Training Iraqi Troops
It is pretty common for editorial cartoonists to draw parody cartoons with the Peanuts characters. Lucy pulling away the football is a political cartooning standard. I wonder why it is always Peanuts, and not other strips that find their way into editorial cartoons – so, here’s my Zits-ISIS-ISIL-Dash-Zits cartoon.
I’m a big Zits fan. I have two Zits originals, that I bought at charity events, hanging on the wall in my house. Borgman and Scott are brilliant, although I don’t think they’d ever draw Jeremy joining ISIS, so … sorry about that. Kids and ISIS – always a surprise, huh?
I’m headed off to Ukraine next week and I won’t be drawing cartoons for a while. Hold your breath until I get back!
ISIS Zits Parody
Here’s Commander-in-Chief Hillary! Back in 2008 there was a lot of chatter about whether Hillary was up to the job of commanding the troops. Hillary told a story about how she was “dodging bullets” as she flew into Bosnia – a story that would have shamed even Brian Williams.
We also heard a lot about how Hillary thought America would rather she got an emergency call at 3:00 in the morning, instead of Barack Obama. I drew a cartoon similar to this one in 2008, with Hillary’s medals, and I realized that in only seven years, many of the medals have changed, but Hillary is basically the same. Here’s a new, updated version of my military, Hillary golden oldie. Come see our big collection of Bill ‘n Hillary cartoons.
Hillary the Commander in Chief
Spineless Obama and the Middle East
Spineless Obama and the Middle East
Eeeeww! So nasty!
The French weekly newsmagazine, Courrier International, is a great customer and, if I draw a cartoon only in black and white, I’ve been OK with their coloring my cartoons – if they want. This has never been a problem before. Today I saw this cartoon I drew back in 2006, in black and white, showed up in Courrier with very nasty coloring.
Eeeeww! Yuck! I think I need to rethink being so generous about my coloring policy. Both BW and color versions are below.
GOP Rants at Obama
Today’s cartoon was inspired by this nice column about Ted Cruz in Slate.com, my old Web partner for Cagle.com, http://tinyurl.com/nkkr6uo
I like simple, black line art in editorial cartoons best – there is something more elegant about it, and it is a shame to see it disappearing as editorial cartoonists gin everything up in Photoshop. I’m certain to get complaints about this one because it is wordy and liberal. Here it is in the more elegant black and white version.
A conservative reader posted this comment under the cartoon on my Facebook page:
How about Obama and his attitude toward Israel? How about the fact Obama said he would lower our debt? How about the fact that he lied about health care costs going down? I think it’s clear who is blind
I don’t like Obama, but I like seeing his position seem to evolve on Israel. Obama hasn’t lowered the debt, but he certainly lowered the deficit, I don’t think anyone expected him to lower the debt, particularly given how the Bush administration had tanked the economy. And I think he did lie about health care, still, I like Obamacare better than nothing.
I’d like to see Obama stand up and make more happen. Republicans had a point some time ago, when I drew the “spineless” cartoon below. Obama could start by throwing the 2008 Wall Street crooks into jail – something I think Elizabeth Warren might do if she was president. I don’t have much higher hopes for Hillary.
GOP Rants at Obama
Dropping Oil Prices Impact Stock Market
More Troops for Iraq
I voted for Obama because he promised to get the US out of Iraq – now he’s creeping us back in. With the Republicans controlling Congress, I’m guessing that the mission creep will continue. What is so bizarre is that everyone seems to recognize that Iraq (and the rest of the Middle East for that matter) is an endless quagmire – but still public opinion is solidly behind jumping back in to bash “ISIS-ISIL-IS-Islamic State-Daesh”.
It is fascinating to me that the vast majority of editorial cartoonists draw cartoon after cartoon about how bad the “ISIS-ISIL-IS-Islamic State-Daesh” guys are, and seem to be on the mission creep bandwagon, headed back to Iraq. Here’s today’s cartoon about the 1,500 additional troops Obama is sending to Iraq now.
Here’s a tiny detail, so we don’t lose track of the troops.
We’re bombing “ISIS-ISIL-IS-Islamic State-Daesh” in Syria also – but not bombing Bashar Assad. It wasn’t long ago that Obama was eager to bomb the Assad regime, after they used chemical weapons and crossed his “red line”. At the time, I drew this one …
and this one …
maybe these two cartoons were right for a few minutes – Obama seemed to back off and lose interest in bombing Assad. That red line nonsense seemed less important.
But now it has gone full circle – and the press, reflecting public opinion seems to be pushing Obama. I can’t really tell if Obama is reluctant or not. I suppose it doesn’t matter whether he’s being pushed or leading the charge when the direction is clear.