Oh look, you may be saying to yourself, MacKay's using THE OLD cardboard cut-out cliche to illustrate when a person in real life hasn't been seen or heard from very much. I can hear the groans in my head.

I've compiled a list of familliar and overused metaphors, cliches, images and repetitive editorial cartoons gags. Cartoonists ought to strive to avoid borrowing from the list, but sometimes its lure is irresistable. I'm guilty as much as the next cartoonist of utilizing ideas from the list. A great cartoon is only great if it's imaginative and fresh. The first idea is probably the most overused concept, commonly played out by cartoonists after famous people die. It is: THE OLD...Arriving at the Pearly Gates Editorial Cartoon. (This came up at a recent cartoonists convention and someone suggested that during a lifetime, cartoonists should carry a punch card enabling them to draw only 7 "Arriving at the Pearly Gates" cartoons throughout their career.)

Here are some more. Please feel free suggest new ones through the comment box to add your own to the list.

THE OLD...Puzzle with a missing piece(s) editorial cartoon.
THE OLD...Painting oneself in a corner cartoon.
THE OLD...Walking the plank cartoon.
THE OLD...Large fish eating the medium-sized fish eating the small fish gag.
THE OLD...Things proceeding as slow as a snail/turtle gag cartoon.
THE OLD...Image of a beaver representing Canada.
THE OLD...Image of Uncle Sam representing America.
THE OLD...Donkey and Elephant representing the political parties in the U.S.
THE OLD...Corporate logo incorporated in a cartoon gag (i.e. Olympic rings for wheels on a tank. Bush choking on an Pretzel in the shape of the Enron logo.)
THE OLD...Manipulation of a flag, national symbol, coat of arms, etc
THE OLD...Sinking Ship cartoon.
THE OLD...Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil cartoon.
THE OLD...Combination of two unrelated current events.
THE OLD...Loon on a Canadian dollar drowning/choking/spashing during currency fluctuations cartoon.
THE OLD...Ostrich head buried in the sand gag.
THE OLD...Taxpayer being held upsidedown with money falling out
THE OLD...Blind justice statue editorial cartoon.
THE OLD...Incorporating popular cartoon characters iE: Homer Simpson, Mr. McGoo, Peanut's characters, etc. in an editorial cartoon.
THE OLD...Adding irony/humour to illustrations of famous photographs editorial cartoon (ie: the Hindenburg blowing up)
THE OLD...Dividing a continent/country up and pointing to different regions with satirical names gag.
THE OLD...naughty pupil writing lines on a chaulkboard cartoon.
THE OLD..."kick me" sign on the backside of a politician gag.
THE OLD...Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden image.
THE OLD...finger in the dike cartoon.
THE OLD...New arrivals to hell cartoon
THE OLD...labyrinthe image to convey, timelines, bureaucracy, etc.
THE OLD...target plastered on a person image marking imminent firing, defeat, death, etc.
THE OLD...circling vultures image to convey the same thing as painted on targets
THE OLD PIG...representing gluttony
THE OLD...peace dove altered to convey no chance of peace

*** Update (Aug. 8, 2006) *** Well, it seems somebody didn't care that it took an old cliche to get the point across...

*** Update (Nov. 3, 2006) Jeff Parker, editorial cartoonist at Florida Today comments on common cartoon cliches in his blog.

I've done a lot of Dalton McGuinty cartoons in the last 5 years. Joining a assortment of galleries devoted to such people as Stephen Harper, Paul Martin, Jean Chretien, and Sheila Copps, I introduce a new chronology of cartoons devoted to Ontario's Premier:

More Galleries of assorted subjects are found on my Galleries Page.

Big giant circular tables hollowed out in the middle and filled with potted plants of exotic flowers are the stuff of high level international talks. Whether it's the United Nations, or NATO, or the G8, or continental talks, or Communist Party talks, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, you can always tell how high brow things are by the size of the round table. And thus, drawing on the theme of another gathering of important people, this time of Foreign Ministers meeting in Rome, I came up with this:

Following down the same path I took in a recent cartoon, and just so that I don't have to draw another roundtable for a while, as I had to here, here, and here, I archived the table so I can throw it into a future cartoon the next time I poke fun at the very important people. (The teeth were archived seperately)...

Boy, what a waste of time that meeting turned out to be. Shadowed over by news of the deaths of 4 peacekeepers after Israeli missiles destroyed a U.N. post in Beirut, it was hardly the right occasion to cavass any country to drop more peacekeepers in the region. Well, at least those foreign ministers, including our own Peter MacKay got to spend an afternoon in Rome. How nice.

* * * * * UPDATE * * * * *

January 2, 2007: I received word today that this cartoon won a Ranan Lurie Citation for Excellence Award from the United Nation's Correspondence Association. Quite a mouthful, but a great honour to be lumped among some of the world's best editorial cartoonists.

The Syrian leader, Bashar Assad, is not a well known personality on the international stage despite being in his position since 2000. My first cartoon of him back in 2000 was based on an article I had read which claimed he liked to surf the web, enjoyed amateur photography, studied ophthalmology, and had a passion for the music of Phil Collins. Hardly the stuff to help groom a future dictator

Bashar's an accidental President of Syria owing to the fact that his late father, strongman Hafez Assad, originally intended the job go to his older brother, who died in a car accident. One can't help but be reminded of the North Korean dynasty of dictators where an awkward son inherited a kingdom from a ruthless and powerful dad.

Nobody seems to know how influencial Bashar is in ruling Syria despite having the title, President. He's definitely not as powerful as his late father, and there are assumptions that some of the advisors and associates of daddy Assad are actually pulling the levers in today's Syria. That's got to irk poor Bashar a bit. So who knows whether or not he's personally behind funding of Hezbollah in Lebanon or any past bombings in Israel. Still, it's always fun to draw Bashar.

And whenever I draw Bashar Assad I can't help thinking of my own leader:

A nice photo taken of the Spectator building with a lovely panoramic view of city of Hamilton sometime in the Spring. The Niagara Escarpment is to the right, and the steel mills way back on the horizon on the left. That's Main Street crossing over the 403. A nice angle. Thanks to whoever took the picture.

What, a whole day goes by with a cartoon focusing on the pot activists in Hamilton and I get not one bit of feedback, either positive or negative? Where are all the pot propponents? You know, sometimes a cartoonist intentionally puts out a cartoon to drum up some feedback, especially in the slow news days of summer. There isn't even anything mentioned on the Potblogs. Either the pot activists are comatose, or newspapers have just become so irrelevant that nobody cares.