Modern editorial cartoon, also know as a political cartoon, is an illustration containing a commentary that usually relates to current events or personalities. Editorial cartoonist typically combine artistic skill, hyperbole and satire in order to question authority and draw attention to corruption and other social ills. Political cartoons can usually be found on the editorial page of many newspapers, but are sometimes placed on the regular comic strip page. Most of these cartoonists use visual metaphors and caricatures to address complicated political situations, and thus sum up a current event with a humorous or emotional picture. In modern political cartooning, two styles have begun to emerge. The traditional style uses visual metaphors and symbols like Uncle Sam, the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant; or the more recent text-heavy style, as seen in
Doonesbury, tells a linear story, usually in comic strip format. Regardless of style, editorial cartoons are a way for artists to express their thoughts about current events in a comical manner. A political cartoon commonly draws on two unrelated events and brings them together incongruously for a humorous effect. The humor can reduce people's political anger and so serves a useful purpose. Such a cartoon also reflects real life and politics, where a deal is often done on unrelated proposals beyond public scrutiny.
Sports cartoons were once the centerpiece of the American daily newspaper's sports page. These clever drawings conveyed a story or highlighted a sports star in a compact, simple illustration. Lucky sports fans had one person who could synthesize, inform, and visually illustrate a game and players for them – the sports cartoonist! During the first two-thirds of the Twentieth Century most daily newspapers featured a cartoonist who did sport (and political) cartoons on a regular basis. In the days of competitive journalism, a city like New York with its dozen-plus daily newspapers had an equal number of competing sports cartoonists. It was not unusual to have “yesterday’s game” portrayed with a cartoon in the morning paper. Unfortunately this form of entertainment is now becoming a dying art with the decline of print journalism. But in it heyday, sports cartoonists drew action-packed pieces with a brief storyline summarizing (and often commenting on) a person, team, or a sport itself. Many sport cartoonists rendered striking portraits of star athletes as part of their drawings. These originals not only capture a piece of history, but are incredible works of art as well. Below are shown original sports cartoons about athletes, teams and events during the American "golden age of sports" a half-century ago. Here is a short list of America's top sports cartoonists and the papers they worked for: Willard Mullin, N.Y. World Telegram and Sun ("The Rembrandt of the Sports Page") Lou Darvas, Cleveland Press, Karl Hubenthal, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Bill O'Brien, Chicago Tribune, Dick Mayer, Detroit Free Press, Dick Dugan, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Murray Olderman, NEA News Service and Palm Springs Life Magazine, and Burris Jenkins, New York Journal-American and Hearst newspaper chain. 
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