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  • 2008
    • September
      • Bernanke Channels Veckman
        09/24/08


        Quick and under attack from Leaf... blah

      • Invisible Hand
        09/21/08


        Sorry for the delay in cartoons. I've been having problems with the blog software. I am looking into moving this site to another ISP and switching software. This will likely mean more downtime in the future... blah.

      • Golden Parachutes
        09/12/08


        Quick quick... The stories about how much money the CEO's for Fannie and Freddie are making out with are insane and sadly typical. Nobody gets rewarded for incompetence like these clowns.

      • Condi Finds Love
        09/07/08


        This was an opportunity to do two caricatures. Plus there was a very funny story in the NY Times about this meeting. Here is a quote:

        After all, the Libyan leader had professed his “love” for the American secretary of state. “I support my darling black African woman,” Colone

      • Republicans React to Gustav
        09/03/08


        Another one I drew in Tucson. The way the Republicans played ot the media on their first convention day was pretty funny. I especially liked Bush sitting at a table with bottled water... I think we need a new verb for it... maybe gustaving?

      • Sara Palin - VP
        09/03/08


        I have a couple I need to upload (including this one), that I conceptualized over the weekend. We were in Tucson while Monet did a run.

        Lot's of things to say about Sara... but this is a good start. I worry this is a bit sexist, a man creating woman, but hey, she did co

    • August
      • Obama Picks VP
        08/28/08


        Want to do a quick sketch before work.... Should redo.

        Thought it would be funny how some of the Obama maniacs would react to Biden.

      • Musharraf's Final Bow
        08/20/08


        Done very quick with Leaf literally hanging on my back like a crazed monkey.

        Had to draw one more Musharraf. He has been one of my favorite characters on the world stage. He was also the subject of the first cartoon I drew way back when...

      • Russia Bullies Georgia
        08/12/08


        Fun drawing a militant bear. I was going to make the obvious point of Russia being ten-times bigger than Georgia, but this seemed obvious. I thought the timing of the attack (attack - counter-attack?) was more interesting...

      • Marco Polo
        08/05/08


        I hope the joke is obvious.... hard to tell.

    • July
      • Batman's New Costume
        07/27/08


        um, stupid.... Nate Beeler had a good one of Batman in a hybrid. I couldn't compete with that.

        Need to get back to making a good set of cartoons.

      • Freddie and Fannie Come Home
        07/26/08


        Super quick....

      • Shake-up in Obama Campaign 2
        07/19/08


        Since my last Obama was so bad, I redid the cartoon... in my defense, the last one was only a quick sketch..

        Also extremely lame, it appears someone tried to hack my site. They inserted an .htaccess in the directory that did not allow viewing any images in the directory. I

      • Border-cross Weddings
        07/03/08
        Wedding Roadtrips


        Not a very political cartoon... Also, not quite the style I've been evolving. Also also, way late on this topic (I had to add a title so it even made sense). But, I thought it was a funny idea. I also thought of the New Yorker cartoonist, Sempe, while draw

    • June
      • McCain Solves the Energy Crisis
        06/27/08


        I had fun drawing the McCain-mobile, even though it is a bit messy. Reminded me of one of my major tenents of this project: drawing something fun. I had forgotten it.

      • African Union
        06/23/08


        Really down on myself for not drawing more. Just trying to get momentum. Blah...

      • Justice and Bush
        06/20/08


        Quick one.... no time to draw for weeks and weeks. Stuck in Moab and working on the house. Very frustrating. Makes me feel like all my inertia is gone and my cartooning project is doomed. I wanted to get some good drawings of all the main political peole on the intro page. WHINE!!!!

      • Home Page Attempt
        06/03/08


        Here is an attempt at a home page (with some color). I will have links to the Cartoon Blog, the Portfolio images, and a Bio/Contact page. I'm not very adept at color in PS, so I made it very simple.

        The idea was to make Uncle Sam look fried, like he was on tour with som

    • May
      • McCain and Bush
        05/31/08


        If you look close, you can see a litte scribble Leaf made on the left of the drawing...

        I'm about a week behind in topics, because once I come up with an idea, it takes me a week to draw it and upload. Still trying to come up with a portfolio plan. I tried making a cate

      • Hillary Explains RFK Reference
        05/30/08


        Is this cartoon in bad taste? I can't tell....

      • The U.S. in Saudi Arabia
        05/19/08


        A generic cartoon, that likely could have been drawn anytime in the last three years... I notice a lot of cartoonists throw these into the mix, and some seeme to specialize in them (Clay Bennet)... The news lately has been full of natural disasters and it is hard to find something to

      • George Explains Transitive Property
        05/16/08


        Okay, so my drawing sucks lately (I blame it on the pens), and my PS skills are still not up to snuff, but I'm starting to get some momentum/consistency again, which is a big deal. Also, I've started reading cartoons online again, and think I can approach this form/media/whate

      • The Dems V.P. Dance
        05/15/08


        The talk of a dream ticket by big named Dems is likely to cause big probs for Obama, no?

      • Burma Gets a Close-up
        05/14/08


        These clowns running Burma need a serious ego-check.

      • Violence in Iraq
        05/09/08


        Still goofing with the Faber's... the bold, brush tip is too haphazard for me, especially when im drawing fast.

        This cartoon may make a good iconic, portfolio piece, but I gotta redo it, make it a lot cleaner.

      • Gas Tax Holiday
        05/05/08


        Another quick one. Still don't have a routine... and too much to do getting the house done.

        I've been playing with FaberCastell pens. I like the superfine point and the brush... very fun to draw with, but I think the Artline may still be my favs. The pens may not

    • April
      • Carter Talks to Hamas
        04/29/08


        Well, it's been a month and I finally found some time for a quick drawing. We moved into a new house, did not have internet and still need to do a lot of work to make the place liveable.

        It took a while just to get this drawing done and I don't really like my Jimm

    • March
      • Hillary in Bosnia
        03/28/08


        Too little time to do much more. No touch up in PS. Also, er, no joke? Where is the joke? Sort of like the McCain one I just did... no joke there either. I need to stop thinking about the art so much and try coming up with less half-baked cartoons.

        This is the first drawi

      • Exxon Avoids Paying Damages
        03/27/08


        Yay.. I have a bunch of new pens to test out.... The above was done with Artline's "Drawing System." The sizes range from 0.1 to 0.9 (mm?). The finer points are really fun to draw with. They do have increased friction (like dragging a pin across the paper), but they a

      • McCain on the Campaign
        03/26/08


        I'm working on a bunch of iconic drawings of people, so I can make a portfolio page. I think this means nailing some of the people I've been drawing, giving less immediate context, and capturing something essential about their personality.

        I need a better dark mas

      • Lieberman's Foreign Policy Class
        03/23/08


        Quick one this morning.... McCain's verbal gaffs were very amusing.

      • Fidel Castro at Old Folks Home
        03/23/08


        I ordered three different sets of illustrating pens from Dick Blicks website.... All look pretty nice with a variety of point sizes. I'm eager to start drawing with them. In the mean time, I will stick with the Uniballs (this is how I drew the above).

        Had no time to dra

      • Tqiwan Elections
        03/22/08


        I feel bad about this one... Drew it in under an hour. No fricken time.


        A couple things I'm noticing about the masking...

        1. I need to at least outline with my own scribbles the area in the drawing where I want to mask. Otherwise it does not blend well

      • Free Tibet
        03/15/08


        Yay, I have reoccurring characters.... my two college dude Obama voters. For some reason, they represent a funny viewpoint for me (much better than they typical American couple that many cartoonists draw)...

        Still practicing the mask-fills.

      • George Vetoes Torture Ban
        03/14/08


        This is a version one. When I get a chance I'm going to try masking in some fills, using Tim's method. I have to make a couple more fill-only pages first. Hoping to get time this weekend.

        Found a good blog on caricatures by Tom Richmond (a Mad Magazine artist). H

      • Bernanke's Mortgage Origami Class
        03/09/08


        Not much time to draw... had to do a bunch of demo on the new house.

        Bernanke is fun to draw.. Anybody who is a bit shaggy is great for this style. As for the topic, I thought it was funny that Bernanke in his squeaky voice, suggested mortgage companies lower the principal

      • Clinton's Steady Hand - attempt 2
        03/06/08


        Here is another attempt at this silly red-phone cartoon. A couple things I think I did better:

        1. A slightly improved caricature of Hillary. It is weird what tweaks one has to discover to make a face look closer to the real person. Often, they are not obvious. For example,

      • Clinton's Steady Hand
        03/04/08


        Not much time to draw... This is actually one of my better Hillary's. She is very difficult to draw... I tried to get some clues from from Ann Telnaes' work (the only person I think who does a fairly skilled Hillary...). Unfortunately, her style is a world away from mine...

    • February
      • Obama and Public Funding
        02/29/08


        Not very happy with this one. I think my caricatures are getting better and the Obama looks pretty good, but the idea is a bit half-baked. Making another list, how to stop the half-baked ideas:

        1. make a couple versions before I start drawing.
        2. get a second opinion.
      • Colonialism 101
        02/26/08


        This time I lowered the Levels of the font in PS, instead of the image.

      • Nader at the Museum
        02/25/08


        This cartoon started out so well... but then I went off the deep end with symbolism. At one point I was considering putting a reference to Narcissus in the painting and having Nader staring at it... Then I smudged that out and gave him a small mirror. I have no idea whether it works or

      • Chavez-against-the-bandits
        02/24/08


        I thought it was funny how Chavez was threatening to cut off oil from the US while continuing to sell the majority of its oil to, um, the US. Not that I side with US oil (or certainly not Exxon Mobil), but Venezuela obviously has no choice. I listened to a news story where they said Ex

      • George Leaves Behind Something Stinky
        02/19/08


        Um, don't ask.... I actually think this is a funny cartoon, even though the drawing sucks. I've been only able to complete a few half-baked ideas lately... I would like to have time to draw two different sketches based on the same idea, then pick one. This may eliminate som

      • Where Your Tax Money Goes
        02/18/08


        Tried one of these two-panel cartoons.... Typically, I'm not a big fan. Not into the punch-line format for a cartoon. I'm really impressed with Clay Bennet (who I mentioned yesterday). His cartoons are like little poems... working all on a symbolic level. Less narrative an

      • Miliatary Wants to Shoot Down Satellite
        02/16/08


        Trying a new font for the bubble text. Also this is jpg instead of a gif. Curious if I well get cleaner images.

        I've been looking at Clay Bennett's work. http://www.claybennett.com/latest.html. Goofy simple characters, with unusual depth. He reuses the same symb

      • Obama and His Purple Crayon
        02/14/08


        This drawing is so bad, I'm reluctant to put it up... I'm still futzing with pens. I tried a couple Uniball's (Vision Elites, the .5 and .8) and a Staedtler .7. I still need something skinnier. Using bigger paper is not option right now, until I get a better scanner.
      • Hillary's New Campaign Manager
        02/13/08


      • U.S. and China Economic Relations
        02/10/08


        Quick and dirty... I had a lot more ambitious ideas for this cartoon, but felt desparate to get something up. I'm experimenting with new pens and back-n-forth on the font... Also spoke a lot with Tim about how to better evolve the art and hope to improve based on some of his ideas

      • The Fall of Mitt Romney
        02/06/08


        Quick attempt at using my new font. It is a bit bold (I only made a bold version and it took a lot of time). For now, it will have to work. I can do some things in PS to lighten it, which may help.

        I took a break for a few days while making the font. Have a list of improvm

      • Microsoft Bids to Takeover Yahoo!
        02/02/08


        While watching Leaf...

      • Dear Huck.... Love Iowa
        02/02/08


        I still feel I need to work a bit on getting a clean message. The last two (arnold and bill) were sort of half-baked and I think could have been funnier. I need the zero in on what I want to say before I start drawing.

        As for the art.. I feel good about it, as long as get e

    • January
      • Arnold Gives McCain a lift
        01/31/08


      • Bill Clinton Goes on Likability Tour
        01/30/08


        Super quick one.... I really need more time.

      • State of the Union
        01/29/08


        It's been impossible to find time to draw the last few days. Leaf has been sick and we got dumped on with snow. I spent this morning shoveling. I scribbled the above cartoon together in less than an hour. Not good. I would love to find time to redo it.

        As for the S

      • Musharraf Leaves for Europe
        01/27/08


        Half-way quick one... I would have liked to redrawn it, but eh.

        Musharraf again... This guy and what he is dealing with in Pakistan is really unbelievable. There should be an additional big cat in the picture, and it should be the U.S.

        Going through a lot of pens

      • French Bank Bilked Out of Billions
        01/26/08


        In sticking with the trend of drawing fun things, I decided to draw a stereotypical French guy. The French are always free game, right? Just like Americans...

        With this story, I first thought about drawing the "rogue trader" who pulled off the scheme and adding deta

      • Immunity for Contractors
        01/25/08


        Unfortunately, I ran out of time this morning and had to upload the picture tonight. This also required a bit of touch-up in Photoshop. That said, this is the type of sketch that can take hours and hours, because there is something er, wonderful? about drawing big critters with weapons

      • Ben Bernanke Flaps Wings
        01/24/08


      • Fred Thompson Out of Race
        01/23/08


        More speed drawing.... I'm almost under an hour now..

      • South Carolina Dem Debate
        01/22/08


        This is called "speed drawing"... I really have no choice until I get my schedule in order.

      • MLK Against the War
        01/21/08


        Having serious Photoshop issues today... I screwed up the settings somehow, can't erase or draw properly, and keep locking layers when I do not want to... I need to spend a lot more time with it.

        This drawing (and yesterdays), also have me a bit disheartened about the w

      • Detroit Auto Show 2008
        01/20/08


        I did the same three-pass method here, except this time I made the initial drawing even more scribbly. It may be too much... Also, with the brontosaurus I had to use another sheet of paper and cut-n-paste-shrink him using Photoshop... hence, the different resolution. I couldn't g

      • Bobby Fischer Dies
        01/19/08


        I decided to take a shot at one of these political cartoon obituaries... I noticed quite of few cartoonist did one after Edmund Hillary and Evil Knievil died. To be honest, I think they are kind of stupid. Typically they show the person doing something they are famous for while making

      • US Economy Rowboat
        01/18/08


        I didn't have any good ideas this morning so I just drew a random economy outlook cartoon. It does not feel very creative, but it is practice...

        I totally dropped the Sharpie for the last couple cartoons. It means the fills take a little a longer, but it feels like th

      • FDA Allows Cloned Meat
        01/17/08


        My brother suggested I work a bit more on the most basic of illustrating skills-- line weight. This is specifically important for lines that forms seams, edges, and overhangs. He said it would help the objects I draw "pop." This makes a lot of sense to me and I'm determ

      • George of Arabia
        01/16/08


        This cartoon is a simple bit of irony which many other cartoonists picked up on: George Bush made a trip to the Middle East, promoting peace, but in the end sells missiles to the Saudi's and tries to get every country he stops at to unite against Iran. I thought George hanging out

      • Elephant as Economy
        01/15/08


        Quick and messy... I haven't drawn for six days, so I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. I had to drive to Denver with our stuff from storage. Miserable schedule.

        One comment. My brother thought I needed more contrast in the scribble style. This means

      • McCain Wins New Hampshire
        01/09/08


        Well, for better or worse, I think I landed on a style... and speaking of "For Better or Worse," wouldn't it be cool if Lynn Johnston did a violent-seventies-drug-infested cop comic... sort of like Dirty Harry... instead of her silly family pseudo-drama. She has the 70�

      • Clemens Investigates Steroids
        01/08/08


        I did a little "reigning" in here of the messy style. When doing Roger Clemens, I did three passes. One pass was a clean thin-lined illustration (could be cleaner still). The second pass was a squiggle fill. This was followed by a final Sharpie-fill pass, which on this draw

      • Hillary on the Bench
        01/07/08


        I've been looking on Cagle and elsewhere... a lot of good cartoons of Hillary's demise in Iowa. A lot of the artists employed the word, "inevitable," which I thought was interesting. It captures a somewhat obvious thought that is floating around, but not quite on th

      • Candidates Agree!
        01/06/08


        So, yow, I have no idea what happened here. I went a bit to the extreme in this style. One thing I tried to do was eliminate all cross-hatching. This meant I did a lot of shading with wiggle-squiggles... which actually I sort of like. I think I need to reign it in some... maybe sss

      • Musharrif the Adjuster
        01/05/08


        Switched the font on this one... I like the child-like scrawl of Kristen ITC (something I found on PS) better than Comic Sans. Until I can design my own font, this will have to work.

        I really like drawing Musharrif. He is like a British fuddy-duddy, turned dictator. I espec

      • East African Insane Asylum
        01/04/08


        I'm starting to notice some tics in my drawing that I hope evolve into a more signature style. One is the circles for cheeks. I've been doing this for a long time, but it really seemed to come out in this drawing when I was trying to draw the Africans. I worry a bit about ma

      • Double Negative Advertising
        01/03/08


        Yesterday I went to the art store to try and get a refillable pen. Unfortunately the only refillable pens they had were calligraphy pens. They suggested I go to an office supply specialty shop. In the meantime, I'm stuck with my throw-away Rosearts...

        Not much to say a

      • New Year Diaper
        01/01/08


        I had to do a new year's drawing... I had a bunch of random ideas, but ended up with a global warming gag. Need to get back into a routine. I painted a mural in San Diego with Bhutto on it. Need to get Monet's camera so I can upload it...

  • 2007
    • December
      • Mall Closed on Xmas
        12/25/07


        Just when I thought I was doing better... I draw this. Blah... Messy garbage. Perhaps the most unfunny comic ever drawn. I should send it to that Family Circus guy... I need to redo the whole thing and come up with an idea that is at least halfway good.... but not today.

      • Rudy's Health Report
        12/24/07


        Another quick one done while watching Leaf. When I got to my computer, I tried out bubbles in Photoshop. I'm much quicker in lllustrator at making bubbles... I'm not sure why. I have the same tools, but finding where to set point size and drop shadows is easier.
      • 3 Wisemen and Writer's Strike
        12/23/07


        I had to draw this entire comic with Leaf sitting on my lap and trying to grab the pen. The funny thing about it is, I think the style is closer to where I want to be. Messier and simpler at the same time. It is hard to describe how this happens, but it is like adding an unconscious e

      • Repubs Saying Jesus Christ
        12/22/07


        Still feelinig like I'm a bit lost on style... I want the drawings to be simpler and messier at the same time. Unsure how to accomplish this. I did a bit in photoshop, mainly shifting sizes and editing text. Also added the newspaper headline. My Photoshop skills are improving a

      • EPA Denies California
        12/21/07


        Not much time to draw again... I need to make sure I get a couple hours every morning, and lately this has been difficult.

        A couple thoughts. I need to slow down and do another pass in Photoshop on all the cartoons. This would make them look cleaner and more professional...

      • Little Dictator's Xmas Party
        12/18/07


        I'm experimenting here... Tried mixing styles again. The presidents ended up looking a little South Parky.. And after I noticed this, the quotes became South Parky too. I guess that is what happens when you have undesirable children. I wanted to make Putin say, "Don't

      • Field of Dreams II
        12/17/07


        Well, I reverted back into an earlier drawing style for this one, at least for the baseball player. Sort of a patchy cross-hatch. It is comfortable and slow.. It is not where I want to end up (or average) with these cartoons... I would like to be halfway between here and the messy st

      • Al Gore - the Ghost of Xmas Present
        12/15/07


        I went through a bit of a "drawing" crisis while attempting this cartoon, and I'm very displeased with the result. This is a messy sketch-hola and I'm sick of it, so I'm moving on to a new cartoon. What happened was I started drawing Al Gore, who I think I did

      • The Fed and Wall Street at Recession Point
        12/12/07

        Yesterday I spoke to my brother and we both agreed that the art was coming along, but I needed to work on my symbolic connections. Instead of pushing a political viewpoint, I'm finding my cartoons develop as a dramatic scene... like this one for example. Yesterday I heard the story fro

      • Al Gore Makes Nobel Speech
        12/11/07
        Al Gore Gives Nobel Prize Speech

        Yeah.. okay. So I just wanted to draw Al Gore. Fun. I added a title just in case it is difficult to tell who he is. Also, I looked at a photo of him accepting and noticed I got the tie wrong.. blah.

        I like the fill on the left here... kind

      • Oprah for President
        12/10/07

        I slid back into messy mode for this one. I think I spent too long trying to get Oprah right, throwing away five sheets of paper, so once I got her "okay," I rushed the crowd scene. The crowd turned into a scribbly mess which I'm not too proud of and required a bit of "ga

      • CIA destroys torture tapes
        12/09/07

        I added another pen to my toolset with this drawing. A sharpie with a chisel tip on one end and a fine on the other. This helps immensely with the fills.... although I can see a couple light streaks in the pants of the CIA operatives.

        I like this cartoon for a couple reasons. 1)

      • Russian Navy Renews Military Activity in the Mediterranean
        12/07/07
        Russian Navy Renews Military Activity in the Mediterranean


        I don't know what the hell happened with this cartoon. It looks like something from the 1930's. Especially the word, "Mediterranean" spelled out on the sand. I think was trying to draw a Putin-like pers

      • North Pole Foreclosure
        12/06/07
        North Pole Foreclosure

        In looking through Daryl Cagle's site (http://www.cagle.com/)-- which is pretty amazing, especially the artists he has been able to compile-- I noticed that a political cartoonist must be able to take the closest holiday and connect it to current events. How t

      • Tthe Boy Who Cried Nukes!
        12/05/07
        The boy who cried nukes!

        Because Monet complained about the "Messy Style," I tried to do an entire cartoon in Adobe Illustrator. I'm using a Gateway Tablet PC (given to me by my brother) with a very flakey pen... This took my a long time and I do not like how it came out.

      • Musharrif in Therapy
        12/04/07

        This is my first attempt at a political cartoon. I'm trying to use a "messy" style, which is a lot different from illustrations I've done in the past. Typically, I prefer a clean line. The pen I'm using is a RoseArt SX770 Grip. Cheap and from Target. Also, the pap