Whose Party?

As flawed as they are, hopefully we will always have them

The New Yorker now has something called the “Daily Cartoon” that runs every weekday on their website. Often it’s a political drawing, but not always. The one above is one I drew on Nov 11th, 2022 during the January 6th Committee final hearings. The magazine asked to use it for their Daily. But they didn’t run it at the time and I thought, great, there will not be a moment in time when this will work well. Low and behold: the GOP has created more chaos in the House these last two days. So The New Yorker ran it today and yesterday.

The New Yorker has always run political cartoons, and I have sold many over the years. I think most of their political drawings now appear only on the website, they don’t print them in the print edition (although I’m sure there are exceptions). The covers are often political if there is a big breaking story.

Drawing political for a weekly publication is tricky, you have to find a way into the subject that is somewhat timely and that will last. Hopefully it can last more than a day, and become an “evergreen.” That often means looking at the big picture, not just about that day or that moment. The above cartoon could run at any time, when it comes down to it, and I think it will be understood in 20 years—but who knows. Maybe we won’t have any political parties anymore then! I hope we do, because if we don’t, that might mean we are a dictatorship….

I grew up in Washington DC during Watergate, so I am partial to political art and drawings and always dreamed of doing it. Herblock of the Wapo and Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury were my inspriations!

Cartoons are a great way to get ideas to people.

Here was my first New Yorker cartoon about politics. 1983. It might not be evergreen. Do any of you recall what the basis of my teasing Walter Mondale was?

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