Political cartooning is one of the oldest forms of comics. Ben Franklin’s “Join, or Die,” published in May 1754, is sometimes regarded as the first of its kind (at least in the United States). The tradition has continued down through the present day in obvious and subtle ways - with cartoonists like Thomas Nast, Garry Trudeau, Al Capp, and Walt Kelly contributing their wit to lancing the political elite. To no surprise, the current Presidential administration has inspired its fair share of sequential art retorts.

Some of the very best criticisms of the Trump presidency have, maybe surprisingly, come from two artists outside the political cartooning stable, both best known for their mainstream comics work. Pia Guerra, famed for her five-year run illustrating Y: The Last Man, has been skewering the administration with a series of emotionally devastating one-panel stilettos. Addressing topics ranging from family separation at the border to President Trump’s distrust of the press, Me The People runs regularly on TheNib.com and has received a print edition this October from Image Comics.

RELATED: Editorial Cartoonist Fired Following Rejected Trump Cartoons

Mike Norton - best known for stints on Queen & Country, All New Atom, Archer & Armstrong and his creator-owned webcomic Battlepug - vents his caustic anger in Lil’ Donnie, where he takes aim at the president’s conflicting statements and juvenile outrage. Lil’ Donnie appears on GoComics and got its first print collection, Lil’ Donnie vol. 1: Executive Privilege, also from Image, this past August.

Neither of the creators had a strong history with editorial cartooning prior to launching their current ventures, but both felt they had to speak up about what they see in the United States today. “I did editorial cartoons for the high school paper but that’s about it,” Guerra explained. “While working to establish a career in comic books I would occasionally draw about a news item or something that made me angry, and it would just sit in a sketchbook. Later, I posted some of these on social media and a few got some notice. It wasn’t until after the Big Boy cartoon went viral in 2017 that I was asked to be a regular contributor to TheNib.com.”

Norton agreed. “I did a couple of strips in college, but they weren’t political. I’ve spent most of my life actively avoiding political stuff. It wasn’t until the last election that even thought to myself, ‘This is getting a little ridiculous.’”

As for what topics most drive them to put pencil to paper, they agreed completely, with Guerra succinctly stating, “Mostly, it’s those addressing Trump’s unbelievably childish behavior.”

“Ego and stupidity,” Norton said. “I mean, it’s easy to make fun of someone who thinks as highly of himself as our current president, and he’s definitely not winning any MENSA awards. But I’ve returned to a few other issues because I personally get annoyed by them - gun control and the spurning of NFL players over protesting.”

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As you might guess, neither Guerra nor Norton have had a shortage of controversies and outrages to draw upon. The hardest part, they admit, is finding the right joke for any specific subject. Even aspects of the administration they’d like to attack are sometimes left aside in service of finding the right hook for their strip. “There are some complex stuff like with the Supreme Court confirmations or actual policy issues that are hard to make a quick joke about other than ‘Congress… Am I right?’,” Norton laughed, “so I try to find the most direct path to a joke when I can. Even if it means that only I get it sometimes.”

Guerra has a laundry list of topics she feels she’s neglected: “Puerto Rico, certain members of the administration, family reunification, Kavanaugh, Planned Parenthood, Police Brutality, the Dakota Pipeline... so many issues and I can sit and stew for a good chunk of the day and not get an image,” she explained. “Or there’s the seed of an idea that needs work but then a much stronger one shows up about a completely different issue. Or you finally find the image but now the focus has shifted entirely because of a tweet and now we’re at war with Holland or something equally stupid.”

RELATED: Pia Guerra Talks Trump, Politics & Editorial Cartooning

Both agreed that working on political cartoons means being in the moment, capturing the sentiment and American impact of the moment. “It became clear to me early on that the speed and sheer volume of crap that comes out of this current administration was going to make it impossible to have a ‘timeless’ quality to most of the jokes,” Norton said. “I just kind of leaned into it. I look at it as comedy writing for a late night talk show. These jokes have a time limit on them and my job is to get them out as quick as possible while they’re relevant. Some have staying power because our current president loves to repeat himself.”

Guerra expanded the point, saying, “Most of the time it’s very immediate. I have the news on most of the day while I work on projects and then a story comes on that makes me roll my eyes, or gasp or laugh, and then an image shows up and I have to draw it right then. It can happen fast enough that I have something posted within an hour of getting the idea. Sometimes, I’ll be reading about something coming up, like preparations for the anniversary of the Charlottesville rally and I get an idea involving Lady Liberty’s torch squishing one of the tiki torch guys. It’s a month away (or a year late depending on how you view it), but I really like the image and post it anyway. But yeah, then there’s a random thing that pops up and I just go with it because it’s fun to draw. I could probably be more disciplined with how I go about it; right now I follow the emotion to the facts to the image and see what happens. If it works, it gets posted. If it’s iffy, I set it aside and find something else to draw about.”

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Adjusting to the punchier format of a single illustration or a three-panel strip has given both cartoonists the opportunity to exercise different cartooning muscles. “Sequential art has a flow like a roller coaster or a hike through the woods. You guide the reader visually through a page as the story dictates, pacing the emotional beats for maximum impact. You can draw it out slow or make it a staccato onslaught of pictures,” Guerra explained. “With editorial cartoons it’s compressed to one image, so you have to make it clear, find the elements that convey the most information and connect the reader to the issue as quickly as possible. They’re both challenging ways of telling a story but when you get what you want to come across the satisfaction is about the same.”

Norton added, “It’s much more difficult. Trying to get something across in such a small amount of space is very challenging, but that’s also the fun of it. Limitations often breed creativity. I prefer long form comics though.”

“Herblock was a huge influence after seeing a documentary about his career and process a few years ago,” Guerra said on the subject of political cartooning influences. “Whenever I tried to draw an editorial cartoon I felt like I was missing something in the execution, like maybe I needed specific education or knowledge to get it right. But seeing his approach clarified things for me and made me want to experiment more.

“I don’t have a list of names of cartoonists in my head like I do with comic book artists but a few that stand out right now are Bruce MacKinnon and Matt Davies.”

Norton said succinctly and chivalrously, “Political cartoons really never entered my headspace until recently. Pia Guerra’s stuff for The Nib is killer though.”

And while both remain committed to voicing their political views to interested followers, they’re also working hard on a variety of other projects. “I’m currently halfway through a mini-series for comiXology with Tim Seeley called Grave Danger,” Norton said. “I’m starting a new series with Albatross Funnybooks called Grumble. I have a Hellboy mini I’ve finished that starts in November, and I’m drawing a short story for DC’s Nuclear Winter Special.”

Guerra’s political work opened new creative avenues to her. “Working for The Nib led to being asked to contribute to The New Yorker. Along with my husband and writer Ian Boothby, we’ve been collaborating on cartoons since last winter. It has been a lot of fun and a nice break from all the snarkiness of the editorial work.

“I’ve also been working on my own sci fi comic series. It’s coming along.”

Lil’ Donnie vol. 1: Executive Privilege and Me the People are both available now, from Image Comics.