Barry Blitt drew his first New Yorker cover back in 1992. Ever since, he has been skewering politicians of all stripes. In 2008, he drew Barack and Michelle Obama fist-bumping in the Oval Office, and in 2016, he drew Donald Trump in a tiara and a women’s bathing suit.
“I have a sketchbook open and I’m just trying to make myself laugh,” Blitt says.
His new book, simply titled Blitt, features some of the cartoonist’s most memorable and merciless work.
Interview Highlights
On “Fistbump: The Politics of Fear,” his 2008 New Yorker cover of the Obamas
We all remember the campaign of 2008. When Obama was running for president, there was a lot of stuff being said about him and Michelle. It was whispered and insinuated … that he was a terrorist, that Michelle was some kind of Black Panther or something. There [were] rumors of a video of her saying, “Kill whitey.”
I mean, I just scribbled in a sketchbook all of it in one picture, and I threw…
