The Kings of Cartoons

If you're still reeling from the dismal results of the midterm elections and are more bewildered than ever by the sanity and wisdom - or lack thereof - of the American electorate, you can find needed relief from the absurdity of it all with "Slinging Satire: Masters of Political Cartoons" at the Cartoon Art Museum.

Sure to elicit moments of laughter and nods of recognition, the show's collection of 60 biting editorial cartoons by 20 award-winning, pull-no-punches artists proves that - to fracture an old cliche - a picture with a damning caption is worth a thousand words.

The mediums the cartoonists utilize have both stayed the same and changed with the times, ranging from traditional pen-and-ink to digital and flash-animation videos like those by the wonderfully wacky, self-syndicated Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Fiore. Several of Fiore's recent shorts that originally appeared on SFGate.com address the Middle East, race relations and materialism.

The political leanings of the cartoonists assembled here range from "bleeding heart liberal to staunch conservative," according to the exhibition materials, but no matter what their station on the spectrum, each is well-versed in the art of unveiling, exposing and lampooning those in power, and the lacerating wit they deploy is a tonic for the b.s. and verbosity emanating from the 24/7 news cycle.

They also tend to cut to the chase, especially when skewering hypocrisy and dishing it out on hot topics, including income inequality, terrorism and gay marriage. David Horsey of the L.A. Times tackles the latter issue with a cartoon set in a quickie Las Vegas wedding chapel. While the preacher, an Elvis impersonator, is in the process of marrying a skuzzy biker dude to a showgirl in a thong, a receptionist handling the phones tells an unseen caller, "No, we don't do gay marriages. That would defile a sacred institution."

In a more poetic comment on the subject, Nate Beeler of the Columbia Dispatch depicts the blindfolded Lady Justice in a moment of unguarded joy, jumping into the arms of the Statue of Liberty, who clutches the DOMA ruling.

As one would expect, Obama is an irresistible moving target - or is he, at this stage, simply a lame sitting duck? The doldrums and deflated expectations afflicting the current administration are reflected in a cartoon where Obama stands behind a podium emblazoned with the slogan, "Yes, We Can!" Cut to the next panel, and the slogan has morphed into "So Sue Me." In another piece, Obama is in a golf pro shop, boasting about playing over 200 rounds of golf since becoming president. "Wow, that takes a lot of balls," gushes the cashier.

Raised on hip-hop, rapper and social activist Keith Knight is the man behind three successful strips: "Knight Life," "(th)ink" and "The K Chronicles." He's one of the few African Americans in the industry, and his perspective is understandably pointed when it comes to race, as in the single-panel cartoon that announces, "This precinct has gone 7 days without shooting an unarmed black man."

Newly minted Pulitzer-winner Kevin Siers (Charlotte Observer) has sent up Obamacare, power brokers and the Catholic Church hierarchy. He's represented in the exhibition by his parody of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam fresco (on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel), but with a slight difference. In Siers' illustration, the naked Adam is nowhere to be found. God floats in a heavenly cloud in the company of several Supreme Court Justices, and extends his life-giving hand toward a nattily dressed figure symbolizing corporations.

The wickedly subversive, much-decorated Tom Tomorrow (aka Dan Perkins), who's hanging buddies with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, is the creator of "This Modern World." The weekly alternative cartoon strip, which ridicules political leaders and the deranged behavior of the media, has been described as having "the look of Roy Lichtenstein and the brutality of Lenny Bruce." The description certainly applies to his wilting takedown of the Hobby Lobby kerfuffle. "A woman's reproductive health is between her doctor and the boss at her crappy chain-store job," the text declares, while in another section, echoing the sentiments of the philosopher king Rush Limbaugh, a misogynist gleefully proclaims, "Too bad, harlots. No more employer-subsidized, non-procreative sex for you."

The strip debuted in the SF Weekly in 1990, and now appears in The Nation and on the Daily Kos, suggesting that Perkins is riding a wave. But, when asked by an interviewer shortly after he won the Herblock Award last year what advice he'd give young people entering the field, he replied thus: "I might gently suggest that they explore other life options, [like] dressing up as Sesame Street characters in Times Square."

Through March 9