Freedom is participation in power

Marcus Tullius Cicero
(Roman political theorist, 106 BCE - 43 BCE).

Five hundred years ago in Europe, artists began drawing something ironically different from portraits, landscapes or panoramas. And apparently unknown to the Europeans for a while, Chinese artists also had begun including humorous "thought bubbles" in their paintings and drawings. Today, these works may be considered forerunners or precursors of modern political cartoons.

A single sketch or cartoon strip can reveal inconsistencies, lies and hypocrisy. Sometimes, it can do so better than a dozen paragraphs of text.

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• View images collected by the South Asian Research Centre for Advertisement, Journalism & Cartoons.

• Tim Dolighan draws Canadian, U.S., other international, sports and business editorial cartoons.

• The Cartoon Web exposes political hypocrisy with hundreds of cartoons from a dozen countries — in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Australia, Canada and the U.S.

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• A German immigrant to the United States, Thomas Nast (1840-1902) may be the first major political cartoonist in the United States. Nast's Santa Claus cartoons are credited with helping the Northern States defeat the Confederacy during the Civil War (1861-1865), according to Karen Leung, "Drawing Blood: Political Cartoonists and the Art of Visual Critique," Columbia Political Review [Columbia Political Union, Columbia University], vol. 6, issue 3 (March 2007), p. 8.

• Try Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index.

• Daniel Kurtzman's Political Humor cartoons irreverently mock politicians. His cartoons interpret TV news as a form of political marketing. Check out the "Political Jokes" archive on this website.

• View Herblock's feisty cartoons — from the 1929 Stock Market "Crash" until the recent millennium. The talented cartoonist Herbert Block (13 October 1909 - 9 October 2001) was born in Chicago, Illinois.

• A reaction to duplicitous American politicians, Walt Kelly's cartoon character Pogo began running for President of the United States in 1952. Later, using the character "Simple J. Malarkey," Pogo satirized Joseph McCarthy, Fidel Castro, Nikita S. Khruschev and Lyndon B. Johnson.

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• From Richard M. Nixon to George W. Bush, pompous Republican and Democratic Party politicians have been deflated by Doonesbury. Garry B. Trudeau created this cartoon series.

• TroubleTown's cartoons have attitude!

• Engage with Mike Flugennock's political komix and posters.

• Prevaricating, mendacious, dissembling politicians have no clothes in Ted Rall's cartoons.

• Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World also exposes political liars.

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• Chickenhead Productions provides dozens of political posters. From that website, you may also access outrageously revised transcripts of presidential press conferences. These creations are illustrated with caricatures of well-known political leaders. Warning to parents of young children: Chickenhead Productions is not approved by the U.S. President, Department of Homeland Inecurity, or the FBI.

• Enjoy ten episodes from Matt Groening's Life in Hell. For Groening, "hell" might be one's home, family, school, church, the workplace or the whole country (usually, the U.S.A.).

• With wit and humor, Scott Adams's Dilbert reveals the idiosyncracies of capricious supervisers and managers in your office.

• As officers of the court, attorneys sometimes find themselves exposed in Law Laughs.

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• Consider KRT Campus editorial Cartoons.

• See Ann Telnaes's Pulitzer Prize-winning Cartoons.

• Steve Kelley of The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) comments on American life, society and politics. Kelley's cartoon archive dates back to 18 August 2002. According to Slate Magazine, Kelley "has delighted readers by consistently consigning office-holders to the one fate they fear most: that of not being taken seriously." Framing his focus a bit more broadly, Kelley says, "I tend to limit my cartoons to two subjects — politics and stuff people actually care about."

• View Slate's databank of cartoons by Kelley and many other artists. Topics range from "Abortion" to "Karl Rove" to "War Casualties."

• Review the fifteen most recent cartoons by Clay Bennett of The Christian Science Monitor, as well as Bennett cartoon classics.

• In animated political cartoons by Pulitzer Prize winner Walt Handelsman, politicians mock themselves with their own words!

• Contact your favorite political artist in the Editorial Cartoonists E-mail Directory.

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• For views of the Hawaiian Kingdom's turbulent political past, view Hawaiian Political Cartoons. Curated by Linda M. L. Soma, these are political caricatures drawn before and after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy — during 1875-1905. Referring to that historical context, Richard E. Marschall writes as follows:

To today's scholar, [the magazines] are an excellent reflection of American civilization of the day...Humor cuts through pretense, and by exposing prejudices, fads, morals and life-styles, the cartoonist paints a unique and unrivaled portrait of his contemporaries ("A History of Puck, Judge and Life," In Maurice Horn (ed.), The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons [Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1980]).

• View Corky's Hawaii by Corky Trinidad of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Whatever you visit that website, his five most recent cartoons may be viewed. Earlier art by cartoonist Trinidad is searchable in the Star-Bulletin archives.

• Since 1993, John S. Pritchett's bitingly irreverent cartoons of politicians in national and international politics have entertained and infuriated readers. Tilting to the Republican side, Pritchett's "Hawaii Politics" cartoons satirize politicians, issues and causes. Among them are the following:

Lieutenant Governor Mazie Hirono (1994-2000); Governor Ben Cayetano (1994-2000); Hawaii Democrats; Mayor Jeremy Harris (1994-2005); Bishop Estate Trustees; Locals Only; Crime; Fireworks; and Pedestrian Safety.

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• View U.S. presidential TV campaign commercials produced during 1952-2004.

• Visit Gregg and Evan Spiridellis's JibJab, and click on the "Animation" link.

• Comedy Central.

• South Park Studios.

• Women Make Movies (WMM) "is a national non-profit feminist media arts organization whose multicultural programs provide resources for both users and producers of media by women. WMM was established in 1972 to address the under-representation and misrepresentation of women in the media."

• Using the search engine to DocuSeek Film & Video Finder, you can find detailed information about 2,500 documentary films, DVDs and videos. (Click the "Advanced Search" link.)

• Or visit The Internet Movie Database.

• Everything Movies provides summaries, credits, trailers and screening times for recent films.

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• The Political Film Society (PFS) has published more than 450 reviews of socially significant movies. This unique website is also a portal to 18 other film review websites. Founded in Honolulu in 1986, the PFS has been headquartered in Los Angeles since 1998.

• Those with online access to JSTOR may download "Why a Political Film Society?" by PFS Coordinator Michael Haas.

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Last modified, 18 November 2007.

© 1999-2008 Vincent K. Pollard.
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