Stranglehold

India ink on bristol board; digital colors

I've been meaning to appropriate Laocoon and His Sons for a while, and this seemed like a good time as any.

The Spirit of Compromise

India ink on bristol board; digital colors

Sure, the specific terms aren't as apocalyptic as anticipated, but one could just as well argue that the GOP's principal objective all along was to erode the administration's public standing (and faith in government as a whole; the Tea Party is another [crazy] story altogether). If that was the case, then they have categorically succeeded, and not for want of help from Mr. Obama. It's a shame that we're the ones who have to pay for it.

Those disembodied heads are supposed to be jellyfish, by the way, since there's no way Pelosi and Reid belong to phylum chordata.

Statesman, What of Thy Hands?

Indian ink on bristol board; digital colors; click to enlarge

In light of the current crisis of parliamentary democracy, I thought a cartoon informed by Boris Artzybasheff's Plowman, What of Thy Hands? would be appropriate.

Saturday Double Feature

Parliamentary Democracy; India ink & watercolor lampblack wash on bristol board

Editorial cartoons don't necessarily have to be about current events. Discussions of general topics (i.e. war, peace, commerce, equality, &c.) can be just as compelling, as they touch on/speak to deeper, less context-sensitive understandings and agreements. It follows that said cartoons tend to be more enduring.

Texas v. Reason; India ink & watercolor lampblack wash on bristol board

But a good ol' fashioned cartoon about contemporary issues is just as entertaining.

On an unrelated note, I'm beginning to find wash painting genuinely endearing. I'd still use a tablet for anything involving color, but nothing beats physical media when it comes to control and spontaneity--just think of all the time it'd have taken me to reproduce those dry brush effects in Photoshop!

We'll All Go Together When We Go(!)

Reprints can be obtained here

Your cartoonist last reported from a tin shanty, which has since been foreclosed. He is at present preoccupied with raiding other, equally wretched Hoovervilles for sustenance, and spends the rest of his waking hours fending off/hunting rodents. Thank you, House Republicans!

The regular cartoon schedule will resume Friday, October 3rd; expect a glorious cartoon of America's Newest Village Idiot field-dressing herself on national T.V.!