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Hillary and Trump – @#%$!!

I almost didn’t draw this cartoon, because Hillary and Trump would never wear t-shirts and it just looked wrong – but then I got the idea of having them wear the t-shirts on top of their pant-suit and suit-suit, and that struck me as funny!

I also struggled with Hillary’s face in this one, as you can see in the video below. That’s the problem with these videos; all my struggles are on full display. The magic is gone.

In the next video I clean up my messy drawing and color it in Photoshop with my Wacom Cintiq.

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Off the Record TRUMP DISASTER and Cavemen Cartoonists

Today’s cartoon isn’t really an exaggeration – this is what “on-the-record” and “off-the-record” interviews with GOP politicians are really like these days. Sometimes a cartoon is nothing but a slice of life.

I’m setting up my studio again in Los Angeles after my move back from Nashville and I’ll hopefully be drawing more cartoons! This is the first one I’ve live-streamed from my new setup. There are too many things to remember with the streaming; with this one, I forgot the little sandpaper that I like to have on the side as I draw, to make the chisel points on my pencils – so I went outside and grabbed a couple of rocks. I can draw with rocks instead of sandpaper, just like the caveman editorial cartoonists used to do, back in the days of newspapers and dinosaurs as I saw depicted on my recent visit to the Creation Museum in Kentucky, where they recently opened a $100 million full size replica of Noah’s Ark, funded by taxpayers. The project is supported by $60 million in tax-free municipal bonds and ongoing tax support from a sales tax rebate and a tax on wages of all the employees who work for businesses in the Ark’s tax district, along with an $18 million tax rebate from the Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority. Here’s a nice article about it.

Gotta love Kentucky. The video below shows me drawing the “Off the Record” cartoon, rocks and all.  Thank God.

In the next video I color the cartoon, like a modern cartoonist on my Wacom Cintiq.

 

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Trump and the Khan Family

The Democratic National Convention seems to have all boiled down to one speaker, Khizr Khan, who’s son was killed in action in Iraq, and who’s speech wasn’t even scheduled in prime time. Trump wants to strike back at anyone who criticizes him, without regard to who is giving the criticism.  Tone-deaf Trump compares his own “sacrifice” as a businessman to the Kahn’s sacrifice.

And on the other side, it is interesting to see the GOP stalwarts stand up for a “gold star” family in this case, given how nasty they have been to Cindy Sheehan over the years.

Watch me draw this one in real time in the video below.

Wasn’t that great? Now watch me color it in Photoshop!

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Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Gets the Boot

I’m not too happy with my Putin and Bernie in this one, but Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is great fun to draw. Her hair is fun. Somehow I’m guessing she’s be around for a while in one way or another.

Here I am drawing this one live (as of 1:00pm Pacific Time Tuesday, this had another hour to finish uploading – come back later if you are early!)

And here I color it in real time …

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Mike Pence in Trump’s Shadow

There is a great tradition of drawing politicians as doggies in political cartoons. Last night the new Republican VP nominee, Mike Pence, gave his acceptance speech at the GOP convention, and here is the cartoon I drew yesterday. trumpPence750

See me draw this one in real time in the video below …

And see me color this one in Photoshop, in real time. I suggest you choose the option to watch these YouTube videos at double speed.

My brilliant cartoonist buddy. Taylor Jones, has been drawing some nice Pence doggies. Here are three I enjoyed!

Here Taylor has Pence as a little doggie. I’m not quite sure why Trump is drooling, or why Eric Trump is goose-stepping, but, whatever.

182112_600That’s Taylor’s Ivanka and puppy Pence at the right. Maybe little Pence doggies will be the political cartooning norm going forward. I look forward to that.

 

 

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Melania Trump, the Media and Plagiarism!

I’m back from my brilliant cartoonist/journalist daughter, Susie’s wedding. I promise I’ll draw more cartoons. Really, I promise. I drew this one live on Twitch yesterday, about Melania Trump’s plagiarism of Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic Convention in 2008. I don’t care much about this non-issue, but it makes for a funny scene, which is the extent of my take on this.

I know that the Donald is quite tall, but I feel compelled to draw him shorter, and I expect that the cartoons of Trump will grow shorter with time. Melania is a wonderful, goofy character to draw and I look forward to more of her! Readers might recognize my group of running media in this cartoon, which I re-use at every opportunity. I like the idea that the breathless media chasing down the next stupid thing is the same, over and over. In the video below see me drawing this one, and importing the media gaggle from a Cagle cartoon oldie.

In the next video below, watch me color this one in Photoshop while I chat with viewers on Twitch.

 

 

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Police and Black Community Targets

The recent police shootings and the murders of policemen in Dallas are a horror. I think these police shooting horrors have been going on in probably the same or lesser proportion in the past, but now we see them on phone videos. More of a horror are the statistics for how disproportionately more blacks are in prison. My solution is to get rid of the racist laws that disproportionately punish blacks for drug crimes. We should see by now that the war on drugs is unfair and is more costly to society than the cost in lives and suffering of having no war on drugs at all.

police-black-targets750

I should apologize for taking such a long break from the last cartoon. I’ve been moving back to California. We sold the ranch in Tennessee and we’re back in California, hopefully for good.

I think the police/Black Lives Matter issue will be with us for quite some time and I should come up with some more cartoon ideas on this. I have to admit that this isn’t an easy topic. It is much easier to draw “Trump as a monster” cartoons. I like the black and white line art version of this one, so I didn’t do a grayscale on this one. Unfortunately, most newspapers take the color image and grayscale it rather than using line art when I post line art as the black and white version. Frustrating. Line art is more elegant.

Here’s an oldie on the same topic that I drew last year. This one has been getting more ink recently as it has been more appropriate for the week’s focus.

And here’s another one …

In the video below you can see me drawing the target cartoon in real time.

In the next video see me coloring the cartoon in Photoshop.

 

 

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Brexit and the Stock Market Crash – Ouch!

I skipped doing a video on this one as I’m packing everything up for my move back to California!

1132-EUbull500dpiCMYK500Stars signify pain in cartoons, so the Brexit bonk on the head to the stock market bull seemed appropriate. I put a bunch of texture in this one. Maybe someone will print it big.

I’m outta here for a while, driving my car from Nashville to California, and doing some sightseeing on the way – so, sorry, but the cartoons should resume in a couple of weeks.

 

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Brexit!

This is Brexit day! I drew two versions of a missing star EU flag, a tame suitcase version and a flipping-off version for editors who are not so tame. We’ve getting tons of Brexit cartoons coming in and I’m posted a few of my favorites below.

I see that the missing star theme is all over the web today, so these cartoons hold fall into a Yahtzee or near-Yahtzee I’m sure, but this is the one editors will need for the weekend.

Here’s the tame version …

So … which one is better?

Here are a few of my Brexit favorites …

By Dave Granlund

By Arend van Dam

By Osmani Simanca

By Christina Sampaio

 

By Marian Kamensky

By Tom Janssen

By Pavel Constantin

By Patrick Chappatte

By Luojie

By Angel Boligan

By Marian Kamensky

By Hajo

All of these cartoons are available in high resolution to reprint at Politicalcartoons.com.

 

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The NRA and the Republican Doggie!

Since the Orlando massacre there has been talk on the left about gun control, while the right seems unmoved by arguments to limit assault weapons or ban sales of guns to people on the “no-fly” list. It isn’t hard to see why.

I like the image of the NRA as a pig in a business suit – much the same image that I often use for Wall Street. The pig is a symbol of greed and the NRA is all about money and self interest around their gun issues. Here’s another one with NRA piggies that I drew some time ago.

and here’s another one …

My pigs are influenced by my old Muppet days and I guess I have a pig style that some people see as too similar to my elephants. Whenever I draw pigs in cartoons I’ll get an e-mail from somebody who thinks my pig is a short snouted elephant – some people must suffer from pig-blindness.

The videos of my drawing the new NRA piggy and doggie are below. Note that I ran into a problem with Photoshop when I tried to put in the image of the $100 bill. I thought using a $100 bill was funny and enhanced the message of the cartoon; it created a natural, visual focal point drawing the eye up to the money. Its all about the money. Photoshop blocks images of bank notes as a barrier to counterfeiters, and this has been a problem for me with past cartoons. In the videos you’ll see me struggle with this again. I use money scans rarely enough that I always forget how I worked around it the last time. You’ll see me struggle a bit and figure it out in the video.

Here I am drawing the piggy/doggie cartoon …

and here I am coloring the piggy/doggie cartoon …