ALL THE PRESIDENTS

IT TAKES TIME for the public at large to form its own impression of a new presi-
dent and for cartoonists to find ways to represent him. At the start of Obama’s term,
sketches came in which showed Obama as Roosevelt, Lincoln, or Kennedy. Robert
Risko contributed Obama as Roosevelt and on a dollar bill (opposite and below, left). In
just one sketch, Barry Blitt added Obama as Bush, Reagan, Taft, and Nixon (right).
Drew Friedman portrayed him as Washington for a cover published for the inauguration
in 2009 (below, middle left), and Ana Juan showed another president, Lincoln, wearing
an Obama pin (below, middle right).

“When I draw someone, I really try to get their likeness down—I have to find the most
refined simplistic immediate recognizable image for that person. One of my tests for that is
to silhouette the face and fill it all in black—can you still tell who the person is? The shape
should read as a bar code in the brain.”

–ROBERT RISKO

SOME IDEAS are simply in the air:
Obama as Roosevelt by Robert Risko
(opposite), and on the cover of Time (above).

70