It’s been 5 years since I first published my editorial cartoon depicting the interconnected crises facing the world – from the COVID-19 pandemic to economic recession, climate change, and biodiversity collapse. This simple illustration has taken on a life of its own, spreading far beyond my original intent.
The cartoon was first published on March 11, 2020, the same day the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. It showed two large waves – one labeled “Coronavirus” and the other “Recession” – highlighting how the public health crisis was devastating the economy.
In the years that followed, the cartoon was widely shared, adapted, and modified by people around the world. Some faithfully recreated the image, while others added additional waves to represent other looming threats like climate change and biodiversity loss. A few even cheekily inserted their own agendas, like the Extinction Rebellion group that slapped their logo over the top.
It is my most published illustration ever.
It was highlighted in a lead article published in a special edition of Scientific American dedicated to the Coronavirus in March 2022. Not bad for someone who flunked Chemistry in high school. Take that, Mr. Bourrie!
The Green Spirits at Westminster
Tracking where this cartoon has appeared has been fascinating – from major publications to grassroots activist groups. In the UK, the “Four Waves” banner was proudly paraded through the streets of Torbay by the Green Spirits environmental group. Then in 2022, the same banner led a climate protest march in front of the UK Parliament.
However, this widespread use raises important questions about the respect for artistic work. While some individuals have sought permission and credited the original artist, many others have appropriated the image without acknowledgment. This disregard for creativity can diminish the original message behind the artwork.
This issue isn’t isolated to just me; many of my colleagues face similar vandalism when signed editorial cartoons are defaced, cropped, and transformed into memes that skew the original messaging of our commentary. This trend not only undermines our artistic integrity but also dilutes the intended impact of our work.
Adding to this challenge is the rise of artificial intelligence, which can hijack our hard work and produce lifeless imitations that lack the nuance and creativity of human artistry. This growing threat raises further concerns about the future of artistic expression and the value placed on original work. More on this topic will be explored in a future post.
Movements like Extinction Rebellion, despite their vital mission to raise awareness about climate change, have faced criticism for their lack of respect for artists’ rights. The reactions of those who alter creative works vary—some recognize their mistakes and offer apologies, while others insist they have the right to modify and share images as they please. This behaviour highlights the ongoing need for greater respect for artists and their creations in our increasingly digital landscape.
Ultimately, I decided it was time to update the cartoon myself, incorporating a fifth “zombie apocalypse” wave. This reflected the growing sense of apathy and inaction in the face of these mounting crises. As one insightful commenter noted, the zombies represent those who passively watch as calamity unfolds, relinquishing their agency.
Seems pretty cute, in retrospect, when I added the fictional threat in 2024, which seem like a lifetime ago.
As we mark the 5-year anniversary, it is clear that a new, even more ominous wave is emerging – the threat of Donald Trump. His aggressive stance on tariffs and talk of annexation threatens Canadian sovereignty, while his plans to trim the civil service with mass firings signal domestic unrest. On the global stage, Trump’s actions to end U.S. security guarantees and his capitulation to Putin by withdrawing support for Ukraine’s war effort underscore a significant shift in international relations.
This new fifth wave represents a direct threat to the established order, challenging both national and global stability. It serves as a stark reminder that the actions of one leader can have profound implications, extending the metaphorical tsunami of crises we face.
The 2025 global measles outbreak has seen a significant rise in cases due to declining vaccination rates, with over 7,600 suspected cases reported worldwide, highlighting the urgent need for increased vaccination efforts to prevent further spread and protect public health. The first wave reflect this with the change from COVID-19 to Measles. The second wave, originally “recession”, has been changed to “tariffs”, again reflecting the actions of one leader.
The soft unveiling of this illustration occurred in a recent Substack post regarding Trump’s disgraceful environmental legacy. This latest version comes with encouragement from Michael Solomon, director of London-based Responsible 100, and the revision is featured in a piece that advocates for responsible business practices in the Trump 2.0 era, cautioning against both apathy and counterproductive “wokeness”.
Five years on, this cartoon continues to resonate globally, serving as a message about the interconnected challenges confronting us. With the addition of the Trump wave, it underscores the urgent need for collective action to safeguard our world from impending disasters. We must confront these waves of crisis with resilience and solidarity before they overtake us all.
Thank you to everyone who continues to subscribe to this weekly newsletter! This special edition deviates from my usual Saturday morning posts, where I typically offer a summary of the week through my editorial cartoons. Throughout the week, I also share daily ‘notes’ on my Substack, which enhance my weekly newsletters and include animated versions of my daily cartoons.
For now, all of my content remains free, but I recognize the uncertainty of my future as I face the possibility of losing my livelihood after three decades as a newspaper editorial cartoonist. In the meantime, I’m happy to accept pledges of support—these are just assurances of your support without any financial commitment. Your encouragement means a lot and helps me continue sharing my work with all of you!
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 11, 2020
Economic Prescription for Coronavirus: ‘You’ve Got to Go Fast’
The government can’t prevent the coronavirus from damaging the U.S. Economy.
February 28, 2020
The usual tools that economic policymakers rely on, like tax cuts and stimulus spending, won’t restore canceled conferences, unclog supply chains or persuade wary consumers to go out to bars and restaurants. Even if such policies would help, they conflict with the advice of health officials who are urging “social distancing” to slow the spread of the virus.
But that doesn’t mean policymakers are powerless. Economists say well-designed programs could limit the damage and help ensure a quick rebound.
President Trump said Monday that he would meet with congressional leaders to discuss a “very substantial” payroll tax cut and other measures. Many economists are skeptical of that approach, arguing that a payroll tax cut would be too small and too poorly targeted to be of much help.
June 28, 2018
Instead, they recommended a variety of other steps, some narrowly aimed at addressing the outbreak and some intended to bolster the broader economy. One lesson from the last recession is that the government has to move quickly.
“You’ve got to go big, and you’ve got to go fast,” said Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve staff member who is now director of macroeconomic policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a left-leaning research organization. “If you don’t go fast, you’re not going to short-circuit it.”
Here are some forms that such intervention could take: 1) Fight the disease. 2) Cushion the blow. 3) Stimulate the broader economy. 4) What about payroll taxes? (Continued: NYTimes)
CHRONOLOGY OF A CARTOON GONE VIRAL
This particular editorial cartoon has gone through several modifications than the original one published above on March 11, 2020, the day the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. The original double wave cartoon received attention around the world and was modified, rather crudely, with adaptations made to my Canada flag, and translations squeezed in to replace my English “be sure to wash your hands and all will be well.” Some of the changes were done fairly well. Some of the people behind the alterations took the time to ask for permission to do so, and preserved my moniker, while others did not.
Nettuno 1958 – 5 aprile 2020
Here’s a version drawn with credit for audiences in Mexico. Found on Twitter on account @adn40 and shared March 25, 2020:
Another adaptation done for audiences in France. Website called, Acheter en Espagne: Le meilleur site sur l’immobilier en Espagne pour la clientиle francophone.
If only I got a penny for everywhere this cartoon landed I’d be rich!
Possibly my most shared, cropped, and altered cartoon ever.
One of editorial cartoondom’s most recognized and overused cliche is the visual of a tsunami or tidal wave about to wreak havoc on humanity. It’s internationally recognized and a winner in the wordless cartoon contest world. I’ve used the cliche many times in the past to evoke impending doom, like, silver tsunami, the Gomery Report, Courier company business vs. Canada Post, U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan, and H1N1 infection wave. A few years into scrutinizing the movement of this cartoon, tracking where it shows up and observing its modifications, I came across this very similar looking cartoon by the great Tom Toles drawn in 2017 (from this website), 3 years before my waves cartoon. It even has a Climate Change wave. Yikes! I hate it when that happens, because if I knew it had preceded mine I wouldn’t have bothered with the concept. However, it’s worth thinking that it’s such a commonly known and wonderfully apt gag that has been around for ages and if it had a trademark, it would really belong to everyone.
A crude repurposed image showing a third wave, with my moniker cropped out, appeared in wide circulation on various social media platforms in May, 2020. It appears someone with some knowledge of image editing software duplicated the recession wave, added a third wave by colouring it rather fluorescent green and replacing the wording to climate change. In doing so unfortunately, my signature, or moniker as cartoonists call it, was deleted out. It was on its way to being meme-ified – unsourced and unsigned, the bane of editorial cartooning. I believe the flag in the above example is Argentina’s.
Meanwhile, a hemisphere over in the UK, someone revised the Argentinian version, and replaced the label recession with “Brexit”. Look closely and one will note the Union Jack flies atop the Palace of Westminster! Credit goes to Twitter account RRI Tools for pointing this out in June, 2020 with this tweet.
I thought these ideas behind modification were pretty good ones, but the crop jobs weren’t so great, and the flag of Argentina only caused confusion on an idea that could work for anyone around the world. So it was then that I decided to remove the flag and create an authorized version bearing my signature. Here it is:
Originally drawn for March 11, 2020. Revised May 23, 2020.
But it seems someone else in another corner of the planet, Ricardo Hurtubia, a teacher from Santiago, Chile, had added a third wave as early as April 4! Good on him for keeping my moniker in there. News to me by the time July rolled around:
con mis fantásticas habilidades para Power Point, he logrado esta obra de arte luego de un día entero de trabajo
(broma ?, pero el mensaje de fondo va en serio?) pic.twitter.com/qPrmSaneRy
In September, 2020, this beautiful hand drawn rendering was flagged by someone in Venezuela on Twitter. This is an example of the old saying, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Thank you Alejandro!
Not long after the above tweet was posted, an anonymous twitter account holder going by the name of Cilantrófago, posted a re-adapted image in Spanish that cleaned up Mr. Hurtubia’s, somewhat, adding a 4th wave. His major failing, however, is chopping out my moniker, and unfortunately, for Cilantrófago, he or she qualifies as a Social Media Jackass.
In mid June, I was included in a tweet sent out by David Obura, a director of Cordio, East Africa, a marine ecosystem consultancy based in Mombasa, Kenya. He’s also a scientist with the Earth Commission. A 4th wave had been added as a further warning regarding the effects of climate change on the world’s ecology. He isn’t actually the person who added the “biodiversity collapse”, but liked what he saw and sent it out. The re-adapted version is quite a good one, with a thought provoking message, the lettering is close enough to my own, and the image retains my moniker. Thumbs up, but I would like to know who the person is behind the re-adaptation.
The readapted readapted version of the cartoon became the centre piece of a demonstration with a Samba Band on Paignton Promenade (in Torbay, Devon, England) Sunday afternoon, August 30, 2020 with the “Four Waves Banner” shown below and paraded by the Green Spirits group:
In April 2023, the banner lead a parade and was carried to Parliament Square in front of Westminster Palace in London during a weekend of massive protests called “the Big One” on the climate crisis.
The Green Spirits outside Westminster
Organizers of another protest march in the UK wished to use the same image in public. An artist acquaintance of the environmental organization leader kindly asked if it was okay for him to design his own commissioned rendering of the image on wood measuring 8 by 4 feet. Happy to help a fellow artist on the other side of the planet the nod was given (though, as always, the artist deserved more compensation.)
Tweet from Nov 10. 2021
Then it ended up along the banks of the River Clyde during the gathering of the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. This tweet informed me of it’s location on Nov. 10, 2021.
Enchanted by the passion of the Green Spirits, and after receiving more licensing permission to use the 4 waves, I decided to update the cartoon to include the biodiversity collapse wave. The caption bubble was also enlarged, and my moniker was placed in the top corner.
Dr. Madhu Pai, MD and McGill University Professor and Canada Research Chair of Epidemiology & Global Health convinced me to tweak the illustration a bit to advance his concerns of conditions such as TB, HIV, malaria, maternal health, etc. that have become worse due to COVID-19 and lockdowns.
Dorking, UK
As of Autumn 2020, according to google image search, there are more than 1680 posts of these variations across the Internet on various social media platforms and websites.
Scientific American – March 2022, Introducing 21 Ways COVID Changed the World
Finally and noteworthy is an overriding subject going beyond the pandemic, Healthcare distress, the economy, Brexit, Climate Change, war …the end of the world, it’s the chronology of this cartoon as a meme.
“There’s a difference between using a familiar symbol and copying someone else’s cartoon, and, while some asked for permission and credited him, others did not. It’s a common experience for cartoonists in this Ctl-C, Ctl-V world, and MacKay’s analysis is excellent.”
Who knows how much, from Finland, Svante Suominen’s effort using the illustration to promote #SavePondHockey helped his cause which he asked in a Twitter exchange, our group fights “climate change by organizing outdoor hockey tournaments and donating the profits to climate campaigns / action. We’d love to use a quickly hacked image that is based on your idea and design work as a featured image in our blog. Would that be OK for you?” He was given clearance to do so, merely for having the decency to ask.
Like so many images cartoonists offered up to the Internet, dark forces are at the ready armed with design software to butcher artists work and memes-ify them to serve their appetites for likes and retweets. Just as egregious to discover signed cartoons reworded to suit partisan stances effectively turning satire into propaganda, is the removal of monikers and the extraction of intellectual property. We learn as children not to do this when we hand in assignments for school and that we should always source words borrowed from others. Why is it when theft of imagery that’s turned into memes is taken so passively?
On April 27 2021, a supportive follower made me aware of a new adaptation with the logo of Extinction Rebellion attached to it. The new image shows a different rendering of the waves with a couple of labels changed. Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement that has its roots in the UK and has captured the attention in recent months for huge non-violent rallies and civil disobedience against governments not doing enough to fight climate change and prevent the inevitable ecological extinction. It has been very successful in raising awareness and is influencing similar movements around the world. It is, however, not without criticism, with charges of being extremist, classist, and short-sighted with regards to diversity. In 2019, eight ER protesters made fools of themselves when they took their demonstration to the London Underground and disrupted an evening commute for thousands of transit users by unfurling a banner on the roof of a subway car. Respect for the work of artists seems to be another one of Extinction Rebellion’s shortcomings. It is ironic indeed that an organization called Extinction Rebellion has made my connection to my own design extinct with this:
Over a number of years, responding to people responsible for repurposing creative content has revealed interesting personality characteristics. Most people will realize they’ve done wrong, remove the vandalized content, and apologize.
Junked up nonsense found on Twitter. Zero likes, zero retweets, zero idea.
Some won’t respond at all. Others will reply, and dig in their heels with claims that it’s some kind of human right to screen grab someone’s work online, alter it, and repost it as they deem fit. What compels people to modify visual work may be a genuine expression of support adding ones own thought to a message. Well meaning perhaps, as in the case of the DIY art restorer who, in 2012, decided to fix Ecce Homo, a fresco painted by Elías García Martínez in a church in Borja, Spain, but who was roundly condemned and mocked for the results. Or, it may just be a narcissist’s lack of thoughtfulness by co-opting imagery to communicate a message unrelated to the intent of the creator of the image. Several of the worst cases have been called out as the Social Media Jackasses for their bad behaviour.
Along comes a post on Instagram where an account run under the banner of a big international bubble tea chain called Tiger Sugar used the image below to promote franchise expansion. A glance through the account shows an endless scroll of not so witty memes mixed with photos of their swirly brown syrup concoctions aimed at a younger smart phone addicted set. A message was left under the post requesting removal of the altered image. As of the time of this writing the post remains and thereby grants Tiger Sugar bestowal of recognition into the pantheon of intellectual property thieves.
Tiger Sugar was not given permission readapt the messaging
Noted is this eerily similar looking version found on this page on a site called EcoMatcher. They aren’t based in any particular country but whether the renderer knew it or not, that’s pretty much exactly what I drew in the very first version (posted at the top of this page) to represent Canada, from the rockies in the west to the Toronto skyline in the east. Seems the readapters of the image had a pretty good idea of the original cartoon’s chronology. It bears a striking resemblance to Svante’s rendering above.
Finally, From GreenMoveID, an environmental organization in Indonesia that shared this modification in November, 2020. For non-English speaking countries it’s important to get the message out, and frankly this rendering is beautifully done, and good for them for the credit:
If we all let our guard down, it could be that the Covid-19 Pandemic is actually the opening before a bigger disaster comes. The government must think further ahead in making policies to tackle this pandemic. GreenMoveID (Indonesia) posted this on Nov. 9, 2020, @greenmoveid acknowledging mackaycartoons illustration for inspiration
Another unique perspective by a Warsaw based organization called Social Simulations.
Waves, boulders, impending doom, stock photo.
In December 2023, I shared a panel with Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake City Tribune, and Rod Emmerson of the New Zealand Tribune for an episode of Daryl Cagle’s podcast on the subject of editorial cartooning Climate Change. In my selection of cartoons I highlighted my odyssey with this cartoon here:
It was from this discussion among esteemed colleagues that I reflected on the notion of a fifth wave and on March 11, 2024, marking the cartoon’s 4th anniversary, a revised version was introduced to followers on my Facebook page:
Navigating the tumultuous sea of comments beneath the aforementioned image on social media felt akin to moderating a symphony of chaos. Amidst the cacophony of skepticism, denialism rhetoric, and snark, there emerged a beacon of sensible engagement. Delving deeper, discussions on the rationale behind an alien invasion unveiled a surprising revelation: for many, it represented a glimmer of hope, a chance for redemption in the face of planetary demise. As one astute commentator aptly noted, humanity clings to eschatologies, be they religious or scientific, yearning for a Deus ex Machina to rectify all wrongs in the eleventh hour.
Alas, the notion of an Alien Invasion fell short; the message simply wasn’t resonating. Amidst suggestions of alternate catastrophic scenarios and the futile clamor for World War III, the stark reality of “Biodiversity Collapse” loomed large, rendering traditional warfare moot. Thus, embracing the ethos of science fiction, I propose the “Zombie Apocalypse” as a more apt final wave. Metaphorically, zombies already roam our world—enslaved by screens, consumed by self-interest, devoid of empathy. The illustration’s profound message echoes: those who passively watch as calamity unfolds, relinquishing agency to the zombies amongst us, seal their own fate. In this grim narrative, the zombies emerge victorious, for apathy is their most potent ally.
Authorized versions of the 4 Waves cartoon are available on a wide range of ethically sourced apparel and products through this link “RIDE THE WAVES OF ANNILATION” on light background, and this link for dark background.
The authorized version of the 4 Waves cartoon is available on a wide range of ethically sourced apparel and products through the MacKaycartoons Online Boutique.
Authorized for sale by Graeme MacKay through this link.
Happy Anniversary | March 11, 2025 | Newsletter 21
CHRONOLOGY OF A CARTOON GONE VIRAL
One of editorial cartoondom’s most recognized and overused cliche is 
