Chris Madden Cartoons

A searchable archive for licensing

Science fiction cartoon – an alien planet where the aliens look almost human

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Cartoon - an alien planet where the inhabitants are almost human

Science fiction cartoon
Cartoon – an alien planet where the inhabitants are almost human

The justification of extraterrestrials appearing human in form is sometimes justified by the theory of parallel evolution or convergent evolution

Part of the joke in this cartoon is that in many science fiction stories the aliens look very similar to people (and even speak English). I’ve retained the humanoid appearance here, but made one small alteration – I’ve put the features of the head upside down.

The point of this cartoon is to show that even a small deviation from the norm can make a human-like form look very odd, due to our sensitivity to the human form

Cartoon reference number: a559

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Cartoon about the fact that most living things are symmetrical

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Symetrical life forms

Cartoon about the fact that most living things are symmetrical

Most lifeforms are symmetrical about a vertical plane that bisects them
This cartoon draws attention to the fact that we rarely even notice this fact. It does this by inventing a planet inhabited by asymmetrical aliens who find the idea of symmetry bizarre in a “strange but true” or “believe it or not” way

Cartoon reference number: a557

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Evolutionary arms race cartoon

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The evolution of superior life-forms - from bow and arrows to guns and bullets

Evolution cartoon – the evolution of superior life-forms
A cartoon strip showing weapons evolving from bows and arrows to guns and bullets

This strip is about the concept of evolution as a form of evolutionary arms race, where one thing evolves into another, slightly superior form.

Cartoon reference number: a555
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Science cartoon. Artificial life cartoon

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science cartoon - artificial life dna cartoon

A cartoon from my selection of science cartoons
Artificial life cartoon
Creating life in the laboratory

Dna cartoon
A cartoon showing a scientist in a science laboratory that does research into artificial life.
He has dropped a test tube on the floor. A strand of dna is wriggling away, like a snake.

An illustration about the fears that are raised about scientific experiments going wrong and unleashing problems on the world (such as epidemics of diseases and so on)

More of my science cartoons

Cartoon reference number: a540
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A neurology cartoon about apophenia – seeing faces where they don’t exist

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apohenia cartoon

Apophenia cartoon – seeing faces where they don’t exist
A cartoon from my selection of science cartoons

A cartoon showing scientists in a neurology department canteen. One of the scientists is about to eat a pizza and is saying “Amazing – this pizza looks exactly like the brain scan of someone who’s experiencing apophenia.”

The cartoon is about visual interpretation of images, false positives, the evolution of vision, neuroimaging, brain function, functional magnetic resonance imaging, computed axial tomography
Cartoon reference number: a539
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Illustration – do we live inside a hologram?

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hologram credit card cartoon

Do we live inside a hologram? Cartoon

A cartoon showing people climbing out of the holgram panel on a credit card.
The caption reads “Bad news. Not only are we living inside a hologram, but we’re nearing our expiry date.”

The illustration is about whether our three dimensional reality is a form of hologram like projection or illusion.
The joke is in comparing a grand theory of a hologramic universe with the mundane hologram on a credit card.
A cartoon about the nature of the universe, virtual reality
Cartoon reference number: a538

Altruism cartoon.

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mindless violence and mindless altruism cartoon

Altruism cartoon. Mindless violence and mindless altruism.
The evolution of altruism

A cartoon about the emergence of altruism in nature.

The cartoon shows prehistoric men or cave men fighting. Another prehistoric man is rushing to the scene of the violence to care for the wounded. Yet another caveman is wondering about the evolution of altruism as a personality trait.
Cartoon reference number: a535

Culturally determined world views – cartoon

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culturally based science cartoon

A cartoon about culturally determined world views
The idea that different cultures will use whatever methods are at their disposal to reinforce their established philosophy of how the world works.

An observation about theological determinism, cultural bias in science, cognitive dissonance, pseudoscience

The cartoon shows a nonspecific non-western culture planning to build their own large hadron collider (LHC) to obtain results that are consistent with their cultural heritage.
It is an illustration about the misrepresentation of science or the lack of use of the scientific method.
Cartoon reference number: a534
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Science cartoons: creating mathematical order out of chaos

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mathematical order out of chaos cartoon

Science cartoons – mathematics
Creating mathematical order out of chaos

A cartoon showing mathematicians or scientists writing mathematical equations on a blackboard.
One scientist is saying “At last – we’ve created mathematical order in a chaotic universe!”

Part of the joke is that the maths on the blackboard look totally chaotic and incomprehensible, illustrating the common opinion that maths is a difficult subject
Cartoon reference number: a533
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Science cartoons

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science cartoon - scientific establishment resistance to change

A cartoon from my selection of science cartoons
Scientific research cartoon

Cartoon about resistance to change in sectors of the scientific establishment
The cartoon is focused on conservatism in the scientific establishment.
The caption says “Our research proves that the scientific establishment has developed immunity to radical new ideas.’

The cartoon illustrates the fact that all organisations and disciplines can be conservative to some extent
Cartoon reference number: a531
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Anti-vax cartoon

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vaccination cartoon anti-vax

Anti-vax cartoon

A cartoon about anti-vaxxers and anti-vax conspiracy theories.
Anti-vax conspiracy theories are common at the time of writing (2020).
This cartoon however was drawn in 2007 (I think) for a BBC science magazine for an article about vaccine scare hysteria created by media driven hysteria over health issues. I think that was traditional media in those days, not social media as it would be now.
The cartoon shows a doctor looking at a hyperdermic syringe and thinking “One of the side effects of this vaccine will be a hysterical reaction in the media.”

A joke about medicine, doctors, hypodermic syringes, vaccinations, anti-vax, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theories.

Cartoon drawn: 2007

Cartoon reference number: a530
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The law of unintended consequences – cartoon

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unintended consequences cartoon

A cartoon about the law of unintended consequences

The image shows an inventor worrying about the possible consequences once his invention is unleashed on the world. His invention is the paperclip.

An illustration about the dilemma faced by inventors or scientists who are developing new technologies – what use will people put them to?
Cartoon reference number: a529
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Scientific research funding cartoon

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scientific research funding cartoon

Cartoon about the cost of scientific research

A cartoon showing a rocket, labelled ‘Research’ being launched and then stalling after lift off.
The trail of the rocket forms the shape of a £ sign to indicate that the research is ‘powered’ by funding. The implication is that there isn’t enough funding to keep the research in the air

A cartoon about the financing of scientific research projects
Cartoon reference number: a523
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Sat nav (GPS) error – car directed to the wrong destination.

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sat nav to Saturn's rings - cartoon

Sat nav (GPS) error cartoon – a car directed to the wrong destination by the sat-nav.
A car driving round the rings of Saturn as though they were a ring road

A cartoon about the way that people will follow their sat navs to the wrong destinations

The caption reads: I’ve got a feeling that the sat-nav’s taking us along the wrong ring road.
Cartoon reference number: a522

Scientific research project budgets – cartoon

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scientific research budget cuts cartoon

Scientific research project budgets – cartoon

A cartoon to illustrate articles about cuts in budgets for scientific research.

The cartoon shows research funding going to a research project that monitors the effects of the cuts in research funding.
The cartoon shows an astronomical observatory that has been closed down due to lack of finance.
This cartoon was originally drawn to illustrate an article in the BBC magazine Knowledge
Cartoon reference number: a521

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Sat-nav error cartoon. Guided to the wrong destination

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sat-nav error to M31 - cartoon

Sat-nav cartoon – a car guided by sat-nav taken to the wrong destination

The sat nav (GPS) has guided to car to the wrong M31 (the Andromeda galaxy instead of the M31 motorway).

The M31 motorway doesn’t actually exist by the way – it was planned but never completed.
The cartoon is about the way that car drivers will blindly and slavishly follow the instructions of their sat-navs even when they are completely wrong, sometimes going to the wrong destination of the same name
It says something about the way that the human race can follow the wrong path without realising the potential consequences
This is an astronomy cartoon

Cartoon reference number: a496

Philosophy cartoons – human significance compared to the scale of the universe

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human insignificance in a huge universe - cartoon

Cartoon – the insignificance of humans in the universe

A cartoon about the question: does the vast immensity of the universe mean that people are insignificant?
Personally I think that the answer is no, but it’s a thing that a lot of people think (My opinion is that it’s a mistake to judge significance in terms of physical scale – you can find out more about my views on this in my book on related subjects
The cartoon answers critics of science who claim that science strips away the wonder and awe of creation (as in the expression by Keats – unweaving the rainbow – adopted by Richard Dawkins as the title of one of his books)

A cartoon about life, the universe and everything, the cosmos, the human condition, the fallacy of scale, meaning of life, religion, spirituality. A spiral galaxy cartoon, astronomy cartoon
Cartoon reference number: a495
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Anthropocene cartoon – mass extinction events

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iridium layer anthropocene cartoon

Anthropocene cartoon
Is the human race heading for a mass extinction event?

A cartoon showing geological rock strata and fossils, including the iridium layer that appeared at the time of the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

The rock strata also include a layer of manufactured waste that is directly above the layer of rock that contains fossils of humans

The implication is that while the event that created the iridium layer destroyed the dinosaurs, the event that created the layer of anthropogenic waste destroyed the human race.
The current geological era or epoch is sometimes referred to as the anthropocene, as the major influence on the environment is the human race.
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: a458

A (fictitious) interstellar nebula shaped like a question mark – illustration

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Interstellar nebula in the form of a question mark

An image of an interstellar nebula shaped like a question mark – illustration created in Photoshop.
Inspired by photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope

The “Question mark nebula” shown here is an astronomical phenomenon of my own invention. See the note below about the ‘real’ Question Mark nebula

The nebula symbolises humanity’s quest for meaning, especially when confronted by the enormity of the cosmos. (Having said that, my own opinion is that the size of the universe is irrelevant to such matters, but that’s another story).

Since creating it I’ve discovered that there is an actual nebula that goes by the same name. The ‘real’ Question Mark Nebula is an area of sky that includes parts of the nebulae NGC 7822, Ced 214, and Sh2-170
An illustration related to philosophy, astronomy, cosmology, science, the meaning of life, the nature of the universe.

Cartoon reference number: a403
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Evolution of man from a single-celled organism in the primordial soup – cartoon

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man evolved from single-celled organism cartoon

Man evolving from a single-celled organism – cartoon

Cartoon of single-celled organisms in the primordial soup – with one that looks like a human being.
This cartoon is about the theory that life on earth started as simple unicellular organisms in chemical rich bodies of water

A cartoon about evolution, Darwin, Darwinism, abiogenesis and the origins of life.
Cartoon reference number: a395

Who was the third man to walk on the moon? Cartoon

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third man on the moon cartoon

A cartoon about the nature of fame

Who was the third man to walk on the moon?
It was Pete Conrad.

A cartoon about the transience of fame and celebrity, and the judgement of achievement.

Most people know that Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, and that Buzz Aldrin was the second.
But no-one remembers who the third man on the moon was.
Or the fourth.
The fourth man to walk on the moon was Alan Bean.
Pete Conrad and Alan Bean were the lunar landing crew of Apollo 12, the second moon mission to land on the moon.

Cartoon reference number: a354

Apollo lunar excursion module (lem) design cartoon.

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Apollo lunar excursion module design cartoon - so 1960s

Apollo lunar excursion module cartoon – so 1960s

Cartoon showing an Apollo moon mission lem (lunar excursion module) in a museum.
A person is commenting on the seemingly antiquated design, saying that it’s ‘so 1960s!’

It’s a cartoon that comments on the fact that the Apollo moon missions took place in a time that is now history, although when they happened they felt like (and were) a symbol of the modern age – the space age.
In Britain the prime minister used the expression ‘the white heat of technology’ to describe the progress of the era.
It also comments on the fact that in the early 21st century we live in a design obsessed age (look at Apple products), where design is often appreciated before usefulness.

I first drew this cartoon in 1999, when the 1960s weren’t so far in the past!
This is a redrawn version prompted by the death of Neil Armstrong.

Cartoon reference number: a353

Neil Armstrong dies – cartoon

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neil armstrong dies - cartoon

The first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, dies
Obituary cartoon

To mark the death of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, this cartoon shows the Apollo landing craft coming in to land at the pearly gates of heaven.

Apollo 11 reached the moon in summer 1969. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, followed closely by Buzz Aldrin. Who remembers who the third man to walk on the moon was? (Charles P. (Pete) Conrad, who died in 1999, aged 69, following a motorcycle accident. I don’t recall hearing about it in the news. Such is the measure of achievement).
Just for the pedantic amongst you, I know that the lunar landing craft (or lem – lunar excursion module) would have had Buzz Aldrin in it in real life rather than just Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin hasn’t yet died – but this isn’t real life, it’s a cartoon (There are no pearly gates in real life either).
I’m very pleased to say that one of the first requests to use this cartoon came from NASA. You can see it here.

Drawn: 2012

Cartoon reference number: a350

Did life come to earth from outer space?

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earth as egg with sperm from outer space - illustration

Illustration: did life come to earth from outer space?

A cartoon or illustration showing the earth in space, with sperm approaching the earth

The concept that life was planted on earth by super-intelligent extraterrestrials, a concept known as directed panspermia (popularised by the question, Was God an Astronaut? as written about by Erich von Däniken, amongst others)has been revived recently with the film Prometheus by Ridley Scott, and will no doubt be aired again when the sequel is released.

Cartoon reference number: a340

Cave painting of aliens – illustration

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was god an astronaut? cartoon

Cartoon of cave painting of a ufo or flying saucer
Was God an astronaut? Cartoon

Did life reach earth from outer space?

The ufo in the cartoon is projecting a dna shaped beam of energy down into the water on earth, creating the first life on the planet.
The concept of Was God an Astronaut? (as written about by Erich von Däniken, amongst others)has been revived recently with the film Prometheus by Ridley Scott, and will no doubt be aired again when the sequel is released. In Prometheus there was a scene depicting prehistoric cave paintings, although not humorously as here.

The theory that life may have been planted on Earth billions of years ago by an advanced alien civilization is sometimes known as directed panspermia. This theory was (mischievously?) proposed by Francis Crick (of dna fame) together with biologist Leslie Orgel in 1971. Directed panspermia is sometimes evoked to solve a particular problem in the science of life – science’s current inability to explain life’s origin. Of course the theory simply puts off the explanation, very much in the way that religions do

This cartoon first appeared in BBC Knowledge magazine.

Cartoon reference number: a337

Philosophy cartoon – why do we like sunsets?

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Philosophy cartoons - aesthetic values

Cartoon – why do we like sunsets?

Cartoon about evolutionary psychology

Why do we find sunsets spiritually uplifting?
A cartoon about the fact that sensory stimuli that are of a greater than average intensity often evoke profound emotions. This applies to such things as sunsets and flowers, and is also a factor in our appreciation of the arts, from music to cinema. A comment on spirituality and pseudo-spirituallity (I’m a believer in pseudospirituality myself).
This cartoon first appeared in BBC Knowledge magazine.

Cartoon reference number: a333
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Medical budget increases – cost of medicine cartoon

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health spending increasing graph cartoon

Health spending increasing – cartoon.
Increases in health spending caused by increased use of prescription drugs

Cartoon showing doctors and medical staff rolling a pill or tablet up a graph

A cartoon about the cost of medicine, the burden on the health services of the cost of medical treatment
Cartoon drawn: 2012
Cartoon reference number: a331b

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