GOP Gay Marriage Whipping Boy
Rembrandt Republican Autopsy
Hate Hate Hagel
Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso
Here is my latest cartoon, about the Republican infighting while Obama just sits back and waits for a deal.
This Fiscal Cliff mess came about because of the failure of the “Super-Committee.” I remembered a drawing a did of the Super-Committee some time ago, with a nice fight scene between super donkeys and elephants …
I liked that Super-Committee cartoon. Super political stuff is always great for cartoonists, especially when super-politicians fail. It occurred to me that I could use the fight scene again, if the donkeys were elephants, so I printed it out lightly and sketched in some rough changes, adding Obama and making the donkeys into elephants in the same, fighting positions …
… and then I drew over it for finished line on vellum. This black and white line drawing is what most people see in the newspaper …
… and then I colored it in layers on Photoshop. The line drawing is always better than the color, but readers and editors never seem to think so.
The previous cartoon was also about GOP angst, this time in the form of Picasso’s Guernica (below).
Oh the GOP suffering; oh the humanity! I did pretty much the same thing with this one. I printed out the Guernica painting and traced a nice line drawing on vellum.
I wanted it to look like it came from my hand, which is why I did all the cross hatching and un-Picasso like line quality. Then I added the gray tone …
Oh! Those poor Republicans! My most recent one was the New Years Fiscal Cliff cartoon below. This one probably works better on the Web because you have to scroll down to get to the gag.
My wife thought this one was too cruel to babies. She told me I shouldn’t draw it. My Australian cartoonist buddy, Peter Broelman did a similar one today, without being cruel to the baby – and his will get reprinted more because it isn’t in a vertical format. My wife likes Peter’s better too. Oh well.
GOP uernica Gray
GOP uernica
To Spite Your Face
Santa Obama
I was listening to Rush Limbaugh this week; he talks a lot about Obama as Santa Claus giving presents to the interest groups that support him – that was the inspiration for my newest cartoon. Here is the dirty, rough, pencil sketch …
Here it is as line art, traced from the rough sketch …
I like the line art best, and most newspapers print black and white so this is what most readers see. I’ve noticed that some papers, including my local Santa Barbara News-Press, sometimes print the color versions of my cartoons in grayscale, so I suppose some people don’t like the harsh line look. I put gray into this one to satisfy those people.
… and here it is in color, as you’ll see it on the Web and newspapers that print in color.
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Cartoons!
Here is my latest cartoon, with the GOP balloon losing air at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The Macy’s giant balloons are an ongoing theme for editorial cartoonists. RJ Matson, my cartoonist buddy from Roll Call, is probably the king of the Macy’s balloon cartoons. Here’s is an oldie with president Bush that is probably RJ’s Macy’s balloon magnum opus.
This one, with Mayor Guiliani and Hillary is my favorite of RJ’s balloon cartoons …
RJ drew this one a year ago, as Mitt Romney was knocking off his GOP rivals around Thanksgiving time …
This one is pretty old, but it still makes me laugh. RJ titled it “Dick Cheney’s Hot Air” …
John Darkow drew this one today, about the fiscal cliff …
John drew this one last year … when we don’t know what to draw this week, the Macy’s giant balloon metaphor lets cartoonists pile everything in …
John drew this one when the economy collapsed in 2008 …
David Fitzsimmons drew this one today, about the GOP, the fiscal cliff and Benghazi hot air …
The Macy’s giant Thanksgiving Day balloon cartoons are no-brainers, but I love them.
Fox News Schadenfreude
I watched Fox News while I worked, all day yesterday. Oh! Such sore losers. There is so much bitterness; so many recriminations. It was delightful, and it inspired the cartoon below. Here is my rough sketch, somehow, the rough sketch always looks the best.
Then I drew it up as the line art that most people will see in their newspapers that still print in black and white. I printed out a map of the continental United States and traced it for the storm cloud.
And here he is with messy, rainy color.
Ah! Good times. Fox News should be fun for a few more days, I think.