Idiot Box is back on weekly schedule

As I start up some other comic projects I'm going back to once a week on Idiot Box. Here is a comic running in the current issue of the Seattle Stranger:

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Jeff Seemann for Congress

Jeff Seemann will be running for Congress in 2006, fighting for the seat in Ohio's 16th district. I'll be pulling graphic design duty. Jeff set up a Daily Kos Poll for which design he should go with. I believe the poll will only be active for 24 hours, so go vote.

Jeff ran for the same seat last year, but lost to long time incumbent Ralph Regula. Ralph is at least 80 so we may not have to worry about his competion much longer. Check out his Website and Blog and feel free to donate to help regain a seat in an important state by donating anything you can afford.

New Toon: Delay-ing Death

Special Supersized Tom Delay Edition!

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Boxcutter wielding Terrorist in Florida!

A member of the Christian Taliban wanted to 'rescue' Terri Shiavo from finally dying so he tried to rob a gun store with a boxcutter. The store's owner promptly pulled a gun in his face. From the New York Times article:

Randy McKenzie, the owner of Randall's Firearms, said Mitchell pulled out the box cutter and broke the glass on a couple of display cases.

``He told me if I wasn't on Terri's side then I wasn't on God's side, either,'' McKenzie told The Associated Press.

I wonder if Bush will give him a Medal of Honor for his valiant effort.


Update: read a small write up I did on this here. It's at the bottom of the page.

Celebrity Check In...

...with Ben Affleck!

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And don't forget the previous Celebrity Check In with Ashlee Simpson. Future targets may include such outstanding talent as a Jennifer Lopez and Paris Hilton.

Good Political Cartoons

David Reese has done a whole page of Get Your War On strips about Terri Shiavo. The funniest shit I've read on this not very funny topic.

Big Fat Whale also weighs in on Shiavo.

The always brilliant Tom Toles did a a good one last week about the bought and paid for media.

Last month Ted Rall did a cartoon debunking the comparisons ofBush and Hitler, a must read.

Terri Shiavo and the Rapture Right

For, oh, about the 19th time courts have ruled in favor of Michael Shiavo's legal authority to order his wife's feeeding tube removed. The neo-conservative movement has done a 180 on their belief system. Gone are the days of state's rights, small government, personal responsibility, privacy, and civil liberties. They are ushering in a new version of America and if something doesn't go their way they'll gather at midnight and invent a law to make it so.

They have resorted to some disgusting tactics; issuing a subpoena for a woman in a persistive vegetative state and standing on the Senate floor proclaiming she could me moments away from speaking. Seeing as how her cerebral cortex has liquified her recovery is a physical impossibility. Here are the two talking points distributed on the Senate floor during debate:

-This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue.

-This is a great political issue, because Senator Nelson of Florida has already refused to become a cosponsor and this is a tough issue for Democrats.

A few radical "right-to-life" activists were arrested for trespassing while trying to bring her water and bread. They must be as little more than confused. She can't swallow. She can't eat. That is why she was on a feeding tube. Were they trying to choke her? These people are comparing her husband and hospice workers to murderers openly, with a Florida conservative radio host remarking that Michael Shiavo is another Scott Peterson.

I usually dismiss people like this-the "Rapture Right" end-of-timers who don't believe in evolution or the fact that the Earth is older than 5,000 years- But, apparently they have captured our legislative body.

The issue is bigger than this one woman and your opinions on assisted living. It is about the government getting more intrusive and authoritarian. There is nothing they don't seem to want to take away. They are starting withacademic freedoms, and going after reproductive rights, destroying Social Security, Civil Liberties, and invading our most private affairs. What's next?

Tom the Dancing Bug Movie?

Tom the Dancing Bug has been optioned for a movie. Well, not the whole strip, but the character "Harvey Richards: Lawyer for Children" which I would say is my favorite of his recurring strips. SO, who would play Harvey Richards? Will Ferrell would be a good choice. Read the Universal Press Syndicate's press release.

Why must everything be turned into a movie? It's as if it is some kind of superior medium that your work, be it comics, novels, or video games, must attain.

News

I plan on having three new comics out for SPX in September. Two will be minis with short stories and the third will be the best of Idiot Box since the last one came out. They actually won't be coming out until pretty close to that convention, but I thought I'd let you know anyway.

Idiot Box will also be appearing in a few major anthologies over the next year.

Incredible Factoids

Incredible Factoids is back. These factoids are so incredible you may blow a whole in your dome piece just reading them. Wear some kind of helmet.

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Here's the first one.

Sharpen your drill bits, we're going to Alaska!

What do conservatives conserve? They don't conserve the environment, energy, money, our rights, life, spending, or anything else. So, we'll be drilling in A.N.W.R. soon. The main rationale being that we need to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. We don't need to ween ourselves off of foreign oil, we need to ween our selves off of oil, period. The technology is here. It has been. Are people that worried about the price at the pump they are willing to sacrifice their future? When are people going to realize gas is only going to go up overtime? It's a non-renewable resource! If they weren't driving a Hummer weighted down with 50 magnetic ribbons they would save some money.

The vote was close: 51-49. The only thing that could be more insulting is if it was 50-50 and Cheney issued the deciding vote. Is there such a thing as poetic injustice?

Robert Crumb

The Guardian ran a 'Special Report' on comics legend Robert Crumb last week, with original art and writing from the man himself. Check it all out here

In his wrting Crumb, who lives in France now, talks about how America has become this soulless suburban culture and how he'd rather be dead than mediocre.

on art:

The fine art world and the commercial art industry are both all about money. It's hard to say which is more contemptible: the fine art world with its double talk and pretensions to the cultural high ground, or the world of commercial art trying to sell to the largest market it can reach. A serious artist really shouldn't be involved in either of these worlds. It's best to be on the fringe of them.

New Strip: Rules of the Road

Much has been made of the Italian journalist who was shot after she was rescued from insurgents. She claimed she may have been targeted by the military. Networks were quick to point out she worked for the communist paper 'Il Manifesto' and that her release was brought about by paying a ransom, as if to descredit her. Neither of these two factors have anything to do with why she was fired on (unless they wanted to kill her for being a communist, I suppose). The death of journalists in the field and innocent civilians at roadblocks happens so regularly now, like torture, that it should cause us to examine some of our policies leading to it.

Number One: The policy of us occupying Iraq is the main factor in these tragic events. If we leave I believe that all accidental deaths by the hands of U.S. soldiers would drop to zero (call me crazy).

Number Two: Firing 'warning shots' in a war torn nation into a vehicle is not the best way to get them to pull over.

We have a shoot first, ask questions later mentality that carries over into everything we do. It's what got us into the war in the first place: Invade Now! Create the reason later.

Rules of the Road

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New Art

Cover for the Front Weekly and another piece I did recently.

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Bling Bling

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Doonesbury on Hunter Thompson

I have been wondering what Trudeau would do to acknowledge the death of Hunter S. Thompson. This week's strips pay tribute to him via Duke, the character fashioned after the Gonzo journalist. In Tuesday's strip Duke's head explodes echoing Hunter's suicide. Apparently, this isn't as strange as it seems as Duke's head has exploded before, among other things. He has done some interesting stuff so far including a panel drawn in the style of Ralph Steadman and a melting Duke. Hunter Thompson strongly disliked Trudeau's parody, but apparently came to accept it later in life.

The reason it took this long for Trudeau to get to it is that he was laid up after a skiing accident in Aspen, the same place Thompson took his life.

You can see my tribute to Hunter here.

There's also this:

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Life as a Vegetable

Ending the life of those living in a vegetative state and executing juveniles. What could possibly be funnier? Apparently nothing seeing as how I incorporated them both into my cartoons this week. With the recent decision to join the civilized world by outlawing juvenile executions and the Right-To-Die case of Maria Shiavo there were to many situations I envisioned not to pack them into some cartoons.

I marvel at the religious right. They fight for the 'lives' of zygotes, stem cells, and people being kept alive by the most unholy means imaginable, yet are unconcerned with the death from war and poverty. They'll fight like hell to make sure you make into this world. And when you try to leave they won't let you. But while you're here they couldn't give two shits, a rat's ass, or a flying fuck.

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Convention Schedule

I will be appearing at two conventions in April; S.P.A.C.E. in Columbus, OH on April 16th and the Pittsburgh Comicon April 22-24. I'll be selling books, T shirts, prints, and original art so stop by if you're in the area.

Freedom for Security

There was a very interesting article in last Sunday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about millionaire John Gilmore, who refused to show government ID while boarding a domestic flight in 2002. His case, Gilmore v. Ashcroft, is finding it's way to the Supreme court and will play a big part in the debate of how much freedom we sacrifice for security.

By Dennis Roddy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

SAN FRANCISCO -- John Gilmore's splendid isolation began July 4, 2002, when, with defiance aforethought, he strolled to the Southwest Airlines counter at Oakland Airport and presented his ticket.
The gate agent asked for his ID.

Gilmore asked her why.

It is the law, she said.

Gilmore asked to see the law.

Nobody could produce a copy. To date, nobody has. The regulation that mandates ID at airports is "Sensitive Security Information." The law, as it turns out, is unavailable for inspection.

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At the heart of Gilmore's stubbornness is the worry about the thin line between safety and tyranny.

"Are they just basically saying we just can't travel without identity papers? If that's true, then I'd rather see us go through a real debate that says we want to introduce required identity papers in our society rather than trying to legislate it through the back door through regulations that say there's not any other way to get around," Gilmore said. "Basically what they want is a show of obedience."

Read the full article here

Strange Poll

Today's poll on Air America's website reads: Would you support voluntary personal savings accounts in addition to Social Security? The current results show 75% in favor of them. Now, from the way I'm reading the question (and it seems pretty straightforward) is that these accounts would be in addition to Social Security thus leaving it alone. And they would be vouluntary. uh...don't we have those already? I have a "personal savings account" that I "voluntarily" made, it's called my bank account. I also have vouluntarily bought stock with out diverting my Social Security taxes. There is no need for the governmant to set this up unless it was taking money out of Social Security, which is a horrible idea. Those who want to invest money in stocks, bonds, and other things can do so.

Is Air America kidding or is this a serious poll? What troubles me more is that 25% oppose voluntary accounts that have nothing to do with Social Security. no private accounts? I guess we'll just keep cash under the floorboards!

The Party of Ideas

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For those wondering about today's stip the 'marmot thing' in the last panel is Hubert from Hubert and Abby, the funniest daily strip in existence.