Here’s some recent cartoons from The Economist. The cartoon below I drew while on holiday in Ireland.

Whenever I travel in the world, I carry a portable scanner so that I can never miss a chance to file my cartoons and covers for The Economist. I have drawn and sent my cartoons from such far flung nations as China, Russia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, New Zealand, Italy and France.

Sorry to be so lacklustre at posting this summer… been bogged down with the new 2012 Economist wall calendar ( which looks awesome!).

Here are some recent favorites from The Economist.

I have been watching politics closely for over 30 years now. I find the bitter partisanship and polarization currently on display in the US depressing. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for the country, it a source of great cartoon material….

Greece is currently mired in deep fiscal problems… with serious economic repercussions for other countries around the world.

As a cartoonist commenting on these events, there is a great temptation to use images of ancient Greece as vehicles for your messages.

Here’s two cartoons from The Economist employing such visuals. The first one  is from this week’s edition (above) and the other (below) from earlier in the crisis when Greek officials seemed to be cooking the economic books.

I think there is no doubt that I will not be alone in the community of cartoonists to tap into the rich library of Greek images to help me in future cartoons.

Over my 33 year career I have drawn many nasty oppressive rulers.

Rarely, however, have I had the dubious distinction of drawing two generations of sadistic murderers in one picture. For this week’s edition of The Economist I chose to cover the sad events unfolding in Syria. I have drawn the nation’s past ruler, Hafez Assad many times over the years (see sample below). He was the demon responsible for the quashing of a citizen revolt in 1982 where he killed an estimated 10-30,000 of his own countrymen. Unfortunately, it appears, his sons plan to follow in in boot-steps.

There is no doubt the best time to be an editorial cartoonist is during an election campaign. There is enough satire material to keep an army of cartoonists employed. The candidates are larger than life figures doing ridicuous things on a daily basis.

More than a year away from the US Presidential election in November 2012, republican pretenders are already getting into campaign shape. In this week’s edition of The Economist I drew my first election cartoon for the 2012 campaign (see above). I am looking forward to many many many many many more to come in the months ahead.

From time to time I have the job of scouring through past cartoons in search of a specific request. It is often an educational experience. I find forgotten images and sketches. I have published, by my count over 6000 cartoons so I guess I can be forgiven for not remembering all of them.

I recently stumbled upon these caricatures I drew in the mid 1980’s for The Economist. They feature political figures still on the international scene: Colonel Qaddafi of Libya, President Mubarak of Egypt, Fidel Castro and Bill Clinton (from the 90’s). They, of course look much younger (and I, of course have not changed at all).

I don’t often have the time just to draw caricatures as I once did. I am blessed with many interesting projects on the boil including The Economist 2012 Wall calendar, animation and my work with students at UMBC.

Still caricature is a deep passion, so recently while taking a short break from my work on the Wall Calendar, I drew the sketch above of the American TV personality David Letterman. It was great fun to draw… I need to do this more often…

I was sad to learn today of the passing of the great Maryland politician William Donald Schaefer. Schaefer or “Willie Don” as we would know him was a flamboyant, dynamic, zany and utterly unique politician who gave 50 years of his life to public service for the people of Maryland.

I had a strange and wonderful relationship with the Governor. As editorial cartoonist for the Baltimore Sun for 17 years, the Governor’s abundant antics supplied me with ample (read: mountains) of material to draw upon.

He was a great showman and ham who was fond of dressing up in silly outfits and wandering off script. His wacky persona was complimented by rubbery face which had more expressions than Baskin Robbins had flavors.

He also had an incredibly thin skin and didn’t take lightly to criticism… particularly unflattering cartoons.

Thus, I was a feature of many of his public tirades and recipient of poison pen letters inked by the great man himself. We had quite a relationship.

Recently, at a Stoop Storytelling series in Baltimore I had the pleasure of sharing some of his funnier antics I encountered. You can listen to the presentation here.

After his retirement from public service in his Eighties, he and I made amends.

I had been asked to partake in an hour long documentary  by MPT about his career in politics. At a private screening of the film he and I had a chance to visit. I thanked him for his dedication and service to the people of Maryland. He thanked me for finally picking on someone else for a change.

Classic Schaefer.

Despite the decades of cartoon criticism, I am a big fan of Willie Don Schaefer. He was an important and accomplished politician who made Baltimore and Maryland a better place to live for millions of citizens.

As a cartoonist I felt lucky to have such a gift as Governor … And as a citizen I felt incredibly lucky to have a Governor so dedicated as William Donald Schaefer.

The Governor and I had a brief detente in 2000 when he wrote the introduction to my collection of cartoons “Kal Draws the Line” (above)

I recently discovered this old photo which conjured a fun memory.

Flash back to July 1986, The Economist commissioned me to do a cover for the magazine featuring the new and, by Soviet standards, modern new leader of the USSR Michael Gorbachev.

At the time a new television show was also the rage: Miami Vice.

I opted to create Gorby in the likeness of the hip star of the show Sonny Crockett.  But in 1986 there was no Internet and photos of Miami Vice were not readily available in Brighton, England where I lived.

So to create a good reference photo for the cover my wife and I went shopping. I picked up the outfit in the picture and posed while my wife took a Polaroid (remember those?) snapshot.

You can see the final results below of the cover I created for that week’s edition of The Economist.

No, I didn’t also buy the car.