Can the political cartoon survive the age of the Internet? In a wide-ranging overview focusing mostly on British cartoonists, Helen Lewis observes:
Disrespect for authority is pretty much in the job description. Many started out by drawing their teachers, and, as Matt Pritchett puts it, "Politicians are the teachers of the adult world." That carries over into the office, too. "I feel like I have a bit more licence than anyone else to be cheeky to the editor, I hope I do," Thomas says. "I think we have a licence to not wear a tie and to be irreverent."
One man’s "irreverent", naturally, is another’s "wildly offensive", and the line between them is one that cartoonists walk every day. It’s a cliché that the public today, having lost all respect for the establishment – politicians, the church, the monarchy – is unshockable. That is not quite true. There are three subjects that can still cause instant, huge and widespread offence: recent deaths, religion and the Middle East. Almost all the controversial cartoons of the past decade have fallen into one of these categories.
Relatedly, Steven Heller interviewed Pultizer-winning cartoonist Tony Auth:
After covering every presidential campaign since Humphrey versus Nixon in 1968, I asked if the election cycles were starting to blur together and become less interesting. "No!" he told me. "If I ever notice that I don't really care about these things, I'll have become a hack, and it will be time to quit."
The Dish 