Yes, it’s National Cartoonist Day.
It always seems best to celebrate National Cartoonist Day with the great B. Kliban's classic cartoon.
Newspapers in this country are running scared, editors and publishers are dumping cartoonist's work and eliminating staff cartoonist positions. (Or in the case of renowned Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes, quitting in protest over censorship).
This May in London, bizarrely and apparently with no sense of irony, the 'License to Offend' cartoon exhibition was cancelled because of concern that the show might offend. Contributors included cartoonists Morten Morland (of The Times), Mac and Pugh (The Mail), Patrick Blower (The Daily Telegraph) and Martin Rowson (The Guardian).
Morland stated in the press that "These weren’t offensive cartoons. They were cartoons that had already been printed in national newspapers. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s an idiotic decision on so many levels.”
Around the planet we've seen that drawing a cartoon can lead to threats-- and prison. In years past it was cartoonists such as Ali Frezat or Pedro X. Molina. Currently, it includes Atena Farghadani, Zehra Omuraglu, Fahmi Reza and handfuls of other cartoonists in China, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America (And if you're a British cartoonist don't plan on backpacking around in this country).
And let's not forget the domestic book banning of graphic novels from Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe to Maus by Art Spiegelman.
But cartoonists continue to amuse and annoy...so Happy National Cartoonist Day
Here's just a few Hall-of-Famers:
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