Hurricaine Love

Here at looong last, is the latest Mayor Gonzo cartoon, illustrating one of the wild stories by West Florida's own gonzo journalist and honorable mayor of Key West- Sammie Mays. With any luck, these will show up in a book by her one of these days. Look for it at an Amazon.com near you.

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.

Gonzo Girl Rides Again!!!

Here's one that illustrates Florida humor writer Sammie Mays' story, "Fear and Funk on the Overseas Highway" that was published in the Coconut Telegraph in March 2008

This cartoon is going to be used as the visual for "fear and funk on the overseas highway" being reprinted in the upcoming book: "bars scars & guitars /the official gonzo guide to Key West and the Florida Keys".

Sammie in the Keys

This cartoon is an illustration for humor writer Sammie Mays' story "Damn the Carnations: Full Speed Ahead," originally published in the Florida Keys Keynoter (Marathon, FL) June 2007

Mal tries his hand at playing Ralph Steadman for a female Hunter S. Thompson

Here is my first cartoon featuring "Mayor Gonzo," illustrating one of her wild stories. Sammie Mays, rubber chicken toting Honorary Mayor of Key West, Florida, is a feature humor writer, t.v. host, former member of National Enquirer's elite 'Foreign Legion of Journalists.' You can read some of her tropical madness at saminthekeys.com

Mayor Sam-I-Am was evidently a reader of mine, although I don't know of which blog (since I have too many of them). Sometime last year she contacted me and suggested that I might take a stab at tapping into her craziness and trying to cartoon some of it. A lot of water has run under the Overseas Highway since then, but I've finally gotten a few free moments when the creative blocks cleared- so here it is. This particular one is from a column she wrote about Merle Haggard called "Too Vile to Publish." Watch this space for more "Gonzotoons" in the coming months.

I don't know how many of these I'll manage to get done or how often or how soon. I don't even know if Mayor Sam will like them, but I like Hunter S. Thompson, Hemingway and Jimmy Buffett, so why not have a little fun and draw some surreal cartoons to accompany a few sailor's tales once in a while. Maybe this square nerd from Arizona, living in tall corn country (where it's currently 4°F) can make a name for himself by collaborating with a blond Conch and fellow parrot-head. Who knows? Maybe she'll smuggle me a Cuban stogie for my trouble.

Come to think of it, I'm already pretty famous there, the main gathering place in Key West, also known as the Conch Republic is "Mallory Square."