The South Will Rise Again!

Let's face it, Nixon had a "Southern Strategy" and Lee Atwater had Reagan start his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi to take advantage of "latent" prejudices essentially to the capture the Confederate voters who left the Democratic party when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act and the Republican party has pretty much been the party of anti-intellectual, straight, white, Evangelical males ever since. Now we have Rick Perry because Mitt Romney isn't Christian enough and Sarah Palin and Michelle Michelle Bachmann are still women.

A 'C' student governor from Texas that everybody would love to have a beer with... hmmm, where have I seen this movie before?

Here we go again

I think what this country needs now are more tax cuts for the rich and less regulation on business!

Phun in Photoshop

Remember the old Murphy Brown show? Recall how on the inside of her office door, she had a dartboard and famous politicians and media types often found themselves there? Like Dan Quayle. Well, here's my answer to it. Now that I have the template, I can put any perceived villain in the Polaroid. Fun way to blow off steam, huh?

One last dig

Note that Bush is Mickey Mouse (cannibalized that caricature from previous cartoon I did) and Washington is annoyed (I actually did that in Photoshop). The "Our enemies..." bit is an actual quote, one of the top three dumb "Bushisms." By the way "Misunderestimated" is a real Bushism too, although "Stategery" is not, it was made up by comedian Will Ferrel, but "misunderestimated" really was made up by our previous president.

Deregulation run amuck

And we wonder why we wound up with a "culture of corruption."

Happy NEW YEAR!!!!

Cartoon for the Sep 25, 2008 PRESS

One of the things I love to do is to use politicians own words against them. All of what Hoover is saying here is from two different McCain quotes. Like everyone else, I'm scared of a new Great Depression. Syndicates DEFINITELY won't be hiring cartoonists, and schools won't be needing Art teachers.
Here is how it will look in black and white when they run it in the Mapleton PRESS next week. And below is the original caricature from my sketchbook.

And in case anyone wants to save this sign and send it to all your Republican friends or turn it into a bumper sticker or post it on your MySpace of FaceBook-

For Thurs Sept. 4

I have to admit it, Hillary had a great line in her speech last night. It inspired me this week.

For Aug 28, 08 Mapleton PRESS

I had thought about this idea for today's newspaper, but then I decided to go with that whole "Birth of Venus/Obama" thing since the convention is the 25th-29th. Guess I got things backward. It was actually a half-ways original idea when I thought of it back on Aug 14, since then every cartoonist and their brother have pretty much drawn a variation on this theme. Whatchyagonnado?

The nut doesn't fall far from the family tree

Cartoon for May 29, 08 Mapleton PRESS

You'll have to click on this one to be able to read the captions under the elders, but I promise, it's worth it.

Once again, I'm posting on the day I get done, rather than the publication day, and once again, I'm hopelessly out dated. But doggone it, like Indiana Jones, I hate NAZIs almost as much as I hate hypocrites.

From April 1944 on, the American Air Force could have destroyed the camp with air raids, as well as the railway bridges and railway lines from Hungary to Auschwitz. The murder of about 400,000 Hungarian Holocaust victims could have been prevented.

A January 22 1944 executive order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt calling on the government to take all measures to rescue the European Jews. That order was ignored because of pressure brought by a group of big American companies, including BBH, where Prescott Bush was a director.

Some legacy. But by God, he's a "born-again-Christian" who's opposed to abortion and gay marriage. More guys like him and maybe we can get prayer back in public schools and evolution out of them!

When will Christian voters get a clue. Republicans are about money and eliminating the middle-class, they only SAY they're for those socially conservative, traditional, "family values" issues to get your vote. Really, they're about money and power for themselves and their cronies.

I bet we make Jesus cry. One of my favorite bumper stickers is "Drive Republicans crazy, live like Jesus."

Okay, okay, I'll shut up. Cartoonists are supposed to be funny, not preachy. Besides, the more I write about it, the more I look like some kind of conspiracy theorist crank. But I still can't believe that he had the gall to say what he did, on foreign soil, when he's not running for re-election, in front of the Israeli parliament on the anniversary of the Jewish state- especially with his family's background!

Sigh. I only wish more Americans had noticed or given a rip.

"I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments" ~Exodus 20:5-6

Cartoon for May 22, 08 Mapleton PRESS

Lately I've been wishing this was my real job and I had to do it daily instead of weekly- not so much because it was my dream when I was a kid, but lately because there's so much to draw about. My readers in rural western Iowa care about the Farm Bill, but come on, George W. Bush, grandson of Prescott Bush (NAZI sympathizer) standing in the Knesset itself, comparing Obama to Neville Chamberlain! That's PRICELESS! Last week Hillary Clinton was on Bill O'Reilly! Ron Paul was on NPR. McCain talking about getting out of Iraq by 2013. You can't get any more surreal than this year.

Foreign oil may lead to extinctions

He ACTUALLY said this, in New Orleans of all places!

About the process

Here is the black and white version that they run in the newspaper.
This week what I had to do was to make copies of my figures in a new layer in Photoshop, use then I used the curves tool to make them into silhouettes. Next, as you see, I hit Ctrl-T to select each one, and went to Edit>Transform to skew them and shear them into reflections/shadows on the surface of the tar.

Of course, the Republicans aren't doomed due to our dependance on oil, because stupid Hillary has "bloodied-up" Obama sufficiently enough to ensure a McCain victory. But whatchyagonnado? Keep on fighting the good fight, I guess.

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.

The Legacy

I love this cartoon. Can cartoons make their Daddies proud? Below are some of the sketches I did. You can't believe how hard this thing was to draw and finally put together.

Tummy Tickles

Big Plans

For the January 24, 2008 Mapleton PRESS;

I was going for that hand-rubbing thing that mad scientists and melo-drama villians do when talking about their plans just before they throw their heads back and lauch maniacally. I even hunched him over some so that his posture would be more like that of Snively Whiplash from the old Dudley Dooright cartoons on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

Fear of vermin can be paralyzing

I'm so angry with Reid and Pelosi that I can hardly see straight. Why did they cave in on the omnibus bill like they did? Another $70 billion on the war Bush lied us into. They'd better put impeachment back on the table in the new year or I may re-register to the Green party or at least as an independent or something.

On the other hand, I'm pretty proud of my drawing. Funny frightened donkey, my G.W. Bush is finally coming along... but it is a little weird that last week I used Suess and this week I used Disney- hope I don't get into a rut of using other people's cartoon characters.

Tens of Thousands of kids will lose insurance coverage. What a Christmas present

Now the bummer here is nobody is paying attention to this issue, so not only is it not in the papers or on TV but it sure's heck won't be when it runs next week (I drew it 12/13). I don't know... There are lots of CIA torture tape cartoons out there this week. Who knows, maybe we'll start bombing Iran by then...

Merry Christmas cartoon fans! ¡Ventiladores de la historieta de la Feliz Navidad! Karikaturventilatoren der frohen Weihnachten! 圣诞快乐动画片风扇! メリークリスマスの漫画は送風する! 즐거운 성탄 만화는 부채로 부친다! Вентиляторы шаржа веселого рождества!

Stop him before he wrecks again

Once again, I was somewhat disappointed with myself for how this turned out. I was sick and feeling pretty miserable this week but didn't want to cannibalize an old cartoon again. It's also a little tender because I know people who've had DUI accidents. Please, don't drink and drive- not even a little. Meanwhile, Bush and Cheney beating the drums of war again really scares me. I've talked to a former student in the Marine Corps and a old college friend in the National Guard and they both have a pretty strong feeling, from their superiors, that this is going to happen, it's only a matter of time. We can help stop it- visit http://www.stopiranwar.com or www.votevets.org
Help retired General, Wes Clark prevent another fiasco.