Cartoonists are those creative artists who express their thoughts and criticize different things in their societies through drawing creative cartoons. We can express our thoughts and opinions in different ways but those cartoonists use their pencils and imagination to draw their impressive cartoons and tell us what they want to say through these cartoons. As a matter of fact, cartoons are created for different purposes as there are cartoonists who draw their cartoons for political commentary, while there are others who create their cartoons for entertainment and advertising.
Whether the cartoons are created for political commentary, advertising, entertainment or any other purpose, the cartoonists have proved that “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Here are the top 10 best cartoonists in the world with examples of their creative work.
Antonio F.Branco, or just A.F.Branco as he is commonly known, is one of the best and most creative political cartoonists in the United States. His creative political cartoons are really impressive and this is why they have gained international popularity and the number of fans increases everyday not just in the United States but all over the world to prove that humorous satire and pictures are truly more effective than words. Branco’s work has been featured in numerous publications and websites such as Conservative Chronicle, Conservative Daily News, Legal Insurrection, Net Right Daily and Liberty Alliance.
David Pope is an illustrator and political cartoonist from Canberra, Australia. He started drawing his cartoons in the mid-1980s as a freelance cartoonist and then he joined The Canberra Times in 2008 as a staff artist to start drawing his political cartoons there. David Pope’s work has appeared in a large number of publications such as The Republican, The Labour Studies Briefing, The Northern Rivers Echo, The New Doctor, The Diplomat, Arena, Overland in addition to The AEU News, The Queensland Nurse, Hard Hat and Common Cause. Pope does not draw his cartoons on paper as he uses a computer screen for drawing everything.
Matt Bors is a nationally syndicated American editor and political cartoonist who is based in Portland, Oregon. He is also the founder of the comics site “The Nib” and his cartoons have been featured on different websites and in many newspapers and magazines such as The Sacramento Bee, Pittsburgh City Paper, Portland Mercury, Daily Kos, Medium.com, The Nib and NSFWCORP magazine. Matt’s work has also been published by CNN, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, The Intercept, Upworthy, Village Voice, The Nation in addition to other print and web publications that are widely known.
Paul Zanetti is an Australian cartoonist and blogger who has his own blog site. His cartoons have nationally and internationally appeared online and in many newspapers. Specifying a little box for Paul Zanetti to draw his daily cartoons was really frustrating for him and this is why he decided to start blogging on Facebook and The Pickering Post to get his written pieces and cartoons published there and to reach millions of readers around the world. Paul Zanetti also uses his blog site to publish his work whether it is serious or satirical and to allow his readers to freely comment, share and like what they read on his blog site.
Manjul is an editorial cartoonist from India and he works as a Chief Cartoonist at the Daily News & Analysis in Mumbai. He started his journey in the world of drawing cartoons 20 years ago and he tries through these cartoons to change the world. He succeeded in changing the way people look at the cartoons that are drawn in different Indian publications such as The Indian Express, The Economic Times, India Today, Outlook & Tehelka but he could not change the world. He is still trying to change the world believing that his cartoons can help him to do this.
Jeroom Snelders is one of the most famous cartoonists and comic artists whom you can find in Belgium. He won the Press Cartoon Belgium award in 2002. His work has been published in several comic books such as Rudy (2002) and Het Hol Van de Reet (2003). Jeroom’s cartoons are currently published in Humo magazine but if you find it difficult to understand these cartoons because of their language, then you can visit Jeroom’s Facebook page to take a look at the comics that are posted there and are translated to English to make it easy for you to understand what is drawn.
Khalid Wad Albaih is a Sudanese artist and political cartoonist based in Doha, Qatar. He uses social and political satire to criticize different things and comment on what happens in the Middle East region and the whole world. Publishing his work through social media in 2011 during the early stages of the Arab Spring protests has made him an artist of the revolution and has also increased his popularity in different countries around the world. Albaih’s work has internationally appeared at numerous exhibitions such as the Edge of Arabia in London and it has also been published in several publications such as The Atlantic, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Global Voices, just to name a few.
Satish Acharya is a self-taught cartoonist from Kundapura, India. He believes that drawing cartoons does not need to be taught at cartooning schools. His passion for cartooning and everything related to journalism was highly responsible for encouraging him to quit an MBA job for the sake of drawing cartoons. He has his own blog and Facebook page through which he communicates with his readers making use of their comments, thoughts, ideas and opinions to take his cartoons to the next level and to provide cartoon-enthusiasts with what they need to know about the art of cartooning.
Zapiro is an award-winning editorial cartoonist from Cape Town, South Africa. He started working as an editorial cartoonist in 1987 for “South” newspaper. He travelled to New York to study media arts at the School of Visual Arts and then he returned in 1991. He has worked as an editorial cartoonist for many newspapers such as Mail & Guardian in 1994, The Sunday Times in 1998 and The Times in 2009. He also worked for Cape Times, The Mercury, The Star, Sowetan (1994-2005), Cape Argus (1996-1997) and Petoria News (2005-2008). He has published nineteen cartoon collections and his work has nationally and internationally appeared at numerous group shows and exhibitions in New York, Dhaka, Amsterdam, Sweden, South Africa and more.
1 Berkeley Breathed – United States
Berkeley Breathed is one of the best and most famous American artists in the whole world. He is not just a creative cartoonist as he is also a great illustrator, children’s book author, producer and screenwriter. His notable works include “Bloom County”, “Outland” and “Opus” but he is best known for “Bloom County”. He received the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1987. His cartoons come to reflect sociopolitical issues and he uses humorous analogies to make his cartoons more impressive for his readers around the world. Bill the Cat and Opus the Penguin are among the most famous fictional characters that are created by Berkeley Breathed and are used in his cartoons. Austin American-Statesman was the first newspaper to publish Breathed’s editorial cartoons and his first comic strip was The Academia Waltz.
Who is your favorite cartoonist?