In Contempt Comics

The political cartoon
Draughtsmen · Papers · Plates

Draughtsmen by centuryGeorgianVictorianTwentieth centurySince 1960
Two adults in gloves examining Georgian hand-coloured etchings laid out on a print-room table, high windows behind them

Section 1 of 6

The people who did it, and what each of them is on record for

Engravers, lithographers, block draughtsmen and brush men, from Hogarth’s subscription list of 1735 to the syndicated page. Every entry names a dated work and the paper that carried it.

Draughtsmen · 10 pieces · the full archive

I

Georgian

Two uniformed figures carve up a globe-shaped pudding at a dinner table Draughtsmen · Plate 02

The Most-Quoted Political Cartoon in English

James Gillray's The Plumb-pudding in Danger (1805) — its composition, its targets, and the two-century reproduction chain that made it ubiquitous Read the plate Satirical lithograph shows a giant seated ruler swallowing baskets of goods carried up by common people Draughtsmen · Plate 03

Six Months in Sainte-Pélagie for Drawing the King as Gargantua

The lithograph that made the charge easy to write Read the plate
II

Victorian

Vintage portrait of a mustached man with a goatee wearing a velvet-collared coat Draughtsmen · Plate 04

How a Cartoonist Brought Down a Machine

Thomas Nast's Cartoons Destroyed the Tweed Ring — and Tweed Said So Himself Read the plate Political cartoon shows a pilot descending a ship's ladder as a ruler watches from above Draughtsmen · Plate 05

Tenniel's Forty Years on the Punch Block

The man who drew Alice also drew the British Empire's conscience — for five decades, on end-grain boxwood, without missing a week. Read the plate
III

Twentieth century

A red advertising blimp floats above a tiled rooftop and brick chimney Draughtsmen · Plate 06

Colonel Blimp Was Never Meant to Be Affectionate

David Low drew a blustering, walrus-moustached general to embarrass the British establishment — and accidentally gave English a new word for it. Read the plate Young man in military coveralls sits cross-legged holding papers, looking to the side Draughtsmen · Plate 07

Willie and Joe Never Saluted Anyone

Bill Mauldin's two-war career, his scruffy infantrymen, and the general who tried to shut them down Read the plate Corinthian columns frame carved busts in circular niches on a stone facade Draughtsmen · Plate 08

Herblock's Brush and What It Cost Three Presidents

The Cartoonist Who Named an Era and Shook Three Administrations Read the plate
IV

Since 1960

A finger points to a black-and-white comic strip panel in a binder of drawings Draughtsmen · Plate 09

The Last Great Syndicated Cartoonist

Pat Oliphant turned a craft learnt in Adelaide into a franchise that reached six hundred newspapers — and nobody has matched the numbers since. Read the plate A gloved archivist examines a framed sketch at a desk under lamplight in a book-lined study Draughtsmen · Plate 10

When the Cartoon Started Moving

A Drawn Argument That Won't Sit Still Read the plate

The other sections

PapersThe press was the publisher, and it set the deadline.4 piecesPrintingWax, copper, stone, boxwood, zinc, then a scanner.4 piecesArchivesFour drawers, four countries, and about two hundred thousand sheets of paper.3 piecesPrizesThe Pulitzer since 1922, and the legal record before it.2 piecesGlossaryPunch called it a cartoon in 1843, and the word never went back.2 pieces