New Exhibit Traces The History Of Political Cartoons

Them it away think about about the candidates, you've got to admit it's a dream election for comedians and political cartoonist. It's certainly not the first time that campaigns had become fertile ground for political satire. Tonight at the SDSU done tongue gallery, an art exhibit opens showcasing more than political cartoons from election years. Featured artist include Patrick Olson, Jeff McNally, Lisa Benson, and SDSU alumnus Lalo Alcaraz. And my guest Steve Breen. A Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist whose work appears in the Union Tribune and newspapers across the country. Welcome to the program. Hi there, thank you. Is as presidential election great for cartoonist or too easy? In a sense, it is too easy. Because I could be doing trump and Hillary cartoons everyday. And a ignore all the other issues that are happening. But it really is fun. It is bad for the country but good for me, I like to say. When you talk about all the other things that are going on, today's cartoon is about the sit in in Congress. Tell us about that. I drew a big heavyset figure labeled done lobby. To represent influence. And he is sitting on top of the Capitol dome, and the caption is sit on instead of sit in. The gun lobby is a regular target of mine. I think that they have too much power and influence over our lawmakers. And I don't think we should abolish the Second Amendment but I think we need to be adults and be reasonable about things. That's one of the things I was going to ask you. When it comes to what you are going to be drawing, is a big concept or the image that really inspires you? It can be an image and that I work a caption around that. But mostly it is a feeling I have on a given news topic. I am outraged by this or that. And then I think how can I best crystallized that outrage into an image. This exhibit tonight takes a look back at political cartoons from the 1950s to today. As you look at the cartoons of the past, how do think are tuning has changed over the years? They have gotten cleaner. If you look at those old cartoons, they were -- the cartoonist were master draftsman. Many of them. But they are very -- they are to detailed for my taste. They're labels and everything and I don't like that. I tend to be more streamlined in my approach. I think the people are busy, I think there is a lot of noise out there. And I think you just want to deliver a nice simple crisp image to get your message across. That is my approach. But they often tend to -- they tend to be busy like I said. And somber. Didn't have as much humor as today's cartoons do. And they tended to be bigger. They were drawn so huge. I draw my cartoons on an eight and a half by 11 piece of paper and scan it and work on it in Photoshop. These cartoons are done on 20-inch by 30-inch sheet of paper. The amazing. A lot more political cartoonist when there are a lot more newspapers. Sadly, yes and they had more clout and power. They could walk down the street like a rockstar and people would come up and ask for autographs. I only get that now on the cul-de-sac where I live. Let me tell anybody be exhibit arty Lines: The History, Art and Politics of Editorial Cartoons opens to the public tonight at the SDSU downtown gallery. And I been speaking the San Diego Union Tribune cartoonist Steve Breen. Thank you so much. A musical about the life of T.S. Eliot opens up a fringe Festival. It's 12:49 and you're listening to KPBS Midday Edition.