
Sean Delonas is an American
political cartoonist and author whose work was for 23 years published by the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' as part of their
Page Six
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established i ...
content. His cartoons are currently syndicated worldwide by Cagle Cartoons.
Life and career
Delonas graduated from the
New York Academy of Art.
[Hoffman, Bill (February 9, 2006)]
Monster in a Box.
''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' Delonas is author of the
children's book
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
''Scuttle's Big Wish'' (a retelling of the story of
King Midas),
[Delonas, Sean (2006). ''Scuttle's Big Wish.'' HarperCollins, ] "Sean Delonas: The Ones They Didn't Print and Some of the Ones They Did." Skyhorse Publishing (2015)
and ''Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder's Survival Guide to New York City''.
[Mason, Jackie and Raoul Lionel Felder (1997). ''Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder's Survival Guide to New York City.'' Avon Books, ] His work has also appeared on the cover of another
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
-owned publication, ''
The Weekly Standard
''The Weekly Standard'' was an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis and commentary, published 48 times per year. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the ''Standard'' had been described as a "r ...
''.
[Colford, Paul D. (February 5, 1998)]
Conservative Journals Are Yukking It Up.
''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' He painted the altar
triptych
A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divide ...
for the
Church of St. Agnes in New York.
[Beth Landman & Deborah Mitchell (February 16, 1998)]
Delonas's Saints of Circumstance
''New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker' ...
''
Controversies
A number of his cartoons have been criticized as "racist, offensive, and misleading."
His work has been criticized as "ham-handed",
[Grossberger, Lewis (October 29, 2001)]
Beware News Abuse.
''Mediaweek
''Mediaweek'' is an online trade website serving the Australian media industry. It provides news regarding the Australian newspaper, television, radio, magazine and outdoor advertising
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising, also called outdoor adv ...
'' and he has been accused of "churning out malevolent fantasies."
[Cotts, Cynthia (October 30, 2001)]
Big Brother’s 'Reason' to Fear.
''Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' He has been called "the worst cartoonist on the planet" by ''Vanity Fair,'' which also asked if he was "stupid, racist, or both?" Conversely, ''
Commentary'' also praised his irreverent visual imagination, and described as "a bizarre cross between
Jack Davis of ''
Mad Magazine
Mad, mad, or MAD may refer to:
Geography
* Mad (village), a village in the Dunajská Streda District of Slovakia
* Mád, a village in Hungary
* Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, by IATA airport code
* Mad River (disambiguation), several ...
'' and
Hieronymous Bosch
Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/ Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on o ...
."
A 1999 cartoon depicted
Louis Farrakhan
Louis Farrakhan (; born Louis Eugene Walcott, May 11, 1933) is an American religious leader, black supremacist, anti-white and antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and former singer who heads the Nation of Islam (NOI). Prior to joining the NOI ...
about to undergo surgery for recently diagnosed cancer, with the surgeons preparing to cut through his neck to remove "the cancerous tumor from Farrakhan's body."
[Kurtz, Howard (March 29, 1999)]
Report of a Death, Slightly Exaggerated.
''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'' A 2001 cartoon showing rival editor
Mortimer B. Zuckerman
Mortimer Benjamin Zuckerman (born June 4, 1937) is a Canadian-American billionaire media proprietor, magazine editor, and investor. He is the co-founder, executive chairman and former CEO of Boston Properties, one of the largest real estate inv ...
of the ''New York Daily News'' sending
anthrax
Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The s ...
to ''Post'' editor
Col Allan
Colin "Col" Allan (born 1953) is an Australian journalist. He served as the editor in chief of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Telegraph'' of Sydney, Australia and served as editor in chief of ''The New York Post'' from 2001 to 2016.Bla ...
led to sponsor withdrawal.
[Blair, Jayson (October 24, 2001). Ads Withdrawn From The Post As Criticism of Anthrax Cartoon. '']New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''
After a photoshopped picture of the
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) and ...
muppet
Bert standing alongside
Osama bin Laden went viral when it turned up on a pro-Osama placard, the website which included it (
Bert is Evil) was taken down. Referencing this, in the ''Post'', Delonas did a series of depictions of Bert instructing and training
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pas ...
and
Al Qaida terrorists.

In 2009, two days after a local
chimpanzee mauling and one day after legislation was signed into law by President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
, Delonas depicted two white police officers who just shot and killed a
chimpanzee. One officer says, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next
stimulus bill
In economics, stimulus refers to attempts to use monetary policy or fiscal policy (or stabilization policy in general) to stimulate the economy. Stimulus can also refer to monetary policies such as lowering interest rates and quantitative easin ...
."
[Delonas, Sean (February 18, 2009)]
Chimpanzee cartoon.
''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' The cartoon was widely criticized as in bad taste
[Roland S. Martin]
Commentary: NY Post cartoon is racist and careless
CNN, February 18, 2009, Accessed February 19, 2009. and as making a reference to the racial slur of African Americans being portrayed as apes. Protests came from journalists,
[Gabe Pressman]
The Unfunny Cartoon
MSNBC.com, February 18, 2009, Accessed February 19, 2009. politicians, police groups,
[Simone Weichselbaum]
''New York Daily News'', February 19, 2009, Accessed February 19, 2009. and the public.
[Nico Hines]
Protesters picket New York Post over chimp cartoon
''The Times'', February 19, 2009, Accessed February 19, 2009. The ''Post'' disputed this interpretation and defended Delonas.
[Ashley Fantz]
Racism row over chimp cartoon sparks debate
CNN, February 19, 2009, Accessed February 19, 2009. The ''Post'' apologized "to those who were offended by the image" while in the same statement accusing "some in the media" of seizing on the opportunity for "payback".
[Editor (February 20, 2009)]
''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
''
In 2018, the ''
Albuquerque Journal
The ''Albuquerque Journal'' is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of New Mexico.
History
The ''Golden Gate'' newspaper was founded in June 1880. In the fall of 1880, the owner of the ''Golden Gate'' died and Journal Publishing Company was ...
'' apologized for publishing a cartoon by Delonas which equated
MS-13
Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1970s and 1980s. Originally, the gang was set up to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs in the Los Ang ...
gang members with
Dreamers
Dreamers or The Dreamers may refer to:
Books
* "Dreamers", a 1918 war poem by Siegfried Sassoon
* "The Dreamers" (play), a 1982 play by Jack Davis
* ''The Dreamers'' (novel series), a 2003–06 fantasy series by David Eddings and Leigh Eddings ...
. The cartoon was widely criticized, including by both U.S. senators from New Mexico.
References
External links
Delonas' cartoonsvia ''New York Post''
* Th
Sean Delonas Collection of Cartoons from the New York Postat th
New-York Historical Society
seandelonas.com/Sean Delonas website.
SeanDelonas.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delonas, Sean
American editorial cartoonists
Living people
New York Academy of Art alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)