Five MRC Cartoons Featured in Best of Year Book

Mainstream comedians may have a problem joking about President Obama (he’s too smart and too cool!), but Glenn Foden hasn’t had much trouble. “As someone who has never met any definition of cool I have no problem making fun of those who are,” said the cartoonist. Actually, he tries “not to make fun of Barack Obama, the man, but make fun of his politics.” 

And Foden’s had plenty of success doing that. Five of his political cartoons drawn for the MRC’s Business and Media Institute and Culture and Media institute have been included in the 2014 edition of “Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year [1],” from Pelican Publishing. All five cartoons Fodden submitted, skewering ObamaCare, Obama’s economic policies, his Syria “red line” and general amateurishness, were chosen. 

Furthermore, some of his King Features-syndicated cartoons ave recently been picked up by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “I guess in the appearance of balance, AJC has created a section on its opinion page called ‘From the Right,’” Fodden said. “It’s a little box where a few of us conservative cartoonists sometimes live.” 

The Maryland-based cartoonist has been “getting paid, in the real world” for his drawings for three decades. “It started in Middle School. I used to get into trouble for drawing opinion cartoons about my teachers. I have been doing the same thing ever since. Only now, I just get paid.”

And it’s been rewarding in other ways. “When I first started out cartooning in the 80’s, I did one that caught the attention of NASA,” Foden recalled. “They asked, and I sent them the original and they gave me a press pass to a shuttle launch. I went. That was cool, impressive and huge. And I thought, ‘Hey maybe this editorial cartooning thing might be something worth pursuing.’” 

Asked if it’s tougher for a conservative cartoonist to win plaudits, Foden conceded that it may be. “But if success is measured by eyeballs, (number of viewers) the Internet is the great equalizer,” he said. “The liberal media now has less success in controlling the publication of conservative cartoons and images. They whine about it but hey, ‘Suck it up, cupcake.’”