Tag Archives: Political Cartoons

June 18, 2014 · 8:05 am

Preview: ‘World War 3 Illustrated 1979-2014,’ edited by Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman, Release Party in NYC, June 19, 2014

“On The Tea Party Trail” by Peter Kuper

“World War 3 Illustrated 1979-2014,” edited by Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman, with an introduction by Bill Ayers, is essential reading. Activism and comics are a natural together and this impressive collection is a shining example. It is a balancing act to make sense out of what can appear to be utter chaos. Of course, it’s this chaos that demands close scrutiny since it is likely orchestrated by others in power with a ruthless need to manipulate, cheat, and steal. Sure, you’ve heard of The Tea Party and you may think you know what they’re about. But do you really? Well, they’re not real. They were created by the Koch brothers. And maybe you know that. But, just like Thomas Nast “exposed” the corruption of New York City politics one hundred years ago by distilling dense information into compelling cartoons, so too do cartoonists today, like Peter Kuper, provide that same valuable service.

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Filed under Anthologies, Comics, Peter Kuper, PM Press, World War 3 Illustrated

Tagged as Activism, Anthologies, Art, arts, Books, Cartoonists, comics, Editorial Cartoons, Entertainment, graphic novels, New York, New York City, Occupy Movement, Peter Kuper, PM Press, Political Cartoons, Politics, Pop Culture, Thomas Nast, World War 3 Illustrated

October 28, 2013 · 5:25 am

BALLARD COMICS #7

Editor’s Note: Any serious conversation on urban planning will include the thoughts of activist Jane Jacobs. She was a champion of urban spaces at a human scale and of the preservation of older buildings in a community. Just in terms of practicality, it was the older buildings that had intrinsic value. It was their presumably lower rents, that allowed for risk-taking ventures with limited funds.

When is gentrification too much of a good thing? Something to consider as Ballard continues to grow. Will there always be room for those things with the original sense of Ballard?

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Filed under Ballard, Ballard Comics, Comics

Tagged as Activism, architecture, Art, arts, Ballard, Cities, City Living, comics, Commentary, Entertainment, Gentrification, Jane Jacobs, Politcs, Political Cartoons, Pop Culture, Seattle, social issues, Urban, Urban Living, Urban Planning

October 7, 2013 · 10:19 pm

Interview: Keith Knight Talks About ‘The K Chronicles’ and the Cartoonist’s Life

Keith Knight is one very funny, and profound, cartoonist. What is the secret to his success? Consider this life lesson: It is all in the doing. It applies in art school, law school, med school, any kind of school. “I’ve been doing this for years,” said Keith to a question I put to him about his success. That comment says it all. It is a part of this interview that stays with me. Knight has created a wonderful life for himself that includes making a living as a cartoonist. He has done it with style and become a significant voice. And he is easy to find and to keep up with, especially with his special subscription service you can check out here.

In this interview, we talk about activism in comics as well as the nature of humor. We go over a long and rewarding career. And we look at some exciting things that lie ahead, like Keith’s first full-length graphic novel, “I Was A Teenage Michael Jackson Impersonator.” Keith has also branched out into live action videos which bring his comics to life. And there is a comedy show, based on Keith’s life as a struggling cartoonist, that is being pitched so we’ll see how things go.

Keith Knight has three comic strips he regularly creates, there are two weekly strips, “The K Chronicles” and “(Th)ink.” And there’s the daily, “The Knight Life.” He also has strips in Mad Magazine: “Father O’Flannity’s Hot Tub Confessions” and “Bully Baby.”

Also in this interview, Keith jokes about his focus being, “the fight for a more decent cartoonist’s wage.” Certainly, his concern is over the same stuff most folks worry about: healthcare, education, and “not being condemned if you’re poor or low-income.” When asked about his thoughts over his legacy, Keith’s mind turns to the 500-page collection of “The K Chronicles,” published by Dark Horse Comics and that you can take a look at here.

Just click below to listen to the interview:

If you’re in the San Francisco area, you can stop by and visit with Keith at the Alternative Press Expo on October 12 and 13.

And you can also listen to Keith on Totally Biased with W. Kamu Bell on FXX, broadcast live on Tuesday, October 22.

Keep up with Keith Knight at The K Chronicles site here and The Knight Life site here.

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Filed under Comedy, Comic Strips, Comics, Keith Knight, Political Cartoons, politics, Protest, Race, Race Relations, Social Commentary, Social Justice

Tagged as Activism, cartoonist, Comedy, Comic Strips, comics, Entertainment, Humor, Keith Knight, Political Cartoons, Politics, Pop Culture, Protest, Race

September 25, 2013 · 9:20 pm

Keef Knight’s First Live-Action Comedy Video: UNIQUE ANTIQUE

KEEF KNIGHT‘s hilarious and insightful comic strip, “The K Chronicles,” is a prime example of how to speak truth to power and get people thinking and taking action. Now, Keef has a hilarious video for your consideration, with more to come, no doubt. But, first, this one is definitely going to make you think…and laugh.

More essential info directly from Keef Knight:

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Filed under Comics, Humor, Keef Knight, Protest, Satire, Social Commentary, The K Chronicles

Tagged as Activism, Comedy, comics, Entertainment, Humor, Political Cartoons, Politics, Pop Culture, Protest, Race, Social Commentary, Social Justice

September 17, 2013 · 9:52 pm

Interview: STEPHANIE McMILLAN and Activism in Comics

Stephanie McMillan is an important voice. She is doing her part to make this a better world through her activism and her comics. And, fortunately for us, those two passions turn into some very compelling work. Her latest collection of comics, “The Minimum Security Chronicles: Resistance to Ecocide,” is published by Seven Stories Press. This book is a 160-page trade paperback priced at $12.71 and is set for release on October 8, 2013. Be sure to visit our friends at Seven Stories Press here and visit Stephanie McMillan here.

The following is an extensive email interview that I hope you’ll enjoy and be inspired by. What really motivates our actions? What sort of world do we accept and what sort of world could we aspire to? These are some of the ideas up for discussion in this interview.

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Filed under Comics, Occupy movement, One Struggle, Political Cartoons, politics, Protest, Seven Stories Press, Stephanie McMillan

Tagged as Activism, comics, Editorial Cartoons, Entertainment, graphic novels, Occupy Movement, occupy-wall-street, One Struggle, Political Cartoons, Pop Culture, Protest, stephanie mcmillan

September 5, 2013 · 4:11 pm

Review: ‘The Minimum Security Chronicles: Resistance to Ecocide’

“The Minimum Security Chronicles: Resistance to Ecocide” is full of whimsy and wisdom as it follows its characters on a journey to save the planet. It’s all up to a group of friends to figure out if they can smash the capitalist system or just give up and go shopping. What makes Stephanie McMillan’s comic strip such a page-turner is her ability to find the right mix of humor and intelligent discourse.

Stephanie McMillan’s sense of urgency and comedy is irresistible. She has placed a whole new generation with the burden of saving the planet but they’re pretty clueless. There’s Kranti and Bananabelle, who just barely know the struggles from the past. Kranti, an African-American, is quick to join a protest rally and yell, “By any means necessary!” And Bananabelle, intuitively, recognizes that won’t go over well with the “mainstream liberals.”

Then there’s Kranti’s brother, Nikko, and his lover, Javier. They are both at the mercy of the current economic tide. Nikko manages to just get by with his design work. Javier, has let things slip in pursuit of his art and relies on Nikko’s meager income. All four of these unlikely heroes will be stretched to their limits as they try to do the right thing.

Guidance and advice comes from Victoria, a theorist guinea pig; and Bunnista, a trigger-happy rabbit. Each of them, in their own way, have some wisdom to share but they are still working on the ultimate answers. Victoria is uncompromising in her ideals. Bunnista is too eager to blow things up.

As the story unfolds, we find ourselves exploring the available options to make this a better world: everything from community gardening to murder is on the table. What is really compelling about this comic strip is just how far it is willing to go. If Kranti and Bananabelle didn’t appreciate what was meant when someone said, “By any means necessary,” they certainly do by the end of this tale.

One of McMillan’s goals with this particular story is to raise awareness of how corporations are raping the environment, specifically with bio-engineering. She is seeking answers. And the one thing she keeps returning to is the unequivocal need to rid ourselves of global capitalism. But, at every turn, she shows us how futile that effort appears to be. The great contradiction is that we have no choice but to fight the system, a fight that may appear to be too big to win. All life on the planet hangs in the balance. The only sure thing is that we must persist, live to fight another day. It’s a cliffhanger to the story of life that we must all live with.

And just how do you end capitalism? Well, that is an ongoing discussion. This current comics collection makes that clear. The subject is too vital and complex to address in just one book. For instance, McMillan has a guide to the people’s struggle, “Capitalism Must Die,” that will soon come out. For now, “The Minimum Security Chronicles: Resistance to Ecocide” provides an educational and entertaining look at what happens when people must confront the system.

Visit Stephanie McMillan at her website here.

“The Minimum Security Chronicles: Resistance to Ecocide” is published by Seven Stories Press. This book is a 160-page trade paperback priced at $12.71 and is set for release on October 8, 2013. Be sure to visit our friends at Seven Stories Press here.

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Filed under Comics, Editorial Cartoons, Environment, Occupy movement, Political Cartoons, politics, Protest, Seven Stories Press, Stephanie McMillan

Tagged as cartoons, Editorial Cartoons, Education, Entertainment, Environment, Occupy Movement, Political Cartoons, Political Science, Politics, Pop Culture, social unrest

May 6, 2013 · 6:41 pm

TORONTO COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL: MATT BORS, SARAH GLIDDEN, JOSH NEUFELD, AND RUTU MODAN, MAY 11

For those who appreciate comics journalism, this is the perfect panel to catch while at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend, May 11-12.

You’ve got quite a lineup: Matt Bors, Sarah Glidden, Josh Neufeld, and Rutu Modan.

Details Follow From The Ad Astra Comics site (I’ve added helpful links):

Incredible Talent to Discuss Political Comics at #TCAF 2013

Posted on May 5, 2013 by NMGUINILING

Hey Y’all – It’s official. I will be moderating a panel of incredible artists on at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) – this next weekend. The panel is a presentation and discussion on Political Comics, and features Matt Bors, Josh Neufeld, Sarah Glidden, and Rutu Modan. Here are the deets:

Political Comics Panel
Saturday, May 11
at the Marriott Hotel
90 Bloor St. East
(Around the corner from the Toronto Reference Library)
5pm – 6pm

Let’s Meet the Panelists!

Matt Bors

MATT BORS is a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist and editor based in Portland, OR. He was a 2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for his political cartoons, which appear regularly in The Sacramento Bee, Portland Mercury, Pittsburgh City Paper, and on Daily Kos.

In the summer of 2010, Bors traveled to Afghanistan to draw comics and serves as the comics journalism editor for Cartoon Movement where he is currently editing a project on reconstruction efforts in Haiti.

In 2012, Bors was the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for his editorial cartooning. His first graphic novel, War Is Boring, a collaboration with journalist David Axe, was published in 2010. His latest book is a collection of cartoons and essays title Life Begins At Incorporation. You can find more of his work at mattbors.com.

Sarah Glidden

SARAH GLIDDEN’s first full-length book, a graphic-memoir was How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, based on a Birthright trip she took and was published in 2010 by DC Vertigo.

She is currently working on her second book, a work of graphic journalism following reporters into Iraqi Kurdistan, Lebanon and Syria. Her short pieces of graphic journalism have been published on Cartoon Movement, Ha’aretz, and the Jewish Quarterly. You can find more of her work at sarahglidden.com.

Josh Neufeld

JOSH NEUFELD is a comics journalist known for his graphic narratives of political and social upheaval, told through the voices of witnesses. He is the writer/artist of the best-selling non-fiction graphic novel A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (Pantheon). In addition, he is the illustrator of the best-selling graphic non-fiction book The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media (W.W. Norton). He is currently a 2013 Knight-Wallace fellow in journalism at the University of Michigan. Neufeld is a Xeric Award winner, and his work has been nominated for a number of other awards, including the Eisner and the Harvey. Usually based in Brooklyn, N.Y., he currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his wife and daughter. You can find more of his work at joshcomix.com.

Rutu Modan

RUTU MODAN was born in Tel-Aviv in 1966 and is now one of Israel’s best known cartoonists. She graduated from art school in 1992 and quickly established herself drawing strips for Israeli daily newspapers. In 1994 she was offered to job of editing an Israeli edition of MAD magazine with her classmate, Yirmi Pinkus, featuring reprints of US material supplemented with local originated material. The magazine shut down after 14 issues, but undeterred, Rutu and Yirmi founded Actus Tragicus in 1995, an internationally acclaimed collective and independent publishing house for alternative comic artists, including Batia Kolton, Mira Friedmann and Itzik Rennert. Rutu has worked as an illustrator for magazines and books in Israel and abroad, and has taught comics courses in Israel. She currently lives in Sheffield, England. You can find more of Rutu Modan’s work at her column at The New York Times and you can view her portfolio at Helfin Reps.

Modan’s newest work, The Property, is debuting from Drawn & Quarterly at TCAF this year.

For more information about TCAF 2013 – including a full list of all the kick-ass artists coming to town – head on over to http://www.TorontoComics.com

See you this weekend!

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Filed under Comics, Comics Journalism, Josh Neufeld, Journalism, Matt Bors, Political Cartoons, politics, Rutu Modan, Sarah Glidden, TCAF, Toronto Comic Arts Festival

Tagged as arts, comics, Comics Journalism, Entertainment, Illustration, Journalism, Political Cartoons, Politics, Pop Culture, TCAF, Toronto Comic Arts Festival

April 19, 2013 · 4:43 pm

Editorial Cartoon: BOSTON MARATHON MEMORIAL

Editorial Cartoon by Daryl Cagle, published with permission

This editorial cartoon expresses well the mourning we share after the Boston Marathon bombing.

Daryl Cagle is the publisher of Cagle.com and owner of Cagle Cartoons, Inc, which distributes editorial cartoons and columns to over 850 newspapers.

Editorial cartoons are as popular as ever and put to use in a variety of ways in print and on the web. Take a look at the excellent roster of talent at Cagle.com and you’ll see there is something for everyone.

Read Daryl’s blog at: http://www.cagle.com/daryl. View his site at: Cagle.com. Get permission to reprint his cartoons at: PoliticalCartoons.com.

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Filed under Editorial Cartoons, Journalism, news, Political Cartoons, politics

Tagged as Editorial Cartoons, Illustration, Journalism, Media, News, Political Cartoons, Politics

December 4, 2012 · 9:57 pm

PAUL KRASSNER AND THE ART OF THE OFFENSIVE CARTOON

Print Magazine’s Michael Dooley provides a profile on legendary iconoclast, Paul Krassner. If you are looking for the heart and soul of the counterculture in America, the roots of everything from “The Simpsons” to “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” then look to Paul Krassner. As editor of “The Realist,” beginning in 1958, Krassner let loose all manner of refined, and unrefined, rebellion from the likes of such talents as Woody Allen, Norman Mailer, Art Spiegelman, Ken Kesey, Joseph Heller, Timothy Leary and S. Clay Wilson.

With a focus on the art of the offensive cartoon in this profile, you are bound to crack up over these vintage cartoons by Dick Guindon, Robert Gross, Sergio Aragones, B. Kliban, Dan O’Neil, Edward Sorel, and many more. You can read all about it here.