Club draws in top cartoonist Daryl Cagle

Plenty has been written about the trouble skyrocketing gas prices may pose to the White House, but MSNBC editorial cartoonist and new National Press Club member Daryl Cagle sums the topic up with no words whatsoever.

Drawn in thick black lines, Cagle’s latest piece shows Obama, complete with exaggerated ears and a pronounced chin, looking warily over his shoulder. Towering above him is an anthropomorphic gas pump with a gaping mouth and menacing teeth.

This is a clear example of what Cagle describes as “hitting people on the head with my opinion.”

“I get to draw what I think in my own style,” Cagle said. “And that’s wonderful.”

Cagle’s work is displayed on www.msnbc.com about three times a week. He’s quick to note that he’s not your average cartoonist. While most labor away in cubicles with the burden of producing a new piece each day, Cagle has the benefit of running his own syndicate, Cagle Cartoons.

“We distribute the work of about 60 of the top cartoonists from around the world and a dozen columnists to just about 850 newspapers, about half of America’s daily paid circulation newspapers,” Cagle said.

That freedom means that he doesn’t have to deliver sketches about the weather or celebrity deaths, what he says are “the cartoons that cartoonists don’t want to draw.”

Cagle, who lists artists from Mad Magazine’s golden era as his influences, describes himself a late-career political cartoonist. He spent 15 years working on art for Jim Henson’s Muppets before joining the Honolulu Advertiser in 2000, a shift he does not regret.

“My whole career up until that time I had been drawing other people’s characters, solving other people’s art problems,” Cagle said. “It’s so much nicer to draw my way and do what I want and express my own opinions.”

But he quickly added that he cherishes his experience in show business. “The Muppets were wonderful," he said.

Cagle, who just received his Club membership card last week, is a non-resident member whose wife is spending time in Washington on a fellowship. He said he joined the Club as a frequent visitor to Washington out of an interest in meeting new people and becoming involved in Washington’s press world.

“I’m interested in columnists and writers and a new scene,” Cagle said.

He also notes that there are some distinct similarities between cartoonists and traditional reporters, and not just in the sense that there’s occasional backlash from irate readers.

Cagle points to the challenges facing the two industries.

“Cartoonists are going the way of journalists," Cagle said. "As jobs disappear, everybody becomes kind of a freelancer and does all kind of different gigs to make a living. I think we’re all in the same boat.”