This is Historic Times

Baroque Obama

deephurting — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:12:36 +0000

Following the Healthcare Reform summit, I wanted to do something which contrasted Obama’s words on certain things with his follow-through. I auditioned several more-accessible ideas, but too many of them seemed to merely argue “the President isn’t doing what he promised when he campaigned.” I hoped to avoid this cliche, and instead focus more on what Obama has said and done since he was elected, as well as what he may potentially say and do in the future. So, I came up with this as an alternative approach that would edge more on those two areas.

I’m not sure if very many people are likely to understand this cartoon, and for that reason it probably wasn’t worth the time I spent carefully copying the now-barely-legible notes on the “Words” sheet music. This music, by the way, is actually Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #2, which I selected for the gag because it was used as the theme song for Conservative commentator William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line” television program, and I thought it would be funny to imply that Obama is no more liberal than the founder of the National Review, even if most people wouldn’t recognize the music (and even fewer would make the noted connection).

The First Rule of Nuke Club

deephurting — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:06:14 +0000

Before commenting on this cartoon, for which I wouldn’t be surprised to get a lot of hate mail, I’d like to encourage readers to first make note of the previous piece I drew on this topic.

Here’s what I’m not arguing with this:

• That Iran has nuclear weapons, or is even necessarily pursuing them.
• That Iran’s current government can or cannot be trusted with nuclear technology.
• That Iran should or should not be welcomed into the proverbial nuclear clubhouse.
• That the international community literally has a “no Muslims” rule in effect on nuclear-armed nations.

The reason I drew this was to further illustrate my feeling that nobody can be trusted with nuclear weapons, but also to add that the double-standard the international community is applying to Iran seems unfair, especially when the two countries most aggressively criticizing them on the acquisition of nuclear technology are the only one who’s actually used nuclear weapons in an offensive manner (the United States), and an ally of the former who refuses to be open with the rest of the world about their own nuclear program (Israel). Israel, of course, has every right to feel threatened by the idea of Iran’s current government and other hostile regimes possessing such technology, but by the same token, I think a lot of Israel’s neighbors feel just as threatened by their alleged weapons.

Also, I found the image of the tree that’s also a mushroom cloud irresistible. I hope others find it clever, even if they dislike everything else about this drawing.

Many people may recognize the dialogue in this as being paraphrased from episode 2F09 of The Simpsons, “Homer the Great.”

Patiently Waiting

deephurting — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:22:32 +0000

Animal Mother

deephurting — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:23:00 +0000

This cartoon addresses a topic from last week, but hardly anybody else did anything on it, and my approach here has broader applications than the initial topic that sparked it.

I actually had the original idea for this during the 2008 election, but didn’t use it at the time. Since Sarah Palin’s once again using her children as PR cannon fodder, I thought now would be a good time to haul this out of the vault.

The imagery, of course, makes reference to one of my favorite movies, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. The shot is very similar to a scene shortly before the climax, and there are some symbolic Easter Eggs here for anyone who can identify the characters based on what’s written on their helmets.

Bus Route of Tears

deephurting — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:33:25 +0000

The gag in this cartoon references the famous Keep America Beautiful “Crying Indian” anti-litter PSA from the ’70s. This commercial has of course been referenced countless times on countless television shows over the last few decades, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people are familiar with it despite having never seen the original ad before. It’s like a Web meme 30 years before the Web and 5 years before the word “meme” even existed!

The bus in the first panel is based on this vehicle. In addition to making the name a little funnier, I’ve also changed the words written on the side of it, though they may not be fully legible online. I have them saying the following:

ARE DEMANS:

• NO TAXES
• MORE MONY IN MEDICARE
• SUPPORT ARE TROOPS
• BRING BACK McRIB
• MEXICANS + BLACKS WORK IN FIELDS!!

I wanted to also include “DRILL, BABY, DRILL” and have the final line conclude “…NOT IN WHITE HOUSE,” but there wasn’t room.

Oh, and before anybody points it out: I do realize Iron Eyes Cody, the “Indian” from the ad, wasn’t actually a Native American. I’m not sure if this fact enhances or detracts from my cartoon, but either way, I didn’t think it made enough of a difference to merit throwing the joke out.

Red-Handed

deephurting — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:02:07 +0000

I guess this one’s awfully similar to the last one, which I happened to finish a day or so before this event occurred. But, I didn’t want to be the only cartoonist who didn’t do something on this, and I thought the gag was funny and different enough to merit its own cartoon. As often happens, it isn’t as good as it was in my head, but at least the excessive amount of time I spent coloring seems to have paid off–all of the illustrations in this one look quite nice.

This could perhaps be considered a follow-up to the previous cartoon, sort of a part II. Or maybe it belongs in a series with my other pieces based largely around ridiculous things said by dumb political figures.

Yeah, Palin actually said that. In a speech, for which she was paid $100k, she said that. The quote actually surprised me more than the hand thing. Presumably, she meant to say “America” instead of “Alaska,” but even then, the line still makes no sense and is meaningless. She can’t even successfully construct a brainless platitude.

A World Without Teleprompters

deephurting — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:27:15 +0000

Yeup, it’s another “George Bush, Jr. is bad at talking” cartoon. But, it is based on something specific. I came up with it, to begin with, as a response to this piece of garbage by Mike Lester.

If you follow Republican talking points at all, then you know one of the hot things to ridicule Obama about is his use of teleprompters. This is part of a broad strategy of first acting like the media worships Obama over something he’s legitimately good at, then going, “But LOOK! It’s an illusion! He’s a fraud!!”

Never mind that the latter often has no basis in reality. Hey, maybe they’re just trying to warn us not to make the same mistake they did?

The irony here is that our last President, a Republican President, was one of the worst public speakers in history–that was, until Sarah Palin came along. That’s what this cartoon attempts to highlight.

It’s one of the dumbest talking points ever. There’s nothing so unusual about the President using a teleprompter, but if idiots are going to be bringing it up constantly, then perhaps some historical perspective is in order.

Going Up!

deephurting — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:32:06 +0000

This cartoon’s development process was very indirect.

Following Obama’s State of the Union address last week, I had several different ideas, one of which was the previous cartoon. I wanted to comment on the spending freeze as well, and since one of the things that’s supposed to cut back on is wasteful spending, AKA “pork,” I thought I could do something showing that a lot of America’s runaway military budget is the porkiest pork that ever porked. To that end, I sketched this.

It wasn’t quite working, though, so I spent a couple days considering different approaches to the same basic joke. Some of them involved the pigs as obnoxious, gluttonous patrons in a restaurant, being served by Obama as a waiter. Some had them gathered around a pie graph of the national budget, with little tanks and arrows, as if planning to invade the slices not currently occupied by the military. I even tried to come up with something referencing George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

But, something seemed to be missing from all the pig-based jokes, so then I started trying to move in a few other directions, and basically came up with a lot of great images that I either didn’t agree with, or with which I had other problems. One sketch had Obama wearing a yarmulke with his logo on it while sitting down to dine on a giant ham labeled “military budget.” Another one had a human military character about to eat a similar ham with a bone in it that looked like Obama’s logo.

Somewhere in the middle of all these, I imagined the above cartoon. I was a little concerned about the potential racial connotations of portraying Obama as a stereotypical elevator operator, but I couldn’t come up with a way around that, and I decided it wasn’t worth tossing out an otherwise great image. If it helps, I was using Droopy’s appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit as my main reference for this (and even had a sketch where Obama’s neck stretches out like in the movie).

The Hate of Our Union is Strong

deephurting — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:19:14 +0000

Those of you who visited this site yesterday may have seen a slightly different version of this cartoon. There were a few things in it that I was unsatisfied with, and some comments indicated they were causing reader confusion, so I redrew the entire thing from scratch–something I don’t often do. I have to say, I’m much happier with this version, though I lost some nice, chunky brushwork that was on the figures in the other one.

Besides that, I had one other approach to this cartoon which didn’t get beyond the sketch stage. I felt it characterized the situation a little more accurately and powerfully than this one does, but I also felt it cheapened what women in abusive relationships go through by comparing that to political posturing. You can see the sketch by clicking here. The approach I fully developed is more even-handed, and doesn’t make me as uncomfortable, despite using similar themes. What do you think? Did I make the right choice, or should I have developed the other sketch instead?

Inaction Comics

deephurting — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:39:04 +0000