Bors Blog
Archive for March, 2007
New Toon: Explosive Awareness Campaign
Stopping the Genocide in Sudan seems futile. The U.N. is useless and Bush can’t be bothered by it. Even if Democrats take the White House two years from now they aren’t likely to commit Americans troops to another country. So we all just sit around while everyone dies…and I make silly ironic shirts about it that do nothing.
Bringing about awareness of what’s going on in Darfur is good, but I think the money would be better spent if everyone pooled resources and bought Sudanese villagers a few dozen crates of AK-47s and rocket launchers to protect themselves with. Cause nobody else is going to do it.
Killed Cartoons
I recently picked up Killed Cartoons: Casualties In The War On Expression Edited by David Wallis, who previously Edited Killed: Great Journalism Too Hot To Print. The book features killed comics and the stories behind their death, including comics from CWA members Ted Rall, Mikhaela Reed, and Keith Knight.
Sprinkled in between the comics are a few killed illustrations that are extremely tame and shouldn’t have been included. But I guess I’m a little biased as to why–I submitted the one cartoon of mine that was killed but it didn’t make the cut. In fact, many of the cartoons themselves are tame. It’s is a great resource for those interested in political cartooning, but don’t prepare to be blown away by the controversial nature of the comics. This book is really a testament to timid Editors and depressing to an artist who sees the various offenses you can’t get away with on an Editorial page.
Readers React!
An anonymous fan gets my Janitor/CEOs comics all wrong. I’d apologize but for not being clear enough,, but everybody else seemed to get it. Plus they’re an asshole.
If crayon scribblers had real jobs, they wouldn’t be
so quick to poke fun at people who perform hard and
unpleasant work and then must endure rude barbs from
those who think themselves superior.There hasn’t been a decent joke in your strip in
weeks. Your art compares favorably to most 3rd
graders. The board is forcing you out, you’ve been
replaced by someone with a concept of, and compassion
for workers, a junkyard guard dog.Your severance pay is a box of brown crayons and
appropriate media for your idea of humor.. a case of
Pampers, you eliteist (sic) asshole.
Longtime correspondent Lloyd Hillstrand writes:
Winner after Winner! That’s what we Bring to our Readers!What happens when that perfect small cap issue releases astounding news
and gets a massive PR campaign behind it? It Takes Off!!!Irwin Resources (IWRS)
Last $0.50
Target $1.50Do not miss this one. These small caps Really Fly when people take
notice, and Believe us they are going to take notice this Friday!
Thanks Lloyd!
Sudan Is For Lovers Shirts
I just got word that the finished shirts are being shipped my way so I should have them in a couple of days. I’m going ahead and opening up the sales for them in the store so go buy one.
Cartoonists Speak
Cagle’s blog has started a series of audio interviews with cartoonists explaining their work. The latest two were M.e. Cohen and Andy Singer talking about his transportation comics.
New Illustration: Earth Corps
I have an illustration in the latest issue of The Utne Reader for an article by the magazine’s Founder Eric Utne and Carol Bellamy on Earth Corps, an organization the authors are founding to act as a Global Peace Corps with members from around the world. The article can be found on the Earth Corps website here.
Volunteers would work to monitor and reverse global warming, clean up polluted rivers and toxic waste sites, teach basic computer skills and business practices to the recipients of micro-credit loans, provide information and medical care to people at risk of HIV-AIDS infection, and so forth.
They wanted an something showing a Peaceful Army or group of diverse people helping the Earth in some way. I tried a few different things.
click to enlarge
And here’s the final:
click to enlarge
New Toon: AIDS Maverick
I was pretty happy with my McCain and Coburn caricatures in this. Hopefully they make up for the horrible one of Gore I have coming Thursday.
McCain’s recent answer to a question about condoms and HIV was amazing in that he was caught off guard without a prepared answer for the Christian Right. Of course McCain knows condoms stop the spread of HIV. He just can’t say that.
The transcript is really worth reading in its entirety:
Reporter: "Should U.S. taxpayer money go to places like Africa to fund contraception to prevent AIDS?"
Mr. McCain: "Well I think it’s a combination. The guy I really respect on this is Dr. Coburn. He believes – and I was just reading the thing he wrote– that you should do what you can to encourage abstinence where there is going to be sexual activity. Where that doesn’t succeed, than he thinks that we should employ contraceptives as well. But I agree with him that the first priority is on abstinence. I look to people like Dr. Coburn. I’m not very wise on it."
(Mr. McCain turns to take a question on Iraq, but a moment later looks back to the reporter who asked him about AIDS.)
Mr. McCain: "I haven’t thought about it. Before I give you an answer, let me think about. Let me think about it a little bit because I never got a question about it before. I don’t know if I would use taxpayers’ money for it."
Q: "What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?"
Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy."
Q: "So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?"
Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "You’ve stumped me."
Q: "I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?"
Mr. McCain: (Laughs) "Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it."
Q: "But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: "No, we’re not going to distribute them,’ knowing that?"
Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) "Get me Coburn’s thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn’s paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I’ve never gotten into these issues before."
It’s That Time Again…
The time where I ask you, dear reader, for your help. If you enjoy reading my comics every week here for free, there are two things you can do to ensure they keep appearing and I make enough money to keep this website running.
Write the Editor of your local altweekly. I can’t stress this enough. Please if you live in a city that has a free weekly paper and you enjoy my strips, take a moment to write their Editor and tell them. Maybe send them a link to the site. Their e-mail should be relatively easy to find in the paper’s Masthead or on their website (this will help). Many times Editors only receive mail when people are bothered enough by something to write in. One e-mail could go a long way.
Buy something from the store. You have to spend money for this one, but you get cool things in return. I have cheap collections of my strips not available on the site and shirts I made myself for a mere five dollars. Also, copies of Attitude 3: The Subversive Online Cartoonist can be purchased. It has interviews and cartoons from 21 web cartoonists including myself and I’ll do a little sketch in it for you.
New Toon: If Janitors were like CEOs 2
Here is the second part of this comic. I’m sick and don’t have much desire to write so I’ll refer you to Jim Hightower on Hank McKinnell, the inspiration for this comic:
For the past five years, he’s been the top dog at Pfizer Inc. On his watch, this drug giant has seen its stock price plummet by 40 percent and has come under federal investigation for its marketing practices. So, last year, Pfizer’s board forced McKinnell into early retirement – i.e., they gave him the boot.But what a cushy boot it was, padded with an unbelievable puffiness of dollar bills! For starters, Hank was handed a lump sum severance of nearly $12 million. Then he was given some $6 million dollars in stock grants, plus $2 million as a bonus payment. Yes, a bonus for failure! Also, he was paid some $900,000 for unused vacation time and for benefits he would have received had he not been… well, fired.
And here’s an especially sweet one: McKinnell, 63 years old, is to get an annual pension of $6.6 million. That’s 6.6 million every years until he dies! Hank’s total “go-away” package amounts to more than $180 million.
I don’t have a pension so go to the store for my strip collections and cool shirts.
Sunshine Week
Sunshine week is the annual week where awareness is raised about open government in the hopes of someday actually having one. View a gallery of this year’s comics here, including an older comic of mine.
