned for 72 hours from @Facebook and @tiktok_us for this commentary on two recent news stories. 

The syndicated cartoon has gone to dozen of papers & news outlets with no problem, is apparently still up on Truth Social, but may have lost him one newspaper client and one monthly contributor.

AI can now create any image in seconds

From The Washington Post.

None of these photos were taken by a camera. All of these images were created by the artificial intelligence text-to-image generator DALL-E. Named for Salvador Dali and Pixar’s WALL-E, DALL-E creates images based on prompts such as:

• “A hobbit house designed by Zaha [H]adid.”
• “A woman in a red coat looking up at the sky in the middle of Times Square.”
• “Red and yellow bell peppers in a bowl with a floral pattern on a green rug photo.”

New Brad Holland website

From Brad Holland's Facebook page.

Brad Holland has launched a new website which, in addition to the traditional categories of illustration, displays examples of his work organized going forward and backward and frequently sideways.

"Living & Dying in America" by Steve Brodner

Every day, late at night or early in the morning, from March 26, 2020 to January 1, 2022, the political cartoonist and illustrator Steve Brodner would get to work. 

In those midnight hours, he would review the day’s reportage, sit down at his drawing board, and memorialize a singular person or event that played a role, willingly or unwillingly, in shaping that day.

“You are a racist!" - Analysis of a Twitter storm

From Chappatte Cartoons.

For a few days last June, cartoonist Patrick Chappatte was abundantly called a racist, or islamophobic, or both on Twitter.

The culprit: a cartoon on the anti-abortion decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Let’s take a look back at a troubling experience - which tells us a bit about our era of social media.

Aislin cartoon at heart of discrimination lawsuit in the U.S.

From the Montreal Gazette. 

A former Delta Air Lines flight attendant is filing an employment discrimination lawsuit, saying she was fired for posting an editorial cartoon on her personal Facebook page by Montreal Gazette political cartoonist Aislin that depicted then-president Donald Trump wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, CNN reported Saturday.

Canada Post Honours Editorial Cartoonists - Bruce MacKinnon

Canada Post has issued a new set of stamps that highlight the works of five of Canada’s most renowned editorial cartoonists.

The five cartoonists are Serge Chapleau, Brian Gable, Terry (Aislin) Mosher, Duncan Macpherson and Bruce MacKinnon.

The 2020 Townsie Awards

Wes Tyrell, president of the Association of Canadian Cartoonists met ACC past Presidents Andy Donato and Graeme Mackay to unveil the long-delayed Townsie Awards. 

They were to be given out in Ottawa last year and, because of the Covid comedy, have been sitting waiting in the Townsie closet. But, no longer!

Watch the video below for a one-in-a million twist!

"Press cartoons, free to laugh?" Online Conference

From Facebook.

At the invitation of the EUNIC network in Montreal, the European Union National Institutes for Culture and Cartooning for Peace proposes the second online conference, Press cartoons, free to laugh?. 

Conducted in English, it will take place online today, on the symbolic date of World Peace Day.

Matt Bors Is Quitting Political Cartooning

 From Matt Bors Medium.

After 18 years and more than 1,600 political cartoons, I’ve decided to retire my weekly comic. 

This is a decision long in the making, one I’ve slowly walked myself up to over the years, and have recently decided is time to commit to. 

My last cartoon was two weeks ago.

The Xavier Gorce Controversy

 From Cartooning for Peace.

If I was abused by the adoptive half-brother of my transgendered father's companion who became my mother, could we label it incest?

Online controversy, public apology and resignation: the collaboration between cartoonist Xavier Gorce and the newspaper Le Monde comes to an end.