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Bad Guys, Watch Out!

My “Bad guys, watch out” cartoon is a favorite oldie that I updated.

The recent shootings in Texas, where a good Samaritan with a rifle shot the evil bad guy, then chased him down with the help of another good Samaritan, seems to give weight to the gun-nuts’ argument that we’re all safer when more people carry guns, so I thought it was a good time to bring back this oldie.

I originally drew this one in response to Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law that allowed George Zimmerman to kill Trayvon Martin – and to get away with it. The characters were originally saying, “I’m standing my ground.” The point was a little different, but not much different.

Now, I suspect we’ll see more people who are motivated to carry their guns everywhere, to be ready in case a bad guy comes along. I may be bringing this cartoon back every few years, as this issue never goes away.

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Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot

Here’s my weekly batch of new cartoons.  The first one is my “Stand Your Ground” cartoon.  Any cartoon about guns gets a lot of crazy response – as this one did.  People are such nuts.  Here is the rough pencil sketch.

SketchStandGround600wide Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

 

Next I did the finished line art. I dragged three different speech balloons into position in a layer in Photoshop, rather than actually drawing all the speech balloons.

134920 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

I had mixed feelings about whether to leave it as line art for the black and white version. There is something elegant about line art with no tone – but I couldn’t make up my mind, so I did a gray version, and I made both versions available to the syndication customers. Interestingly, half of the editors downloaded the line version, and half went for the gray version. Go figure.134921 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Here it is in color.  I added some subtle texture to the ground.134922 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Here is how it looked the next day in my local newspaper, the Santa Barbara News-Press.

NewPressStand600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Lots of cartoonists were drawing cartoons that were critical of the media attention paid to the new baby future king of England. I thought I would go with cute rather than critical. I don’t have any angry feelings about this subject. Cute is fine with me. Here is the line art that most people will see in the newspaper.

134962 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

And here’s the color.  I’m trying to do more color that looks like I’m using a sponge, as I used to do back in the days when i painted with gouache.

134967 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

We almost saw the “Nuclear Option” happen in the Senate, when Senator Harry Reid threatened to get rid of the filibuster rules that Republicans were using to block Obama nominees.  There was a compromise, but I suspect we’ll see this Nuclear Option thing happen again soon.  Here’s the gray version, with sponge texture (the line art was too spare on this one, it needed gray tone).

135011 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Yes, that’s a very Herblockian “Mr. A-Bomb.”  Gotta love Herblock.  Here’s the color version, with spongy texture.

135021 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

 

Most of the country had a crazy heat wave last week, which is always a good excuse for a trite, Global Warming cartoon.  This one was fun to draw, and I went with the line art – no gray tone for the black and white version of this one.

134866 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

And here’s the color version …

134879 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

That’s it!  I think I’ll draw Detroit tomorrow.

 

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In Defense of George Zimmerman?

Ever since the media latched on to the Trayvon Martin killing (view our collection of Trayvon Martin cartoons here), they seem to be certain of one thing – George Zimmerman, the neighbor watch man who shot the Florida teenager, is guilty of murder.

Most cartoonists have focused on the tragedy of Trayvon’s death, but Michael McParlane went a different direction and focused on the media’s newfound role and judge, jury and exuctioner:

I asked Michael his thoughts, and here’s what he emailed me:

Debates are rampant over whether or not the same backlash would be exhibited if this were a black on black murder. Large groups of people can effect dramatic change, but where are the current protestors, and carpetbaggers, when the crime is not deemed “racist”?

Does he have a point?

RELATED: Five Powerful Trayvon Martin Cartoons

Cartoonist Criticizes Obama for Politicizing Trayvon Martin Murder

My Trayvon Cartoon

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Five Powerful Trayvon Martin Cartoons

As the Trayvon Martin case continues to unfold, a lot of unanswered questions remain about the tragic death of the Florida teenager. As a result, cartoonists have been fine-tuning their thoughts about the shooting. Everything from hoodies to skittles have entered the fray, as well as President Obama’s comment that if he had a son, he’d look like Trayvon (which our conservative cartoonist Gary McCoy mocked as politicizing the event).

I’ve shared my own cartoon and thoughts about the shooting, so I thought I’d post five powerful cartoons about Trayvon, drawn by the nation’s top cartoonists…

Taylor Jones / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Jones)
Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)
R.J. Matson / St. Louis Post-Dispatch (click to view more cartoons by Matson)
Mr. Fish / PoliticalCartoons.com (click to view more cartoons by Mr. Fish)
J.D. Crowe / Mobile Press-Register (click to view more cartoons by Crowe)