My Missing Donald Trump Cartoon
Categories
Ferguson Grand Jury Time Bomb
Categories
Hong Kong, War and Apple!
Sorry to neglect the blog! I’ve been away on two cartoonist convention trips and I need to catch up! Here’s the new one today on Hong Kong.
Most people will see this in newspapers in black and white – and I think it is better in black and white.
I drew this as a riff on an oldie. I have lots of problems with Chinese hackers attacking my web sites, and I drew this self-portrait some time ago. I don’t think it got reprinted much, because it was a personal cartoon – better as a Hong Kong cartoon.
Here are a couple of recent cartoons that I forgot to post in the blog. Here’s Obama transforming into George W. Bush. I’m a little late on this one; I should have drawn it a couple of years ago. It probably wouldn’t have been reprinted much two years ago. Now that’s we’re back in Iraq, more and more, the transformation is clear.
The media’s march to war also matches the old march to war in Iraq under George W. Bush. People don’t seem to get that every party that is fighting over there is a bad guy, and bad guys fighting other bad guys is something we should leave alone. We have our priorities out of place, which is the point of the carton below.
The new smart watch from Apple looks pretty cool, but the emphasis on counting steps and the anal focus on health apps seems unpleasant. Here’s my take on it.
While I was away at the cartoonists convention in France for two weeks, I re-posted an oldie. This “evergreen” dove-bomber cartoon is appropriate all too often.
Here’s another one I missed – another riff on Obama and his pen annoying the Republicans. That’s the last one. Now I’m caught up!
Categories
Shoe Bomber
Categories
Government Go Boom
Categories
Yelling Into an Empty Head!
Every so often I have to draw a cartoon with Uncle Sam yelling into the empty head of a politician who just doesn’t get what the public clearly wants. Here’s my most recent cartoon, in advance of President Obama’s speech to drum up support for a strike against Syria, that the public strongly opposes.
Obama doesn’t seem to hear the public on the NSA. I thought about drawing Obama with little ears going forward in all of my cartoons, but I decided that would just be spitting into the cartoonists wind.
Mitt Romney was also deaf to public opinion …
As was George W. Bush …
Categories
Senate Nuclear Option
Categories
The Boston Bombing and the Gun Bill
The two big news stories this week were the Boston Marathon bombing and the sinking of the gun bill by Republicans in the Senate. Of-course, the gun bill got lost in the media focus on the Boston Bombing (we have a great collection of cartoons on the Boston Bombing here).
The problem with dominant news stories is that every cartoonist is drawing the same thing at the same time – why? Editors all want the same thing at the same time. Usually I like to steer a little different path then the cartoonist pack, because of supply and demand. There were just too many similar cartoons about the Boston Marathon Bombing this week, with bloody tennis shoes, bowed heads on statues, damaged Boston logos, symbolic metaphors breaking ribbons at finish lines – just what editors wanted, but too much of it for them to use. I tried to take a bit of a different tack with memorial candles, and I wanted to avoid drawing something bloody, still, I’m sure my cartoon didn’t get reprinted much because of oversupply. Here is the rough pencil sketch.
…and here is the black and white line art, that most people will see in the newspaper.
… and here is the color …
If I use colors in cartoons that are too dark, I get complaints from editors, so the color was a compromise. I’m not sure I’m happy with it. Oh well, it is a cartoon I was obligated to draw and the marketplace didn’t need – the story of my career.
The next cartoon was about the Republicans sinking the gun bill in the Senate. Republicans love their guns a bit too much – and that’s all that this cartoon says. Here is the rough sketch.
I found a photo of an assault rifle on Google and printed it out for my rough sketch. For a moment, I thought about Photoshopping the actual photo into the cartoon – it would be a jarring contrast to have the drawing of an elephant with what looks like a real, nasty, assault rifle photo – then I thought about how Bill Day tried that and was pilloried by this colleagues, and my good judgement got the better of me. Gotta watch out for those gun photos, they can get you labeled as a “plagiarist” and make you the wallflower at AAEC cartoonist parties.
Here is the black and white art …
and the color …
Ah! Love in the springtime!
Categories
Mail, China, Immigration and More!
Here are my most recent cartoons! Here’s the rough sketch for today’s cartoon, a little snarkiness pointed at troubled newspapers. I drew the three characters on the left, and then took a piece of tracing papers to make some changes for the panel on the right, to keep them looking consistent.
Then I drew it up as line art, in pencil on vellum. This black and white version is what most people will see in the newspaper – if newspapers will print this one. I always like the black and white version best.
And here I added color, in Photoshop layers behind the black line art.
Those young people are so disrespectful of Grandpa! Here is yesterday’s cartoon …
My wife’s Uncle Keene e-mailed this idea to me, which he tells me was given to him by a friend who prefers to remain anonymous. I usually don’t draw other peoples ideas, but what the heck, I liked this one. Thanks, Keene. Here it is as it looked in my local newspaper this morning.
I notice they picked up some gray scuzzy tone in the background. Yuck. Why do newspapers take pretty, clean crispy cartoons and muck them up? Here’s a previous cartoon, about the terrible air pollution in China.
This one was fun, and it is nice to do cartoons with no words. The previous cartoon was this quicky for Groundhog’s Day.
I didn’t bother doing color for this one. The previous one was about the immigration debate …
Now I’m caught up! I need to post more often.
Categories
Obama the Groundhog
Categories
Fruity Loomy Terrorists
