Don’t tell Daryl Cagle, but the real reason I wanted to see the internationally syndicated editorial cartoonist as a guest on Mr. Media was to match up his actual face with his caricature. He couldn’t possibly look that harried, frustrated and aggravated all at the same time, could he? Well... DARYL CAGLE podcast excerpt: "There is a barometer of freedom for cartoonists. Can the cartoonist draw the president of his own country? You've never seen cartoonist in Cuba draw Fidel Castro. You can't draw the president of China from China. We have a cartoonist in Singapore who says, 'Daryl, I can draw whatever I want as long as it's not about Singapore.' In the Arab countries, the cartoonists want to speak truth to power and they push up against these barriers. They were never, for example, allowed to draw Mubarak in Egypt. Cartoonists get beaten up, they get their hands broken, they get thrown in jail. They're always pushing up against these limits." It can’t be easy doing what guys like Cagle do for a living. Every day they sit down at their drawing table with the expectation of reacting to whatever is most provocative in the day’s breaking news. These men and women don’t know what they’ll be commenting on, referencing, or satirizing from one day to the next. They only know the material comes from a never-ending fount of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. To put the job in perspective, a daily cartoonist working on comic strips such as “Blondie,” “Mutts” or “Pearls Before Swine” typically works four to six weeks ahead of deadline. An editorial cartoonist must come up with fresh, zingy content today for tomorrow. DARYL CAGLE podcast excerpt: "I think I've got the best job in the world. I get to draw what I want, when I want. And say whatever I want. I don't have an editor I have to kowtow to. Editors sometimes ask you to do things you don't want to do; now I'm editor-free." Cagle’s company, Cagle Cartoons Newspaper Syndicate, distributes the cartoons of 60 editorial cartoonists and 14 columnists to more than 850 subscribing newspapers in the United States and around the world. That includes more than half of America's daily, paid-circulation newspapers. He is now our most widely syndicated editorial cartoonist. He is also a past president of the National Cartoonists Society and the National Cartoonists Society Foundation. If you love editorial cartoons, Daryl Cagle would love to see you put your money where your eyeballs are. He is raising cash to help sustain his site Cagle.com. You can become a supporter for as little as $1 a month by making a pledge at . By the way, something you may not know about Cagle: he spent 15 years working with Jim Henson’s Muppets, where he helped create the Muppet Babies characters. Daryl Cagle  • • • •