BOOKS

An editorial cartoon, also known as a political cartoon, is an illustration containing a commentary that usually relates to current events or personalities. An artist who draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist.

 

They typically combine artistic skill, hyperbole and satire in order to question authority and draw attention to corruption and other social ills.

 

Origins

The pictorial satire of William Hogarth has been credited as the precursor to the political cartoon. His pictures combined social criticism with sequential artistic scenes. A frequent target of his satire was the corruption of early-18th-century British politics. An early satirical work was an Emblematical Print on the South Sea Scheme (c.1721), about the disastrous stock market crash of 1720 known as the South Sea Bubble, in which many English people lost a great deal of money.

 

His art often had a strong moralizing element to it, such as in his masterpiece of 1719, A Rake's Progress. It consisted of eight pictures that depicted the reckless life of Tom Rakewell, the son of a rich merchant, who spends all of his money on luxurious living, services from sex workers, and gambling—the character's life ultimately ends in Bethlem Royal Hospital.

 

However, his work was only tangentially politicized and was primarily regarded on its artistic merits. George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend produced some of the first overtly political cartoons and caricatures in the 1750s.

 

THE CREATIVE REALM'S RECOMMENDED EDITORIAL CARTOONISTS

 

1. Matt Wuerker 
2. Henry Payne 
3. Gary Varvel 
4. Kerry Waghorn 
5. Scott Stantis