Comments on: ArtSunday: design, meaning, and more about the damn Obama cartoon

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:26:02 +0000

Not sure why it matters after all it is just a cartoon and who takes those serious?

By: Euphrosyne

Euphrosyne — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:13:31 +0000

Could be. The cartoon still sucks, though.

By: Ubertramp

Ubertramp — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:58:57 +0000

I curious. Maybe I’m just a cynical SOB, but could it just be that the editor had an ulterior motive and just tried to couch it, however badly, in a satirical format? Could it be that they really just wanted to bring all these stupid ideas about Obama to the forefront and FORCE the conversations we’re having now?

By: Dr. Denny

Dr. Denny — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:28:48 +0000

In my dark, demented past I was an editorial-page editor. The initial joy of the job was selecting editorial cartoons. It’s an uncommon art married to a common craft â€” drawing. Over time, I learned that the best (meaning hardest-hitting) political cartoonists had two qualities:

– using as little ink as possible (meaning, only drawing the line that means the most)
– being as independent of caricature as possible.

The best work, while using caricature, did not depend on it. Your critic of the Obama cartoon is spot on target — it overdoes caricature, apparently for its own sake. In doing so, whatever point or moral coda is buried.

Tom Toles, the great Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, long ago told me: “Hey, either it works or it doesn’t.” For Mr. Toles, his cartoons “work” time after time after time. That’s because he has something to say — the Obama cartoon doesn’t. Hence the lengthy critiques of the cartoon that do little to unravel its mysterious meaning.

Nice work, E. Thanks.