Political cartoonists often flirt with a fine line between offensive and funny. Sometimes offending can be effective, sometimes it turns people off.
Shan Wells, a cartoonist for the Durango Telegraph, and Ricardo Caté, a cartoonist for the Santa Fe New Mexican, talked craft, strategy, history and regret Saturday at the Sunflower Theatre at KSJD in an event called “Fake News: Political Cartoons,” the first of three panel discussions hosted by the local radio station.
As a Native American cartoonist, Caté said he could easily draw cartoons that offend every white person, but he said he prefers to have people read his comic. That doesn’t mean he holds back.
“I get away with a lot of things because I’m Native, and I plan on taking advantage of that,” Caté said.
His cartoon, “Without Reservations,” centers on two characters: the chief, a Native with a big nose and a headdress, and the general, who resembles Gen. George Custer. He said the general speaks for the dominant culture, and the chief speaks for Natives.
Caté said he turns traumatic events from his life and Native history into humor as a way to mend wounds. One of his memorable single-panel cartoons depicts the chief standing with his son in front of a vast open field with mountains in the distance. With arms outstretched, the chief says, “Someday son, none of this will be yours.”
While Caté comments on the ironies of life from a Native perspective, Wells deals with politics in Durango and the nation. He said he got started in cartooning in 2002 because he wanted to participate in his community. Running for office was off the table because he doesn’t like people very much, but Wells said he can be a loudmouth, so cartooning suited him.
He said cartooning is all about taking complex issues and reducing them down to simple ideas. Recently, he’s taken several jabs at President Donald Trump, and his caricature has evolved over time.
“Trump is what we call a target-rich environment,” he said.
He started depicting Trump as a typical large, rotund man in a suit with funny hair and a bald spot. But he said that caricature was too complex for the president. He then reduced Trump down to essentially a spherical blob with a long tie and tuft of hair pointing to a poster that reads, “Break shit.” The caption states: “The Trump ‘Doctrine’ Explained.”
Wells said that was still giving Trump too much credit. More recently, he caricatured Trump naked except for a tie and an iPhone in hand. A shadow of an ax is cast over the president with the words, “Mueller Probe.” He asked the audience what idioms the cartoon referred to. Several gathered at the full-house event called out, “Emperor with no clothes” and “Waiting for the ax to fall.”
“Slogans, idioms, metaphors – these are all part of the tools for a political cartoonist,” Wells said.
In Durango, Wells has caricatured Sheriff Sean Smith as an action figure for his work during the 416 Fire this year. That was a positive caricature, but Wells said he received blowback after mocking locals. He said he now prefers nonviolent cartoons that make a point without directly attacking people.
One cartoon depicts Uncle Sam looking into the mirror with a disfigured face marked with the words, “racism” and “gun violence.”
During a panel discussion, KSJD Morning Edition host Daniel Rayzel asked Wells and Caté whether they have regretted cartoons they published.
Caté said he wouldn’t necessarily use the word “regret,” but the most criticism he’s received was from a violent cartoon. In the first panel, Trump and the chief are standing at the edge of a cliff, as the president says, “Let’s Make America Great Again!!” In the second panel, the chief pushes Trump off the cliff and says, “I just did.”
“The newspaper got a lot of phone calls about that, but they loved it, the fact that they got a lot of phone calls,” Cate said.
Wells, on the other hand, said he regretted caricaturing a Jewish man with a large nose because the actual man had a big nose. He was quickly attacked for being anti-semitic.
“I went back and looked at it and said, ‘Yeah,’” Wells said. “That was really stupid because I knew that that was something that was used during World War II with the Nazis as anti-semitic propaganda to draw Jews with big noses, and yet I had done it.”
He said he has become more aware of how political art exists in history.
Sunflower Theatre director Desiree Henderson, who planned the series with Rayzel, said the two thought it would be fun to host discussions that explore the changing landscape in news, journalism and media.
The first of the “Fake News” events focused on cartoons, but Henderson said events in January and February would focus on the limits of free speech and lies and misinformation.
She said increased use of digital platforms has introduced more accessible news sources, but that doesn’t mean it’s quality journalism.
“I think there’s more room for misinformation ... because you don’t know what the sources actually are,” Henderson said. “And people don’t seem to care in some instances.”
She said the political cartoon event featured two speakers with contrasting experiences and perspectives, a theme that will continue with the upcoming events.
