The Man Without a Face

A Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist explains why no one's mastered the caricature of John McCain.

John McCain is the hardest presidential candidate I’ve tried to caricature in my forty years of doing this stuff. He shouldn’t be that difficult. He has a bulbous-shaped face brought on by a combination of old age and his struggle with melanoma. His eyes vary between squinty and with big black dots very much like Charlie Chaplin. The problem seems to be capturing the expression in his mouth.

My own feeling is that the expression in the mouth is the real essence of caricature. Once that part of a subject's face is caught, other features like a big nose or a jaw line can be exaggerated and the likeness is still unmistakable.

Richard Nixon was the most flexible. You could draw him from behind and there wasn’t any doubt who it was. Carter and Clinton were both terrific. They had a combination of features that made even the worst political cartoonist capable of capturing and exaggerating what made them unique. The two Bush Presidents were passable. W has those ears and that stupefied look on his face. Obama is quite easy, very much in the Clinton-Carter class.

As for the McCain challenge, it’s possible that, not unlike his campaign platform, McCain's facial expressions change too much for us to get a real handle on him. Cartoonists of the world, vote for Barack Obama or face four years of misery and whiteouts.

Let’s break it down.

Here’s a really good caricature by Steve Brodner, who may be the best of anybody doing political illustrations and caricatures these days. He has caught that elusive McCain expression—the extreme stretching of his face may be the only way to achieve any semblance of its blandness.