CARTOONS MAKE THE WORLD GO AROUND. At least, it seems like they make the political world go around and have been doing so forever. The political or editorial cartoon has been a part of Western culture for centuries. Some historians cite Egyptian hieroglyphics as their forerunner, although its practical beginning is a bit more recent.
In an anecdotal look at editorial cartooning, cartoonist Liza Donnelly said, “There have been many different types of editorial cartoons over the course of American history. In 1754, Benjamin Franklin drew the first known political cartoon, which was published in his paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, and distributed across the colonies.”
Editorial cartoons rely on caricature, stock characters, and cultural symbols to become tools to influence public opinion.
In a brief history of the political cartoon, the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) states:
“In modern journalism, the editor of the Columbia Encyclopedia, Paul Lagasse, 1/2 defines a cartoon as ‘a single humorous or satirical drawing, employing distortion for emphasis, often accompanied by a caption.’
The editorial or political cartoon relies on caricature, stock characters, and cultural symbols to become a ‘propaganda weapon with social implications,’ a tool to influence public opinion.
The measure of a cartoon’s success is the force of its idea, rendered clearly and resonating beyond its subject of the moment. The artistry is secondary to the message, which should lay bare behavior and character.”
Bleeding Heart Liberal Cartoons
For several years, I had a page on Facebook titled Bleeding Heart Liberal Petitions. Every day I spent about an hour poring over newsletters and email requests to find links to causes that should attract those of us with a liberal disposition. While many links were of a political or social nature—and the non-liberal political party in the US has turned most social and personal issues into political issues—my primary cause was the ongoing slaughter of wolves.
I thought thousands of people would find this page full of petitions for worthy causes and start clicking on links; I hoped many would become regular visitors to the page. That did not happen. The petitions received little traffic and I ceased adding anything new to it a few years ago. As I wanted to keep my main Facebook page more upbeat, I changed Bleeding Heart Liberal Petitions to Bleeding Heart Liberal Cartoons.
I have enjoyed political cartoons for almost sixty years! Aside from the few available to me in local newspapers back in Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, when I became politically aware in the mid-1960s, my father had a few books that collected the WWII cartoons of the inimitable Bill Mauldin.
I had been posting political cartoons on my home page along with two other Facebook pages, Left-Leaning Grown-Up Talk and Blue Mayhem (links for both in the comments section below). Now, I post most of the editorial cartoons that I fancy on Bleeding Heart Liberal Cartoons.
As a sampler, I selected twelve recent additions to my Facebook page by a dozen different artists. At the time that I published this article, there were over 200 cartoons on Bleeding Heart Liberal Cartoons with many, many more coming.
A Bleeding Heart Liberal Cartoons Gallery
Cartoonist: Mike Lukovich (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Cartoonist: Ben Jennings (independent)
Cartoonist: Adam Zyglis (The News)
Cartoonist: David Horsey (The Seattle Times)
Cartoonist: Jeff Danziger (independent)
Cartoonist: Lalo Alcatraz (independent)
Cartoonist: Bill Bramhall (The New York Daily News )
Cartoonist: Tom Tomorrow (independent)
Cartoonist: Michael de Adder (The Washington Post)
Cartoonist: Clay Bennett (The Chattanooga Times Free Press)
Cartoonist: Daniel Boris (independent)
Cartoonist: Ruben Bolling (independent)
A few links to similar Facebook pages
To see more Bleeding Heart Liberal Cartoons, click here: Bleeding Heart Liberal Cartoons
To see two pages that are simpatico to my page, click here: Left-Leaning Grown-Up Talk and Blue Mayhem
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
