Chris Madden Cartoons

A searchable archive for licensing

Marine waste cartoon

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Hermit crab with tin can as a shell - cartoon

A cartoon about marine pollution showing a hermit crab using an old tin can instead of a shell

The cartoon could be interpreted as showing wildlife desperately trying to adapt to a changed ecosystem.
A cartoon about waste recycling, household waste, wildlife in danger.

See an alternative version of this cartoon here.
Cartoon reference number: env094c

Environment cartoon book

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Environmental cartoon book

The Beast That Ate the Earth
Environment cartoon book

Versions of many of the environmental cartoons on this site can be found in my book, The Beast That Ate the Earth.

I’ve been drawing cartoons on environmental matters since the early 1970s.
The book was published in 2004 and contains about a hundred cartoons in black and white.

The book is available through Amazon.
Such as at:

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

Amazon Germany

A world in which there is no countryside, only city development

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Cartoon - a city scene where the only evidence of nature is on a traffic island

An urban landscape with no trees or grass except on a traffic roundabout.

A person in a passing car is saying to their children “Look kids – the countryside!”
A cartoon about sprawling urban development, green spaces, the concrete jungle, nature being squeezed out, urbanisation, urbanization, city gardens,

 Drawn: 2016
Cartoon reference number: a760

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Save the dolphins cartoon

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dolphins aren't vegetarian cartoon

Cartoon showing a campaigner for protecting dolphins being disappointed to discover that dolphins aren’t vegetarian.

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A cartoon about the concept that some animal lovers prefer animals that are thought of as nice, cute, gentle etc (which interestingly extends to pet cats, which I frequently see tormenting and killing wildlife)..

The idea refers to some extent to the ‘natural fallacy’, which states that nature is inherently good.
Original version drawn: 1990
Cartoon reference number: a685

Why there were no unicorns on Noah’s ark – cartoon

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Why there were no unicorns on Noah's ark - cartoon

A cartoon showing Noah’s ark with consumer goods (cars, shipping containers etc) taking up valuable space. Noah is telling the two unicorns that are wanting to enter the ark that there is no room for them.

The cartoon is about the human race’s impact on wildlife (particularly as a result of our consumption of the earth’s resources, but also as a result of anthropogenic floods).

A cartoon about endangered species, unicorn extinction, wildlife in danger.
Original version. drawn: 1990
Cartoon reference number: a679

Marine pollution cartoon – twenty-first century hermit crab

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Hermit crab using a tin can as a shell - cartoon

A cartoon about marine pollution
A hermit crab using an old tin can instead of a shell

  One of the ideas behind this cartoon is that pollution of the seas and oceans will cause depletion of life such as marine snails, making it necessary for hermit crabs to adapt to using discarded rubbish as protection.
The cartoon could also be interpreted as showing wildlife adapting to a changed ecosystem.
A cartoon about waste recycling, household waste, wildlife in danger.

See an alternative version of this cartoon here.
Cartoon reference number: env094b

Environmental cartoon – packaging

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Environment cartoon

Environment cartoons
Non-biodegradable packaging

A cartoon about environment-friendly materials.
A discarded polystyrene container talking to animals, saying that it likes nature so much that it’s decided to stay around for a long time.

An illustration about biodegradable packaging materials, litter, recycling, waste, consumerism, bio-decomposition, environmental impact
Cartoon reference number: env069b
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Butterfly friendly insecticide cartoon

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butterfly friendly pesticide cartoon

A cartoon about selective pesticide – butterfly and ladybird friendly insecticide

A joke about insecticide that kills only ugly insects

The cartoon has deeper meanings about how we judge things by appearance, by prejudice or by attractiveness.
It’s also about gardening and the aesthetic values that are deployed in the garden (such as in the selection of plants and flowers, not just in the selection of pests). However it’s also about the wider phenomenon of judging everything, including people, by appearance

Cartoon reference number: a472

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Animal trap and animal intelligence – cartoon

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Clever animal trap cartoon

A hunter trapping animals cartoon

Showing a hunter and a trap or snare set to capture a wild animal.

The trap which is baited with food, and a monkey is approaching it with a hook and line to get the food without setting off the trap.
However, the trap is a sham or decoy trap, and the monkey is trapped in another, real trap

A cartoon about hunting, hunters, trapping, trappers, animal intelligence, intelligent apes, snares, clever animals

Cartoon reference number: a470

Why animals become extinct – cartoon

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reason why animals became extinct - cartoon

An extinction cartoon – the reasons why creatures become extinct

A cartoon showing a reconstruction of an extinct animal, with scientists asking why the creature became extinct.
The creature had many features that would have made it very useful to prehistoric man – huge ivory tusks, luxurious fur and tender flesh. Obviously it was hunted to extinction by early hunters

A cartoon dealing with endangered species, palaeontology, fossils and hunter gatherers

Cartoon reference number: a469

Endangered species cartoon – the fur trade

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fur coat and fur trade cartoon

An environmental cartoon about the fur trade and fur coats

A cartoon of an affluent fashionable woman buying a fur coat. The shop sign above the coat reads “Rare furs”
The shop assistant is saying “And getting rarer by the day, madam!”

The message of the cartoon is that some people are totally intellectually divorced or disconnected from the environmental and ecological impact of their actions, with economic and other factors such as social status taking precedence over environmental factors.
In this case the woman and the man are only interested in the status of the fur coat as a fashion item and as a status symbol – to the point that they are actually pleased that they are contributing to the endangered species status of the animal that provided the fur for the coat, as the rarer the animal the more valuable the coat becomes – an economic argument (of very dubious merit) rather than an ecological one

Cartoon reference number: a468
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Insecticide cartoon. Polluting the planet with pesticides

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insecticide cartoon

Insecticide cartoon
Polluting the planet with pesticides

A cartoon showing an insect being sprayed with insecticide.
The insect is a beetle with the pattern on its shell being a map of the earth

The cartoon illustrates the concept of the global impact of the use of toxic chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides and insecticides.
It reflects the ideas in such books as Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
An earlier version of this cartoon appeared in my book of environmental cartoons, When Humans Roamed the Earth, published by Earthscan/WWF in 1991

Cartoon reference number: a460

Seal hunters cartoon

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seal hunters cartoon

Seal hunters cartoon
Fur trappers

A cartoon showing hunters making a hole in the sea ice in order to trap seals.
Meanwhile, a hole is being cut round the trappers.

A cartoon about the fur trade, trapping, seal hunting
An earlier version of this cartoon appeared in my book of environmental cartoons, When Humans Roamed the Earth, published by Earthscan/WWF in 1991

Cartoon reference number: a459

Roadkill cartoon. Roadside wildlife guidebook cartoon.

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Roadside wildlife roadkill cartoon

Roadkill cartoon
Roadside wildlife identification guidebook cartoon.

A cartoon showing a nature guide book for identifying roadside wildlife, in which the images of the wildlife are all squashed by car tyres or are bird strikes

A cartoon about wildlife destruction on roads due to impacts with vehicles.
Animals and birds as victims of vehicle impact
Cartoon reference number: a455
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Save the smallpox virus cartoon – save the whale cartoon

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smallpox virus cartoon

Fish stock depletion cartoon

A cartoon parody on Save the Whale T-shirts and other T-shirts with slogans or messages on them, especially ones with a moral dimension to them
It’s also a comment on our attitudes to different animal species, and about which ones we want to save (usually cute, cuddly, furry ones).

The cartoon draws attention to the concept of ‘poster species’, or animal species that are used for campaigning purposes for environmental issues. (This cartoon isn’t a criticism of this tendency, which is a natural human tendency due to our evolutionary responses to the natural world.)
A cartoon about animal rights, speciesism.

Cartoon reference number: a453

Fish stock depletion cartoon. Over fishing cartoon

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world map - fish pond - cartoon

Fish stock depletion cartoon
Over fishing cartoon

Cartoon of a man fishing in a pond, and complaining that there aren’t any fish left to fish.
The pond is in the form of a map of the world

The pond in the cartoon is a metaphor for the oceans of the world.
The concept is that people have in the past (and even today) thought of the earth’s oceans as being almost endless and full of unlimited supplies of fish. While in fact the oceans are relatively small, especially when the rising human population puts so much pressure on the fish stocks
Cartoon reference number: a452
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Big game hunters cartoon – hunting endangered species

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big game hunters hunting butterfly cartoon

Endangered species cartoon

Cartoon of big game hunters shooting a butterfly because other species of animal are going extinct due to human pressure and lack of conservation measures

A humorous illustration about endangered species, conservation, species extinction, extinct species
An previous version of this cartoon was published in my environmental cartoon book, When Humans Roamed the Earth, published by WWF/Earthscan

Cartoon reference number: a451

African elephant logo

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logo with African elephant - with map of Africa as ear

African elephant logo

A logo about African wildlife, featuring an African elephant with a map of Africa as its ear

This illustration may make a suitable logo for a wildlife organisation or environmental campaign group campaigning against the killing of elephants for the ivory trade.
A logo on the theme of “Save the African elephant”
Ref a638

Garden cartoons – cats watching frogs spawning in a garden pond

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cats watching frogs spawning - joke

Garden pond cartoon. Cats watching frogs spawning in a garden pond

A cartoon showing cats staring into a garden pond in which frogs are spawning

A cartoon about wildlife in the garden, encouraging wildlife, cats catching birds and animals in the garden, deterring cats, frogs’ breeding season, spring in the garden.
Cartoon reference number: a204

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Cartoon – the web of life – and the spider of death

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Web of Life joke, Spider of Death

Cartoon about the web of life – and the spider of death.

Cartoon about the web of life & the spider of death.
The term “The Web of Life” is generally taken to imply something positive, about the interrelatedness of all living things. However, in nature, webs are generally dangerous things, constructed to ensnare prey. I like this dichotomy. In fact, rather than it pointing out the inappropriateness of the ‘web’ metaphor I think it gets it right, even if it does so inadvertently.

The cartoon is an attempt to overturn the rather anodyne and pseudo-spiritually reassuring notion of a benevolent web of life, replacing it with a more ambiguous and unsettling notion based on the same metaphor.
It’s partly about the notion of nature, red in tooth and claw.
Cartoon reference number: a100

Tree of life logo

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tree of life cartoon - being watered

Environmental illustration showing the tree of life being tended and watered by a person.

Artwork showing the tree of life being looked after by humans.
This is a positive image to encourage people to take care of the planet.
It’s a change from the environmental images which depict the human race destroying the environment.

An environmental cartoon about ecology, species interdependence, symbiosis, caring for the planet.
An image for earth day.

Cartoon reference number: a041
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Global warming cartoon. A polar bear and penguins marching

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environment cartoon - polar bear and penguins cartoon

Environmental cartoon. Global warming cartoon showing polar bear and penguins marching to protest against global warming and the shrinking ice caps.

One of the humorous points about this cartoon is that polar bears and penguins live at opposite poles (penguins in the Antarctic and polar bears in the Arctic), and thus never meet in normal circumstances (apart from in cartoons). In this cartoon the fact that they are in the same cartoon is meant to convey the notion of solidarity and of the whole world mobilising to fight climate change.
A cartoon about shrinking ice caps, shrinking polar caps, climate change, global warming.

Cartoon reference number: a021a

A narrower version of this cartoon (with fewer penguins) can be found here.