Political Cartoons in the Age of COVID: Entry 1
- xmagnusenstu
- May 2, 2020
- 1 min read
My Digital History project is an archive of political cartoons made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This project will most likely be galleries of political cartoons organized by categories dealing with topics such as Isolation, Economics, and Contamination. If necessary, I will include brief descriptions or analyses of the cartoons in question. The archive should provide a decent overview of the COVID-19 crisis through the eyes of the political cartoonists.
I chose to create an archive of political cartoons covering the COVID-19 pandemic because political cartoons are how I try to understand the world. Political cartoons, while opinionated, are satirical, informative, and to-the-point, making them approachable for me. When we were asked to create a digital history project, and creating an archive was one of the options, I thought that since I have become deeply interested in political cartoons, making an archive of cartoons covering the pandemic would be interesting project for me.
I have loved this project since the moment you began to kick around the idea. I think it is incredibly relevant and unique, and I agree with other comments -- this is very much a Xander project, which I love. I am not, however, convinced that "most" political cartoonists are somehow pushing a partisan agenda. On my (admittedly somewhat superficial) understanding of the history of political cartoons, the project of cartoonists has historically been one that speaks truth to power -- not simply an artistic exercise in factionalism. I'm curious to see what you dig up!
Xander, first off, I think this is a great project idea for you. It's right up your alley. I think you the best person to make an archive of COVID-19 political cartoons. My question to you is that, will you only be going over comics that discuss "topics such as Isolation, Economics, and Contamination", or are you going to be viewing a more broad amount of comics with different messages? My other question is, are you going to make a timeline of the political cartoons? I think it would be interesting to see if any of the cartoonists had a change in sentiment towards COVID-19. I think it's important to keep in mind that most political cartoonists are pushing an…
This is a really interesting idea! Are you going to use only news made political cartoons or meme like cartoons as well? It's really cool either way.