Political Cartoons

Glad you liked the Herblock Blindside. I hope my two posts in praises of the great man won't be considered in a bad light given his many talents. There will never be another one like him.


Anyway, I am now going to bring a series from the Arab world. It makes me pretty sad going round collecting these. All of them are so negative. They all depict the world in terrible strife, racked by injustice and brutality. They are truly bleak and for that I apologise. But as with my earlier Arab cartoon series, we need to know how the world is seen from those parts. The following are from the Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

Let's start with Iraq:

We were discussing in Off Topic about causes of terror. Many rejected the idea that global trade injustice and poverty are major factors which play into the radicalised Arab world's demonising process of the west. Well I found the collections of cartoons I went through littered with the likes of these. Not 'proof' but a good indicator of Arab opinion:



This is very simple but clever:

Another common theme I found was a condemnation of terrorism. I hadn't seen this as much when I went searching for the previous series. Interesting.







And see those in the Iraq posting above for more condemnation of terror.

This guy wasn't so keen to condemn them.

And of course you find lots of 'Yank bashing' in all of them, I'm deliberately sticking mainly with the one hardline cartoonist:









Found this also:

Some random ones I couldn't fit into a series

Please let me introduce:

Alen Lauzan Falcon
from Santiago, Chile.

I really like this guy's work. Very original approach to what I usually post. And very striking images.

A series I am going to entitled - "Identity & Purpose."

And this is brilliant!

Rambuchan said:

And this is brilliant!

Click to expand...

<geekmode=total type=RubiksCube>
You *do* realize that that position for the cube is triply impossible, right? First, it has more than 9 green faces, second, it has two blue mid-faces, third, there are three green/yellow edges.
(Also, it's probably in a non-modular orbit, meaning you can't restore it to start. This is not illegal, however, it just requires taking the cube apart a little.)

Here's a more legal one:

</geekmode>

@Ram

Bulletproof Jackets is extremely cutting.... Superheroes too, and I love the Chilean guy

jonatas said:

@Ram

Bulletproof Jackets is extremely cutting.... Superheroes too, and I love the Chilean guy

Click to expand...

which i dont catch the Superhero thingy again....

@ Viewers of this thread: Thanks for coming back on some of these. I hope more people will do it, without breaking the 2 post rule of course. So many top quality cartoons get posted here and we so often just glimpse them, smurk or think for a moment and then move on. These images throw up huge amounts of debate.

@ Ramius: From my angle ~ The Superhero Cartoon is to point out that despite all of America's supposed might and power (the powers of a super hero), it still cannot take out Al Zakarwi. It also says something of US detachment from reality and how far America's vision of itself is from the reality of its abilities. Yet further I would say that it shows how obsessed with its fantasies America is (the Arab world is nowhere near as hooked on it's fictional entertainment). And yet even further, I would say that the demasking for the heroes, says something else also.......

I thought that was brilliant. And it clearly shows that Emad Hajjaj understands the American psyche very well. He is also responsible for these two remember:





@ Erik: Regarding the cube. Interesting point. IMO either a) The artist designed it that way, implying that the situatation is impossible to solve or just as likely b) He didn't bother checking because that wasn't important to him. Which do you think it is? But I didn't notice that at all, so thanks.

@ Jonatas: Word up bro!!! Glad you made it out the bedroom to give some feedback! Now get back in there . j/k. I too love the general boldness of the South American artists. Here is a great, widereaching one from a Brazilian guy called Ares.

Some by Steve Bell of The Guardian: