This is Historic Times

You Can’t Spell ‘Racist’ Without T!

deephurting — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:51:37 +0000

The Fabric of America

deephurting — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:20:18 +0000

This cartoon was inspired by the recent gun rights ruling by the Supreme Court in the case of McDonald v. Chicago, although my approach ended up being more of a topically-broad design than commentary addressing the specific case.

The Barackopter

deephurting — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:49:51 +0000

The label on that vehicle Obama’s riding is a little too small, even with the cartoon’s size bumped up a bit from usual. It reads “Clean Energy.”

This cartoon is based on a speech the President made recently calling for an end to America’s dependence on fossil fuels, in response to several recent disasters involving them, including the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Before the speech, I was considering a variety of different gags, including a story with Walt Kelly’s characters from Pogo, and a bit involving B.P. Richfield and Earl Sinclair from the highly-underrated early-’90s sitcom Dinosaurs. But both of these were quite long, and involved references to things most people wouldn’t recognize, so I tried to come up with something a little more-succinct and less-esoteric than either.

The gag I went with involves a reference to the first episode of The Flintstones. In the episode, Barney Rubble invents a helicopter he dubs the “Barneycopter,” but Fred insists on calling it the “Flintstone Flyer.” Then, they use Barney’s amazing invention for the mundane purpose of skipping a trip to the opera to go bowling instead. Whatever you want to call it, I thought the prehistoric helicopter looked sort of like a windmill, so I figured it would be a good symbol for renewable energy.

You Are Forgotten

deephurting — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 04:10:05 +0000

Freedom is Slavery

deephurting — Wed, 26 May 2010 04:05:26 +0000

WWRD?

deephurting — Sat, 22 May 2010 01:26:28 +0000

There are several gags at work in this cartoon.

The main, overarching theme is a comparison between the GOP’s relationship with the Tea Baggers, and the Reagan Administration’s relationship with the Mujahideen. In both cases, the former joined forces with the latter to battle a common enemy (the Democrats, and the Soviets, respectively). We all know how arming the Mujahideen turned out for America, and in much the same way, the Tea Baggers now appear to be turning on the GOP.

There’s also a reference to Reagan’s belief in the supernatural. A guy I know by the name of Tony Caroselli deserves credit for reminding me of this, because I was going in a slightly different direction with this cartoon before, and I think that reference helped the whole thing come together much better than it would have otherwise.

American Chopper

deephurting — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:52:20 +0000

This is an idea that’s appeared and re-appeared in my sketchbook in various forms for years. The main thing that’s prevented me from drawing it before now was I had a lot of trouble coming up with a design for Uncle Sam that I felt looked good.

I guess it’s kind of unusual to make a reference from popular culture, and someone else’s animated cartoon in particular, without crediting the reference on the artwork. I didn’t do so this time because I think The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is widely-enough recognized that its reputation isn’t in need of any help from me. Still, if anybody reading this represents Disney and wants to tell me they have a problem with that, I will add a credit line to the cartoon.

Once again, I’m pretty badly off for cash right now. An illustration project I was commissioned for is paying significantly less than I expected it to, so donations would help to shore up the difference, and be much appreciated.

Spill, Baby, Spill

deephurting — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:06:03 +0000

This was supposed to be done for Mother’s Day, but alas, I missed my deadline.

I forgot to mention with the last update, but I won a Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists last week. Other winners included Jack Ohman, and Dwayne Booth.

Loose Cannon

deephurting — Thu, 06 May 2010 11:36:48 +0000

The Bizarro Barry

deephurting — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 05:50:38 +0000

I actually spent nearly two weeks working on a new cartoon which was quite a bit longer than the one pictured above. But, after it was plagued with issues, and by the time it was finished, I decided a shorter setup to the same punchline would be better, and drew this instead. To see the eight pages I spent so much time drawing, click each of these links.

The gag in this cartoon is basically a synthesis of this picture and a conversation between Jerry and Elaine in an episode of Seinfeld, “The Bizarro Jerry,” in which Jerry explains the concept of Bizarro Superman to Elaine, telling her that he “says hello when he leaves, and goodbye when he arrives!” Elaine quickly pokes holes in the whole idea by pointing out that the opposite of goodbye would be “badbye,” and asking if Bizarro Superman lives underwater, or is black.

Oh, and, um, I do realize that Bizarros aren’t strictly evil twins, but I figured that would be accurate-enough and more easily read by people who aren’t familiar with the concept at all than the whole “perfect-imperfect opposite” thing.