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Cartoons are an indelible, indigenous part of American culture.  The history of American cartooning has already been more than 250 years. (ps1)  Numerous people in the US ( & world ) taste newspaper cartoons while having breakfast everyday.  Cartoon books and materials are categorized as "humor" section in American book stores.  Many ideas of arts and designs come from cartoons.
Below are selected from some examples I  scanned the US newspapers, magazines, and books that randomly chosen within a short time.  Comparatively speaking, European cartoons are more stylish witty.     

★ (1) Personality? or coincidence? click

The US Cartoons	similar	comments
		Two best magazines in the US use same idea (line-chart mouth) in their cover ―  see pictures on the left. Not sure which is the most original one.  In graphic design books you also can find this kind of ideas (Charts & Diagrams, 'Nigel Holmes,84).
	original work by Rob Lawlor.	Both cartoons use similar idea ―  pic. left  :Human beings as bullets for an artillery, pic. right: human beings as bullets for a machine-gun. Both cartoons are famous art-works.   Left one is Biro Mihaly: A haboru borzalmai ellen, Plakat Budapest, Europe, at 1912. http://www.hnm.hu/utils/Gallery.php?ItemID=213&PicNum=9 pic. right won '83 Sigma delta Chi Award, also was selected as <Best Cartoons of the Year>.
Beetle Bailey	Beetle Bailey 1) The official is shouting to his dog : "Sit ! Sit ! Sit !!" 2) all soldiers beside the  official "sit" like dogs.	an old idea
Beetle Bailey	1) He got 6 pack on his stomach 2) I've got A kegger !	1) an old joke : 6 abdominal muscles in belly vs a big one. 2) a 6 pack - a kegger(keg) is widely heard, not sure who is the 1st one created it.
BC	Don't buy a bottle of wine that has a "SELL BY" date on it.	Feb. 16, 2007	19 answers to "Does wine have an expiration date?" on answers.yahoo.com at June 13, 2006.
Non Sequitur	During a battle in ancient time, at the top of a  castle's high wall, a large bowl filled with boiling water + soldiers +  kitchen chef (cooker) ...	June 25, 2007	this idea appeared earlier.
the Argyle sweater	In a dogs' party, drinks are in a toilet	Aug. 3, 2008	On May 2004, toilet bowls were already shown in Toilet (Marton) restaurant in Taiwan.
BC	1) what's wrong with the internet? 2) too many idiots frolicking in the surf	April 18, 2007	using pun "surf" (net & sea) is a widely-used idea.
Non Sequitur	surfing inside a bathtub	June 14, 2007	surfing in bathroom is a very old & best known advertisement.  Beside, surfing inside bath tub, jet in bathtub, etc appeared earlier.
Non Sequitur	Bridging the divide between race and gender - 3 bridges can not connect.	April 27, 2007	many similar cartoons were published before.
Peanuts	The dog flied like a helicopter by revolving its long ears.	Mar. 16, 2007	Peanuts used this trick again in his another cartoon.
The born loser	1) The holiday season is suppose to be full of "Ho Ho Ho" 2) Why does it end up with "Owe Owe Owe"	199X-200X	In 198X, I saw some bumper stickers on the rear of cars in Florida, displaying a parody (modified Disney 7 dwarfs' song) "I owe, I owe ..."!
The Far Side	"These new uniforms are a crock" ―  soldiers uniforms each with a target sign ...	Oct. 30, 2000	a shirt with a target sign ― by agency Peck Sims Mueller, 1995, or a target formed by stripes on a tiger, an early graphic design.
illustration, prt design, ads in magazines	computer shaped house, castle, skyscrapers, etc, or earth in eyeball, in eye-glass, in telescope, or famous one : earth in eyeball with tears, etc.	lots of similar ideas.
news cartoon	Delay tactics -  Sprinkle water on a small tree to hang (strappado execution) a chicken tied/strapped on the tree till the tree grow up long long time later.

★ (2) Talents?

Smart cartoonists can figure out excellent ideas by using whatever is happening or by materials around, like financial storm, etc.

Most American  newspapers cartoons under the theme of Olympics during Olympics 2000, 2004, 2008 were not witty or humorous or satirical enough.

Famous cartoons like The Peanuts, Garfield, The Far Side, etc, have none or good one using front-page news - Olympics as materials.  Some others have a few, but only very few of them are stylish witty, or humorous, satirical.

No-talent vs. talented creativity :

The US cartoons	content	compare smarter ideas	date
Beetle Bailey	Alternative fuel = 3 soldiers pushing official's jeep to move.	compare with this cartoon by Nickolaj Kapusta of Ukraine, which is much cleverer. http://Courageworld.ch/VH-eu.htm	Aug. 27, 2004
Hagar The Horrible	1) The captain teaches his soldier shield ahead will protect him from enemy arrows. 2) soldier asked : what if the enemy is behind us, too ?  (an arrow in his bottom already )	A witty idea by Bess, Germany as above.   China has a cartoon depicting a soldier keeps practicing shooting arrows to a target's back, is an excellent idea too. http://Courageworld.ch/V-satire-w.htm	Jan. 29, 2007
BC	2 tracks of a ski-board passed a tree, one on left side, another on right side... but he can not pass the next tree  ―  he hit that tree.	Cartoon (left) is not a smart idea.  <New Yorker> magazine has a similar one long time ago ― a ski-board passed a tree's 2 sides, but no solution provided in both cartoons ―  how it passed. Smarter solution should be like this : he is very tall (or long legs for some reasons like circus) so as to pass the tree.	Jan. 20, 2007

Some cartoons use formula (just change some variables) or cliche to get ideas !?

★ (3) stupid &/ simple ideas

★ (4) cruel ideas

★ (5) political cartoons ―  Pulitzer prize winners

According to <Reporters Sans Frontieres> (RSF, Reporters without Borders, France),  The freedom of press/the freedom of information 2011-2012 of the US and USA-extra-territorial ranked not too good ―  world No. 47 and 57, which's worse than that of Taiwan, Japan and Korea.

After viewing Pulitzer prize cartoons (the best news award in USA) from 2006 to 2011, I do hope some nice-heart political cartoons already helped USA & this planet moving ahead.   Fighting against bad politics is respectable.

But from artistic view, I also found :

1. Most Pulitzer prize cartoons heavily rely on words to speak, some cartoons need lots of words,  drawings (the visual part) can't function independently, and play just (very) minor role.

2. Most cartoons focus on reporting/commenting a major issue/story, instead of creating a big idea.  The piece of cartoon has little value without the news.   The editorial cartoon itself can't attract people, in contrast, many European gag cartoons of humor & satire do attract people, in addition to brief a major news.

    e.g., Compare some gag cartoons below with a Pulitzer prize cartoon in 2006 ―  a SOS hand (New Orleans) in the sea, but the rescue staff (the US gov.) said "Just a sec ! I misplaced my whistle" .

3. Some seemed an old idea, e.g., The Pulitzer cartoon of 2008 "I looked the man in the eye, I was able to get a sense of his soul, Bush on Putin" ―  A Russia sign in the eyeball.  In the past years,  many cartoons, illustrations, prt. designs showed similar ideas, e.g., an Africa map in an eyeball, or well known one ―  world on eyeball, eye with tears.   
This idea : Taiwan shaped eye (the map looks like an eye) +  communist China in the eyeball, is better, if the assumption of political reality is correct.

4.  Some Pulitzer prize cartoons may provide with more knowledge, e.g., a best cartoon in 2006 expressed a housewife faced a big eye (looks like CBS logo) in her TV and said scary "I hope this is CBS"......(omitted) This is a good cartoon, actually American government has tech. to spy on Americans by TV, computer, cell phones, etc in civilian's room or handy around Americans .

ps: 100+ cartoons data ref. to  <about.com political humor>, "pulitzer prize-winning cartoons" '06-'11.
　

★ (6) Ability?

New York ad. festival (one among largest ad festivals in the world), SigGraph (one of largest animation contests), etc, selected some old (or similar to old) ideas as winners.

★  the ending

Lots of suspect cartoons appeared in cartoon world, some golden award was revoked (China's biggest title - golden monkey), some European events winners were publicized in European's FecoNews, some (e.g., Japanese Yomiuri int'l cartoon contest, offering world highest money price, attracting most artists attended ) winners were publicized in this web-site.
Drawing similar or same ideas can be any possibilities, e.g., bad behavior, stealing, crib, or just coincidence, sleeping effect, but people may doubt those author's or/and media's ability, personality, talent, etc.
　

ps: Cartoon America: comic art in the Library of Congress, by Harry Katz.      ps2: Olympics cartoons ref to China Post.