National Cartoonist Day; May 5

Remember, May 5 is National Cartoonist Day.

Tell ya what, instead of cards or gifts, just do me a huge HUGE favor and invite people to http://tedstoons.blogspot.com and/or to my mal•toons Facebook group. Encourage them to leave comments and to share it with others.

Okay, okay, TWO huge favors- why not download you favorite of my cartoons and attach it in an email and send it to somebody.

Do those two things between now and May 5 and the cartoon fairy will visit you with good luck. Okay, not really, but if you go to a comic book store,(on May 5) they'll probably give you at no charge to you, a free comic book.

Of course, if you write your local newspaper and tell them that both comics and editorial cartoons are important to you as a subscriber, then the cartoon fairy really will visit you with prosperity and good luck.

Okay, I'm kidding about the prosperity thing, there's only so much that these holiday fairies can do. What do you think they are anyway, magic?

How about this? April 30 is "Poem in your pocket day," why not cut out your favorite cartoon (mine or anybody else's ) and carry it around in your pocket for good luck on May 5?

Okay, I can't promise you good luck, talk to God about that one. But do me a favor, tell somebody about how May 5 is National Cartoonist's Day, will ya? Even most professional cartoonists have pretty much given up on it and I'm really trying to bring it back. Okay?

Thanks!

The return of Mayor Gonz

Mayor Gonzo's publicist insisted that her trademark stogie and hat be present in every representation of her. So... above is the updated version of this cartoon, but below is the original.
Here's a cartoon that commemorates that fateful day when former tabloid journalist and current honorable Mayor of Key West, Florida, Sammie "Gonzo" Mays actually broke INTO prison to get a picture of defamed Cincinnati Red. To learn more about Gonzo Girl, visit her website in the Conch Republic- http://saminthekeys.com

Whew! 3 in one day. I'm feeling really prolific. Actually I drew the Mal•Adjusted last night at my daughter's piano lesson. Not likely that I'll draw this many cartoons all in one day for a long time. All three of my morning classes are mid-project, had several kids absent and didn't need much help. But this was fun. If someone paid me $40K a year or more for it, I could get used to drawing funny pictures all day, and not just for an hour and a half in 15 minute spurts, in between helping kids, during morning.

Mal•Adjusted

Save me, I'm becoming hopelessly esoteric!

Meet Jon Doe

Here's another Facebook Portrait- this one for a former student who's in the music industry in LA. Of course, he asked for this like... MONTHS ago and I'm just now getting around to it. Gigi (that last client) had dozens of old profile pictures to choose from, Jon only had one, not that I'm making excuses.

Freelancing

Here are a couple of cartoon illustrations that I did today.


This one (above) is for a designer in Delaware. She was a regular reader of my Pirate blog and recently asked if I'd consider doing a caricature of her that she could use for her Facebook profile picture. Below is a revamp of one I'd done for Camp Okoboji, Lutheran Summer Camps her in Iowa.

Mal•Adjusted

Beware; there is no casual conversation with people who are both reflective, and hyper-analytical.

Mal•Adjusted

If I'm going to have these spurts of productivity like last week and the last couple of days, I should really post things on a time-released system where they show up once a week for a month instead of once a day for a week. Whatever. This one was fun. She's based on a dentures ad in a early 60's Saturday Evening Post- and a quote on fascism from 1940's Progressive Party Presidential candidate Henry Wallace.

Mal•Adjusted

Mal•Adjusted

Mal•Adjusted

Mal•Adjusted

Whole lotta forehead

Haven't really cartooned for a while. Life and work get busy. But I'm making a concerted effort, so there will be some new 'Mal•Adjusted' panels posted here this week. Meanwhile, here's just a random page from my sketch pad. One benefit of being an Art teacher is that while the 7th graders are glazing their ceramic coil pots, I can draw. One drawback to being an Art teacher is that then as soon as any of them are done they gather around like seagulls at a beach picnic and watch what you're doing and ask "how are you doing that" with amazement, and ask if they can keep a copy and will you draw Nick Jonas for them so they can hang it in their locker and will you teach us do that? Etc. etc. etc.

As usual, this was just a random picture from some farming magazine. Although it did end up looking a little like one of my college professors, but he was a professor that I really liked, so I'd hate to make fun of him. The lines are a little shaky. I think my blood sugar must be taking a dive. Time for lunch. I hate diabetes.

Whatever you say, Studley

Here I am (as the late Chicago columnist Mike Royko) listening to another one of Studs Terkel's crazy rants, down at the Billy Goat tavern after a Cub's game. Obviously, I couldn't give this one to the English teacher to hang up at school, what with the brewskis and all.

Call me 'Blockhead'

As long as I'm living vicariously through PhotoShop, I figured if I'd already incarnated the likes of painter Grant Wood and writer H.L. Mencken- then I may as well become the world's greatest cartoonist while I'm at it. This is me, in a parallel universe, at the desk of the master, Charles M. Schultz.

My days at the Sun

Every year our English teacher solicits our favorite poems for National Poetry Month and requests that we give her a picture of ourselves so that her class can make posters of our poems to hang in the hallway. Last year I made myself look like Iowa artist Grant Wood. This year I decided to make myself into H.L. Mencken, political columnist, humorist, social commentator, reporter, and editor of the Baltimore Sun, back at the time of Theodore Roosevelt.

I may never be as famous or influential a writer, but I love writing as much as cartooning. Please note that the beer mug tattoo was drawn on the original photo by Mencken himself- that's not something I added on my own.

An Iowa hero

"It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups."
— Henry A. Wallace

Here's a watercolor caricature I did of FDR's Secretary of Agriculture, Commerce and Vice President, who ran as the presidential candidate of the Progressive Party.