JOIN USOne of the most prolific cartoonists of the US Daryl Cagle, who was in the City recently, opines that most of the time he has nothing good to say about anything, therefore it is best that he hasn’t drawn any Indian leader.
“Editorial cartooning is a negative art form; good cartoons are critical, and a cartoon that compliments anyone is a lousy cartoon. Frankly, I have nothing good to say about anything. So when I don’t draw many cartoons about something or someplace, that’s a good thing.
India gets off easy with me,” replied Daryle, when asked which Indian leader he would like to draw. A cartoonist for the last 30 years, Daryl now works for a news website.
While his hero is American cartoonist Jack Davis, he admires a few Indian cartoonists as well. “I syndicate cartoons of Paresh Nath and Shekhar Gurera on my website. I enjoy Manjul’s work too. I met him last year. India has lots of excellent cartoonists,” Daryl shares with Metrolife.
He came to the City to speak on ‘Political Cartoons in the USA and the World’ at American Centre.
Talking about cartooning as a profession, Daryl says America has a rich tradition of editorial cartooning and lots of great cartoonists to admire as over the last 50 years the range of styles and expressions in political cartooning has grown.
He says, “Cartoonists are now doing a better work. With changes in the media, we have a bigger audience for our work than ever before, on the Web, but the business model for cartoonists, and journalists is changing and I don't know where it is going. Editorial cartoonists have been losing their jobs for newspapers, as their audience grows on the web where they don't get paid.”
Does he hear back from the people he draws? “I usually don’t hear back from the public figures I lampoon in my cartoons; when I do, it is because they want to hang a cartoon on their wall as a trophy. In lieu of that I ask them to make a contribution of $800 and that makes them go away, almost all the time, because politicians are not only scoundrels, they are cheap,” says Daryl.
On his maiden trip of India, Daryl hopes to learn more about the country and its people. “Everything is a new adventure for me here. I am being a tourist; I did a tour of the City and went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. I don’t know much about it except that India is such an important part of the world that I thought I needed to get to know it better.”
“I think I have a lot to learn about India. Everything here is so vast and complex. My opinions about India’s colourful politics have little value because of my ignorance. I hope to learn more on this trip,” he says.