Bors Blog

Sheep on a Farm

“The sheep are revolting.”

New Toon: Following Us Home

I don’t think I have to spend much time explaining the how silly the “if we leave, the terrorists will follow us home” argument is.

Obama scribbles, makes more than most cartoonists in a year

I was thinking Edwards was coming out as the best Presidential candidate. Not because of his policies but because he wins the who would you like to drink a beer with test (it’s the only criteria I use). But Obama’s recent caricatures of his Democratic colleagues (auctioned for charity) has me rethinking how I evaluate potential Presidents. Can any of these people draw funny pictures on bar napkins while having said beer? Can they come down to that uniquely human–uniquely American– level?

Obama can. Elect him President.

So now we know he can draw somewhat and has a background at an Islamic militant pre-school. What other secrets is he hiding?

New Illustration: Kucinich v. Cheney

I illustrated this week’s cover story for the Cleveland Free Times on Dennis Kucinich’s attempt to impeach Cheney. Not going to happen, but as the sub-head of the article says, “Who’s More Crazy? Dennis Kucinich, For Taking On The Most Powerful Men In Washington? Or His Fellow Democrats, For Not Supporting Him?”

Originally I was given only one instruction, “Draw Kucinich punishing Cheney” and was told to “go wild.” They run my comics on their letters page so I assumed they knew what they were asking for, granting me free reign on that kind of topic. These type of assignments happen only once in a blue moon; some cover stories have a very specific idea of what they want, some let your artistic juices work a bit, but none really provide the kind of potential that comes with the line “Draw Kucinich punishing Cheney.”

I decided to pull out all the stops and go for the gold.

click to enlarge

Making what was a disappointing, but sound editorial decision, they rejected that sketch and asked for something a bit more palatable to the passerby.

click to enlarge

Kingdom Cumming

In my recent comic Abstinence Facts I tried to lampoon Abstinence-Only proponents’ belligerently made up statistics characterizing condoms as unsafe by saying, “Russian roulette is safer than pre-marital coitus with contraceptives.”

But in Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg I learned that’s not an exaggeration of their position at all. I was reading the book this last week and on a section dealing with Sex-Ed and Crisis Pregnancy Centers I came across this:

During her talk at Reclaiming America for Christ, Stenzel announced, “There is no way statistically that you can have sex with someone who is not a virgin and not get a disease.” Choosing the Best, one of the most widely used abstinence-only curriculum, compares sex with a condom to Russian roulette and says, “there is a greater risk of a condom failure then the bullet being in the chamber.”

These people make satire difficult.

This comic was mainly made of jokes that for reasons of taste or space couldn’t fit into my next comic for the ACLU, which is on Abstinence Only Education. That should be up by next Monday.

Boring comics…now in motion!

I missed this but apparently The New Yorker has been making short animated versions of “classic” cartoons . I have to question the need to laboriously convert cartoons that take two seconds to read into cartoons that take ten seconds to watch. I mean, why not convert all their “classic” essays into dowloadable audio read by James Earl Jones? C’mon New Yorker, lose that Old Media obsession with words printed on paper.

Spam of the Day

Subject Line: “Monster Schlong Action Alert”

New Toon: The GOP Presidential Lineup

A little ode to Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy, with comparable modern day villains. I wish it was my job to make up Dick Tracy enemies all day.

War Is Boring #13

Read it here.

Guantanamo Bay Gift Shop

Check out this new one page comic I have in the Boston Phoenix.

New Toon: Abstinence Facts

Forgot to post this on Thursday.

More on Falwell

Cagle posted about the early Falwell cartoons and the Tinky Winky “Yahtzee,” which is his term for the common gag that comes out from Editorial Cartoonists the day after a celebrities death or major event. I’m included in the roundup, but proud to be (or baffled that I am) the only one who depicted him in Hell.

And I tried posting the YouTube video yesterday, but couldn’t get it to work. This segment on AC360 with Christopher Hitchens was the most honest assessment of Falwell’s life I heard. I just finished reading his new book, god is not Great, and it was delightfully vicious take down of religion. Meanwhile, Falwell’s pious hucksters counterparts Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were out–inserting themselves in the day’s news as usual–noting that while they disagreed with Falwell he had a “heart of gold” and was “a good friend.”