How hard would it be to draw Trekkie Obama as an enlarged brained alien with Spockish ears. Let's not mistake lack of creativity with caution.
--- On Sun, 2/22/09, ravenadal <[email protected]> wrote: From: ravenadal <[email protected]> Subject: [SciFiNoir Lit] Cartoonists Tread Lightly When Drawing Obama To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, February 22, 2009, 8:49 AM Lalo Alcaraz, mentioned in the article below, is a gifted cartoonist - both a talented artist and a astute social commentator. I think he is the most talented political cartoonist working today. I am therefore disappointed that he is often on the opposite side of political spectrum from where I choose to reside. WISN.com Cartoonists Tread Lightly When Drawing Obama Drawings Must Contend With US History Of Racial Imagery POSTED: 7:31 pm CST February 20, 2009 Editorial cartoonists are bending over backwards a lot these days, as they try to satirize the nation's first black president. And when they don't, the result is the kind of outcry that erupted this week after a New York Post cartoon featured a bloody chimpanzee -- intentionally or unintentionally evoking racist images of the past. The problem is, cartoonists make their living by making fun of people -- especially presidents -- and exaggerating their features and foibles. The best political cartoons are "like an X-ray machine," said Amelia Rauser, an art history professor at Franklin & Marshall College and author of "Caricature Unmasked," which examines the art form's historical role in political discourse. "You have to deform someone facially in order to make a larger point about their character," Rauser said. "But that deformity reveals their inner truth and makes them look more like themselves." The late Herblock often saddled Richard Nixon with an enormous cartoon nose. Liberals drew George W. Bush like a simpleton, or worse. There have been minor kerfuffles from the left about drawing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as insufficiently feminine, and from the right about depicting Condoleezza Rice as servile to Bush. Drawings of President Barack Obama, however, must contend with America's history of degrading racial imagery, from ape comparisons to enormous "Sambo" lips. Caricatures of the president's admittedly large ears have so far escaped scrutiny.Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz was in front of a classroom full of black and Latino kids, drawing presidents. He sketched Bush, then Clinton. Next came his favorite: Obama. "Hey, those lips are big," Alcaraz heard a black girl say from the back of the room. Alcaraz was disturbed. "I try to bend over backwards not to make him look like a cartoon stereotype," and certainly not a racial stereotype, he said. Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
