I’m going to the big, euro-editorial-cartoonists convention in St. Just France again this year, along with four Cagle Cartoons star cartoonists, Nate Beeler, Adam Zyglis, Rick McKee and Steve Sack.

We’re putting together a show at the St. Just cartoon museum on American Views of Vladimir Putin and I’ve been scouring my own archives for my favorite, recent Putin cartoons, some are posted below, there will be a lot more in the show.

Putin is a wonderful cartoon character.  I like how Putin looks bored in every meeting.  Putin is funny for being macho and taking off his shirt.  Like Bill Clinton, who had his pants down, showing his underwear enblazoned with little hearts almost all of the new Putin cartoons have him shirtless. Putin has been a big cartoon character recently, with his annexation of Crimea, the downing of the Malaysian Airlines jet, economic sanctions, the Winter Olympics, and Putin’s support for Syria’s Assad regime.  Putin pokes his spooky nose into lots of current events.

I researched traditional Ukrainian dress for the cartoon below, with a standard, shirtless, caveman Putin.

I like this Ukrainian chick as my symbol for Ukraine.  I used her again in the cartoon below, with shirtless Putin robbing her of her Crimea purse, with hapless Obama standing by.

I draw digestion/cross-section cartoons every so often.  Here’s shirtless Putin below, digesting little countries and pooping out a stinky, new Soviet Union!

Maybe I should draw Putin with no pants too.  I drew this cartoon when Miley Cyrus did her TV “twerking,” which was much bigger news than the antics Putin was pulling at the time. Twerking amuses me. I wonder if the media covers all the twerking news in Russia, as they do here.

Obama was eager to invade Syria, to help out those ISIS rebels, before Putin pulled the rug out from under Obama, with a plan for Syria to destroy their chemical weapons.  This is one of there rare occasions where I like what Putin does.  The news was all about Putin “putting Obama in a box.”

Here’s Putin pulling the old-Syria-switcheroo on Obama like the Alien movies.

Here’s my most recent Putin cartoon, featuring Putin with his Ukrainian rebel puppet.

My cartoonist daughter, Susie, just sent me some new Photoshop brushes that she’s urging me to use.  I may be getting away from these sponge/stamp textures soon. I really need to improve my color.  I know.  I’m on the case.