Hang 'Em High

click to enlarge

Banditos!

click to enlarge

How would Americans feel if a foreign mercenary army not subject to its laws roamed the streets and sawed people in half with machine guns when they heard a loud noise? BlackWater is doing just that to the Iraqi people.

Most Americans seem to believe in the Moral Superiority of our country and its inherent righteousness. Ask them if they would think it acceptable for any country, even a staunch European ally, to have military bases in their city and they'll go into an epileptic fit. Then ask the if it is OK for us to have bases in countries around the world.

Event Reminder - CWA at Stumptown

This Saturday at the Stumptown comic convention there will be a panel discussion with Cartoonists With Attitude. Ted Rall, Shannon Wheeler, Stephanie McMillan, Ben Smith, Barry Deutsch, and myself will be reading a slideshow of our comics and having a discussion on alternative political cartooning. 11 am in the Panels room.

Barry will be debuting a self-published collection of his comics at the con.

Announcement: Syndication With United Feature Syndicate

Beginning today my comics will be syndicated with United Feature. From now on I will be drawing three comics a week.

Starting Monday, September 24, United Feature Syndicate will distribute the distinctive work of editorial cartoonist Matt Bors. Bors relentlessly skewers the latest absurdities of American politics and culture through his editorial cartoons. From war to religion to obsessive lawn care, Bors' cartoons dissect and expose the news--avoiding the Donkeys and Elephants of many of his peers--to make readers think and laugh about real issues (as well as the pressing matter of obsessive lawn care.).

“Matt Bors is one of the most original and talented young cartoonists around,” said Ted Rall, Acquisition and Development Editor for United Media. “He infuses the traditional format of editorial cartooning with comic-strip structures and biting humor. Bors’ exciting work is helping to reinvigorate political graphic humor.”

Ted approached me about this over a year ago and it's finally come to fruition. It was a long process, but well worth it. You may remember last year about this time I was doing 2-3 comics a week with some one panels thrown in the mix. The syndicate wanted to see if I could do good comics at that pace and some one panels as well as my usual multi-panel stuff. I'll be mixing things up and doing about one single panel cartoon a week from now on.

Needless to say, I'm excited about this. Most artists, especially of the "alternative" streak, aren't given this opportunity by the syndicates. I think that is what United is trying to do by bringing in people like Tak Toyoshima, Richard Stevens, and myself--trying to appeal to a younger crowd so that the entire audience for print media isn't dead of old age in ten years.

You can expect the same type of comics you always get from me. I won't be watering down my humor or having a massive influx in labeled Donkeys now that I'm syndicated (they love me for who I am). The only thing I can't do is use so-called offensive words like "fuck" and draw things like babies being flayed alive, so I think I can make the sacrifice. With the increase in output I'm looking forward to tackling some issues I wouldn't have done with only one cartoon a week.

Links:

• Full Press Release
• my page on comics.com
• Editor and Publisher article
  

"Betray Us" Roundup

I caught some cartoons this morning that are funny and make great points. They deal with the outrage surrounding the "General Betray Us" ad placed in the New York Times by MoveOn.org, which led to the Senate condemning it in a political stunt that many Democrats caved in to.

Jen's latest Slowpoke details Conservative comfort levels with besmirching Men In Uniform. She writes on her blog:

I wasn't going to do a strip about the Petraeus hearings or the MoveOn ad...

Then the U.S. Senate decided to wade into the matter. In an astonishing swipe at the First Amendment, they sanctimoniously declared Gen. Petraeus to be off-limits to criticism, with 25 craven Democrats -- including my own Jim Webb, for whom I went door-to-door in a trailer park -- voting for the resolution. That did it.

August's especially makes a good point. The Right-Wingers who wanted us to "Buy Danish" during the Mohammad cartoon controversy should be sending donations to MoveOn and calling for all American newspapers to print the Petraeus ad. Instead they are calling for treason charges.

Kelly Ferguson speculates on what might have transpired in the MoveOn brainstorming session.

Carbon Neutral Tank

click to enlarge

This is a riff on a recent cartoon I did for the Boston Phoenix, Carbon Neutral Warfare. I wanted to do something on the topic for my weekly audience as well as use some of the jokes I didn't get to in that comic.

More On Rudy

Giuliani continues to hate Free Speech:

Giuliani said that MoveOn.org's ad criticizing Gen. Petreaus was out of bounds and hinted that the group should face some sort of sanction.

"They passed a line that we should not allow an American political organizations to pass," he said. "We are at war right now, whether some people want to recognize it or not.

"Some people" may include the Senate and President who have not officially declared war.

PS- Nostradamus said (Quatrain 4:86) "if Rudy gets the nomination there will be 3o,ooo blog posts titled 'Rudy Can't Fail' within the first 48 hours."

New Toon: Giuliani

click to enlarge

Crime declined in New York City under Rudy Giuliani. Have you heard? He mentions it in between sentences focused on the fact that he happened to be Mayor when terrorists knocked down the towers.

He gets a lot of credit for cleaning up Times Square (i.e. forcing homeless people and drug addicts to merely relocate). But I think it tarnishes his right-wing credentials. Wasn't the fact that Times Square was rife with porn shops and "squeegee men" just a simple result of the market forces he thinks work so well with Health Care? Why the need for Big Government interference in trying to make things better, Rudy?

The Marlboro Journal of Medicine

I teamed up with Dr. Alan Blum again for a Tobacco comic (our first one is here). This comic appeared in the opinion section of The Oregonian this last Sunday.

click to enlarge

Although the prevalence of cigarette smoking has declined to 20%, among U.S. adults, those with the least education and lowest incomes are still the most likely to light up. 40% of those who lack a high school diploma smoke, compared to just 10% with a college degree. Minority groups are especially hard hit: African-Americans are far more likely than other racial groups to develop lung cancer even if they smoke the same amount.

As various legal restrictions have been placed on cigarette advertising, tobacco companies have shifted their promotions to convenience stores and bars where they enroll young adults for direct-mail discount offers and gifts.

To reach its youthful and less educated customers, Philip Morris, America's largest cigarette company, is increasingly recruiting its sales force on college campuses, cultivating ties with more than 35 universities across the country.

Dr. Alan Blum, director the the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, teamed up with Portland cartoonist Matt Bors to show how Big Tobacco has succeeded in attracting college students as employees in the face of medical admonitions against smoking.

War Is Boring #19 and 20

The latest two War Is Boring strips are connected a bit more than previous ones. The story of this suicide bomber will continue in the next few installments.

By the way, the Patraeus cartoon I just posted features a cartoon version of David Axe.

New Toon: The Petraeus Report

click to enlarge

I forgot to post this cartoon last week.

Nine One One

Mos Def came out on Bill Maher's program, not only as a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, but as a user of the popular "nine-one-one" phrase I mentioned in my last comic. He also expresses doubt that we landed on the moon. To wild applause. Watch.

The audience reaction to his statement about 9/11 speaks for itself. I truly think a super majority of liberals believe in the conspiracy theories. Not Pundits or writers or politicians necessarily, but your average guy on the street who describes himself as liberal. And some Air America hosts. It's incredibly embarrassing.

I saw a new poll that shows 27% of Democrats and 40% of Republicans think Saddam was personally involved in 9/11. This is a conspiracy theory of sorts, but based on a shocking level of ignorance. I think the percentage of people who believe in a conspiracy regarding JFK is around 80%. If you take the amount of people who think Saddam was involved--1 in 3--and then add the other theories for that day, I think you'll get a number well over 50% of people who don't believe the official story.

New Toon: 9/11 Status Report

click to enlarge

I know there's a lot going on today; a terrorist attack to remember, Patraeus testimony to get mad at, and new albums from Kanye and Fiddy not to buy. But let's use this sixth anniversary of 9/11 to make sure we all know how to pronounce it correctly. It is not the "nine-one-one" attacks as some people like to say. That is a phone number for emergency services. It is "nine eleven," as it happened on the eleventh day of the nine month of the year.

Thank You.

Thursday: The Patraeus Report

Let My People Go!

Avril Lavigne has a list of Ten Commandments in some shitty magazine.

5) Practise Good Karma
I am a very giving person. When the hurricanes thing happened, I went to my closet, filled six boxes of stuff and said to my assistant, "Take it to Katrina!" I also like to give stuff to people who are my "workers", especially if they don't make much money.

7) Advocate Spirituality
I'm not particularly religious, but I am spiritual. What kind? Feng Shui, mostly, and energy. I'm good at picking up on people's energy, like I'm receptive or something.

I'm leaning towards "or something."

Beards!

Front Page News on my doorstep this morning regarding Portland's Mayor, Tom Potter:

Freshly back from vacation, Potter is sporting a brand-new and well-groomed gray beard he grew while camping. Asked whether he plans to keep the beard, Potter suggested a public referendum.

Yes, really. You can leave comments at the Oregonian's City Hall blog to indicate your leanings. It's ridiculous, but as a pro-beard partisan I'm glad that the idea of wearing one can even be entertained by a politician. Most of the time it's a deal breaker. Of all the things you cannot be while running for President--atheist, gay, sensible--having a beard just won't fly with the voters. Our early Presidents, what with their giant sideburns and mustachioed faces, would be appalled.

As a bearded one myself, I hope Potter keeps the scruff so we can continue to reclaim this manly tradition from such wretched groups as the Amish and Taliban.

Mail Bag

A friend writes in with some criticism of my latest comic:

This cartoon gets a 1 out of 10. It's the first time I haven't been enamored of your work. On this subject, there's just too much hypocrisy to go around. You said the key thing was that he pleaded guilty and that he didn't tell anyone. Although it's pretty damning, I can see how someone could do this to make it go away. Like paying the Dodge Boy sheriff manning the speed trap. He's also a guy who apparently would not have been a voting friend of homosexuals. But I gather the Democratic candidates were pretty uncomfortable at a recent forum debating gay issues. This guy's career and life have been ruined, everybody and his uncle in the media is gang-banging him, so what's the point in climbbing on this bandwagon?

I guess I am curious as to the circumstances that led the cop to be doing such undercover work. Is this such a prevalent problem as the disproportionate incidence of AIDS and syphilis in homosexuals (or, for that matter, the disproportionate percentage of African-American males in prison, single females pregnant, kids without fathers, and kids being raised by grandparents and even great-grandparents) being addressed forthrightly by anyone in public office, Republican or Democrat?

No doubt those are all more prevalant problems then restroom sex, but I just don't know if they are as funny. So I went for some easy laughs...

New Toon: The Restroom Underworld

click to enlarge

I thought this story was dying fast, but it looks like Senator Craig now announced that he might not resign. And good for him. What a feeling it must be to be arrested for tapping your foot in a Men's Room and the next day your entire party neglects the quarter century of allegiance you provided them and just throws you under the bus. I mean the speeches Republicans gave weren't even prefaced with things like "Craig has served this country honorably for blah, blah, blah and I'm sad to see this happen to him." The jokes on talk radio and TV have been relentless on the guy. I almost feel bad for him.

There seem to be a lot of married men engaging in this sort of behavior. Back home in Ohio there used to be stings in the Park all the time. During a brief period of exercising, I would go run the track and there were always guys getting out of their convertables with shades on and a hat pulled down, looking around nervously as they jogged into the woods. If you can afford a convertable, you can afford a fucking dingy hotel room. It beats Poison Ivy crotch.

Pick up some of my collections in the store.

Upcoming CWA Panel Discussion

Cartoonists With Attitude will be having a panel discussion on alternative cartooning at the Stumptown comics festival Saturday, September 29th at 11am. Come out and see our panel and buy some comics. Most of us will also be set up at tables that weekend, selling their wares (I won't).

Members who will be on the panel are:

Ted Rall - "Silk Road to Ruin" and Editor of "Attitude" anthologies
Shannon Wheeler - "How to Be Happy" and "Too Much Coffee Man"
Matt Bors - "Idiot Box"
Stephanie McMillan - "Minimum Security"
Ben Smith - "Fighting Words"
Barry Deutsch - "Ampersand"

Shirts!

The Johnny Cash shirts I made are now back in all sizes.

Johnny
Cash - C.R.E.A..M
Heather
- $15.00

Size	SmallMediumLargeX-Large