A cartoon map of Europe in 1914, at the beginning of World War I.
A
political cartoon, a form of
editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with
caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist’s opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an
editorial cartoonist. They typically combine artistic skill, hyperbole and satire in order to either question authority or draw attention to corruption, political violence and other
social ills.
[1][2]Developed in England in the latter part of the 18th century, the political cartoon was pioneered by
James Gillray,
[3] although his and others in the flourishing English industry were sold as individual prints in print shops. Founded in 1841, the British periodical
Punch appropriated the term
cartoon to refer to its political cartoons, which led to the term’s widespread use.
