Congress is busy working on leaving “No Child Left Behind” behind. Teachers hate that “teaching to the test” stuff, so I drew this today.
The Bush era law mandated that all school kids should be reading and doing math at their grade level by now – well, that won’t happen – the solution? Throw out the law requiring such crazy stuff. But keep all the crazy testing. hmm. I draw something like this every couple of years when this topic gets hot, as it does bi-annually. Here’s a nice one on standardized testing and employment that I drew back in 2007.
Things don’t change much. President Bush just loved the standardized testing. I drew this when “No Child Left Behind” passed …
Obama and his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, love standardized testing just as much as George W. Bush.
We’ll surely get rid of “No Child Left Behind” but we won’t be rid of standardized testing. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I suppose I’ll draw this again in a couple of years.
Here is my weekly post on my new cartoons. My most recent cartoon, on George Zimmerman’s acquittal, was a quickie. Here is my rough sketch – I took a scan of the Community Chest Get Out of Jail Free card, made it light in a print out, and did a rough sketch on top.
Then I dropped in the color. I had it all done in ten minutes, a new record for me. If only all of the cartoons were so quick and easy. Usually I muddle and fiddle for a long time with each cartoon. This one got a lot of attention in social media because it was fast.
The previous cartoon was Obama in the Arab Spring bathtub, with lots of dangerous appliances. Don’t stick a fork in the toaster! Here is the rough sketch – this one took some muddle and fiddle time to get the position and appliances to be the way I wanted them.
Then I did the finished line art, and added a bit of gray to make it read a bit more clearly. The black and white image is what more readers see in the newspapers.
And here is the color that you see on our site, and the newspapers that print in color. I had fun with this cartoon.
The previous cartoon was about the one year postponement in the employer mandate on Obamacare. Republicans “jumped on this” as evidence of Obamacare’s “failure” and “chaos.” Here is the rough sketch.
… And here is the line art, that most people will see in the newspapers that print black and white. I always like to black and white version better. There is something more elegant about black and white. Readers always tell me that color is better.
And here is the color. I did this one a little differently, with quick, transparent colors. I think I’ll probably do messier color like this going forward. I really like Pat Bagley’s sponge texture – that’s the next thing I’ll try.
POSTSCRIPT: Well, after writing that, I couldn’t get the sponge thing out of my head and I added a subtle bit of Bagley texture to the background. I should do more of that. And more boldly. I’m timid starting out. Here’s the revised version, not too different, but nicely textural.
It has been too long since I have posted new cartoons here! I took time away for the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention in Salt Lake City. (You can see me opine on the convention with Rob Rogers and Pat Bagley here.) Then it was the end of the quarter and I had to pay the cartoonist royalties, another three days lost. So I’m late. But here are the missing cartoons!
I drew this one of Edward Snowden a couple of weeks ago.
It wasn’t long before Ecuador was no longer talked about as a possible asylum for Snowden, so I drew a revision.
Today it looks like Venezuela will be the lucky winner in the Snowden derby.
The next one is Obama sweeping some crud under the constitution rug. I thought about labeling the crud “NSA,” and I could have labeled it “Guantanamo,” but I decided labels are for sissies. Given the e-mail I get from readers, I probably should have labeled the constitution also.
Next is Mohammad Morsi in his prison garb.
This one is actually in response to a reader comment. I had posted this oldie of Morsi on my blog …
Thanks to Cheryl Akins, who posted a comment that I should draw Morsi in prison garb now – and, of-course, she was right. I made his face a little cuter the second time around. I probably should have stuck with the uglier version.
With Egypt falling into chaos, I reposted one of my favorites from earlier this year.
Which brings us back to the Supreme Court’s DOMA and Prop 8 decisions. I drew this one.
We had a nice bunch of DOMA decision cartoons, but the best one came from by buddy Nate Beeler, who drew this big wet kiss that went viral on Facebook.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an outpouring of love for a cartoon as I witnessed for this Beeler beauty. Nice work, Nate.
At that time I asked readers to send a letter to the Israeli Ambassador calling for Sabaaneh’s release. Cartoonists around the world made the same requests of the Israeli ambassadors in their countries – I never heard of any of them getting a response. I got no response.
Here’s my weekly blog about my latest cartoons! The last two are about the drop in the stock market and rise in interest rates after remarks by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Here’s another take on the Wall Street bull.
And here is Bernanke, trimming rates, only to see a little sprout of the economy bloom.
Bernanke, and Greenspan before him, have been trimming rates for a long time. This cartoon adds sprouts to a three year oldie (right). This one amuses me because it is the kind of thing our editorial cartooning professional organization will be discussing next week – whether to ban editorial cartoons that consist of alterations to previously drawn cartoons. The cartoon police may come down on me for ethical infractions like this one. Cartoonists are a humorless bunch, when it comes to “cartoon ethics.”
The previous cartoon was about the NSA eavesdropping scandal. Presidential ears tend to grow over the years in editorial cartoons, and Obama’s big cartoon ears have become absurdly huge among my colleagues. I once met Obama’s buddy, Susan Rice when she was UN Ambassador, and all she wanted to talk about was why I draw Obama’s ears so big. I didn’t have a good answer, except for “peer pressure.” I may keep drawing Obama’s ears small. Maybe the cartoon police will cite me for a small ears infraction too.
The next cartoon is about “Value Added” testing of teachers. This cartoon is just a list of the bad things value added testing encourages teachers to do. There have been lots of testing scandals around the country featuring these abuses, among others. I got an interesting response to this cartoon from defenders of teachers, who saw the cartoon as “teacher bashing” rather than testing bashing.
Here are my new cartoons! The most recent one is about Obama’s response to the crisis in Syria. Drawing Arabs as dogs is deeply insulting – I suppose that just puts dogs onto cartoonists’ palettes of cliches. I may get some angry mail for this one. I’m annoyed by Obama’s worthless response to Syria, at the same time, I’m happy that Obama isn’t jumping in to chew it up in this Syrian dogfight when both sides look to be bad guys.
This one is a drawing of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He’s a pretty easy caricature, and I think I nailed him.
… still, I hate to put labels in cartoons – particularly when the label is to identify someone who is drawn with an identifiable caricature, something lousy cartoonists do when they can’t draw good caricatures. Sometimes I just can’t depend on the readers to know what the guy will look like and I have to put in a label – still I hate it, so I distributed a second version of this one without a label. I suppose this would work as an illustration for an op-ed piece about the turbulence in Turkey. He’s a fun guy to draw. I love the shape of his head. I also like his middle name – it sounds like something Paris Hilton’s dog would say.
This one is about the split in the Republican party on immigration Reform. I suppose we’ll see if any reform-candy comes out of that pinata next week.
The next one is a Muppet cartoon, with Cookie Monster the Republican enjoying all the White House scandals.
Regular readers here know that I worked for the Muppets for the first half of my career and I’m a big Muppet fan. I draw a Muppet themed cartoon about once a year – this is a good excuse to show a few more …
I drew this one back in the George W. Bush days when we were all talking about torture and water-boarding.
I once illustrated a whole childrens’ book about Elmo – who claims a permanent space in my brain – oh! I hear the voice! I drew the one below when we got the news about the CEO of Chick-fil-A opposing gay rights, and the Muppets spoke out against it and in favor of gay rights – makes me proud of my Muppet roots.
This one was when congress was threatening to cut funds to public broadcasting – and Sesame Street.
When the Sesame Street people decided to make Cookie Monster love vegetables, and made cookies a “sometimes food” I drew this one.
I drew this one when there was a scandal at Goldman Sachs, and it was revealed that greedy, Wall Street types derisively call their clients “Muppets.”
Here’s my newest cartoon – another cliche cartoon about the military guy showing off and explaining his medals, regarding the recent sexual assault and harassment issues in the military.
My buddy, Milt Priggee did one of these today also, on the same topic, but Milt’s was a bit harsh and I don’t think it will get reprinted much.
Here’s one I did recently when the military finally allowed for equal treatment of women in combat.
I did this one when the military struck down “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Here’s one from when Hillary Clinton was running for president, arguing that she would be a great commander-in-chief.
I did this one with the General Petraeus scandal.
Here’s another nice medals cartoon by John Darkow, about the Petraeus scandal.
Cartoonists are so crazy-motivated to get awards, I think the cartooning awards should all come in the form of medals the cartoonists can wear to show off how much better they are then each other – kind of like peacocks flaunting their plumage. it would make our conventions more fun.
Here is my newest cartoon, with the media as an abused spouse of our petulant president. I did two versions of this one, with Obama saying “Bitch” for brave editors, and one with Obama saying “Jerk” for timid editors. I hope they will print “Bitch” but I expect that they will choose to print “Jerk.” Here is the rough sketch.
Here it is in black and white, as most newspapers readers will see it – “Bitch” version.
And color, “Bitch” version …
Here’s the color “Jerk” version …
Editors can be pretty darn timid, and I suspect that both versions of this cartoon might scare them off.
My grouchy editorial cartoonist colleagues, who lambasted me for my two-version Miranda cartoon, will be debating banning two versions of editorial cartoons as “unethical” at our upcoming convention. I must admit that, if some kinds of cartoons are banned, I’ll be motivated to draw them anyway, just to break the rules.
Another thing my colleagues will discuss banning are cartoons that are similar to other cartoons a cartoonist has drawn in the past. This abused press cartoon is similar to an oldie I drew about high gas prices.
It will be interesting to see how the cartoonists plan to enforce their new ethical rules.
The abused spouse gas cartoon generated some angry mail from actual abused spouses who were upset with me for not taking them seriously, in some strong and emotional language. I actually apologized for this one, since people were so upset. For any readers I offend with my new cartoon, you again have my apology – it is not my intent to criticize abused spouses – the cartoon is only about Obama and the press!
I’m at the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards banquet tonight, and I just ran up to my hotel room after the dinner to post and tweet the winners of the Cartoonist of the Year Award and all the Division Award Winners.
Reuben Award
The Reuben Award winners are – a tie, for the first time I can remember: Brian Crane (Pickles) and Rick Kirkman (Baby Blues) both won and both took home two big Rube Goldberg statues. I don’t recall that there has ever been a tie before. The third nominee was Stephan Pastis of Pearls Before Swine.
The nominees in the newspaper illustration division were Mark Brewer, Bob Rich and Dave Whamond. The winner is Dave Whammond – a great guy and my new friend who does great work for the Wall Street Journal.
The nominees in the Greeting Card Division were Bill Brewer, George Schill and Jem Sullivan. The winner in the greeting card division is Jem Sullivan..
The nominees in the TV Animation Division were Todd Kauffman, for Sidekick, Alberto Mielgo for Tron: Uprising, and Rich Weber for DC Nation. The winner in the TV Animation Division is Rich Weber for DC Nation.
The nominees in the Feature Animation Division were Rich Moore for Wreck-It Ralph, Joann Sear for The Rabbi’s Cat and Hiromasa Yonebayashi for The Secret World of Arriety. The winner is Joann Sear for The Rabbi’s Cat.
The nominees in the Advertising/Product Illustration Division were Luke McGarry, Ed Steckley and Wayno. The winner is Ed Steckley.
The nominees in the Graphic Novel Division (that I had the pleasure to announce), were Derf, for My Friend Daumer, Joseph Lambert for Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, and Chris Ware for Building Stories. The winner in the Graphic novel Division is Chris Ware for Building Stories.
The nominees in the Comic Book Division were Amdanda Connor, Evan Dorkin and Bernie Wrightson. The winner is Evan Dorkin.
The nominees in the online Comics – Short For Division were Graham Harrop for Ten Cats, Honathan Lemon for Rabbits Against Magic and Michael McParlane for Mac. The Winner is Graham Harrop for Ten Cats.
The Nominees in the Online Comics Long Form Division were Vince Dorse for Untold tales of Bigfoot, Meredith Gran for Octopus Pie and Pan N. Lewis for Muscles Diablo in Where Terror Lurks. The winner is Vince Dorse.
In the Gag Cartoon Division the nominees were Roz Chast, Sam Gross, Mick Stevens and Jack Ziegler, the winner is Roz Chast.
In the Newspaper Panel Division, Tony Carillo, F-Minus, Dave Coverly, Speed Bump, and Hilary Price Rhymes With Orange. The winner in the Newspaper Panel Cartoon Division is Hilary Price, Rhymes With Orange.
In the Editorial Cartoon Division the Nominees were Clay Bennett, Michael de Adder and Jen Sorensen, the winner is Jen Sorensen.
In the Newspaper Comic Strip Division, noinees were Brian Basset, Red & Rover, Jeff Parker and Steve Kelley, Dustin, and Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman, Zits . Winner is Brian Bassett, Red & Rover.
UPDATE: Here’s a video I shot of Rob Kirkman and Brian Crane both accepting their Reuben Award:
Here are my last four cartoons. The most recent is below, on the press growing less cute and adorable for Obama. I think if I drew puppies in all of my editorial cartoons, my work would be much more popular. I didn’t quite know how I would handle this one when I started drawing, so the rough sketch is a bit of a mess.
I was thinking of making this a four panel cartoon at first, with the doggie growing progressively bigger and a caption, but the simple two panel format won out. here is the line art that most people will see in their newspapers that print in black and white.
And here is the color. Readers love the doggies.
I drew the cartoon below when Obama made his first statement about the IRS scandal. here’s the black and white most people see.
And here’s the color.
Before that I did this one on the ongoing, outrageous, sexual assault scandals in the military.
And I drew this “Energizer Bunny” cartoon about the Benghazi Scandal that the Republicans can’t bear to see fade away.
There was a time when I would see an Energizer Bunny cliche editorial cartoon every week. Alas, those were the good old days.
Richard Nixon is great fun to draw. It would have been wonderful to work as an editorial cartoonist during the Watergate days. It was an editorial cartooning renaissance.
This week, the pack of cartoonists all ran in the direction of comparing Barack Obama with Richard Nixon because of Obama’s worsening three scandals: the AP records seizure, Benghazi and the IRS. I draw metamorphosis cartoons every so often, when the news seems to be calling out for them. Here is the line art for Obama turning into Nixon, which most readers will see in newspapers that print in black and white.
Here’s the color version.
Just after the presidential election, the folks at Fox News were apoplectic about their loss, and ranted that Obama would be free to be the wild, radical leftist they knew he was all along, now that he was freed from the constraints of needing to be re-elected. So I drew this metamorphosis cartoon.
Back when Apple was rejecting my iPhone app applications, I drew this Apple metamorphosis cartoon …
And I drew this one when Disney bought Marvel Comics.
Cartoonists draw evolution themed cartoons all the time – which are pretty similar to metamorphosis, I guess. Here is Mitt Romney, and his evolving views about evolution, from back in 2007.
Here’s an evolving Donald Trump from 2011.
And a general evolution of man cartoon …
Cartooning, evolution and metamorphosis! It’s a tradition! I’m working on another one today.
One of the most common editorial cartoon metaphors is the “Are we there yet?” cartoon, with “kids” in the back seat bugging a driver. It has been drawn hundreds of times, addressing all kinds of issues. I do one every couple of years. There was a big Yahtzee of more than a dozen “Are we there yet?” cartoons during the run up to intervention in Libya, but I don’t recall seeing one on the current run up to intervention in Syria, so I thought it was time for me to do another one.
I thought I would look through the archives for some other “Are we there yet?” cartoons. Here’s a couple of nice ones from RJ Matson of Roll Call.
Here’s an oldie from Joe Heller from back in 2008.
I drew this one about the Gulf Oil Spill, as Obama was being criticized by Fox News for being slow to react – “just like President Bush with Hurricane Katrina.”
This one by New Zealand cartoonist, Chris Slane, amused me.
Last March 
Bernanke, and Greenspan before him, have been trimming rates for a long time. This cartoon adds sprouts to a three year oldie (right). This one amuses me because it is the kind of thing our editorial cartooning professional organization will be discussing next week – whether to ban editorial cartoons that consist of alterations to previously drawn cartoons. The cartoon police may come down on me for ethical infractions like this one. Cartoonists are a humorless bunch, when it comes to “cartoon ethics.”
