I have been a proverbial news enthusiast – maybe even a news junkie – for decades. I roll out of bed to read a couple of morning papers everyday (real newspapers delivered to my door) and subscribe to more online. I’ve always enjoyed humour and cartoons accompanying the news, but never have I appreciated humour as much as now, when the chaos and insanity of contemporary events has been so seriously depressing.

Take Russia’s war on Ukraine with the on again off again betrayal of Ukraine by the Trump administration. Add the war of choice on Iran and its dire global economic implications. Or consider democratic backsliding across the world, with only recent glimmers of hope in its reversal. These and others I won’t mention are not great stories to start anyone’s day. I even increasingly find myself tuning out or skipping over news items that cover yet another ridiculous Truth Social post or some silly justification of a hideous ballroom for the White House. News junkie’s don’t skip the news. This news avoidance is new to me!

In these times, my fragile optimism has been rescued time and again by very clever and funny journalists and cartoonists. Despite what the American humourist, Will Rogers, reportedly said: “Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else”, it takes real talent to find the humour in some of today’s events. So it is in that spirit, that I recommend three people who are helping me to stay positive about the future despite whatever ridiculously depressing events arise. They include Jeremy Banks, Marina Hyde, and Ann Telenaes, in alphabetical order.

Jeremy Banks is a freelance cartoonist who creates cartoons for The Financial Times on contemporary news events, using the signature ‘BANX’. He calls himself a pocket cartoonist, creating small ‘pocket sized’ cartoons to entertain news readers, and has twice been awarded a pocket cartoonist of the year award, among other awards. The day after Sabastian Sawe was the first runner to break the two-hour marathon barrier (2026 London Marathon, 1:59:30), which is certainly good news, BANX pictured his go to couple, with the wife standing with a friend behind her husband, who was watching the TV, telling her friend that “He can watch an entire marathon in under two hours” (FT, 28 April 2026: 20). His web site is at: http://banxcartoons.co.uk/

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist, whose opinion pieces are predictably insightful while also so smart and entertaining. In today’s Guardian (29 April 2026), she wrote about the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, being caught in days of debate and discussions over why and how he appointed and removed Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the USA. As she put it: “The PM is in his happy place: a never-ending procedural row”. [By the way, there is an entire web site of cartoons about Peter Mandelson: https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/p/pete_mandelson.asp%5D

Ann Telnaes is an editorial cartoonist, artist, and visual storyteller who won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 2001 along with many other honours and awards and worked for the Washington Post, until ( presume) leaving when ownership changes threatened the independence of her work. She moved to Substack where she produces cartoons about the news that are truly unique and impressive. See her work on Substack at:  https://substack.com/@anntelnaes

Thank you, Jeremy Banks, Marina Hyde, and Ann Telnaes for enriching my mornings and my life in your own original ways.