• Sketches From My Trip To India

    Recently, I spent two weeks embarking on a speaking tour of India on behalf of the U.S. State Department. Although the schedule was busy and sometimes hectic, I did manage to find some spare time to do some sketching of my trip:

    The main thing most American’s notice when they arrive in India is the poverty. When I arrived in Mumbai and Delhi, the crowds of beggars were impressive, with newborn babies pressed against the windows of whatever car I was in as the desperately poor pushed through traffic on the streets. They followed me down the street wherever I walked in Mumbai and Delhi – but not in Kerala.

    Probably the second biggest impression for me, and for most Americans in India is the crazy traffic. The disregard for traffic laws is awesome – combine with driving on the wrong side of the road there is a constant sense that my car is hurdling toward a head-on collision. India’s traffic is wonderful drama. I’m still shaking.

    I gave speeches at schools all over India, and they all had a funny, common sequence of events. First, I would be invited for a cup of sweet tea with the Dean of the school or teachers, while a room crammed with students waited patiently until we were quite late for my talk. Then it would take ten to fifteen awkward minutes, after we’re already late, to set up the projector for my Powerpoint presentation.

    After my presentation the students rush up to the front of the room, asking me to do sketches, which I’m usually happy to do. Sometimes I’d be given more tea, groups of girls would tell me about how they all knew my work already, because my cartoons appear in their high school textbooks in India (something I’d like to see). The college talks in India were great fun.

    The food in India was wonderful – I think I was steered to the best places to eat, and the food was truly great. I can’t get used to eating with the fingers rather than a knife and fork, though.

    I thought about eating with my fingers at a local favorite India restaurant here in California after I got back, just to show what I had learned, but my local manners got the better of me.

     

  • Cartoons from the 2008 Debates

    From time to time, I think it’s fun to take a look back at how our cartoonists covered events in the past.

    With the first big Presidential debate approaching between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, here are five funny cartoons about the Presidential debates in 2008 between Obama and Arizona Senator John McCain:

    Nate Beeler / Columbus Dispatch (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)

    David Fitzsimmons / Arizona Daily Star (click to view more cartoons by Fitzsimmons)

    John Cole / Scranton Times-Tribune (click to view more cartoons by Cole)

    John Darkow / Columbia Daily Tribune (click to view more cartoons by Darkow)

    Adam Zyglis / Buffalo News (click to view more cartoons by Zyglis)

     

  • Readers angered by my Obama cartoon

    I was inspired to draw this cartoon by President Obama’s recent television ad campaign in Pakistan, designed to quell the riots that seemed to be in response to a video that some nut posted on Youtube.  I thought the ad campaign was ridiculous, and Obama’s constant, never-ending re-affirmations of his respect for Islam are as tiresome as they are ineffective in making the Pakistanis love us more.  Considering the president as the source of the message and considering our cultural differences, this simply isn’t a message that will work with the Pakistani audience – that is the point of the cartoon.

    It seems our readers’ comments focused more on my Obama-bashing, and the fact that I gave the president boobs.  Yes, Obama is indeed dressed inappropriately to be promoting Islam, again, that’s the point.  Our conservative cartoonist, Gary McCoy sent this comment:

    “Intended or not, very interesting social science experiment, Daryl. You do a rare “conservative” cartoon, and though you get swarms of negative feedback, none of it contains the kind of hateful vitriol your usual left-leaning pals reserve for Eric Allie and me. Kudos for stepping out of your comfort zone though. Oh, and thanks for getting me hate-posts on a day when I didn’t even do a cartoon. I was feeling lonely there for a minute.”

    The mail and the comments seemed pretty angry to me; here are some  examples …

    Steven Dinero: Nope, doesnt work on so many levels. Sorry.

    JaJa888: I thought Mr. Cagle was a liberal. I really hope that this is sarcasm, because otherwise the propaganda is getting to him…

    Kevin Mystic-Rose Rosenthal: Pandering to the radical nut jobs. Is that your intent?

    Cora Elizabeth Mason: I do not like it. It is insulting to the POTUS, not good at all, and why make him breasts?

    Lissa Albert: Dems will hate it (as is evidenced here) and many will see the caustic humoreality of it. I happen to think this is brilliantly edgy!

    Susan J Frary: I find it offensive. I also think it is not based on any facts, but on false perceptions. President Obama is working hard to develop peaceful relationships with many in the Middle East – failing to offend them is not easy. That is why it is called DIPLOMACY.

    Rob McGrath: Not sure why his boobs are bigger than his ears.

    Diane Hargreaves Talbot: You’d waste your chutzpah on this tripe? Really? Cagle? Who are you and what have you done with Daryl Cagle? Totally incendiary and inappropriate and wrong. Yuck.

    Sue Hulett: Maybe you should go read his UN speech again. You seem to have misread it, or else you really are just an ass hat.

    What do you think? Comment below, or drop us a line on our Facebook page.  

  • Sunday cartoon round-up

    The fiscal cliff is closer than ever, Mitt Romney has a shrinking problem and astronauts are allowed to keep space artifacts. Here is our weekend round-up of cartoons about what's happening in the news...

    Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)

    Adam Zyglis / Buffalo News (click to view more cartoons by Zyglis)

    Jeff Parker / Florida Today (click to view more cartoons by Parker)

    Bob Englehart / Hartford Courant (click to view more cartoons by Englehart)

    Pat Bagley / Salt Lake Tribune (click to view more cartoons by Bagley)

     

  • Cartoonists poke fun at Apple's map program

    Anyone who purchased the iPhone 5 last week came away saying one thing - the Apple Maps app stinks! To their credit, Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized Friday for the glitchy program, telling consumers the program "fell short." Even our Apple-loving cartoonists were angry about the rare misstep.

    Mike Keefe decided to go after Apple Maps and the so-called "geniuses" that work at Apple...

    If the NFL hadn't made a deal with the referees, Ottawa Citizen cartoonist Cam Cardow had the soultion to get rid of those pesky replacement refs...

    Columbus Dispatch cartoonist Nate Beeler remembered back to the time when Apple really did create innovative products...

    While John Cole of the Scranton Times-Tribune just felt betrayed...

     

     

  • The race isn't looking good for Romney

    Things aren't looking too good these days for Mitt Romney's campaign. Gaffe after gaffe has led him to dig a deep hole he now has to try and climb out of...

    If you tune into conservative media outlets, they'll tell you the bad polling data is a liberal media plot to keep Republicans from voting...

    Meanwhile, Romney is still on the hook for telling fundraisers he thinks nearly half the people in the country are "lazy" and feel "entitled" to government benefits, despite all the other taxes they pay...

    Romney hasn't convinced critics that his comments don't represent his real opinions about the 47 percent. Instead, he tried to piggy-back on the outcry over an old video of Barack Obama talking about "redistribution" of wealth, but that only distracted voters for a short amount of time...

    Unfortunately for Republicans, Romney's personality is about as warm and inviting as plants that grow in the heat of the desert...

     

     

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