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Blog Syndicate

Congratulations, Putin

There was a “big story” a couple of days ago about president Trump calling and congratulating Russian president Putin on his “election” victory. Trump had been given notes from his staff for the call, with a warning in all caps urging him not to congratulate Putin, probably because Putin’s election was bogus as top opponents weren’t allow to run, and in the wake of Russia’s attempted assassination of a double agent in England. This led to more speculation about why Trump seems to compliment Putin at every opportunity, which quickly turned into banter about who leaked the story.

This story would hang around for a while in normal times, but the news moves so fast these days the story was over about the time I finished drawing my cartoon. Gotta draw faster.

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Blog Syndicate

Kick Me!

Trump, Li’l Kim, Xi and Putin are a funny ensemble. One problem with editorial cartooning is that we can only draw characters that readers already know from the news, and if the cartoonist isn’t a sissy, he or she won’t label the characters but really try to draw caricatures. As the world goes down the tubes we have more characters and more opportunities to eschew labels. Life is good.

This cartoon is based on an oldie I drew about nine years ago, featuring Li’l Kim’s daddy, Li’l Kim Jong Il.

Sorry that I haven’t been drawing or posting much lately. I’ve been holed up in my office doing annual bookkeeping and quarterly artists royalties.  ARRRGH! I have more to do. I’ll try to poke my head out of the muck more often. In the course of all the accounting madness, I neglected to post the grim reaper cartoon below from about three weeks ago when the story of the moment was the GOP’s ugly healthcare bill.

I thought I was being clever at the time – until I saw that dozens of cartoonists were drawing grim reaper cartoons. Great minds think alike.  ARRRGH!

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Blog Syndicate

Trump/Putin Bromance

Here’s the Donald giving a big bromance kiss to Vladimir Putin. They are both so strong. Mmm.

I futzed around  with this one before deciding on this close-up – you can watch my indecision in the video below.

In the next video, watch me coloring the kiss in Photoshop!

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Blog Syndicate

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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Blog Syndicate

Apple vs. the FBI and Third World Despots

The legal battle between the FBI and Apple promises to be epic. I come down on Apple’s side; we’ve seen how important technology is in undermining evil despotic regimes around the world. If courts can force tech companies to become foot soldiers in regime efforts to spy on their populations that will be a loss for freedom around the world.

apple-despots

I drew this one as a live stream. Watch me color it in Photoshop in real time in the YouTube video below (scroll past the timer at the beginning).

Click on the YouTube video below and it should start at 2:48:40 where I start drawing the Apple vs Despots cartoon. This was a long afternoon of work, and I drew the previous cartoon before this one. Sorry for the lack of editing, but hey, you see everything. I have nothing to hide.

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Blog

Obama, Putin, Assad and Doggies

I think all world issues can be boiled down to doggies.

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Blog

Oil Prices Drop on the Despots!

Oil prices dropped below $60/barrel this week, to the delight of American drivers and the dismay of ugly, oil-producing countries around the world. I thought of drawing a group scene with even more despots from nasty countries, like Libya, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the list – trouble is, there are too many of them, and they don’t have good, recognizable characters for the barrel of oil to bash.

So, I did three versions of this cartoon, Iran, Russia and Venezuela, which each have fascinating, and from an American point of view, encouraging stories of economic collapse with the drop in oil prices. Newspapers can pair these with Op-Ed pieces on each country’s interesting travails.

I tried combining these, but that was confusing. Simple is good. Here’s Vladimir Putin …

I love drawing Putin – he’s so creepy. Next is Venezuela and their president, Nicolas Maduro.

This is the first time I’ve drawn Maduro. I like his low forehead and widows peak. The last version is Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is a delight to draw, but like Maduro, he requires a label because people don’t know what he looks like.

Iran’s Supreme Leader makes me laugh. He also likes to throw Iranian cartoonists into jail, and my web sites are blocked in Iran – still, the Supreme Leader makes me laugh. Just the fact that he wants to call himself “Supreme Leader” is funny.

Categories
Cartoons

Russia and Oil Price Drop

157401 600 Russia and Oil Price Drop cartoons

Categories
Cartoons

Obama Squeezed into the World Plane

153483 600 Obama Squeezed into the World Plane cartoons

Categories
Cartoons

Obama Squeezed into the World Plane

153430 600 Obama Squeezed into the World Plane cartoons