Khalil Bandib: Cartoons that Speak Truth to Power 2 Favorite 

Khalil Bandib is a Berkeley-based, award-winning editorial cartoonist with a unique perspective. He critiques a myriad of topics, from racism and homophobia to foreign policy and the Patriot Act. Bandib was born in North Africa under a French colonist regime; he brings a non-Eurocentric perspective not typically visible in large corporate media. After resigning from his position at the San Bernardino Sun, Bandib utilized the internet to distribute his political cartoons independently to alternative media outlets outside the corporate mainstream media.

In 2007 his first book was published, Mission Accomplished: Wicked Cartoons by America’s Most Wanted Political Cartoonist. Bandib’s work extends to hosting a weekly one-hour radio program, Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, on Pacifica Radio. Too Big to Fail, a collection of Khalil Bandib’s political cartoons, was released in 2015. The collection celebrates the epochal paradigm shift that unfolded after the 2008 US economic crisis and highlights the absurdity of it all while heralding the light at the end of the tunnel for the oppressed 99%. His first book was published; he released Veraz: The True History of Whistleblowers, Drone Warfare, and Mass Surveillance: A Graphic Novel. Today he is writing articles and creating cartoons for OtherWords, a free editorial service published by the Institute for Policy Studies. He has been published in The Black Commentator and other online publications.

Some of the topics addressed in Khalil Bandib’s graphics are the environment, democracy, labor, militarism, Palestine, and media. Bandib work seeks to expose the crude racial stereotypes, misinformation, and pablum offered by mass media. Simultaneously, giving a voice to the voiceless, “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” His motto, “The Pen is funnier than the sword,” can be seen in nearly every one of his cartoons, all of which focus on speaking truth to power.