Cagle World

Here’s another batch of my TRUE cartoons about marriage! See the first batch here.

Here’s a batch of cartoons about marriage from my 1995 syndicate comic strip, TRUE!

These are all depicting real, honest-to-goodness facts. I have a lot of these and I’m entering the evergreens into our huge cartoon database at PoliticalCartoons.com. More to come.

These are some of my old TRUE! cartoons from 1995. I used to draw this as a syndicated daily panel for Tribune Media Services syndicate, which is now Tribune Content Agency because they named another company “Tribune Media Services.” I used to pour over stats in news reports and draw them into cartoons. These are really true, except the art, and the selection of the facts amounts to commentary.

I drew TRUE! for about a year, so I have hundreds of these cartoons and as I was going back through the archives, I thought I would start adding some that still look fresh to our PoliticalCartoons.com database. This first batch for the database is on the theme of business.

I should add that back in 1995, Tribune Media Services didn’t allow the artists they syndicate to have their own web sites. Those were early days for the internet and most cartoonists hadn’t created their own sites yet. I started Cagle.com in 1996, as soon as I wriggled out from under Tribune Media Services and their “no web sites” policy.

In the crush of cartoons criticizing President Trump for his trade war with China, I haven’t noticed any that are supportive of Trump’s tariffs. Trump’s promises about tariffs and renegotiating more favorable trade agreements around the world were a driving force in his election. Frankly, I don’t mind the tariffs and the approach.  I consider this to be a mildly pro-Trump cartoon.

China had all they wanted in their trade relationship with the USA; Trump’s tariffs give China new and different things they want from America, that Trump should be willing to give up. That’s a negotiating tactic I see all the time as an artist working with businesses, but it seems to be lost on the pundits.

And I love drawing Xi Jinping as Winnie the Pooh – I’m going to stick with that. Here’s an earlier one.

Here’s a magazine cover from 1988 that shows younger me and my daughter, Susie Cagle. There are some things I’ve posted here on this cover, the Keds snow boot in the lower right; the Enesco Piggy Cleopatra mug in my hand; the Hasbro Classic Kermit plush box in the lower left, and the animal library poster, which was brand new at the time, behind my head. I was so young!

Here’s a catalogue cover for the toy/gift company “Hog Wild” that I did a lot of art for, back in the day. They had a little, black, wire/magnet character that was pretty cute.

Here’s a better pic of that Milton Bradley box cover.

This is the cross-sell on the back of a blister card.

I used to do a weekly sports comic strip that ran in USA Today for a time. These were ads for Sega Sports. Sorry they are so wide – so they may be hard to read. Open these images in a new window to see bigger, more readable versions.

Here’s more of those skeleton soldiers. I think these are for cards.

This magazine cover is from way back in 1984.

This old magazine cover for Scholastic is from 1980.

This Scholastic magazine cover oldie is from 1979, soon after I moved to Manhattan to be an illustrator, right out of college.

This one was somehow for Pepsi’s ad agency, but I don’t remember how it was used.

Here’s the line art for my Muppet Babies Mattel See ‘n Say.

Here’s the line art for the Zoo Keeper Mattel See ‘n Say. I have the product in my garage somewhere.

Some 20+ years ago I drew a weekly, quasi-autobiographical comic strip called, “TVtoon!!” for the British national TV Guide/Entertainment magazine “TV Times” and a national TV guide magazine in Australia.
I changed our names, but it is clearly our family and my kids, Susie and Michael were 7 and 13 years old in the strip. Things have changed a lot in 20+ years – those were simpler times! Open each image in a new window for a bigger version.

Here’s another installment of oldies from my overstuffed garage! This was a big poster I did for Scholastic in 1989 for the 1990 election. It was titled, “Be a Party Animal, Register and Vote” and was distributed to all high school libraries.

This unusually big gouache painting was a box for an old Nintendo GameBoy game called “Triumph” where I was given a bunch of screenshots of the minimal, Japanese characters to work from and “Americanize” – they are surrounding the “target customer,” a “30 year old, casual, professional male”. Every so often I hear from fan/scholars who know all the history of the obscure game and are eager to learn more about this art.

Here’s a very old box for Fisher-Price, with software for your IBM PC or Tandy computer.

This fishy oldie obviously went on some round toy – but I don’t remember! (Thanks to cousin James Cagle for reminding me that this was an infant teething ring, that you would fill with water and put in the freezer.)These Muppets Take Manhattan plastic cups were a promotion for Frito-Lay.

This conservative magazine cover is only 13 years old. They used the art I did for one of our annual Best Political Cartoons of the Year books.

I did a lot of work on “Trash Bag Bunch,” a line of monster figures hidden in dissolving, bubbling trash bags because you wouldn’t buy it if you saw what you were buying. This was a concept from brilliant sculptor/inventor Mel Birkrant.

Here’s the dusty old Trash Bag Bunch three pack. I also did a bunch of comics telling the story of the Trash Bag Bunch, with lots of editorial changes (hassles) by executives at Galoob toys. A talented sculptor, Bryan Fulk is bringing these back and just did a successful Kickstarter – maybe my old comics telling the back story will be printed afterall. Here’s Bryan’s Kickstarter.

Here’s a Cleopatra Piggy coffee cup, front and back, and a companion Kermit cup for Enesco.

Miss

Here’s part FIVE of oldies from my overstuffed garage!

Here’s a self portrait I did when I was in college.

Here are page one and two of a Rocky parody in Muppet Magazine. I didn’t write it, which is why it is so wordy.

This is the line art for the Muppet Magazine piece, page 2, with poor lighting.

Here’s a conservative magazine cover.

This one was a spread for Zillions magazine. They were testing different brands of cocoa.

Here’s that Muppet wallpaper I posted earlier, in Grandpa’s room, next to his cotton gin.

Here’s a parody logo for UC Santa Barbara, my alma mater party school, where hard drinking students often meet up with hard police batons.

ts,UCSB

Here’s another batch of oldies from my first career as a cartoonist, before I was a political cartoonist!

I did a lot of work for a novelty giftware company called “Hog Wild”, this is a cover for their annual catalogue.

These OralB Muppet Toothbrushes lasted many years in stores and may have been my best selling licensed Muppet product.

Here’s a spread for Men’s Health Magazine (I think).

Here’s another Zillions cover painting. This one is really big and I painted in their logo.

Here’s a scan of that Zillions Magazine cover illustration I posted a couple of days ago.

This one was my biggest ad campaign, for Discover Card – the color painting and line art with type in place. This ran everywhere.

Here’s another installment from my garage. This wizard was a gouache illustration for a German book publisher. Considering how carefully I reproduced the “Fun & Fancy” logo, I’m guessing that was their name.

This odd map of how to get to the Mortgage Bankers Association convention in Atlantic City was a strange journey. The ad agency had hired cartoon legend Mort Drucker to do it, and Mort quit after doing the sketch. The job paid pretty well, and Mort’s sketch was nice, and I had met Mort through the National Cartoonists Society, so I gave him a call and asked, “What’s up with this job?” I paraphrase from my 30 year old memory – Mort told me this was a job from hell, and the art directors had so many changes he couldn’t stand it any more.” I asked if he minded that I take the job and work from his sketch, and Mort was fine with that, as long as he never had to hear from those art directors. So I rendered this from Mort’s sketch. And the art directors from hell didn’t give me any trouble – I guess Mort had taken all the flak before I stepped in.

If I was an art director, I would never think of asking Mort Drucker to make changes. Twenty years later, mortgage bankers would destroy the economy – oh! The irony!

This gouache painting, without my usual black linework, was three sides of a package for Hasbro’s “Classic Kermit” Plush. The dark area was a die cut window showing the plush inside. I came up with the Greek theme because Hasbro had previously done a plush Kermit wearing reporter clothes, and they wanted to do a naked Kermit to cut costs and raise the price, so make Kermit “Classic” and raise the price! There’s also a top and bottom to this box somewhere in the garage.

I did lots of book covers, for Ballantine, Random House, Berkley Books, Warner Books, Little Brown, Doubleday – lots. Here’s a spot for a Berkley Books paperback cover.

For a time, I did a regular spot in Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine with a caricature of a sports figure of their choosing – here are two examples. I forget who the hockey player was.

Hey, remember that Baby Piggy shampoo bottle art for Avon that I posted a couple days ago? Here’s the shampoo bottle, still full of 30 year old shampoo.

This 1981 game for Hasbro’s Milton Bradley was a big project, as big as a children’s book. There was the cover, a board with background scenes from the movie, and a whole deck of illustrated cards. I liked this cover – an executive from the Muppets took it so I didn’t get the original painting back. I later heard from a guy in England who bought it and has it framed and hanging on his wall. This pic is from ebay, on sale for $8.99 – be sure they have all the cards before you buy!

These two are a little nasty. I used to draw the changing puzzles and games on the backs of boxes of the Swedish Chef’s “POST Croonchy Stars” cereal – for kids to read while they eat their sugar breakfast. I didn’t do the art on the front of the box, just the changing backs. I still have a couple of these boxes, still full of 30 year old cereal, and they look just as fresh and crispy as they day I bought them –through the miracle of corporate chemistry. A thousand years from now, when future archeologists dig up my garage, I’ll bet they take a bite and the Croonchy Stars will be as sugary/croonchy good as they were on day one.

 

I did lots of Muppet and Muppet Baby preschool puzzles, many for Playskool and Hasbro. Here’s one.

I did a big line of Muppet shoes for Keds, including a nice POP display that got crunched in my garage. 

Here I found one Keds kids snow boot, which had a wrap around painting of the Muppets having a snowball fight. Now I need to find a kid with one peg leg, who loves Muppets and lives in a snowy state.

I did a big line of these “Dri Mark” Muppets coloring posters that were packaged with markers. It looks like my kids found the markers in this package – this is front and back coloring posters, about 14″x17″, part of a line of many, each with two posters and a batch of markers.