But knowing a historic verdict was imminent, Ms. Mouly and New Yorker editor David Remnick began sifting through sketched ideas, most of which assumed a guilty verdict. One illustration by regular contributor John Cuneo stood out from the rest: It showed Mr. Trump reaching his tiny hands out for handcuffs that were too big for them.
“It’s a stunning composition that highlights a laughably small hand, reflecting the past while predicting the future,” Mouly said of the magazine’s latest cover image, done in ink and watercolor and titled “Man of Faith.” “Even if you’ve been convicted of a felony, [will] Has Trump been hindered or restricted?”
Cartoonists across the country responded immediately to Trump’s conviction on 34 counts, including falsifying records, in the New York hush-money case. Some had outlines in advance, but others waited until the verdict was announced to react in real time, inspired by last-minute emotions.
In all of the art curated here, illustrators have attempted to expertly capture history in one evocative image.
Right-wing Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Breen only began working on his plan after the guilty verdict was handed down.
“I should have chosen between ‘guilty’ and ‘not guilty.'” [and] “This case is so big and so significant that I was prepared to do a rough ‘uncontested verdict,’ but I didn’t,” Breen said. “I think it’s Trump fatigue. How many more ways can you portray him?”
Breen first depicted the colorful neon lights of a New York bail bonds office reflected in the window of a limousine with Trump as a passenger inside, gazing out, then tried to turn the reflection into a group of happy people cheering.
“I ended up picturing him glaring at the average New Yorker,” Breen said.
Steve Brodner, an illustrator for The Nation, also waited until deadline to find inspiration. His illustration shows Lady Justice dragging Trump to a jail cell and saying, “Let the law get him.”
Shortly after the verdict was handed down, “I started thinking about the Access Hollywood tapes. This verdict was, in some sense, the ghosts of the old tapes had finally come back to life and Trump had been caught. And I liked the idea of Lady Justice being honored,” said Brodner, who will receive the 2024 Herblock Prize at the Library of Congress on Tuesday.
Clay Bennett, a left-leaning Pulitzer Prize winner at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, began sketching while waiting for the verdict to be announced. He decided on a drawing of glasses clinking in celebration of the victory of the “rule of law.”
“Because the jury reached their decision so quickly, I figured there wouldn’t be an acquittal or a mismatched verdict, so I went with my instincts based on the sketches I had,” Bennett said. “I was so pleased that the final verdict was in favor of both my cartoons and my work. and The rule of law.”
Reform Austin News cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Nick Anderson says the looming deadline has helped him focus: “I feel like I need to take inspiration from real events to fuel my creativity. Sometimes the nuances of an event are just as important as the event itself.”
“The fact that Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts was a pretty shocking revelation. I spent about 10 minutes thinking about it before coming up with the idea for the cartoon. I really wanted to represent a convicted felon becoming a major party candidate for president,” Anderson added.
He decided to write the word “FELON” around Trump’s face. “At first I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off, but it quickly came together.”
Matt Davis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for Newsday, said he was “stunned” by the verdict on all charges, given the critical opinions he had heard.
“I had only an hour to come up with something and write it,” said Davis, who played Trump’s new running mate as his probation officer. “I didn’t want to seem pleased with the verdict. It seemed like Trump got what he deserved, but it was unsettling to know that he and his supporters would treat a legitimate legal ruling in the same tribalistic way they treated the election they lost. Of course, that’s fodder for another comic.”
Some artists decided to mix the announcement with historical news articles. Rick McKee, a self-described political moderate who works for the Cagle Cartoon Syndicate, mused about allegations that Trump contacted state officials after the most recent presidential election, pressuring them to “find” votes.
“I was skimming through the news articles and there were a lot of references to jury votes, and I thought, ‘That’s probably a vote he doesn’t want to get,’ and then it clicked,” McKee says. “He’s always saying weird things, so… [practically] He writes these comics for me, and I just write them down as they come to me.”
In response, Mike Lester of Andrews McMeel Syndication decided to address the current news headlines surrounding Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who has refused to recuse himself from hearing cases related to the January 6, 2021, riots, despite revelations that an upside-down American flag linked to some of the rioters was flown at his home.
“The news about the Alitos, and especially the dispute between his wife and her neighbor, somehow drew condemnation from my liberal friends and cartoonists,” says Lester, who has depicted Trump’s ruling as a reason to fly an upside-down American flag as a symbol of protest and anguish.
Dave Whamond of Cagle Cartoons depicted Trump as a prisoner and exaggerated the size of his cell.
“The evidence was overwhelming, so I expected a guilty verdict,” he said. “It was only natural that he would brag about the size of his cell. I don’t think he’ll serve any time for this. The thing is, he’s going to actually say this eventually, so I had to make it public before then.” [actually] “That’s what happens. It’s hard for us cartoonists to parody current reality.”
Like The New Yorker, Time had been preparing its cover art while waiting for the ruling. Edel Rodriguez worked on about a dozen concepts with the magazine’s team, including creative director D.W. Pine. Over the course of a few days, he kept refining an image of a gavel and soundboard with Trump’s face on it. Then it was time to wait.
“After being convicted on 34 charges, this image made perfect sense,” Rodriguez said.
Michael Kavna is the author of the “Comic Riffs” column and a former staff writer at The Washington Post.
