Pen vs. Rocket

American cartoons about the Middle East are bleak enough, and it doesn’t get any more upbeat the closer you get to the action. As war-weary artists the world over deploy pen, pencil and ruler against missile and rocket, some are rethinking the adage about the mightiness of the sword.

Peter Pismestrovic’s forlorn peace dove and Jens Julius’ underage collateral damage capture Europe’s ambivalence, while Stavro Jabra’s impotent United Nations and Yaakov Kirschen’s Hezbollah nihilists reflect Middle East rage.

Cartooning is a little like war: Take sides, draw your crude, blunt weapons and launch attacks on the bad guys — the more explosive the better. At least when we’re wrong, we spill only ink. — Joel Pett

Joel Pett is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist of the Lexington Herald-Leader. His work also appears in USA Today.