Netanyahu Gives Obama a Wedgie
Dropping Oil Prices Impact Stock Market
Oil Prices Drop on the Despots!
Oil prices dropped below $60/barrel this week, to the delight of American drivers and the dismay of ugly, oil-producing countries around the world. I thought of drawing a group scene with even more despots from nasty countries, like Libya, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the list – trouble is, there are too many of them, and they don’t have good, recognizable characters for the barrel of oil to bash.
So, I did three versions of this cartoon, Iran, Russia and Venezuela, which each have fascinating, and from an American point of view, encouraging stories of economic collapse with the drop in oil prices. Newspapers can pair these with Op-Ed pieces on each country’s interesting travails.
I tried combining these, but that was confusing. Simple is good. Here’s Vladimir Putin …
I love drawing Putin – he’s so creepy. Next is Venezuela and their president, Nicolas Maduro.
This is the first time I’ve drawn Maduro. I like his low forehead and widows peak. The last version is Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is a delight to draw, but like Maduro, he requires a label because people don’t know what he looks like.
Iran’s Supreme Leader makes me laugh. He also likes to throw Iranian cartoonists into jail, and my web sites are blocked in Iran – still, the Supreme Leader makes me laugh. Just the fact that he wants to call himself “Supreme Leader” is funny.
Iran and Oil Price Drop
Obama Transforms Into Bush
Media Pushes Toward War
Iraq It Sucks to be You
Obama Iran and Republicans
Obama Iran and Netanyahu
The Cartoon That Facebook Won’t Let You See
My buddy, cartoonist Kianoush Ramezani, an Iranian cartoonist who escaped from probable imprisonment by the Iranian Regime and was given asylum in France, posted this funny cartoon that was censored by Facebook (Facebook also blocked his account for 12 hours). I thought I would post it on Facebook too, and sure enough, they censored my posting too. The cartoons is below. It makes me laugh, and it makes a religious/political point that I would expect, from Kianoush’s point of view. See my buddy Kianoush here.
I’ve been blocked from Facebook for the next twelve hours. Ouch!
Here’s what I got when I posted it – a double Facebook removal …
Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare!
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.
Here’s a detail from the revised version.