During the run up to George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, I drew a bunch of cartoons that I regret, supporting the rush to war. One of my biggest regrets was believing the reporting of Judy Miller and the New York Times about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I won’t make that mistake again – I have no trust left for the New York Times and when the media all jumps in pushing for war, my inclination is to push back. Here’s my latest on the media press for war.
I seem to be all alone on this. I notice that just about all of our other cartoonists are jumping on the war-bandwagon – even the liberal doves who I would expect to resist. When the war-drums play, it seems that everyone wants to dance. See our Obama and ISIS/ISIL cartoons here.
The Charles Atlas comic book ad that is burned into my memory.
I collected comic books as a kid – thousands of comic books. The Charles Atlas ad at the right was burned into my brain. The ad didn’t influence me to exercise (I’m too lazy for that) but it motivated me to draw the cartoon above, with Obama, Ukraine and Putin at the beach.
Ukraine is a tough metaphor because we don’t really have any good visual icons or characters that scream “Ukraine” at a glance, so I’ve taken to depicting Ukraine as a pudgy, braided, blond chick.
She is wearing a bathing suit in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, but I’m sure American readers won’t notice that. In the drawing below, she is with caveman-Putin, wearing traditional, Ukrainian garb …
Here she is again, in the same clothes, getting robbed by Putin while Obama stands by …
Putin has his own traditional garb – he doesn’t wear a shirt.
My last Charles Atlas metaphor cartoon is below, from more than ten years ago during the run-up George W. Bush’s war in Iraq. Things don’t change much as we’re seeing the media push war on us all over again.
Fox News is aghast and aflutter about President Obama saying he’ll unilaterally enter into an international agreement on Climate Change. Obama touts that he has a “pen and a phone” to do business without congress. The pen amuses me.
President Obama’s pen annoys the GOP.
Like almost every cartoon I draw, I think the black and white line version looks better – and it is what most people will see in the newspaper …
Black and white always looks better, huh?My Obama has grown to be gray-haired and weary.
I realized that kids these days might not be familiar with fountain pens, and how they would occasionally squirt by mistake. I was reading Classic Peanuts recently as Charlie Brown was writing to his pen-pal with a fountain pen, squirting all over the page. I can’t remember the last time I wrote a letter on paper, or the last time I used a fountain pen. Charlie Brown is a classic, but the strip seemed to define the elderly audience of the newspaper.
At the right is a close-up detail view of Obama’s head from this cartoon. Over the course of his presidency I’ve been drawing Obama more gray haired and more weary looking. He’s having a visual transformation in cartoons as well as in reality. Also, in his news conference yesterday Obama was wearing a light tan suit. I’ve never seen Obama wear anything other than a black suit! For cartoonists the tan suit should have been the big story of the day. I like to draw pinstripes and I’ve gotten comments that Obama doesn’t wear suits like the ones I draw him in – artistic license – the cartoon above would have been lousy with a black suit, the composition needs the black pen and black ink to work – a black suit would ruin it.
The renewed talk about Obama’s “pen” got me thinking about a cartoon I drew when the “pen and phone” talk first came out …
Obama with his manly, phallic pen.Phallic Putin by Taylor Jones.
My new Obama-pen cartoon is also phallic. Editorial cartoonists love to make phallic references in their cartoons. At the right is one of my recent favorites from Taylor Jones.
International cartoonists draw a whole lot of phallic cartoons. A recurring image is a warlike character holding a missile in a manly position. Below is one by South African cartoonist Jeremy Nell …
The charmer below is from German cartoonist Rainer Hachfeld …
International cartoonists make me feel subtle.
And yes! We now have a cartoon about Obama’s tan suit from Nate Beeler. I knew that tan suit would find its way into cartoons.
