Danish cartoonist Roald Als has published a nearly 800-page collection of his political drawings, covering Danish politics from 1980 to 2026.
DR reports that the book appeared this week, drawn from the more than 10,000 satirical cartoons Als has made over 46 years. The 78-year-old draws for the newspaper Politiken and still works from its offices on Rådhuspladsen in Copenhagen.
The volume is titled “Roalds Danmarkshistorie 1980-2026. Fra Anker til Mette”. According to the bookseller Gucca, it runs to about 804 pages of color illustrations with accompanying text. The title refers to the span from Anker Jørgensen to Mette Frederiksen.
Als told DR’s P1 portrait program “Ugens Gæst” that cutting down the list of drawings was painful. Editors rejected some of his own choices on the grounds that they were not funny. He said he listens anyway, because the point is to make people laugh.
Many of his current drawings deal with the turmoil inside Venstre, according to DR. Als said he can draw the things journalists cannot write.
Only one politician has complained
Over the years, one politician has told him off about his work, DR reports: Pia Kjærsgaard, the former leader of Dansk Folkeparti. Als has long portrayed her as the woman in the mud ditch. He said she does not find the drawings funny.
His best-known cartoons show former Venstre prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen dressed in furs and carrying a club. The idea came in 1993, when Fogh published his book “Fra socialstat til minimalstat”. In a 2017 interview with DR, Fogh said the caveman figure had become part of his brand.
Former Venstre deputy prime minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen told DR that Als is the sharpest political commentator in Denmark. He bought the original the first time he was drawn, and it still hangs framed in his home.
Als said cartoonists do not have to aim for objectivity in the way journalists do. He describes himself as a Social Democrat but does not vote for the party. He has told his editors they may say when a drawing is not funny, but he refuses censorship.
Censorship became unavoidable for cartoonists after the Muhammad drawings in 2005 and the attack on the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo in 2015. Als has put a sign on his office door stating, in Arabic, that he is not Kurt Westergaard.
On the final page of the book, Als writes that Danish history will not end, and neither will he. He has told his editor-in-chief that he will not leave voluntarily.
