Tag: cartoons

xkcd: All South Americas

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Randall Munroe, “Bad Map Projection: South America.” xkcd, 17 Jan 2020.

xkcd is back with another bad map projection: in this one, it’s all South Americas. The alt-text: “The projection does a good job preserving both distance and azimuth, at the cost of really exaggerating how many South Americas there are.”

Previously: xkcd’s Time Zone Map; xkcd’s Liquid Resize Map Projection; xkcd’s United States Map.

Itchy Feet’s Map of Every European City

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Malachi Ray Rempen

The latest cartoon from Itchy Feet, a comic about travel and language by filmmaker Malachi Rempen, is a “Map of Every European City.” In the comments, the cartoonist says, “Having been to every single European city, I can safely say with confidence that they all look exactly like this.” I don’t think he’s wrong.

Another Caricature Map of Modern Europe

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

In December 2016 cartoonist Andy Davey created, for a private client, a modern-day “serio-comic” map of Europe in the style of the caricature maps that proliferated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Now he’s created another one in the same style, this one even better than the last: it features political figures in the shape of their countries, with leaders from elsewhere in the world blowing wind in Europe’s direction. Very easy to get lost in the detail here. [WMS]

Geographical Fun: The Teenager Who Drew Serio-Comic Maps

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

We’ve seen “serio-comic” or caricature maps before, most of them dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but Caitlin takes us behind the scenes with a story about one of the artists behind such maps. The twelve maps published in Geographical Fun: Being Humourous Outlines of Various Countries (1868) were the handiwork of a 15-year-old teenager named Lilian Lancaster, who originally drew them to amuse her ill brother. Which is a great and surprising twist. The accompanying text (an introduction and accompanying verses) was by William Harvey (under a pseudonym), who tried to make an educational case for such maps (as one did).

Trumpworld

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Peter Kuper, “Trumpworld,” The New Yorker, 12 January 2018.

It’s been a while since we last saw a map of Donald Trump’s world view (previously), but now, inspired by the president’s reported comments about shithole countries, we have a new one from The New Yorker’s Peter Kuper. [Facebook/Twitter]

Previously: The Huffington Post Maps Trump’s World.

A ‘Serio-Comic Map’ for the Modern Age

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Last December political cartoonist Andy Davey posted a modern-day caricature map that hearkens back to the eve of the First World War, when such “serio-comic” cartographic portraits were common, but fully up-to-date and relevant to the Trump-Putin era. [Maps on the Web]

McCutcheon’s 1908 Cartoon

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

New York Times graphics editor Tim Wallace stumbled across a 1908 Chicago Tribune cartoon by John T. McCutcheon that’s older than other examples of “perception-based” maps he was aware of.

(Though my previous entry contained a link to a 1922 McCutcheon cartoon, which only moves the clock back only 14 years.)

McCutcheon’s View

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Three years ago, the Newberry Library posted a note about a 1922 cartoon from the Chicago Tribune: “The New Yorker’s Idea of the Map of the United States” by John T. McCutcheon bears a strong resemblance to Saul Steinberg’s famous 29 March 1976 New Yorker cover, whose inspiration is often traced to Daniel K. Wallingford’s A New Yorker’s Idea of the United States (1937). See the gallery below.

John T. McCutcheon, The New Yorker’s Idea of the Map of the United States, 1922. Newberry Library.
John T. McCutcheon, The New Yorker’s Idea of the Map of the United States, 1922. Newberry Library.
Saul Steinberg, cover for The New Yorker, 29 March 1976.
Saul Steinberg, cover for The New Yorker, 29 March 1976.
Daniel K. Wallingford, A New Yorker’s Idea of the United States of America, 1937. David Rumsey Map Collection.
Daniel K. Wallingford, A New Yorker’s Idea of the United States of America, 1937. David Rumsey Map Collection.