Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. 378 Journalism: Publishing Across Media a symbol for America. These stock symbols allow cartoonists to make critical comments in a simple drawing because these abstract ideas—the parties and the country—can be shown performing symbolic actions (Figure 12.9). Labels Labels The test of a good editorial illustration or editorial cartoon is how easily it communicates to the viewer or reader. Labels may be needed to make your illustration or cartoon clear to your audience. If in doubt, get responses from others on your staff and from several diverse readers to see if your meaning is clear. Labels may be necessary on several parts of your cartoon (Figure 12.10). If you show your mascot cowering behind the post of a school building’s porch, wiping his forehead, weak with relief, while a runaway school bus careens away, you may need to label the bus to explain the disaster that your school has just avoided. “State School Budget” or “Drastic Budget Cuts” or “School Closures” makes clear the danger the mascot—and your community—has just escaped. Caricatures Caricatures Political leaders, entertainers and other public fi gures are often drawn as caricatures Figure 12.9 Debuting in an editorial cartoon by Thomas Nast in the late 1800s, the elephant and donkey have represented the political parties in the United States ever since. Courtesy of David Horsey Courtesy of David Horsey Figure 12.8 The wealthy who increase their worth by “down-sizing” companies are targeted in this editorial cartoon using two familiar tropes, the saying, “A mother’s work is never done,” and the image of Uncle Scrooge McDuck who had so much excess money he took daily swims in his money pile. Uncle Scrooge is a reference to Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”