This is Historic Times » smoking

Whodunit

deephurting — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:00:38 +0000

It was difficult to come up with something expressing my outrage at the President, as well as many Democratic members of the legislature, for joining together with Republicans to put 100% of the responsibility for America’s debt on the non-wealthy. Continuing President Bush’s tax cuts for the rich means the government won’t have the funds necessary to maintain infrastructure, help states out with their struggling economies, or continue funding programs that take care of the poor and the sick. Members of the Middle Class will have fewer options to prevent them from losing their homes as a result of long-term unemployment, and the homeless will have fewer options to prevent them from dying of exposure. The populace will get dumber since there’ll be less government assistance available for education, at least without literally prostituting oneself to America’s corporate oligarchy.

But I’m meandering. I started drawing two other cartoons, different from the one you see above, and even got close to finishing one of them, but decided in both cases that they didn’t quite fit how I felt. Even the cartoon I completed wandered well away from its initial concept, which was simply to visualize Obama stabbing the people who voted for “Hope” and “Change” in the back. It still doesn’t quite communicate how angry I am, but even as it is, it teeters on being too heavy-handed, so I’m glad I didn’t push it further.

Regular readers may recognize several themes in this cartoon which have appeared in several others recently. I was especially reminded of this one while working on it.

Seeds of Destruction

deephurting — Thu, 12 May 2011 14:30:02 +0000

In the last update, I said I probably wanted to draw another cartoon on Osama Bin Laden. Since the rest of the news media continues to jabber about the topic, I think I can still get away with it.

This one makes a similar (or maybe even the same) comment as this cartoon from last year, though without relying on a cultural reference. Is this approach better/or worse?

Gangbangers

deephurting — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:46:08 +0000

Fox (News) Retakes (Hen) House!

deephurting — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:24:31 +0000

I was planning a different cartoon for Election Day, but developed the above idea before finishing it, and decided it’d be better, and that the one I was planning would stay more relevant for a bit longer. So I set the other cartoon aside and drew this one up first.

The news that the GOP has retaken control of the House of Representatives is hardly surprising, and it’s not as if the Democrats were doing anything they were put there to do. Of course, Republicans are sure to put the brakes on any progress that was being made, tortoise-like though it was. That’s what the insane loudmouths in the tea party demand, after all (that, and increased persecution and/or enslavement of anybody who isn’t a Straight White Christian Male).

I thought this cartoon would be a clever and meaningful way to sum up the election results, since it compares Democrats to chickens, compares Republicans to a well-known destructive farm pest (which happens to be one of several unfortunate symbols they’ve chosen to represent themselves), and compares the electorate to a senile old hillbilly farmer.

I’m planning on sending this cartoon out to a few newspapers, to see if any of them are interested in carrying it, since I haven’t really seen anything on the topic that’s better. If you live in a city with a big paper (especially one with a national edition), you can help me out by suggesting they pick this cartoon up, since it’ll probably mean more to them coming from a reader than it will coming from the artist himself.

If Y’Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It

deephurting — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:32:15 +0000

As you may have heard, conservative talk-radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh was hospitalized on December 31st after experiencing chest pains. He was taken care of quickly and expertly, and naturally seized on the opportunity to declare that his situation was proof there is “not one thing wrong with the American healthcare system” and “it is working just fine.” Apparently, Limbaugh doesn’t understand the difference between himself–a millionaire who lives an opulent, oxycodone-fueled lifestyle when he’s not making fun of people with Parkinson’s disease–and America’s 47+ million uninsured.

I’m forced to come to one of two conclusions here–Limbaugh’s either extraordinarily stupid, or he’s generously offering to pay the hospital bills of those uninsured. In the spirit of Christmas, let’s assume the latter, and if you get sick or injure yourself and can’t afford the bill, send it to Rush! After all, I’m sure he’d rather pay it for you than be wr-wr-wrong!

By the way, I should mention that this cartoon was held up for at least a day by me knowing what I wanted to say with it, but not knowing how to frame it. I was certain I needed to have Limbaugh addressing somebody in the cartoon besides the audience, but I wasn’t sure whom.

Luckily, I got some unexpected help from Quentin Tarantino, or at least his movie, Inglourious Basterds. I figured research topics related to Conservative talk-radio broadcasters included Nazis, so I gave Basterds another watch, and the scene in which British Lt. Archie Hicox comments that Bridget von Hammersmark needs somebody around to light her cigarette inspired me to have Limbaugh making his comment to his doctor while the doctor is given the demeaning and counterintuitive task of lighting his cigar.

After that, the only issue that remained was how to fit everything I wanted in the space nicely, but again Tarantino came to the rescue–a shot in the scene immediately following the Mexican Standoff reminded me that I could just tilt the whole composition to dramatic effect, as I’ve sometimes done in the past.

So, if QT or anybody who knows him happens to be reading, I’d like to say thanks for the help!

Donkey Kongress

deephurting — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:22:11 +0000