Detroit Newspapers in Education

There are now 124 lessons in our online library

Click here to download any lessons you might have missed at no charge

Click here for a list of election-year lessons from our library

Upcoming Lessons

New lessons are posted for download every other week.

Coming 07/07/08

Tooning into everyday themes

Coming 07/21/08

Tooning into the Economy: Ever heard of 'Stagflation?'

Archived lessons

Click here to retreive lessons you might have missed.

State of the Art

Editorial Cartoons: The Impact and Issues of an Evolving Craft

In their December 2004 issue, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism published a series of articles looking at political cartooning and its position in journalism today. The issue is available for download as a pdf file.

Download the issue here

Toons in books!

New, noteworthy and the editor's suggestions

Get details

Tooning into history

They were there

Are you studying Reconstruction? The McCarthy era? World War II? View history through the eyes of the political cartoonists.
Check the online resources here.

Meet YOUR cartoonist

Henry Payne

Henry Payne produces five editorial cartoons a week for The Detroit News. He also writes and draws a column, Payne & Ink, which appears on the paper's Monday Op-Ed page. And his weekly auto industry cartoon, CarToons runs Tuesdays on The News' web site, detnews.com.

Click here for Henry's website

Larry Wright

Larry Wright has been an editorial/op-ed page cartoonist at The Detroit News since 1976, currently drawing three editorial cartoons a week. Wright is a past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

Click here for Larry's toons

Mike Thompson

Mike Thompson is the editorial cartoonist for the Detroit Free Press. He began his career as contributing cartoonist for The Milwaukee Journal and later worked as staff cartoonist for the St. Louis Sun and the Copley Illinois newspapers before joining the Free Press in November 1998.

Click here for Mike's toons

More Cartoon Resources

Stop laughing, this is serious*

Association of American Editorial Cartoonists:

What you'll find: Collection of political cartoons, articles dealing with cartooning and cartoonists.

Where you'll find it: Click here

The Opper Project: Teaching history through political cartoons

Ohio State University has launched a project that uses editorial cartoons to teach history. You'll find lesson plans, downloadable toons and much more.

Click here for the Opper Project

Daryl Cagle's
Cartoon Index:

What you'll find: Huge selection of Political Cartoons updated daily. Collections categorized by topic.

Where you'll find it: Click here

CartoonArts International:

What you'll find: Major political cartoonists from the world press in over 75 countries.

Where you'll find it: Click here

*How far do Toons reach? The cartoon Australians consider the best and most famous in the world features two workmen hanging in the air from a steel girder, one by the pants of the other, pulling them down. The caption words, "For gorsake, stop laughing, this is serious," have since become a byword in Australian culture. See the cartoon and read more about it at Witty World