Back when I was a local cartoonist for the now-defunct Honolulu Advertiser newspaper, there was a disaster in which a negligent Navy captain allowed his submarine to be controlled by a stupid celebrity who rammed into a Japanese high school fishing boat, killing and failing to rescue many of the kids.
I reacted with cartoons strongly criticizing the Navy and the captain of the sub — but I missed the mark. The paper had a second cartoonist, Dick Adair, who drew a memorial cartoon with leis floating on the water. Dick’s cartoon was better.
When a disaster first strikes, and people die, mourning should come first. I was thinking about that with the Texas floods as my colleagues were drawing gags and cartoons criticizing President Donald Trump’s visit to the scene, or cartoons championing the first responders.
I thought I should take a step back and remember Dick Adair’s cartooning wisdom with a flowers on the water memorial cartoon, this time including a cowboy hat to signify Texas.
Maybe readers and editors are in the mood for gags, but I’m in more of a somber, sympathetic mood.
— Editorial cartoonist Daryl Cagle lives in Montecito and runs the CagleCartoons.com news syndicate, distributing editorial cartoons to more than 850 news sites and newspapers around the world, including Noozhawk. Contact him at editor@cagle.com, follow his blog at www.darylcagle.com and follow him on Twitter: @dcagle. Click here for previous cartoons. The opinions expressed are his own.