Sketchbook peek

I based next week's cartoon for the PRESS on a Reuter's photo of speaking at a news conference on the second day of the North American Leaders Summit in New Orleans, Louisiana, April 22., and of course, a publicity shot of the La Brea Tar Pits in beautiful, downtown Burbank.

I still can't believe he denied that we're in a recession and then had the nerve to say it in New Orleans of all places! Then again, this is the guy who was genuinely flabbergasted when a reporter asked him about gas prices climbing to $4/gal. a couple of weeks ago!

Art students watching me do the caricature asked me if I meant to make fun of him, because the ears were kind of big. "Yeah..." I said, "that's kind of the point of an editorial cartoon." I really did try to explain it without sounding condescending because I think they really thought that I was trying hard to do a realistic drawing, but messing up. Sometimes satire is lost on seventh graders.