Off To Seattle

Tomorrow I leave for Seattle to attend the AAEC convention. I'll be moderating a panel on alt-weekly cartoons, participating in a panel on the future of syndication and drinking copious amounts of alcohol with my ink-slinging colleagues as we talk about the future of our dying profession. Gathering with cartoonists that are better than me is always inspiring. But given the moribund state of the industry, it has the potential to be downright depressing. It'll be a trick to stay positive while speaking frankly about the State Of Things on my panels. Nevertheless, I look forward to getting out of my cartoon laboratory for a few days to interact with other humans.

In my spare time I'll try to blog any good news or discussion that comes out of the panels.

If you are in the area, be sure come to the Cartoonapalooza event with Mike Peters, Ted Rall, David Horsey, Signe Wilkinson, Mark Fiore, myself and others.

The Quad Obit Bandwagon

I was ahead of the curve.

(click here to view)

MStreeter Savannah Morning News Jun 30, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

(click here to view)

David Donar Donklephant.com Jun 30, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

Phoning It In

Here's my insights into the week's news events. Hope no other cartoonists beat me to it.

I should add that this is historic. I don't think anyone in history has ever done a Quadruple Obit cartoon before.

Comments

I've opened comments for everyone, including anonymous users, but I will approve them before they go up to avoid spam and the odd crazy person. We'll see how it works.

Minutemen

We're having a Founding Fathers Fest here this week. Both cartoons ended up being patriot themed for some reason.

Democrats have a habit of ceding things to the other side before they even sit down to discuss them. I'm glad they weren't around during the Revolution--they would have wanted to take it off the table.

Very Inconsistent

Jesse Jackson, who once said Obama wasn't black enough and should have his nuts cut off, flew in to LA today to hang out at the mansion of a pedophile with bleached skin.

Bad, Dangerous, Smooth Criminal and other Michael Jackson references that fit

With the King of Pop's frightening visage blaring from every cable station, website and newspaper in the land, what better time for news to break that Obama is preparing to assert radical executive powers:

The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Might as well post this...

The only time I touched on MJ in a cartoon.

New Illos

A little punk ass thieved a laptop out of the back of a parked ambulance.

And a white trash couple was cruising around the OC in whatever kind of car that is, blighting their upscale roads with cigarette butts.

Twitter

It turns out being useless is only one of the many uses of Twitter. Iranians are definitely using it to organize, but the importance it has been given seems a wee bit overblown. It's not merely because it's one of the few channels for information coming out of Iran--the media simply loves talking about Twitter. They were giving it an excessive amount of attention before these events and this is merely confirmation to Rick Sanchez that it is the greatest invention of all time.

The regime's own technological propaganda efforts are lame. See this Photoshopped crowd? Looks like a project I did in week 1 of "Introduction to the Clone Tool." Try to catch up, guys. And stop treating women like shit.

So Twitter is being used for organizing marches against an unjust government. That is genuinely awesome. But what's this crap about it being a news source? I know there isn't much reporting coming out of the place, but reading (or posting) a bunch of unverifiable tweets is lame. Used to be only government officials had their biased, unverifiable statements uncritically parroted by the media--now everyone is invited to submit them via Twitter.

See my previous cartoon on this time-suck/revolutionary tool. And don't forget to follow me on the Twitter!

Cartoonapalooza!

Next week I'm headed to Seattle for the annual convention of Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. I'll be participating in Cartoonapalooza, a benefit for the organization.

David Horsey, Mike Peters, Ted Rall, Jack Ohman, Mark Fiore, myself and others will be giving a slide show and discussion of some of our most hilarious cartoons. Tons of other cartoonists will be on hand, chatting and drinking. There will be originals and prints on display and available for purchase. Everything benefits the AAEC.

The event starts at 7:30 at Town Hall in downtown Seattle. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door.

The Fly

I wasn't planning on doing another cartoon involving PETA this soon--if ever--but they've forced my hand. I'm sure some gnats are killed every time a predator drone bombs some Afghan civilians. Maybe they could raise a fuss. My previous PETA cartoon is here.

Round-Up

Some recent comics I like:

• Tom Tomorrow launches a Rosetta Stone for conservatives
  
• Big Fat Whale's Father's Day gifts
• A Ted Rall cartoon (that I played a small role in)
• Cat and Girl on the existence, or non-existence, of Hipsters
• BOASAS on wishin'
  

Wow.

Obama killed a fly.

The media loved it. Right-wingers howled. And PETA Protested.

PCLD Irreversible In Some

I got one for you.

Remember when I released my comic Partisan Civil Liberties Disorder and wrote about how Randi Rhodes is a big time sufferer? She can weave any horrible action of Obama into a grand narrative where it is all part of his secret liberal strategy. Well, today takes the cake.

I tuned in to hear her claim that Obama's recent DOMA briefing was a masterful anti-DOMA move in disguise.

According to Randi, the Obama DOJ filed a brief in support of DOMA using deplorable right-wing arguments in order to discredit these ideas, not give them the full weight and support of the Federal Government as it would appear on the surface. Obama has done almost nothing on gay rights according to most sober observers, but to Randi this was evidence of a subtle maneuver (perhaps detectable only to her) that would propel us into a new era of gay rights. Once the courts strike down this obscene briefing, these arguments will suddenly become discredited among anti-gay bigots, who apparently base their hatred of gays on the success or failure of court briefings.

Today, Robert Gibbs wouldn't even distance the White House from the most controversial parts of the briefing. All part of the plan!

You wait. Any moment now Obama's plan will come to fruition. Any moment...

Stolen Election

Here is Wednesday's comic a little early.

Date Night

There are things about Obama that frustrate me. Date Night isn't one of them.

A Nation of Laws (Some Crappy)

Last week the Dept. of Justice filed a brief that defended The Defense Of Marriage Act, something Obama said was horrible and promised to repeal while campaigning for office. The DOJ does have to defend current law, but there was some troubling language in it that upset the GLBT community and people who care about advancing gay rights. (See Barry's post for more.)

Naturally, people wanted to know why a supposed "fierce advocate" for gay rights would do this.

So the President sends John Berry, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, to talk to The Advocate about it. This way the information gets to the gay community without Obama having to actually say something himself about gay rights. Anyway, Berry says the following about why the Obama DOJ had to file the brief:

This president took a solemn oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and he does not get to decide and choose which laws he enforces. He has to enforce the laws that have been enacted appropriately and that he has inherited.

This is great news! Surely Obama is moments away from enforcing the UN Convention Against Torture signed into law by Ronald Reagan, which requires us to prosecute torturers. (See my cartoon.) No picking and choosing for this president--he follows the law to the letter!

See Pam Spaulding for more on the DOMA issue.

New Illos

A drunken OC girl wishes she could thank the woman who helped her while she was puking all over the place.

A father pushes his child, still in diapers, to learn how to ice skate and play hockey. You're never to young to have parents live vicariously through you.

Intellectual of the Day

On her blog, conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel attempts to blame the shooting spree of a neo-nazi on...wait for it...Muslims! Not only them, but the liberals who supposedly defend them. You see, nice neo-nazis wouldn't shoot people if they weren't pushed over the brink by jew-hating Muslims:

Mr. Von Brunn has been on this planet for 89 years, and he didn't feel comfortable shooting up a Holocaust museum until now--this new era of "tolerance," in which we must tolerate the most extremist Muslim behaviors and sentiments...

No, it's guys with names like Mohammed and Ahmed on our own American streets who make Mr. Von Brunn far more at ease in 2009 than he was even in 1999 to attack places associated with the Jews. They created the comfort zone for James W. Brunn to engage in today's shooting.

Hmmm. So what's her excuse for Timothy McVeigh? And Hitler? There's more than a few holes in her thesis, but here's the big one: Von Brunn served six years in prison for attempting to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve in 1981. She neglects to inform her audience of this since that crime can't be blamed on "guys with names like Mohammed and Ahmed."

Big Fat Whale

Brian McFadden has released a 150 page collection of Big Fat Whale comics. I highly recommend hopping over to pick up a copy. If you aren't familiar with his work, Brian is one of the most talented men in the funny strip business. His strip cover politics, TV, pop culture and have a sketch comedy feel to them. He has done particularly good work in pushing fart jokes to a higher level. No turd awards for this guy--I give it my full endorsement.

Bullet Bubble

The Bullet Bubble is a real phenomenon. Unable to realize that bullets will never cease to be produced or be outlawed in any way, gun owners are driving up the cost by frantically buying up every slug they see, which in turn causes other gun owners to freak out and rush to the store. People are hoarding them in hopes of cashing in--prices will only get higher! In a few years these people are going to wake up with a wildly overvalued arsenal and wonder why the New World Order never made them rich by outlawing bullets. Then they'll come hunting hat in hand to mommy government for a bailout.

I expect a similar bubble to develop around baked beans. Any post-apocalyptic traveler with a substantial amount of bullets and beans could run the show. Stock up.

On another note, we might as well give this guy a TV show.

Striking Fear In Our Enemies

I'm drawing a scene in "War Is Boring" where David is attending a trade show for defense contractors. So I'm looking up some logos of the exhibitors and I run across this:

Holy shit, are those rainbows shooting out of a fucking falcon's eyes?

ACS was awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in military contracts so you would think they could afford to spend more than $100 on a logo design. The Earth, bird and the crap in its claws are all clip art.

I can see it being approved for an online store for ironic shirts, but I'm trying to imagine the scene where a designer presented a series of roughs to the head honchos. They looked at a few variations and agreed: "We want the one firing rainbows out of its eyes. It's awesome."

Corn Report

The Oregonian:

Last year, the U.S. produced more than 9 billion gallons of biofuels, almost all corn ethanol, using a quarter of the nation's corn crop. The fuel displaced enough petroleum gasoline to power 2.1 million cars. But it reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. transportation sector by less than 1 percent, the Congressional Budget Office estimates.

So if we converted every single kernel of corn on US soil into ethanol we wouldn't even get a 4% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions? Time to try something else.

Round-Up

Some recent editorial cartoons I like:

• Abell Smith on the economy
  
• Mike Lester on Brian Williams
• Jen Sorensen on health care
  
• Jack Ohman on the Tiller murder
  

MailBag Industiral Doucheplex

Earl M writes in and seems to think that me condemning the bombing of Afghan civilians can only mean one thing:"Knowing the taliban's tactics, You must be part of the taliban's news service." Earl writes from his work e-mail...at Boeing. Maybe that's why he'd rather not talk about children killed with missiles.

National Review

Two things on the NR.

1) Conservatives love incorporating the word "Islamo" into phrases to show what serious thinkers they are. Here's the latest courtesy of Mark Steyn: "Islamoschmoozing." I kind of like that one.

2) The National Review's latest cover is under fire for allegedly being racist. It features Sonia Sotomayor drawn as an Asian for some bizarre reason. For such a serious charge, blogs don't seem too concerned with who drew it since they never let their readers know the illustrator's name. I harp on this constantly. You would never refer to an offending column without giving credit to the writer, but cartoonists and illustrators are rarely cited for their work by reporters, bloggers and pundits. The illustrator is Roman Genn, a talented caricaturist with a lifeless palette whose work often graces the NR's cover. Genn made waves with his March 97 cover "Manchurian Candidate" which portrayed Bill Clinton as a bucked-toothed Asian with slanted eyes and a coolie hat. I'm guessing Genn doesn't have many Asian friends.

Sleep Tight

The president gave a well-received speech in Cairo last week. Anytime you try to give a sweeping address to the Muslim world (and who doesn't do that at least once in their life?) you inevitably have to go through a laundry list of issues, complaints and grievances so every dictator, pundit, Jew and Gentile feels satisfied; Islam is super awesome but it's OK for the ladies to drive cars and let their hair show, Democracy is cool, Israel stop being crazy, Hamas stop being crazy, we love Israel, we love Palestine, we hate terrorists, nukes are bad, Islam is peaceful, and the holocaust totally happened!

We're not perfect either. The US has a problem with bombing impoverished civilians in Afghanistan. It's something we should think about changing if we are going to have any moral authority on how responsible nations should act.

Good To Know

Oregon is passing a bill to ban semen-throwing.

MoCCA

If you are in New York this weekend, head to the MoCCA festival. CWA members Mikhaela Reid, Masheka Wood, Brian McFadden and Ruben Bolling will all be in attendance.

Tutoring

Investment bankers and other financial wizards should be forced to participate in a Billy Madison-style grade school program to demonstrate basic competence in math, physics and history before being allowed back to work. Friends don't let friends drive drunk and sane societies don't let morons run the global financial system.

Spittin' Darts

Larry King can flow. Lauren Collins, writing in The New Yorker, caught a freestyle rhyme from King and his views on something called "Twicker."

So I’m goin’ through the store / and I wanna go more / Up the stairs / Down to the room / What am I gonna do? / In the room / the room brings me gloom / should I go to the room if it brings me gloom? / Could bring me doom / Why go to the room?

Don't go in the room, Larry. I want to hear that with a beat and dripping with auto-tune.

Playing god

We humans have found some pretty clever ways to rationalize some pretty nasty things. Many claim our sense of morality comes from god, which I suppose makes sense given that he is the most murderous character in literature.

Will Words

George Will is famous for his use of alliteration and brainy vocabulary. Sometimes a lowly commoner like myself is left scratching their head at one of his verbal flourishes or heady comparisons between Beltway politics and obscure baseball facts. We'll be exploring them from time to time on this blog to show how dumb I am and how smart Will is.

His most recent column sent me running to dictionary.com: "State governments, too, are expected to accept Washington’s whims, but plucky Indiana is being obdurate." Will used this word a few months ago and I think Ben Hur used it. In both cases I merely pretended to get it but now I have to know...

ob⋅du⋅rate
–adjective
1. unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings; stubborn; unyielding.
2. stubbornly resistant to moral influence; persistently impenitent: an obdurate sinner.

Now I can use it in a sentence: "Blue jeans are widely considered to be harmless, but Mr. Will is obdurate on the matter."

New Video Game

Guantanamo: Rendition

Type A on Type 1

Sotomayor would indeed be the first Supreme Court Justice with Type 1 Diabetes. At least, the first one that's out of the closet. I'm sure Rush, Newt, Buchanan, and the rest of the angry white men lobbing RPGs at her will add it to their litany of complaints.

I don't go for the visual metaphor cartoons all that often, but Matt Davies has a perfect illustration of what the GOP is doing by bashing her.

Literally?

Today on "Face The Nation", Senator Jon Kyle said Sonia Sotomayor needs to be an impartial judge. Then he elaborated a bit: "And what that means is that she literally has to have a blindfold over her when she decides cases, not bring in her empathy for the poor person, for example."

Logo Refresh

The Times has an interesting little slide show of corporations doing a "logo refresh." That's graphic design speak for rehabilitating a corporate logo. Lots of market research is done to find the most pernicious way to trick people, er--I mean, communicate the essence of the company through bold, brilliant design.

A few years ago Wal-Mart's logo may have projected strength and stability. But in a recession where job losses are in the millions and corporations are (rightly) vilified, Wal-Mart's logo starts to resemble a Soviet force coming to town to hollow out small family-owned candy shops run on a modest profit for five generations. Time for a refresh.

Corporations need to soften their facade in this new era. Green and light blue are dominating as well as little explosions of color that clearly say "our corporate mission is fun, fun, fun."

How can anyone object to this family-friendly logo propagating across the land? Its lower case letters emit calm and modesty. This could be the logo for a daycare center or brand of low-fat yogurt. It puts a smile on my face.

Sometimes new logos are rolled out and fans reject it. So loyal are consumers to a brand, so successful the original logo in filling their empty hearts, that a company may have to backtrack and scrap the hip new design. How would you like to wake up and find your spouse had a completely new fashion sense? Would you still love them? Maybe if they were the same on the inside. Only time will tell if the lower-case Walmart can once again captivate shoppers.