Fighting Words: 6/29/09 Cartoon...

"Fox News for Cats"

Hey... a new cartoon! How about that!

This one's a little silly, but oh well...

Program Note

There obviously is no new cartoon yet, but it's there... if you believe it's there! No, actually it's almost done, but I am swamped with graphic design projects at the moment. Of course, by the time I actually get the 'toon done and up, it may be next Monday already anyway... just a fact of life in the dying industry of political cartooning! The gigs that put food on the table gotta come first...

As always, the best way to help circumvent this problem and keep seeing new stuff from me is to: (1) Send an email to nomind@fightingwordscomics.com and hire me to do a graphic/web design job for you, or... (2) Contact your local newspaper or alternative newsweekly and tell them you want to see Fighting Words!

Fighting Words: 6/15/09 Cartoon...

"Big Pharmaxx"

Fighting Words: 6/8/09 Cartoon...

"New Toilet Paper Brands for Today's Economy"

Fighting Words: 6/1/09 Cartoon...

"History Machine: Stories of Reverse Racism"

Fighting Words: 5/25/09 Cartoon...

"Barack Obama's One-Man Show"

Great paragraph...

One of the best single paragraphs I've ever read in a column, from Chris Hedges a couple of months ago:

We live in an age of moral nihilism. We have trashed our universities, turning them into vocational factories that produce corporate drones and chase after defense-related grants and funding. The humanities, the discipline that forces us to stand back and ask the broad moral questions of meaning and purpose, that challenges the validity of structures, that trains us to be self-reflective and critical of all cultural assumptions, have withered. Our press, which should promote such intellectual and moral questioning, confuses bread and circus with news and refuses to give a voice to critics who challenge not this bonus payment or that bailout but the pernicious superstructure of the corporate state itself. We kneel before a cult of the self, elaborately constructed by the architects of our consumer society, which dismisses compassion, sacrifice for the less fortunate, and honesty. The methods used to attain what we want, we are told by reality television programs, business schools and self-help gurus, are irrelevant. Success, always defined in terms of money and power, is its own justification. The capacity for manipulation is what is most highly prized. And our moral collapse is as terrifying, and as dangerous, as our economic collapse.

Fighting Words: 5/18/09 Cartoon...

"History Machine: The NRA's Top Moments in History"...

New design work...

I've put up a few more of my recent projects on my design page, including a website, caricature and shirt design... go on and have yourself a gander!

As always, if you like me or my work (or you like me but can't stand my work, or you like my work but think I'm a jerk, or... never mind), there are two big ways you can help my ever-evolving career...

1. Send a nice note to your local newspaper or alternative newsweekly and tell them you want to see Fighting Words, or...

2. Hire me to do a design for you! I do websites, logos, shirt designs, illustrations, a little bit of Flash animation... I'll walk your dog for you, wash your car, mow your lawn... I don't do hedges, though...

Fighting Words: 5/11/09 Cartoon...

"Breaking News: Actual Mastermind Revealed!"...


If there's actually a 44 year-old Earl Meyers living in Lancaster, PA... sorry dude.

However, if you're really the mastermind behind Bush's crimes and/or you like to wear a Rockstar Energy Drink trucker hat, I'm not sorry.

Fighting Words: 5/4/09 Cartoon...

"Outbreak!"...


Rule #1 of political satire: if you have no idea, just repeat a bunch of crap said by high-profile crazy people.

Good line

Stephanie Zacharek, on movies about killer plagues:

In your standard plague movie, news stations can't stay on the air and ultimately fade out with a staticky crackle; newspapers can't publish (though, it turns out, we probably don't need a plague for either of those things to happen).

Update on this week's 'toon...

Thanks a lot Specter... I put you in a crappy cartoon that characterizes you as a dogmatic Republican, and you totally blow it out of the water by switching parties. I'm sure next Boehner will resign his seat in Congress to become head of Amnesty International...

Actually, in the end, Specter putting a "D" next to his name doesn't change much (for the Democrats, anyway). He's still going to vote how he wants to vote on stuff, and he'll probably still use right-wing rhetoric on stuff like torture. And this week's 'toon will still be crappy...

Fighting Words: 4/27/09 Cartoon...

"Fascinating Scientific Phenomena"...


Meh... sorry...

Fighting Words: 4/20/09 Cartoon...

"Crusty McCrotchety, Spokesman"...


MORE:

I forgot to post some links to previous Crusty 'toons, as it's been a while since we've heard from him:

Stupidity (STDY) shot up 500 points on the Dow today...

I'm gonna leave the ball-dipping parties thing alone today...

But what's the deal with the morbid glee that so many cartoonists are taking today in the deaths of the Somali pirates? Last I checked, the rampant piracy there was the result of a collapsed government and years of European ships invading Somali waters to steal their fish and dump nuclear waste. You guys really want a "Yahtzee" on skulls with bullet holes on this one?

And, someone please tell me I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing in this cartoon...

Fighting Words: 4/13/09 Cartoon(s)...

"Hysterical Whack-Job Monthly"...

...and, just below it, a bonus 'toon...



"Newspaper Tycoon"...

Say That Again?

I just had to post this quote...

As you may know, one of the right-wing media's favorite things to scream about these days is the conspiracy theory that Obama intends to eliminate the United States of America and place us all under the rule of a "one-world government." So any attempt at international diplomacy is now being pointed to as an indication that Obama wants to subvert us all to the French, or whoever. This is from a recent appearance by John Bolton on the Glenn Beck show:

BOLTON: ...you have to look underneath of it. And it's on a range of issues, not just the money supply, but gun control, the death penalty --

BECK: Global warming.

BOLTON: -- abortion, all -- global warming -- all of which are issues we can and should debate in our -- in our constitutional democratic framework. We don't need to decide them internationally. But that's what the agenda is of many people very close to the Obama administration.

BECK: OK. Thank you very much. I appreciate it, Ambassador.

Let's say that again... global warming is not something that should be discussed internationally. This man used to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

The Obama years are turning out to be fun for satirists after all...

hi...

OK, I'm putting more effort into Twitter now... follow me here. Although I still don't quite see the point...

Look for a bonus cartoon from me along with the new one Monday, to make up for my unexcused absence last week...

MORE: actually, it was VERY excused... I was workin' my friggin' ass off. Look for more updates to my design page coming soon!

Program Note

There will be a new cartoon this week... but not 'til Thursday or Friday.

I'm currently hard at work finishing up a website design job...