Man Overboard

This could be a commentary on the 500-Year-Floods on the Missouri River.

It could be more of a visual analogy; the "waves" of corn in the fields can make driving through the countryside feel a little bit like being on the oceans. In that way, this could be seen as a form of visual poetry.

Of course, it could also be that I wanted to finally post something to my cartooning blog, felt like playing in Photoshop, was too lazy to get out of my chair and look for my sketchpad, and a boat floating in corn is the only thing I could think of. Oops, did I just end a run-on sentence with a preposition? Watch out for the grammar NAZI's. 

Cartoon for August 7 Mapleton PRESS

"I love sweet corn. It truly is better than sex! I'm not lying! All across the Midwest tonight, a husband and wife will finish what husbands and wives do, and the wife will ask the husband: "How was that?" And, if the man is honest, he'll say "Well, it wasn't sweet corn, but it was nice." It's a fact! Sweet corn is better than sex!...fresh sweet corn!...Store bought sweet corn, yes, sex is definitely better than that!" ~Garrison Keillor


HOMEGROWN TOMATOES, by Guy Clark

Ain't nothin' in the world that I like better
Than bacon & lettuce & homegrown tomatoes
Up in the mornin' out in the garden

Get you a ripe one don't get a hard one
Plant `em in the spring eat `em in the summer
All winter with out `em's a culinary bummer
I forget all about the sweatin' & diggin'
Everytime I go out & pick me a big one

Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes
What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can't buy
That's true love & homegrown tomatoes

You can go out to eat & that's for sure
But it's nothin' a homegrown tomato won't cure
Put `em in a salad, put `em in a stew
You can make your very own tomato juice
Eat `em with egss, eat `em with gravy
Eat `em with beans, pinto or navy
Put `em on the site put `em in the middle
Put a homegrown tomato on a hotcake griddle

If I's to change this life I lead
I'd be Johnny Tomato Seed
`Cause I know what this country needs
Homegrown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die don't bury me
In a box in a cemetery
Out in the garden would be much better
I could be pushin' up homegrown tomatoes

Screw politics (this week)

Cartoon for the June 26 PRESS

You got a beef with me?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Political cartoon for the February 28, 2008 Mapleton PRESS.

Guess I wanted to appeal to my readership for once and give them a bit of a break from National politics, especially the Presidential election. These folks work HARD for their living and they have to deal with feed prices sky-rocketing due to using corn for ethanol, a President who's threatening to veto the farm bill, and now consumer scares because of irresponsible meat packing plants in California that lead to massive product recalls... so Iowa Cattleman's Association members, this toon's for you! Moo!

Fear and Loathing in Des Moines

Here's is my cartoon for the January 17, 2008 Mapleton PRESS. This is my original color one that I saved for the web.
And here is the version I FIXED and sent to the PRESS, notice that I changed the singular "legislator" to the plural "legislature" I thought it worked better to blame EVERYBODY than to single out some hypothetical individual.

I don't do state issues very often and never really deal with local stuff. I just thought it was stereotypical of politicians to be too afraid to do anything that could possibly be perceived as raising taxes, even when it would be the right thing to do.

Two issues that only a cartoonist would care about; One is that many of my students don't get my cartoons. I've had a 20-something friend suggest that I try some social or human condition themes once in awhile rather than just politics. That's discouraging, but what can I do? THIS is what my passion is, this is who I am, what provokes me? Maybe this is not a specific, acute problem for me. Maybe this is why political cartooning is a dying art- because so few people "get" them, and even fewer are even interested. It makes me blue. Boo hoo. Can I have some cheese with this whine?

The other is technical. Prominent cartoonists and editors frown on cartoonists who collage like this instead of drawing. I see their point and I'll readily admit that there are times that it's lazy but I think that when it's done right, it can work great. I like this one. I also like the one I did last year where I portrayed Fatah and Hamas as Godzilla vs. King Kong. Done well, it pays homage to the Dada movement of the 1920's when some fantastic and provocative art and "anti-art" was made. Berke Brethed has tucked in bits of pop culture and political imagery into his daily strips, Bloom County and Opus for decades. Of course, in the time I've taken to defend my methodology this week, I probably could've drawn the state capital building by hand. Whatever. I'm especially proud of my inclusion of Edvard Munch's "The Scream." Of course, it is a hopelessly over used icon from art history, so that just makes me more lazy and pathetic, doesn't it? Sigh. I never claimed to be Thomas Nast, just a average, middle aged guy in the middle of the middle-west who's trying to revive a dream of his youth.

For Jan 3 Mapleton PRESS

If you don't recognize the Midwestern ICON that I ripped off this week, you must NOT be a redneck. If you do, then you might be interested in the story of one of the most widely reproduced posters of all time- then click here to find out all about it.

All I know is that I wanted something or someone that represented Iowa, the same way that Uncle Sam is supposed to represent the U.S. or the donkey and elephant represent each political party. I couldn't exactly use a Hawkeye or a cyclone and I wanted to honor my adopted state, not berate or belittle them... finally it came to me in one of those "Eureka!" moments. They might have actually been twins in California's central valley in 1978, but we in Iowa feel that they're really a John Deere boy and an International Harvester boy and they're both timeless- they could've been from1846 or today. And I hope that's they way they always will be.

Sooome pig!

Editorial Cartoon for the July19, 2007 Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and Schleswig Leader.

Another agricultural oddities. You can't ALWAYS have a political point- besides, politics is a little too surreal lately. Besides, E.B White would be proud.

Running for what? Who?

Ioweagan Home Companion

Here are a couple of fun ones from 2006 that I don't have exact dates for. Both of these are pretty unique to Iowa.

Above is the proof when I put the whole page together for the newspaper. Below is a "tare-sheet" (the actual published page).Maid-Rite is a local Iowa fast food chain, they actually sell these things. It's an acquired taste. I'm a transplant from out West. Jello-salad grows on ya.

I swear deer seem to reproduce in Iowa faster than rats in New York City. They have fawns faster than motorists can hit them. Needless to say my own fender inspired this cartoon about animal jihadists.