Editorial cartoons are a powerful medium. Like local news itself, the editorial cartoon has become a rarer institution, with few papers employing a staff member whose job is to create editorial cartoons (either full or part-time). But when editorial cartoons do start to make the rounds, they’re powerful reminders of the potency a visual can have to tell a story with few, if any, words.
Comics are among the most targeted books in the current rise of book banning, but they’ve also earned this dubious honor since their widespread availability following World War II. You can see how eager book banners are to remove comics by perusing the most frequently banned comics since 2000 — and you can and should get to know the history of the juvenile delinquency hearings which centered on moral panic over young people’s access to comics.
Book banning and the “culture wars” have seen their time in the editorial cartoon sun. Let’s look at a handful of these images from the past several years. All credit is given to the creators so you can discover some of their other work as well. Of note and of what should be little surprise given the lack of editorial cartoonists working and the field of comics more broadly, the artists here are overwhelmingly male because I’ve stuck to more mainstream media.
Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Free Press, 9/8/23
You might recall this particularly chilling editorial cartoon from Bennett. Not only does it depict the bloodshed Moms for Liberty is proud to be associated with, but it was then manipulated by Moms For Liberty in order to further push the very message conveyed in the comic. This is one of my favorite comics to use not only because of how much of the story it tells but because the response that follows is such an excellent example of how groups like Moms have profited and grown from flagrant mis-, dis-, and mal- information.
JD Crowe, for AL.com/Alabama Media Group, March 8, 2023
Nothing more needs to be said than what is said in the image alone. But Crowe doesn’t actually just drop the cartoon. He’s also written an excellent piece to accompany it that is worth reading.
He writes:
Alabama libraries are under fire by a bunch of rabid right-wing modern day witch burners. No surprise. It’s another example of Alabama politics at its worst. Political fear mongering, paranoia and ignorance fuels this firestorm.
The villains represented in this cartoon are (L-R): Clean Up Alabama, Moms for Liberty, Eagle Forum, Gov. Kay Ivey and State Sen. Chris Elliott. (You’re welcome, y’all.) Others, such as Alabama GOP Party chair/Alabama Public Library Service board member, John Wahl, 1819 News guy Bryan Dawson and Alabama AG Steve Marshall are crouching behind the burning stake.
Whew.
We need to be grateful cartoonists like this not only exist but that their work is not being censored from the get-go.
Drew Sheneman, Tribune Content Agency in the Dallas Morning News, March 27, 2023
I’d argue that the moon landing wouldn’t be allowed under this regime, either, but if it’s from the perspective of it being a hoax, maybe it is aligned with book banner standards. We just need to see the camera and microphones in the room for parents who need to monitor the educators.
John Cole, for Cagle Comics and published in several outlets beginning with the Georgia Recorder, October 12, 2023
What’s especially poignant about this one is that it’s groups like Moms For Liberty who spread flagrant mis- and dis- information about how today’s kids can’t read.
Etta Hulme, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 26, 1997
No, you don’t need your eyes checked. This is an editorial cartoon from 1997 that is as contemporary today as possible. Hulme died in 2014 but her cartoon could be slipped into today’s newspapers and be even more timely and relevant. It’s not even satire anymore about the dictionary being too profane for school classrooms and libraries.