Editorial Drawing and Cartooning

Thomas Nast, "Let Us Prey," engraving 1871

Long ago, while I was still in school, I used to devour the editorial cartoons in my hometown paper. In the 1950s, it seemed as if every newspaper had a cartoonist whose job was a daily cartoon commenting on the news. Every day or so the paper would print the cartoonists' pithy and humorous takes on the news of the day. Like columnists, cartoonists were mostly independent and important public voices. Today there are fewer on staff of daily newspapers as the publishing paradigm shifts, but political cartooning is alive and well.

The tradition of political or editorial cartooning is fairly old, perhaps ancient and dating to Roman times, but certainly dating to the 17th century. The mostly single-panel cartoons of today are different than early political and moral satires, of course. Early satirical engravings were often made into narratives by artists such as William Hogarth who produced moral tales--"A Rake's Progress" for example--that remain well-known today.

Of course, political and social commentary has changed in the ensuing centuries, but the idea of pithy and telling visual comments remains strong. Today more political cartoonists ply their trade via the Internet and many fewer are associated with newspapers. Nonetheless, their voices are strong and their audiences are actually larger. You have to go looking for them, but editorial cartooning is widely available these days.

One of the best remembered political cartoonists in this country was Thomas Nast, whose savage attacks on the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine brought down William "Boss" Tweed in the late 19th century. Mr. Nast was a prolific cartoonist whose works were well-known before his anti-Tammany campaign. He is also known for having invented the elephant as the symbol of the Republican party and also noted for his widely-adopted depiction of Santa Claus. It's also notable that he was a German immigrant. The engraving posted here is an excellent example of his brutal commentary, depicting Boss Tweed and his cronies feeding on the body and bones of New York City. The efforts of Nast and others resulted in the downfall of the entire ring that Fall of 1871. Mr. Nast became the paradigm of the crusading cartoonist, and many others followed in his footsteps.

Ding Darling, "The Long Long Trail," 1919

In my own hometown of Des Moines "Ding" Darling, whose sharp eye and wit won him two Pulitzer prizes, was the reigning political cartoonist until the middle of the 20th century. Although he worked in Des Moines with a stint in New York City, his predominant efforts were for the Des Moines Register during the first half of the last century. He is remembered these days not only for his brilliant cartooning but also for his tireless efforts on behalf of wildlife management and protection of habitat. The Ding Darling Foundation continues his work and protects his artistic output. A good example of his work is "The Long Long Trail," printed as a memorial at the time of Theodore Roosevelt's death in 1919. The image was reproduced many times and is probably Darling's most famous.

When I was much younger one of my secret desires was to be one of those guys who could draw with the kind of panache required of cartoonists and make their work cut through the pomposity and posturing that's part and parcel of all politics. I never did make that kind of cartoon, but these days I've been drawing the faces and expressions of politicians and other well-known people. It's part of my daily routine of drawing or sketching using online images. The drawings aren't cartoons, exactly, because they don't employ caricature and they are intended to be close to realistic.

This is a vignetted digital drawing done (as were all of these) using Sketchbook and a Wacom Cintiq tablet. The main point of this drawing was the cut of Mr. McConnell's gaze during a press session following yet another failure of the Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act. By his comments and actions at the time he seemed bewildered that the American public hadn't heartily embraced his party's attempts to remove health insurance coverage for millions of their fellow citizens. Capturing expressions is difficult for me, but I thought this one hit the mark.

Another daily drawing last year was of Mr. Sessions, the Attorney General. His tenure in office had been (to put it mildly) turbulent, what with the firing of Mr. Comey from his post as Director of the FBI, the appointing of Mr. Mueller as Special Prosecutor, his own recusal and so on. Although he's still in office, his repeated public mistreatment by the president has continued. This particular drawing was an attempt to draw Mr. Sessions as he appeared in a news photograph that year. Now that I look at it again he seems bemused and strangely rather good humored in spite of being humiliated.

This drawing of a survivor of the Parkland school massacre came from a news photo a month or so after the killings. The deep sorrow on the young woman's face was difficult to see and even harder to draw. There is resignation, outrage, sorrow, suffering, and more in the face of that young woman. I wish I had done a better job with this one.









Drawing political figures is a great way to practice, regardless of the medium. You could do it with a number 2 pencil and printer paper very easily, and the features and expressions of public figures are quite familiar to anyone who spends some time watching and reading current news. Quite often the emotional content of the related story adds considerable depth to the resultant image.