Steppin' On Wall Street

How a bad cartoon inspired a good one (at least I think it's good)

I got this cartoon idea from a bad cartoonist. Let’s call him Wivers. He’s possibly one of the worst and definitely the least ethical of any political cartoonist working today (but it was a close race). Wivers is a racist conspiracy theorist who’s stupid and a liar. Naturally, Wivers is syndicated by Cagle Cartoons.

Cagle Cartoons don’t require their cartoonists to be ethical, factual, non-racist, to base their cartoons on facts, or even to spell correctly. Hell, Cagle Cartoons don’t even require their cartoonists to sign their names or follow basic journalism ethical guidelines and will syndicate bullshit that violates the ethics policies of every legitimate news outlet in the nation. Of course, they don’t tell those outlets that the cartoons they’re receiving violate their guidelines.

One basic guideline that’s in EVERY news outlet’s journalism guidelines is that you don’t work anonymously.

Wivers is a hack. His entire style isn’t inspired by another cartoonist, but stolen (my biggest influences are Charles Schulz, Don Martin, Jack Davis, and Sergio Aragones). There’s nothing unique about him except how full of shit he is. He’s even lying about which nation he lives in as he pretends to be a U.S. cartoonist so he can be full-blown MAGA and pretend the issues he’s targeting actually affect him when they don’t. Some of his most inadvertently funny cartoons are the ones where he criticized the media…anonymously.

Just this week, Wivers drew a cartoon not just attacking other cartoonists, but attacking other cartoonists who work for Cagle, accusing them of using…wait for it….talking points. Now ain’t that the hypocritical kettle calling the pot a hypocrite?

And I don’t understand the Canadian MAGA love. It’s like when I see a Confederate flag flying in Illinois. I don’t fucking get it, and that’s how you know someone’s racist. It’s like a guy from Queens wanting to save Confederate statues.

Wiver’s cartoon that inspired my cartoon was a lazy hunk of crap that’s been done before by dozens of much better cartoonists, you know, the people who sign their names. His cartoon showed a couple of people judging the stock market by the number of people jumping out of windows. That doesn’t sound too bad except it’s been done before…a lot. But the real problem with that cartoon is it’s wrong.

Sure, Wall Street had a scary day but if Numbnuts FuckerMcGee had been paying attention over the past 30 years of his pathetic plagiarizing career, he’d know to…Oh, I don’t know…wait to see if it was an anomaly, trend, or a real crash. Most cartoonists waited or didn’t rule it an actual crash. Most made comments that it was scary. A lot of cartoons on Wall Street feature roller coasters.

What Wivers did is what he does on most days which is take what he dropped in the toilet that morning, spread it on paper, and send it to Cagle. I’m sorry. That metaphor icked me out too.

Economics is one of the most difficult subjects to cover and most cartoonists, especially the right-wing guys, don’t like to research. Ugh…reading hard. A lot of them just cartoon what they read in the headline, or if they’re a MAGAt, follow the talking points. Talking points make cartooning easy. Not only do you not have to research, you don’t have to know anything.

As for Wall Street, CNN says, “Stocks close lower as Wall Street struggles to stage comeback,” but The Guardian says, “Wall Street sees best day of trading in nearly two years amid recovery rally.” The New York Times headline says, “Wall Street on edge after week of wild swings.” AP says, “Wall Street rallies to best day since 2022.” And Fox News said, “Wall Street will never recover after Black-maybe-not-Black DEI-Hire Kamala Harris cackles in front of statue of Furious Girl while Tim Walz dodges football fantasy draft like a sonofabitch.”

The point is, even headline writers are confused…nearly as confused as the guy who drew and published a cartoon this week of Kamala Harris’ VP nominee, Josh Shapiro delivering Pennsylvania. That lesson is, do not draw the news until you know the news.

When I saw Wiver’s cartoon, I thought to myself, “That’s not right. If he wanted to tackle the issue correctly, he should have…” And that’s when I realized I had the day’s cartoon. I was in the middle of drawing something else too which you might see tomorrow.

I think every cartoonist has gotten an idea from seeing a cartoon he didn’t like.

I’m not trying to be someone who needs to get over himself (I’m just a tiny insignificant goby in the great big ocean of relevant political cartooning whales), but Wivers inspiring me to draw this cartoon may be his greatest accomplishment as a political cartoonist, but I admit, that’s not saying much.

In case you’re new here: Yeah, I’ll crap on other cartoonists, but only if they’re crap worthy, which Cameron Cardow, I mean Rivers, oops, I mean Wivers, is.

Music Note: I listened to Them Crooked Vultures.

Drawn In 30 Seconds:

Here’s the voiceover version :

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