Andy Coughlan, who publishes a political cartoon with The Beaumont Enterprise every Sunday, shared the history of political cartoons and then shared some of his cartoons.

Coughlan said, “Editorial cartoons have been around forever, as long as there have been people; cartoons used to be just drawings; they weren’t called cartoons until the 1800s.”

The first American cartoonist was Ben Franklin with his “join or die” drawing. That cartoon depicting a cut up snake was followed by “Magna Reduced,” a drawing of Britain and her colonies breaking away.

“One of things you do as a cartoonist is you want to use recognizable images,” said Coughlan.

Coughlan demonstrated through a series of historic political cartoons that history can be told through them. The cartoons by James Gillray, Honore Victorin Daumier, Thomas Nast, John Tenniel, E.H. Shepard, Dr. Seuss and Herblock illustrated topics of their day from gerrymandering to the push for cow pocks vaccinations.

Gillray crafted cartoons that mocked those who refused to get the cow pock’s vaccine, and Honore Victorin Daumier poked fun at French political and social life. Thomas Nast was made famous for creating a fat Santa Claus; before Nast, Santa was a skinny character. Nast also took on the topic of the corrupt Boss Tweed and Tammny Hall and was the first to depict Republicans with the elephant. (The donkey for Democrats was established to represent Andrew Jackson who people considered a hotheaded ass, according to Coughlan.) The fact that these symbols were established by cartoons and remain to this day, prove the power of the political cartoon, according to Coughlan.

John Tenniel, who illustrated “Alice in Wonderland” worked for Punch Magazine as a political cartoonist for more than 50 years. E.H. Shepard the creator of Winnie the Pooh, crafted cartoons about WWI and was recognized for a cartoon about the Germans and English troops playing soccer on Christmas Day.

Dr. Seuss was a political cartoonist who was against isolationism and fascism and apologized for his treatment of Japanese in his political cartoons.

Herbert Lawrence Block or Herblock worked as a cartoonist for the Washington Post for a long time and won Pulitzer Prizes for his cartoons regarding Stalin’s death and the cartoons created about McCarthyism. He carried on the use of the elephant to represent Republicans.

Coughlan said editorial cartoons are typically iconoclastic, and every cartoonist looks for injustice, inequity and then mixes in a healthy sense of arrogance.

The challenge with being a political cartoonist is trying to depict a complex issue in one picture, said Coughlan. “If your cartoon has a lot of words, you’re not doing it right,” said Coughlan. “A perfect cartoon would be a white square with no words, and everyone would know what I’m talking about.”

Coughlan has been creating 50 cartoons a year for 30 something years. He showed Rotary a few of his favorites published during those years. Coughlan’s cartoons have local relevance for the most part, but he has illustrated mainstream societal and political topics – the death of Johnny Carson, the fall of Lance Armstrong, overall voter apathy and the Trump border wall. Instead, Coughlan’s cartoons have featured regional issues and topics like BISD. During the BISD investigations a few years ago, Coughlan created 36 cartoons related to the district’s trouble. His favorite represents BISD as Humpty Dumpty who has fallen and lost public trust.

When The Pig Stand was knocked down on Calder at MLK, Coughlan’s cartoon sarcastically titled the wrecking ball, “progress.”

When Southeast Texas set the national record for rainfall, Coughlan’s cartoon showed an island that didn’t drowned. And when local legendary police officer Burmaster returned to the police force after an injury, Coughlan drew him as a Jedi Knight.

He has depicted Becky Ames in a “Game of Thrones” motif, Mike Getz with soap in his mouth and Dade Phelan with an extra big forehead. No topic is off limits from hurricanes to plant explosions, economic development to covid vaccines.

“I love it when people get upset or are offended,” said Coughlan. “I’m always just attacking things; that’s what it is about to point out things and say this isn’t quite right and are you sure you want to think that way. I don’t feel bad going after people; it’s my job.”