Been a long time

Obviously this is inspired by the song about Santa Claus.
I suppose you could substitute Big Brother for the NSA, CIA or Wikileaks,
depending on your personal paranoia.

Has it actually been a year or more since I've posted any cartoons at all? Well, these are REALLY fast/sketch ones. I just had these ideas for jokes and our school upgraded our Photoshop, so I thought I'd throw them together quickly. Can't promise I'm back in the habit, but I'll try to take a sketchbook home with me over Christmas break. Who knows.

I couldn't decide whether to make the cook the donkey, Uncle Sam, or President Obama. This one is really vague and broad, so it could almost be timeless. Beltway Republicans like red herrings. They also like to put up "straw-men" so they can knock them down. Previous examples were flag burning and gay marriage, not to mention terrorist boogie-men. These days they're claiming to be deficit-hawks who want to cut government spending, even though they're pretty bad at math since they're so hell-bent on tax cuts for the super rich. Watch, next will be Tax "Reform," and of course Wikileaks. 

Yeah, maybe you think it's cheap or "cheating" to use some collage elements in there instead of actually drawing them but let me point out-

1. I said I threw them together quick so I wasn't being really meticulous.
2. These are pretty much just for me or for this blog, so there's no editor or publisher to try to impress. 
3. Check out some of the work of German 1920's/30's DADAist John Heartfield (aka: Helmut Herzfeld). The guy was a genius. 

His politically charged photomontages provoked the ire of the Third Reich. I admire Heartfield almost as much as I do Thomas Nast or Jeff McNelly, so I see no problem with using all the tools available to craft whatever it is you call what I have saved on this blog thing here.

Ho ho ho

Happy (or at least healthy) Holidays!

I hadn't made any collages for a while, nor had I made any real social/political commentary for a while. This seemed to fit the spirit of the season this year. Hope Santa brings you everything you need (get it?).

Merry Christmas

I actually drew this one for Dec 21, 2006- but since this blog is brand new in Dec. 2007- I thought I'd bring it back out. Don't forget to thank cartoonist Thomas Nast for our all American version of the jolly old elf!

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!

My Senator is a saint

Boy, I was racking my brain for an idea this week. Usually I try to get done the Thursday before the cartoon is supposed to run. This one came to me driving home from school Thursday night. But I was panicky because I was too tired and busy with my kids to draw anything that night and I never imagined I'd ever be able to manage it before school since I have hall monitor duty this week. Thank God for small blessings because we had a 2 hour late start for snow.

I was still anxious. I've only drawn Senator Grassley one time before and never thought I could ever replicate it. He has such an amazing face. But I think I pulled it off. I'm afraid I made Creflo Dollar look a little too much like Supreme Court Justice Clarance Thomas, which is too bad because Dollar is a really handsome guy. Benny Hinn usually looks friendlier in real life, but oh well. And frankly, I think I absolutely nailed the Joel Osteen.

Merry Christmas