Cartoon Stories: Grabbed from the Headlines

Cartoon Stories

Grabbed from the Headlines

Everyone does topical humor. But some cultural influences are more middle-ground than others. Political criticism might need to be veiled for safety; while making fun of advertising, movies, fashion, is fairly safe across the board (although we’ve heard of militant superfans). For a cartoonist, or comedian, reading the social media feed, the “news briefs”, gives a series of prompts. You just have to find the angle. Half the humor is in the drawing. The talk shows, taking a page, do a lot of visual gags, a lot of jokes in the vein of, say: “Burisma sounds like…

A charismatic case of bursitis?

A new kind of health drink made from bulgar?

That ineffable quality that defines a bureaucrat?

With graphic arts images to bring the punchline home.

Today’s selections come from the world, as it turns.

The core idea of this is the worst combination of flavors I can personally think of, barring things you wouldn’t actually eat. But I decided to give the devil the face of Rudy Giuliani. (In fact, the damned fellow looks a little like Paul Manafort with the toupee off.)

We wish they would.

Those initials are pretty close to a treaty that exists, and seeing a reference to it was the inspiration for this one.

The character is drawn to resemble Roger Stone. The background was speculation for a story (of fiction, not cartoon), about how someone would lay out a longterm plan for going fugitive.

And this came after a story about censorship of prisoners’ reading material, at about the same time the Trump administration was denying the president’s words could instigate violence. The reasoning seems inconsistent.

Grabbed from the Headlines

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(2020, Stephanie Foster)