Chewing Pencils

Daryl Cagle’s Professional Cartoonists Index has, perhaps, the most extensive list of cartoonists on the internet (get listed if you haven’t already!). When ‘big’ issues come to light, he displays some of the best editorial cartoon comments on the subject.

But what I wanted to highlight in this post was Daryl’s latest blog entry (June 29, 2006) on yet another cartoonist who has been imprisoned because of his work.  Cagle offers some thoughts on how powerful, and dangerous, the cartooning profession can be in some parts of the world.

A quote:

Cartoons are more powerful than words. A cartoon on the editorial page screams louder than the words that surround it. The response to the Danish Muhammad cartoons shocked the West, but came as little surprise to Third World cartoonists who are used to seeing nutty reactions to their cartoons. Cartooning is a dangerous profession in much of the world where the accepted response to an insult is vengeance.

It’s a great little essay. Actually, all the posts in his blog a worth a read. It still amazes me, though,  that such reactions can be caused by a drawing!