It has become a Cartoon Movement tradition to share the 10 'best' cartoons each year. It's an arbitrary term, as few things are as subjective as political cartoons, but we've made a selection based on what was popular with our audience and what subjects best represent the news of 2023. So here goes:

1. Earthquake in Turkey and Syria, by Hamzeh Hajjaj

This cartoon captures the devastating impact of the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria in the beginning of the year.

2. Bothersome poverty by Rucke Souza

2023 was yet another year of growing inequality; the super-rich continue to accumulate more of the world's wealth, at the expense of the poor.

3. Mug shots by Glen Le Lievre

Trump remains a constant in cartooning, and although Lady Justice is trying to lock him up, we fear we haven't seen the last of him...

4. Ideologies by Halit Kurtulmus Aytoslu

The most popular ideology of 2023 was populism with a generous splash of racism and xenophobia.

5. Titan versus migrants by Mo Qasem

Remember the submarine with some rich people that went missing on their way to visit the Titanic? The global rescue attempt stood in stark contrast to our (mostly non-existent) attempts to rescue migrant boats.

6. Jenin by Osama Hajjaj

Before the attack on Gaza, Israel already launched a bloody military operation in Jenin this summer.

7. Putin’s chef by Tupou Ceruzou

Putin's revenge on Prigozhin: a dish served cold?

8. Biden visits Israel by Thiago Lucas

Gaza was probably to most cartooned subject of the year. It's difficult to just pick one cartoon from so many powerful image, but this one captures the essence of international politics and the blatant disregard for the massive loss of innocent lives.

9. Black Friday by Anne Derenne

Consumerism captured in a cartoon.

10. Happy new year? by Marian Kamensky

So what do we have to look forward to? Well, more of the same...

See you next year!

By Tjeerd Royaards

For the past month, I've been testing the Gaomon PD2200, a 21,5 pen display to use for digital drawing. It is available for around 400 euro, making it less than half the cost of a similar size Wacom pen display (the market leader). I own and use a 21,5 inch Wacom, so this provided me with a good comparison.

As with all our reviews, we received the pen display from Gaomon for free to review, but they do not exert any other type of control over this review.

Let's start with the positives. I love the amount of screen real estate that you get. Given the size of the screen, I was actually pleasantly surprised about the overall size. Unpacking the tablet from the box, it was smaller and lighter than I had expected it to be, with a smaller border around the screen than my Wacom. Setting it up was straightforward. It comes with the usual connections, power, HDMI and USB: plug these into the wall and into your computer, download the latest driver from the Gaomon website, and you're good to go.

More positives can be found in the drawing experience; although I know it's very subjective, I really like the screen feel of the Gaomon. Many artists complain about the slick, slippery feel of drawing screens, but the Gaomon offers nice resistance to the nib of your (battery-free) pen. I was also impressed by the almost complete lack of parallax; the nib is so close to the line you are drawing, it might even be better than the Wacom.

Almost no parallax

The Gaomon comes with two rows of buttons on either side. In theory, this is a great feature, giving you the option of zooming in and out, using the eraser and some other options, with the quick touch of a button. However, the designer of the display apparently didn't account for the 10% of the world population that is left-handed (including yours truly).

The moment I started drawing, it became clear the buttons on the left were completely unpractical for me. Lefties have their hand pressed to the screen/paper while drawing, which in this case meant inadvertently pressing the different buttons as I drew. It didn't make for a very good experience. Luckily, the display settings give you the option of turning off the buttons. If the tablet is ever redesigned, I would suggest placing these buttons at the top, so they are out of the way.

Another redesign I would suggest the tablet stand. This seems a little bit too small for the tablet; for most of the time, it's fine, but when you start drawing in the upper corners of the screen you can feel a small amount of wobble. The Wacom doesn't have this issue.

The resolution (1920 X 1080) and the pressure levels (8192Levels) of the Goamon are exactly the same as the Wacom. Here below are photos of the wo screens for compaison. Having the same specs, the drawing experience is quite similar on both. One thing I did experience was some glitches in Photoshop with the Gaomon, but this was solved by removing and reinstalling the multiple tablet drivers I have on my computer. After that, everything seemed to be working fine.

Close-up view of the screen of the Wacom 22HD

Close-up view of the screen of the Gaomon PD2200

I must admit, I really like this tablet. It definitely doesn't feel like a budget Wacom and I would be happy to use the Gaomon on a daily basis. The biggest negative is the somewhat wobbly stand, but given the price difference with the Wacom I would still recommend it.

We are pleased to welcome J. Bosco, a journalist, cartoonist and illustrator from Brazil. He has been working as a cartoonist for the newspaper O LIBERAL, in Belém do Pará, since 1988. His cartoons have won numerous international awards and have been published across the globe.

Italian cartoonist and CM member Emanuele Del Rosso has started a new podcast project together with Federica Testi called Tough Laugh, to tell the stories of cartoonists in danger. From the project description: We all come across great political cartoons. Reading a magazine, on social media, watching TV. But we seldom think about the author of the cartoon that made us laugh, or think, or even made us angry. Many cartoonists face economic hardship, harassment, threats, and even physical violence for the job they do. Some are killed. And they often are not considered equals to journalists.

The first episode, produced in partnership with Cartooning for Peace, is out now. Listen to it here.

Kehinde Omotosho (pen name: Kenny Tosh) is a professional artist from Nigeria who specializes in digital illustration, cartoon characters and political cartoons. He currently works with Daily Trust Newspaper as a cartoonist and as an information designer. Check out his Instagram to see more of his work.