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Two Cartoonist Legends Pass Away

So sad to see this on the National Cartoonists Society’s (NCS) Facebook page.
13645272_1162221397133070_7943833285429169531_nBoth Jack Davis and Richard Thompson are among the best cartoonists ever. I met them both through the NCS. I grew up with Jack’s brilliant artwork in Mad Magazine; he was a special influence on my own work and a charming gentleman.

The NCS and the world lost 2 cartooning legends today: Jack Davis and Richard Thompson.

Jack was born in 1924, and after his first freelance drawing gig at age 12, went on to become one of the greatest and most respected cartoonists of all time. He leaves behind his loving wife Dena, and a world lessened by the loss of a legend. Jack won the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 2000.

13692874_1162221407133069_35823026488229291_oRichard Thompson, in addition to being a successful humorous illustrator for The Washington Post, created one of the most admired newspaper comic strips of the late 20th century, Cul de Sac. In 2009 he was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease , and soon after had no choice but to retire the strip. Richard was given the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 2011.

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Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Gets the Boot

I’m not too happy with my Putin and Bernie in this one, but Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is great fun to draw. Her hair is fun. Somehow I’m guessing she’s be around for a while in one way or another.

Here I am drawing this one live (as of 1:00pm Pacific Time Tuesday, this had another hour to finish uploading – come back later if you are early!)

And here I color it in real time …

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Mike Pence in Trump’s Shadow

There is a great tradition of drawing politicians as doggies in political cartoons. Last night the new Republican VP nominee, Mike Pence, gave his acceptance speech at the GOP convention, and here is the cartoon I drew yesterday. trumpPence750

See me draw this one in real time in the video below …

And see me color this one in Photoshop, in real time. I suggest you choose the option to watch these YouTube videos at double speed.

My brilliant cartoonist buddy. Taylor Jones, has been drawing some nice Pence doggies. Here are three I enjoyed!

Here Taylor has Pence as a little doggie. I’m not quite sure why Trump is drooling, or why Eric Trump is goose-stepping, but, whatever.

182112_600That’s Taylor’s Ivanka and puppy Pence at the right. Maybe little Pence doggies will be the political cartooning norm going forward. I look forward to that.

 

 

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Melania Trump, the Media and Plagiarism!

I’m back from my brilliant cartoonist/journalist daughter, Susie’s wedding. I promise I’ll draw more cartoons. Really, I promise. I drew this one live on Twitch yesterday, about Melania Trump’s plagiarism of Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic Convention in 2008. I don’t care much about this non-issue, but it makes for a funny scene, which is the extent of my take on this.

I know that the Donald is quite tall, but I feel compelled to draw him shorter, and I expect that the cartoons of Trump will grow shorter with time. Melania is a wonderful, goofy character to draw and I look forward to more of her! Readers might recognize my group of running media in this cartoon, which I re-use at every opportunity. I like the idea that the breathless media chasing down the next stupid thing is the same, over and over. In the video below see me drawing this one, and importing the media gaggle from a Cagle cartoon oldie.

In the next video below, watch me color this one in Photoshop while I chat with viewers on Twitch.

 

 

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Police and Black Community Targets

The recent police shootings and the murders of policemen in Dallas are a horror. I think these police shooting horrors have been going on in probably the same or lesser proportion in the past, but now we see them on phone videos. More of a horror are the statistics for how disproportionately more blacks are in prison. My solution is to get rid of the racist laws that disproportionately punish blacks for drug crimes. We should see by now that the war on drugs is unfair and is more costly to society than the cost in lives and suffering of having no war on drugs at all.

police-black-targets750

I should apologize for taking such a long break from the last cartoon. I’ve been moving back to California. We sold the ranch in Tennessee and we’re back in California, hopefully for good.

I think the police/Black Lives Matter issue will be with us for quite some time and I should come up with some more cartoon ideas on this. I have to admit that this isn’t an easy topic. It is much easier to draw “Trump as a monster” cartoons. I like the black and white line art version of this one, so I didn’t do a grayscale on this one. Unfortunately, most newspapers take the color image and grayscale it rather than using line art when I post line art as the black and white version. Frustrating. Line art is more elegant.

Here’s an oldie on the same topic that I drew last year. This one has been getting more ink recently as it has been more appropriate for the week’s focus.

And here’s another one …

In the video below you can see me drawing the target cartoon in real time.

In the next video see me coloring the cartoon in Photoshop.