Graphic Satire

We’ve all cheered or bristled at one of those black and white caricatures in the editorial pages. The successful political cartoon offers a powerful commentary with a simple picture and possibly a few well chosen words. Benjamin Franklin is considered the first American political cartoonist with his "Join or Die" cartoon of a snake representing the colonies. The 1860s marked the beginning of the daily political cartoon in newspapers. While political cartoons typically lampoon political figures or policies, the editorial cartoon appeared later and broadened the commentary to less political issues.

In the book Them Damned Pictures: Explorations in American Political Cartoon Art, author Roger Fischer explores why cartoonists practice their art. While some believe they have the ability to change minds, others only seek to start conversations. In the book, Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) is quoted as saying, "People do not turn to cartoonists to learn what to think. Rather they turn to cartoonists to be confronted with an opinion –one that could just as easily be unpalatable as palatable."

Read more about cartoons and cartoonists at your library:

• Killed Cartoons: Casualties from the War on Free Expression
• The Best Political Cartoons of the Year
• Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel
• Big Brother Blues: The Editorial Cartoons of Ben Sargent
• Editorial and Political Cartooning: From Earliest Times to the Present, with over 700 Examples from the Works of the World's Greatest Cartoonists
• Cartoon America: Comic Art in the Library of Congress
• Attitude 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists