Bruce Petty woke editorial cartooning from a sleepy period telling fairly anodyne jokes and turned it into a mode of serious – if also often hilarious – satirical commentary on politics and society.
Francis Carruthers Gould, ‘The Mourner’, Fun, February 2, 1901.
A cartoon commemorating the death of King William IV in 1837 would have been unthinkable; by the time Queen Victoria died in 1901, newspapers had changed.
A Venezuelan fan dressed as Super Bigote during the May Day celebrations in 2022.
Alamy
A Venezuelan cartoon character has been adopted by the government to help their popularity.
Political cartoons and memes have made it clear that if there’s something to agree about on all sides of the political spectrum, its that fat people are an easy target.
(Shutterstock)
A new film uses pastiche to explore the whimsical world of cartoonist Michael Leunig - but the man himself gives little away and the film skates over his curlier controversies.
The New York Times decision to end daily political cartoons in its international edition has led to predictions of the death of cartooning. But the decision actually reflects an increasingly globalised, online industry.
Wes Mountain/Baiducao/Carlos Latuff/David Pope/First Dog/David Rowe/Jon Kudelka/Glen Le Lievre/Rebel Pepper/António Moreira Antunes/The Conversation
A New York Times decision has led to predictions of the death of cartooning. But rather than perishing, is the global art form just feeling the full force of technological and workplace change?
Censorship has been in the news again following Rwanda passing a new law.
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The artist who illustrated A Christmas Carol was one of the best-known satirists of his time.
A wonderful evocation of the horrors of last year’s long election campaign by David Rowe in the Australian Financial Review. Amid industry turmoil, newspaper cartooning is increasingly becoming a niche activity.
One of the great satirical achievements of the mass media era, the editorial cartoon, is losing its centrality in the digital age. Yet the ‘visual terrorism’ of cartoons can cut through the verbiage of political commentary.
A picture of Bill Leak supplied by The Australian on Friday, after news of his death.
AAP Image/NewsCorp, The Australian
A young Iranian detained on Manus Island has won a prestigious international award for his cartoons reflecting life there. Our government should allow this young man to fly to the US to accept his award.
Bill Leak’s portrayal of an Aboriginal father as neglectful is not representative of Aboriginal family life.
Courtesy the author.
Bill Leak’s cartoon of a drunk Aboriginal father who doesn’t know his son’s name exemplifies a long tradition of white men’s fantasies about the inferiority of Aboriginal people.
The cover of the ‘Weekly Standard’, February 2016.
Two recent controversial cartoons depicting people as apes have raised an important question: what are the legal and philosophical distinctions between harm and offence?
A Lahore man protests against cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad.
Mohsin Raza/REUTERS