Portfolio > Editorial Illustration

This portfolio contains examples of my editorial cartoons and illustrations. Since 2015 this work has increasingly become an important part of my daily art practice. Iowa City’s local Little Village Magazine has been featuring some of my work in a series titled Stress Fractures. I do have a passionate interest in politics and staying engaged and informed is an important part of our duty to participate in our democracy. As an artist I try to stay open to many influences and allow myself to be pulled in different directions. Editorial cartooning is a way to use my visual communication skills to synthesize what I am paying attention to and processing. It helps keep the brain sharpened in a world full of anesthetic influences and distractions and is a chance to jump into the fray and push (and punch) back.
I have always been attracted to the drawing style, satire, hyperbole and storytelling of political cartoons and comic strips like Bloom County, The Far Side, Mad Magazine and many others. Going even further back artists like Goya, Daumier, and Thomas Nast are a few examples of influences. On a personal level I love to work in pen and ink and watercolor. I am interested in the “animal” like nature of humans and how they predictably succumb to their base instincts and weaknesses. My goal is to draw out the things that drive us (and our leaders) on an emotional and evolutionary level. It’s important to have a strong visceral relationship with the materials and use the brush marks, lines, dots and textures as notes to play the full song of the characters represented, and to find the humor, horror, and hope contained there.

John martinek editorial cartoon illustration justice dance of death
Ink on Clayboard
8" x 10"
March 2020
John Martinek Editorial Political Cartoon Illustration
India Ink on Clayboard
8" x 10"
December 2019
The Road to Our Survival
India Ink on Clayboard
8" x 10"
February 2020
John Martinek Editorial Political Cartoon Illustration
India Ink on Clayboard
11" x 14"
January 2020
The Kingdom
India Ink on Clayboard
11" x 14"
January 2020
John Martinek Editorial Political Cartoon Illustration
India Ink on Clayboard
8" x 8"
August 2020
John Martinek Editorial Political Cartoon Illustration
India Ink on Clayboard
8" x 8"
November 2019
John Martinek editorial cartoon ecology climate change
Ink on Clay Board
April 2019
John Martinek editorial cartoon Trump Stephen Miller
Pen and Ink on Paper
March 2019
john martinek Pen and Ink kleptocracy shell corporations
Pen and Ink on Paper
12 x 12
February 2019
John Martinek editorial cartoon Steve King
Pen and Ink on Paper
12 x 12
January 2019
John Martinek editorial cartoon Trump Recession The Wall Bankruptcy
Pen and Ink on Paper
12 x 12
January 2019
John Martinek editorial cartoon Trump fraudulent activities corruption Mueller investigation
Pen and Ink on Paper
12 x 12
January 2019
John Martinek editorial cartoon climate change
Pen and Ink on Paper
9" x 9"
November 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon border patrol security immigration migrants
Pen and Ink on Paper
9" x 9"
December 2018
John Martinek border wall robots computerized outsourced upgraded
Pen and Ink on Paper
November 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon chuck grassley brett kavanaugh
Pen and Ink on Paper
9" x 9"
October 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon Grassley Kavanaugh Supreme Court
Pen and Ink on Paper
9" x 9"
October 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon
Pen and Ink on Paper
9" x 9"
November 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon Mueller investigation Trump
9" x 9"
September 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon Mitch McConnell Paul Ryan
Pen and Ink on Paper
9" x 9"
August 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon Kim Reynolds Medicaid Iowa
Pen and Ink on Paper
9" x 9"
September 2018
Honorary Mist
Pen and Ink on Paper
8" x 8"
August 2018
The Zero Hour
Pen and Ink on Paper
8" x 8"
July 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon north korea
Pen and Ink on Paper
14" x 14"
May 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon mass shooting thoughts and prayers
Pen and Ink on Paper
11" x 11"
December 2017
Iowa a place to grow John Martinek editorial cartoon
Pen and Ink on Paper
8" x 8"
April 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon environmental
Pen and Ink on Paper
7" x 7"
April 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon
Pen and Ink on Paper
9" x 13"
March 2018
John Martinek Editorial Illustration Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Watercolor and Digital Image
8 1/2" x 10 1/2"
March 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon Little Village predictions 2018
Watercolor, Ink, Digital Illustration
9" x 11 3/4"
2018
John Martinek political cartoon trump portrait
Pen and Ink on Paper
7" x 9"
2017
John Martinek editorial illustration
Pen and Ink on Paper
9" x 9"
May 2017
John Martinek Pen and Ink Editorial Illustration
Pen and Ink on Paper
10" x 8"
March 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon Trump Texting
Digital Image
10" x 10"
January 2018
Nutcracker
Pen and Ink on Paper
9" x 9"
2016
John Martinek editorial cartoon tax cuts
Pen and Ink and Watercolor
7" x 6"
December 2018
john martinek reduce democracy pen and ink editorial illustration
Pen and Ink on Paper
8" x 10"
May 2018
John Martinek editorial cartoon environmental air quality
Pen and Ink and Watercolor
9" x 13"
August 2018
To A Hammer....
Pen and Ink on Paper
6.5 x 8
2015