However, knowing that a historic verdict was imminent, Mouly and New Yorker editor David Remnick began examining sketchy ideas, most of them based on a guilty verdict. One illustration by regular contributor John Cuneo stood out from the rest, depicting Trump reaching his tiny hands toward handcuffs too big for them.
“It was a good composition that highlighted the ridiculously small hands, and the image, although it reflected the past, predicted the future,” said Mouly of the magazine’s final cover image, reproduced in ink and watercolor and titled “A Man of Conviction.” . “Even with a conviction for a crime, [will] Has Trump ever been harmed or restricted?”
Editorial artists across the country responded promptly to Trump’s criminal conviction on all 34 counts involving falsifying records in his New York money hiding case. Some cartoonists sketched preliminary ideas; others waited until the verdict was given to react in real time, harnessing the excitement of the deadline for inspiration.
In all of the art curated here, illustrators have sought to skillfully capture the story in a single moving image.
Steve Breen, the right-wing Pulitzer Prize winner for inewsource, only got to the drawing board when the conviction was announced.
“I should have been ‘guilty’, ‘innocent’ [and] ‘Hung Jury’ is ready to come out because the story is so big and consequential, but I didn’t do it,” Breen said. “I think it’s Trump fatigue. How many more ways can it be drawn?
Breen initially drew the colorful neon lights of a New York bail bond office reflecting in the window of a limousine, with passenger Trump inside looking out. Then he tried to change the reflection to a group of happy, cheering people.
“I finally found him scowling at an ordinary New Yorker,” Breen said.
Steve Brodner, designing for the Nation, also looked to deadlines for inspiration. His illustration shows Lady Justice carrying Trump toward a prison cell while saying, “Seize him by the law.”
Shortly after the verdict was released, “I started thinking about the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape and how that verdict was, in some ways, the ghost of that tape from long ago, finally coming home to roost — and with Trump as the one who gets grabbed. And I liked the idea of Lady Justice doing the honors,” said Brodner, who will receive the 2024 Herblock Prize on Tuesday at the Library of Congress.
Clay Bennett, the left-leaning Pulitzer winner of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, began sketching as he anticipated the announcement of the verdict. He decided to design cups to toast the victory of the “rule of law”.
“Having the jury come to a decision so quickly, I figured it would be neither an acquittal nor a hung jury, so I thought I would follow my instincts from the draft I had in hand,” Bennett said. “I was very happy that the eventual verdict was so supportive of my cartoon It is the rule of law.”
Nick Anderson, a Pulitzer-winning cartoonist who draws for Reform Austin News, said the rush of a tight deadline helped him focus: “I think I need the inspiration of the actual event to inspire my creativity. Sometimes the nuances of an event are as important as the event itself.”
“The fact that Trump was guilty on all 34 counts was a pretty devastating statement. I thought for about 10 minutes before coming up with the idea for the cartoon: I really wanted to capture that we now have a presidential candidate from a major political party who is a convicted felon,” Anderson added.
He decided to spell out the word “FELON” by framing Trump’s face: “I wasn’t sure I could do it at first, but it really happened quickly.”
Matt Davies, the Pulitzer-winning cartoonist at Newsday, said he was “flabbergasted” by the verdict on all counts, given the experts he had been hearing from.
“I had an hour to think of something and paint it,” said Davies, who named Trump’s new running mate as his parole officer. “I wanted to avoid appearing gleeful about the verdict. While Trump appeared to be getting his due, it also created discomfort knowing that he and his supporters would simply treat a legitimate legal verdict in the same tribal way they did the election they lost. Which is, of course, fodder for another cartoon.”
Some artists decided to mix the announcement of the verdict with previous news. Rick McKee, a self-described moderate politician who works for the Cagle Cartoons union, thought about allegations that Trump contacted state officials and pressured them to “find” votes after the last presidential election.
“As I was scanning the news, the reference to juror votes kept coming up, and I thought, those were some votes I bet he wished he hadn’t gotten — and it worked,” McKee said. “He’s always saying such crazy things that it gets [practically] writing these drawings for myself, and I’m just doodling them as they come.”
Andrews McMeel Syndication’s Mike Lester, by comparison, decided to reference current headlines surrounding Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. refusing to recuse himself from hearing cases related to the January 6, 2021 insurrection , despite revelations that an inverted American flag associated with some protesters was flown over his home.
“The Alitos news cycle — his wife in particular and her neighborhood dispute — for some reason provoked screams from my liberal and cartoonist friends,” Lester said. So he drew Trump’s verdict as a reason to fly the American flag inverted as a symbol of protest or distress.
Dave Whamond of Cagle Cartoons drew Trump as a prisoner, exaggerating the dimensions of his cell.
“I predicted the verdict would be guilty as the evidence seemed overwhelming,” he said. “It seemed natural for him to brag about the size of his cell – not that I think he would do time in this one. The problem is, I can see him saying it eventually, so I had to put it out there before then. [actually] it happens. It’s difficult for us cartoonists to parody our current reality.”
Time magazine, like the New Yorker, prepared cover art while awaiting the verdict. Edel Rodriguez worked on about a dozen concepts with the magazine’s team, including creative director DW Pine. Over the days, the artist refined the image of a hammer and a sound block with Trump’s face. Then it became a game of waiting for the result.
“After the guilty verdict on 34 counts came out, that image made perfect sense,” Rodriguez said.
Michael Cavna is the creator of the Comic Riffs column and a former writer for The Post.
