News Cartoons

Welcome to the world of award-winning Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight, who opens up each week about the stories behind the cartoons in our exclusive Kids News explainer series

Explainers
Mark Knight cartoon for Herald Sun, November 11, 2024

Rural America puts pitchfork in DC

Rural and working voters in the US presidential election popped the bubble of Washington DC’s political establishment with the prod of a pitchfork in Mark Knight’s take on American Gothic

Explainers
mark Knight cartoon on Us election and melbourne cup

Two races that stopped the nation

The outcome of the US presidential election wasn’t known when an outsider won Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup against the odds but Mark Knight’s prophetic cartoon proved to be right on the money

Explainers
Mark Knight cartoon for Herald Sun, October 29, 2024

High-flying PM hits turbulence

From working class man to Chairman’s Lounge king, Anthony Albanese’s ‘man of the people’ pitch might not pass muster with the public amid the cost of living crisis in Mark Knight’s cartoon

Explainers
Mark Knight cartoon for Herald Sun, October 22, 2024

Why royal welcome went rogue

The pomp and ceremony greeting Charles and Camilla in Canberra was no match for the not-so-warm welcome Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe threw down in Mark Knight cartoon

Sport
Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight  with his 2024 AFL Premiership Posters of the Sydney Swans and the Brisbane Lions. Picture: Ian Currie

Footy fever in Knight’s AFL posters

Herald Sun cartoonist and Kids News favourite Mark Knight has unveiled his AFL premierships posters for 2024 ahead of Saturday’s blockbuster match between the Lions and the Swans

Explainers
mark Knight toon on death of James Earl Jones

Social media Australia’s Death Star

Parents battling social media harm is like the Rebellion fighting the Death Star as Mark Knight channels Darth Vader’s much-needed voice of authority in tribute to the actor who voiced him

Environment
Mark Knight cartoon for Herald Sun, September 2, 2024

Wild winds too much for turbines

Wind is on the up as a renewable energy source but the wild weather across multiple states exposed a possible design flaw that had cartoonist Mark Knight imagining turbines taking off for real

Sport
Mark Knight cartoon for Herald Sun, August 27, 2024

Thunderstruck Carlton in AFL eight

AFL finals season has arrived after Carlton players and fans were brought back from the brink by Port Adelaide Power who delivered a lifesaving bolt into the Blues in Mark Knight’s cartoon

Explainers
Mark Knight cartoon on the Ukrainian war

Fortunes of war take surprise turn

Russian President Vladimir Putin watches on perplexed in cartoonist Mark Knight’s take on Ukraine advancing across the border as Zelensky’s troops pull off strategic wins in the war

Explainers
Mark Knight cartoon for Herald Sun, August 12, 2024

Raygun ‘breaks’ the news cycle

Australia’s performance at the Paris Olympics was our best ever but Mark Knight suggests it’s Rachael Gunn’s headline hogging kangaroo hopping in breakdancing that the world will remember

EXPLAINERExplainers
mark Knight cartoon on 14yo gold medallist

Faster, higher, stronger – younger!

Mark Knight’s cartoon of our youngest ever gold medallist, 14-year-old Arisa Trew, show just how much (and how little) Games have changed as Ancient Greek marbles mingle with new legends

Sport
Mark Knight cartoon for Paris Olympics triathlon

Stink erupts over Seine swimming

From River Seine to river stench, not even the dubious water quality of Paris’ famous waterway was enough to deter triathletes from attempting Olympic glory in Mark Knight cartoon

Explainers
Mark Knight Collingwood on the edge cartoon

Pies stuck teetering on the edge

Collingwood fans are ‘suspended’ as they wait to see if the reigning premiers will even make it into the finals – a predicament well illustrated in this cliffhanger cartoon by Mark Knight

Explainers
Mark Knight cartoon for Herald Sun, July 15, 2024

Trump’s reaction changes history

Seconds after US presidential hopeful Donald Trump survived the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, he seized the moment. Mark Knight’s cartoon captures him walking away not as a victim but as the clear election frontrunner

Environment
Mark Knight cartoon, June 20

Dutton sparks nuclear reactions

Cartoonist Mark Knight suggests cool heads are needed in the nuclear power debate after Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s policy announcement sent the political landscape into instant meltdown

EXPLAINERHistory
mark Knight cartoon on Donald Trump's mug shot

Trump’s presidential prison portrait

With Trump found guilty of all 34 charges of falsifying business records, cartoonist Mark Knight revisits a toon created nine months ago imagining Trump as the first US president in prison

EXPLAINERMoney
Mark Knight cartoon for Herald Sun, May 14, 2024

Budget inspires cartoon bonanza

Treasurer Jim Chalmers had his work cut out delivering this week’s federal budget while attempting to win the hearts of voters and big business, as captured in Knight’s three-part series

Money
Mark Knight cartoon on increased HECS debt

HECS debt deadweight for grads

Burdened by HECS debt, today’s university graduates find their dreams of financial freedom chained to a huge debt ball right at the beginning of their adult careers, says cartoonist Mark Knight

Health
Mark Knight cartoon for Herald Sun, March 18, 2024

Run for kids or push for parents?

Newspaper cartoonist Mark Knight relies on quick wit and fast fingers to do his job – but he’s also swift on his feet as a longtime supporter of the Run for the Kids fundraiser to help sick children

EXPLAINERAnimals
Mark Knight cartoon on pets being allowed in planes

Doggie treats taking off on Virgin?

Cartoonist and animal lover Mark Knight could not resist the opportunity to draw a plane full of pooches after Virgin Australia announced that domestic pets are getting a major travel upgrade

EXPLAINERNews
Mark Knight cartoon for Herald Sun, March 4, 2024

Cake on face after by-election win

PM Anthony Albanese’s birthday coincided with a by-election win in Victoria, cause for celebration in the Labor camp but cartoonist Mark Knight calls ‘spin’ on scenes of happy Liberals partying too

VIDEOSport
Mark Knight cartoon on Demon Angus Brayshaw forced to retire because of concussion

Tough call on hard knocks in AFL

Concussion-induced microscopic changes to Angus Brayshaw’s 28-year-old brain forced the AFL player’s painful decision to retire, prompting cartoonist Mark Knight to send him off in style

News
Mark Knight cartoon on new naval deal

Navy flying high after dizzying win

Cartoonist Mark Knight says Royal Australian Navy’s heart will go on after big spending promises from the Albanese Government bring the prospect of better defence capacity and brand new toys

EXPLAINERNews
Mark Knight cartoon. For Wednesday 7th FEB 2024.

Fresh start for pollies to play nice

First day nerves and jostling at the gates is all part of getting back to school and cartoonist Mark Knight suggests kids aren’t the only ones navigating playground antics as politicians return

Money
Mark Knight for Herald Sun, December 14

No Christmas cheer for taxpayers

Christmas is meant to be a time of giving, but as cartoonist Mark Knight points out in his satirical depiction of the federal treasurer, the government seems to have other ideas

Environment
Mark Knight Cartoon
Tue 5 Dec 2023
The call for nuclear power in Australia

Renewables in power struggle

Cartoonist Mark Knight considers Australia’s move from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources as the goal of zero emissions reignites the nuclear energy debate alongside wind, water and sun

Health
Mark Knight cartoon on the banning of disposable vapes

Let’s not be dummies about vapes

Cartoonist Mark Knight calls out the dangerous absurdity of replacing one addiction with another as the government moves to ban imported, disposable vapes as companies blatantly target kids