Last week someone emailed me complaining that I “explained” my cartoons. Let’s call him “Chris.”

Well, my main issue is that not only do I often not understand them, it’s that you often admit in the commentary below your cartoons that you have grave doubts that your audience will understand them. I think there was one in which you said you didn’t even get it yourself. Other times, you go to great lengths to explain the cartoon and why you think it’s funny. Chris

ESL cartoon English as a Second Language

Another man wrote me to complain about the cartoon above. (We’ll call him Anthony, since his name is Anthony.)

I saw this cartoon and decided immediately that you are out of touch with reality.  For you information, even school districts in Kentucky, (not known as a bastion of education reform) require all students in high school to take Spanish as a second language. It’s obvious from your cartoon your are a RACIST AND BIGOT!

Spanish is spoken by thirty four million Americans in the U.S. and that number is growing. Only right wing, Bible thumping school districts, like those in Texas, would not teach the fastest growing second language in the U.S.!

A little education for you, since it’s apparent you failed your ESL!

Spanish was the language spoken by the first permanent European settlers in North America. It was brought to the territory of what is the contemporary U.S. in 1513 by Ponce de León. In 1565, the Spaniards, by way of Juan Ponce de Leon, founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest, continuously occupied European settlement in the continental U.S. …

Your Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh mentality is apparent!

Chris, meet Anthony.

Actually, I don’t normally explain my cartoons – I write about why I did them, and talk about the news. But in this case, I guess I do have to explain it, since you say you often don’t get them, Chris, and for sure Anthony didn’t get a word of this. And Anthony, I don’t normally respond to rude and rac-ist name-calling, but since you say you’re an author (The Third Cell)….maybe you will understand words better than cartoons.

According to this LA Times article:

California schools educate 1.6 million English learners, a quarter of all students; they comprise the largest concentration of English learners in the nation.

Nearly 60% of English language learners in California’s high schools have failed to become proficient in the language despite more than six years of a U.S. education, according to a study released Thursday.

The article goes on to say this threatens the economic future of California!

But they develop major deficits in reading and writing, fail to achieve the academic English needed for educational success and disproportionately drop out of high school, according to the study by Californians Together, a statewide coalition of 22 parent, professional and civil-rights organization who support English-learners.

The flaws in California’s English-language programs have placed hundreds of thousands of children in academic jeopardy, dashing their dreams for college and imperiling the state’s economic future. The off-spring of immigrants make up 55% of Los Angeles County’s child population.

This is on top of many failures for ESL – they’ve come up with the same fail for decades. As my cartoon points out, hopeful libs and Dems still believe what their hearts tell them – just try harder!

The cartoon says: ESL has failed. The man makes a little joke about making Spanish the second language – which it already is, of course. The woman says Ola. (A combination of Hola and Ole.)

I think a good education always includes learning a second language, Anthony; I myself took several years of French and Latin (I was considering being a lawyer) and even a tiny bit of Greek! So why can’t foreigners (in California,  they are usually here ILLEGALLY) learn English in 6 or even 12 years, huh?

Don’t assume you know who I listen to on the radio or watch on TV, either. And don’t call me the r-acist word – as Tammy Bruce would say, that’s just being a lazy writer. And the fact that you call me that because I do a cartoon about the Spanish language….is an example of how whites get targeted unfairly ALL the time! Also, retarded.

Caption for search engine: THE LIBERALS FIX EDUCATION. This study says ESL has failed again. No problemo. We still have some money left. Let’s try Spanish as a Second language! Ola!

I’m told this cartoon got lots of excitement and comments over here. And if you want to read my California cartoons before they’re in Slate, go to Calwatchdog.

More cartoons:

1. Mickey Mouse as human sacrifice for California budget?
2. Banks timed failures to hide behind the election. Right?

Will BP PLC do anything they promised? We’ll see. I wish they’d save the money they spend on their TV ads, and spend it by helping clean up their mess, but that ship has already sailed. Losers.

Nothing funny about this environmental and financial disaster, but cartoonists have a way of pointing their pens in a way that the newspapers and sources have only begun to do the last month or so. News sites were so neutral before, it was disgusting! That’s not reporting, that’s siding with the enemy! I think cartoonists are more honest.

daryl cagle oil spill at the dance cartoon, at cagle.com

I was really impressed by Daryl Cagle’s cartoon of Obama dancing with the devil BP (who looks rather like a Smurf. And is that a Snidely Whiplash mustache on Obama?) I’ve seen dancing steps before, but not in oil!

Side note: I wonder if Daryl is a fan of Dancing with the Stars…:)

I found a few clever cartoons on who bears the ultimate responsibility for this tragedy, but I chose this one by Mike Scott because it’s not just a game – there is horror in those faces. Halliburton is obviously Frankenstein! Does Mike have a special issue with them?! I like the quiet colors and the hand-lettered red title at the top. Different. From Cagle.

And we go from horror to a beheading! What is a good collection of cartoons without some morbid chuckles? I really laughed at this.

And in case you haven’t guessed, now you know for sure that I’m not selecting these particular oil cartoons for my LA Times editorial  roundup. (That comes next time.) This cartoon would not be proper for the Times, I assure you! But it’s just right for us here in the bleachers. From Gocomics.

dana summers little dead mermaid cartoon

Dana Summer’s cartoon of the little Mermaid drowned in oil made me laugh! So much more amusing than dead pelicans, which are WAY overdone, guys, and also very sad. And who doesn’t like a joke at Disney’s expense? I like Dana, who also does a comic strip, which I forget the name of, but this cartoon is another that wouldn’t be right for the LA Times. More of Dana at gocomics.com.

j.d. crowe cartoon of oily lawyers from cagle.com

I love these flying lawyers! It took me a minute to understand what was going on here, but this is a wonderful piece of art by J. D. Crowe, as the lawyers morph into birds of prey. I like the subtlety of  these mid greys; it would have been natural to paint the lawyers in dark suits, to have them stand out in the water, but this is far more effective. And I like the way there’s no punctuation in the captions, as if the men are thinking, not speaking. From Cagle cartoons. PS, I like lawyers, in case I’m involved in any lawsuits right now…

mike luckovich cartoon on the price of oil in the gas station

I picked this cartoon by Mike Luckovich to illustrate oil in the eyes of the consumer. I like this – Mike is an excellent cartoonist – but to my way of thinking, this is only half done! He should have added the loss of life – both man and animals. And this would have been much much better in color. Why do so many cartoonists hold back from color? Because it takes a lot more time, and that’s not just photoshop, that’s decisions and contemplation. Big guys like him don’t need color for the newspapers, but most artists do, if they’re to use the power of visuals online.

stuart carlson cartoon on uncle sam getting strangled at the pump on the 4th of July.

I’m not one for a lot of  old symbols in my cartoons, but this cartoon by Stuart Carlson of Uncle Sam is such great design that I couldn’t resist it. Here’s the power of color, people! From Gocomics.

tom toles cartoon of the oil spill as a monopoly game

I don’t think I’ve included Tom Toles in any of my roundups before. He’s the cartoonist for the Washington Post, and I think he’s won a Pulitzer, but I think he’s too stylistic (or too cool?) for my taste. And every single time, I think the PS he adds in the bottom right corner detracts from the cartoon itself. Unfortunately, this has that, too, but I enjoyed the little monopoly player pieces, like the thimble, the iron, the dog, the ship, and the captions attached! Nice, Tom! From Gocomics.

If you’re counting, this would be the 9th and 10th cartoons, but I’m way too modest (or too savvy?!) to include my own cartoons in the 8 best BP oil cartoons. Here’s a peek, if you want to look.

turtles being burned alive by BP oil

BP meets their match: Dr. Phil

And as always, many thanks to Cagle Cartoons and Uclick for allowing me to reproduce these cartoons. Go find your favorite cartoonists there, and you can comment, as well!

For search engines, who can’t read cartoons…yet. Captions: Obama and BP: I’m getting tired of this dance. Not my fault.   It’s the little mermaid! (covered in oil on the shore.)    Look at all those oily birds. So tragic. Those are lawyers. (lawyers turning into pelicans on the beach)   Oil prices: I miss when it cost $2…The gulf of Mexico, Our national security, the world’s climate.   Fingerpointing: bird, Obama, BP, Mineral Management Service, Halliburton. I want my head back – Tony Hayward. Uncle Sam: I’m looking forward to a true Independence Day, strangled in oil pumps. Current Oil Spill Strategies: Top Hat to collect oil, old shoe to walk on oily beaches, battleship to drag oil booms around, wheelbarrow for excuses, flatiron to iron out wrinkles in story, dog to wag tail at executives, thinble to distribute damage payments, race car to leave scene, legal strategy get out of jail free card.

PS. Have bugs? You’ll want to check out my insect cartoon.

More cartoons:

1. June political cartoons on Obama, Helen Thomas, soccer and oil spill.
2. Political oil, immigration, Facebook cartoons for the LA Times for May 2, 2010.

Yay, sparklers! They’re illegal in California, or at least LA. Does that mean I don’t have any? Want to take a guess?

2nd amendment cartoon on the 4th of July

They’re not legal in Philadelphia, either, but they have them in the Amish counties! Yup, Dwight Schrute territory. Right next to the special quilt fabrics and needles.

The writing on the corner is a soupcon of Outsider Art. What crazy people and others do – lots of word and writing to get the idea across.

That little boy looks so happy.

More on gun control to come, of course.

Cartoon caption: Amendment 2a: The right to bear sparklers. Happy 4th to our troops.

More cartoons:

1. My first Sarah Palin cartoon, gun included.
2. Tofu for Thanksgiving cartoon, not necessarily vegan.

It’s a beautiful new week for cartoons! This roundup for the LA Times is for cartoons published the second week of June, 2010.

Since I’m editor here, I shan’t go into my personal  stuff – like my car accident, dealing with 2 insurance companies, aftereffects of the accident, a new problem in the car, which wouldn’t start, and now is in the shop for a possible VERY expensive bill, which may or may not be connected to the accident, my dentist as a result of the accident, and the fact that malware infected my computer for 4 days, and completely disabled my internet connection as well as my Task Manager, which I finally eradicated through an antivirus program with the regrettable name of SuperAntiSpyware Free Edition. But it worked. Most of the others wouldn’t.

All is calm today, anyway, so I hurried to the new cartoons to see what had happened this week while I was missing! (I explain how and why I do this roundup over here.)

hagen cartoon on nuclear disarmament from gocomics.com

This cartoon by Hagen from gocomics.com,  made me laugh out loud! Mr. Hagen, from Norway,  might not be interested in partisanship, but this is EXACTLY how I view Democrats 99% of the time! Tossing off a loud reproof in the general direction of a problem and not doing a thing about it.  The chasm separating the Dems from taking action is astounding.

I love Obama’s little squat here as he tries to speak a little louder, to get his point across. The man on the other side is holding a nuclear weapon. Who is that guy? Is it just Iran? I don’t know, and so I declare right this moment that I won’t do a cartoon on nuclear bombs until I figure out who this important person is. 

ted rall cartoon on miranda rights from gocomics.com

Ted Rall and I don’t have a relationship, not really, but I would say we have a strained respect. Ted comes from the world of the Alties – alternative cartoons – and I don’t know if he’s ever recovered emotionally from that. I only read a couple of alternative comics, and now that they’re not in the LA Weekly, I never see them. I didn’t read Ted. But now that I do political cartoons,  of course I see him in Gocomics.com, and, in fact, he’s the most popular cartoonist in the editorial section. (Uclick only shows comics from 10 men there, so of course the SAME 10 people are there every day, every year. Convenient!)

I do think he’s super smart and educated, and  does some clever cartoons. However, he has the same (only?) flaw as I do: sometimes he tries to make too many points at the same time, kind of jumping around, and not everyone gets convoluted cartoons!. (I’ve seen Ted a few times lately in the LA Times, and even though I live here, I’ve only understood one cartoon out of 4.)

This is an interesting cartoon on Miranda rights, and indeed, our privacy rights. I didn’t know about this Supreme Court ruling, but it’s fascinating: now the police can question you for hours, until you confess. For stupid people,  this will get them in jail faster. And it might give us more interesting true murder books.  But this looks like a dumb ruling,  so I don’t know what the police will actually do as they apply it.

This subtext between the police and the suspect reminds me of a film noir, (which LA Times readers always dig, proving that once again they know art in a way no other city does). What will happen here next?!

MIKE KEEFE Helen Thomas cartoon from CagleCartoons.com

I also see from these intrepid and hard-working cartoonists that Helen Thomas may have spoken thoughtlessly.  I had to look up what the White House Press Corps is – just the reporters who apparently write down every golden word in all the conferences.  I didn’t know it was an elite group. Anyway, she said some mean things, and now she’s gone. I saw several cartoons bashing her, but I liked this one by Mike Keefe, from Caglecartoons.com, because he brought humor to the situation by introducing her as a lightning rod in talk radio!

I love talk radio!! I’ve been kind of busy lately, so haven’t had that much time to listen, but I haven’t heard anyone even mention her. Still, good way to cover the whole nasty situation, while not skewering a much older, former respected journalist. Also like the bounce movement, and the suggestion that from the White House, to talk radio, is a world away! Good, Mike.

NATE BEELER soccer and Israel cartoon from caglecartoons.com

I also noticed a hella lot of cartoons from the guys about some sporting event going on last week. For all I know, it could still be going on. It looks like a big soccer game. I picked Nate Beeler’s cartoon from Caglecartoons.com because it’s a two-fer: a sporting match plus an international cartoon about Israel! As far as I know, Israel wasn’t actually dissed at the games, but that’s not my arena.

As an artist, I was impressed with the limited number of colors here, while also showing different uniforms, and legs going all which way. Nice, Nate!

I have a couple of runner up cartoons. Obviously, the oil spill is the big big story, and I plan a nice roundup of the best BP oil cartoons later this week, but I also wanted to include one here, just because it’s such an important story.

hajo oil spill cartoon from gocomics.com

Nice oil spill cartoon from Hajo, of the Netherlands and gocomics.com, with Obama as the oil victim instead of the pelicans. The oil looks particularly viscous and disgusting here, which is as it should be.

PATRICK CHAPPATTE from politicalcartoons.com

An alternate soccer games cartoon. This is a beautiful cartoon by Patrick Chappatte from political cartoons.com about the soccer games. I didn’t know the games were in Africa until I saw this, and what an exquisite way to make the point!

BILL SCHORR voting poll cartoon from politicalcartoons.com UNCONVINCED

Voting is over, but this cartoon by Bill Schorr still made me laugh! He titled it: Unconvinced. Wishy-washy would work as well. This is really a New Yorker type cartoon, so it’s not right for the LA Times. On the other hand, Joel Pett continues to pick serious, not funny or creative cartoons for the print edition of the LA Times, so you’ll have to decide: laugh or cry?

Many thanks to the talented creative cartoonists who make our life better, and allow us to look at the news in a new way, and to gocomics.com and politicalcartoons.com who feel the same wonder towards cartoonists, even though I think they could pay a teensy bit more to us in their appreciation.

My own recent cartoons:

facebook cartoon in prison

Hey, you have to do something with all that free time.

adult entertainment in california cartoon

Porn (pron?) in Van Nuys? Say it ain’t so.

red oil spill cartoon

What’s red all over?

As always, if you are a cartoonist and would like to submit one new cartoon a week, please do. And if anyone has a different opinion on these cartoons, fire away. All cartoons here are copyrighted by the respective cartoonists, and cannot be used without permission.

More cartoons:

1. Political oil, immigration, Facebook cartoons for the LA Times for May 2, 2010.
2. The 8 Oil Spill Cartoons You Have to See.

Who ya going to vote for in the California Primary?

I thought everyone could use some help on this. I’ve been doing cartoons on California and the upcoming elections for almost 6 months now for CalWatchdog, this extraordinary journalism site for a think tank in Northern California, but haven’t posted many of them here yet. It’s time.

demon sheep campaign by Carly Fiorina vs Tom Campbell

Okay, now this was  a pretty impressive campaign move. This Youtube on Tom Campbell as a demon sheep – or is it all other Republicans in general are sheep? – by Republican Carly Fiorina is classic Hollywood, and it went viral in days! Gather calls it “the most bizarre political ad ever.” And oddly enough, the makers of this video, just set up their own website 2 days ago, calling this a trilogy!

I think Fiorina’s…exaggerating. Plus, it’s not my voting dealie, so no comment on that election. More cartoons below.

meg whitman vs steve poizner in a technical Mexican standoff

I found the California Governor campaign much more shocking!! CalWatch journalist Steve Greenhut (formerly of the Orange County Register, and author of the best-selling Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives) said he thought these exchanges between the 2 candidates for Republican governor were rather silly and much ado about nothing, but I was truly horrified. (the words in the cartoon caption are what they really emailed each other.) I had no idea such arrangements happened in the backroom of fierce political campaigns!

Sure, when millions upon millions are spent – and both these candidates are made of  Croesus’s gold – I can see why they would try to keep costs down and expectations reasonable. But they actually try to bribe each other, and make backdoor promises? Do they really follow through on these promises?

What happened is that Steve Poizner made these emails from Meg Whitman public, and did report it to the FBI, or threatened to.

From the LA Times:

Steve Poizner’s allegation that Meg Whitman used attempted bribery and extortion in an effort to push him out of the gubernatorial race was merely an attention-grabbing stunt by a desperate dark horse, many contend. Hopefully, they’re right.Because if Poizner was sincerely angry and really does believe — as he wrote state and federal prosecutors — that the Whitman camp deserves criminal investigation, this is scary.

It raises the possibility that Poizner has no stomach for making political deals, the kind of mutual back-scratching needed for any democracy to function.

No, it’s not scary, it’s exposing the truth. I don’t think most people know or think these kinds of deals are “needed for any democracy to function.”

But the campaign has gotten even more violent, with car crashes, and worst of all, the name LIBERAL thrown like mud on each other! OMG, there’s nothing the right hates worse than being called that! And I agree! From the Times:

So it has come to this: Two Republicans who said they would bring cool business acumen to the governorship are, in the last weeks of their primary race, locked in a screaming match over immigration and welfare and the hot insult “liberal.”

This was not what either Steve Poizner or Meg Whitman said their campaigns were to be about….

For Whitman, the former head of EBay making her first bid for office, the turnabout from high-flying frontrunner to muddy brawler has been particularly brutal…

By last week, however, her once massive lead had diminished substantially and Whitman was firmly on familiar turf for a Republican primary — issues that play on cultural or racial notes.

The LA Times is on familiar turf, too, isn’t it? Saying if it’s Republican, it’s got to be rac-ist. UGH.

Who will win the sea lion prize? Whitman, Poizner, Brown political cartoon

Anyway, my last cartoon on them is ecological, of course. I seem to be the ONLY cartoonist on Slate who ever does cartoons on the environment or conservation. (except for the birds in oil, yuck, which are also cliche.) It’s true about the sea lions starving. I don’t know if it’s true that Meg Whitman doesn’t believe in green, or Steve Poizner said she’s not as pretty as he’s used to getting, or if Jerry Brown keeps a sea lion and other wildlife in his swimming pool. But he might.

You can find most of my California cartoons at CalWatchdog, the day they go up, and they have comments there, too.

Cartoon captions for blind Google: California: the most dramatic state in the union. I’m very rich. I’ll put you in the wood chipper! Don’t run for Governor – you can be a senator.- Meg Whitman. I’m mega-rich. Don’t threaten me! You bribed me! I’m telling. Hello, FBI? – Steve Poizner.

Does this picture make you think of Tom Campbell, Visine, or California’s need for a better Sheep Exorcist? Cartoon paid for by Carly Fiorina, For Senator.

Scientists say sea lions are starving because of El Nino. However, Meg Whitman doesn’t believe in El Nino, and Steve Poizner said she looks like a sea lion. Jerry Brown is keeping one in his swimming pool.

More cartoons:

1. BP Oil: when everyone knows your name, but nobody likes you.
2. Farewell to Lost cartoon.

I had a rough week, so sorry about that. Could this be why I couldn’t find any funny cartoons for the third week of May?! Maybe! I did find some clever ones, however, and clever is a close cousin to funny.

Of course, the PB oil spill continues to be the biggest story around. In one way, I’m happy about that, but before you label me an oil-hugger, let me explain that it’s because environmental issues, or green, as the kids call them, are almost always B or C stories in the news. Just blips most of the time. And now everyone is seeing what a terrible natural disaster (MANMADE, you BP asshats) does to the whole world.

Also, this is a great issue for cartoonists to dive into. Yes, it took an oil spill tragedy to get cartoonists to STOP dwelling on Sarah Palin. Forgot about sniping for a while, didn’t you, guys? SNAP.

Speaking of, I’ll do another oil cartoon roundup later this week, as there are a couple of great cartoons on that, but will focus on other news with this LA Times editorial cartoons selection.

nate beeler on incumbents from politicalcartoons.com

I thought I knew what incumbents are – those people already in office- but wondered why there were a number of cartoons about them recently. Ask and ye shall receive. Half hour ago from the LA Times:

Discontent with incumbents and anti-Washington anger are adding up to a potentially record-breaking crowd of congressional challengers this election year.

More than 2,300 people are running for the House and Senate in the midterms, the highest number in at least 35 years…

Like Senator Specter was tossed out on his heinie. Well, there aren’t any dramatic incumbents in California, but I think LA needs to think about other cultures, like the East Coast, more. Like this homeless man. He’s very rude, which is natural back there. Nobody in LA would ever talk like this, nor would they throw food. ( I thought this was a general wearing medals at first, but now I see that it’s fruit on his suit.) However, we’ve all worked on or visited a movie set, so we get the pandering part.

Nice colors, Nate Beeler!

dick locher graduation cartoon from gocomics.com

Lotsa people looking for graduation cartoons lately. I liked this one by Dick Locher, as it didn’t have the usual stage with graduates setup. Location is king! Plus, I’ve never been to a tailor, but I like the details from an old department store. And clever use of just one word. I think this would have been better in color, however.

nuclear energy cartoon by rainer hachfeld from politicalcartoons.com

Time for an international cartoon for the great LA Times! I love this purposely stiff, comic-book style cartoon by Rainer Hachfeld! Obviously, it’s about nuclear energy, and it must be a very important news item, but mostly I love the amusing way the men toss the nuclear bombs back and forth without the guy in the middle even noticing! Oh, okay, these European cartoonists really know their stuff, and I don’t want to be an ignorant slut Angeleno, so off I run to Google to try to figure out who these men are. I do recognize Ahmadinejad – I think – from a previous cartoon, and the other 2 guys are…Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, suggests the New York Times.

I’m not going to read the whole thing.

But it looks like all 3 of them know about the nuclear weapons, including the guy in the middle. Was funnier the way I interpreted it. Note how the nuclear symbol switches from black to white according to its placement in the drawing. Very nice, Rainer! This is the kind of cartoon the LA Times should use as illustration, instead of the forgettable ones it has now. It would look fine at any size, it actually has something to do with the news, and it’s a very compelling visual.

obama cartoon with democrats by eric allie from politicalcartoons.com

I saved the best for last! I was so taken by this arresting cartoon by Eric Allie that I think my heart beat faster! Wow. Turning the black coattails into a pit in hell is pretty scary. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be oil or not, but that makes it even more intriguing. I mean, why is Obama dressed up in black tie, anyway? And will the Dems suffer this badly in his wake that they’ll go under? Great cartoon, Eric.

Great job, everyone, and thanks to Politicalcartoons.com and Gocomics.com (where you can also see my new ones each week) for continuing to employ such talented cartoonists. Later this week: more BP oil cartoons!

Captions for Google:

Get a real job, ya freeloader! Sign: incumbent, will pander for re-election. 3 world leaders from Turkey, Iran, and Brazil toss nuclear footballs around. Graduate has to suck it up for a limited job market – set at the tailor in a department store. Obama has Democrats struggling for their lives, riding on his coattails.

My recent cartoons:

Dr. Phil on oil spill cartoon!

Lost cartoon by d. barstow

So sad to see LOST go!

memorial day ipad cartoon

Thanks again to all the talented clever cartoonists I was able to include this week, and good luck for next weeks’ picks for the LA Times Opinion section!

Remember, if you want me to consider your work, the guidelines are here, as well as why I started this project: the Times needs a Los Angeles cartoon editor for the Los Angeles Times.

More cartoons:

1. June political cartoons on Obama, Helen Thomas, soccer and oil spill.
2. Political oil, immigration, Facebook cartoons for the LA Times for May 2, 2010.

Any excuse to draw a cemetery.

soldier's grave and ipad cartoon

This cartoon cracked me up, but I am dark, so dark.

I don’t know who gets my cartoons, really. I’m just grateful that most editors do. But my editor at Slate didn’t put this really interesting drawing, with toned colors and mood and a really funny joke, on the front page! Astounding! Also, annoying.

Yes, I know Memorial Day is to honor downed military. But not everyone gets the gravity, especially young people.  The fact that the delayed health care plan may have killed this guy… and that getting his new iPad was equally as important (and it’s purple, which seems to be allowed at Apple)… This is Saturday Night Live humor, at least in my eyes.

Caption for blind Google: Gramps, thanks for protecting our country…I’m sorry Obama didn’t get the health bill done in t ime for you…and I finally got that iPad I wanted… JACK SHEPHERD, SOLDIER, LOST, HUSBAND and Here lies Politico.

Have a peaceful, honorable, and, yes, funny Memorial Day.

Also, I’m kind of behind in doing my LA Times editorial roundup, but look for one tomorrow.

More cartoons:

1. 9/11 Cartoon in 2009.
2. Ink spill cartoons for the LA Times for May, 2010.

I had to do something.

goodbye lost cartoon

Haven’t watched the finale yet, but they said on Jimmy Kimmel that Vincent will live. Good boy.

After watching it: It made me cry buckets, but I was unhappy in a fan/writer/shipper way that is longer lasting. That was not an ending I appreciate, after watching for 6 years.

Tom Richmond, a famous MAD cartoonist with a very active blog, wrote a good summary here. (He writes at one point that he doesn’t watch much TV, but that’s my line, and we know that ain’t true!)

My comment I left there:

I loved this show – it showed that television can be art. Every other show will be held up to this one, and it’s good to have something to aspire to.

This season kind of sucked – the mystical temple, magic waters, and mythology was overdone and hammered into the scripts.

I don’t know anyone who didn’t get the ending – it’s pretty obvious if anyone watched the series, or even this season. But the NYT poll said only 2/3 of the viewers liked the ending, and I’m in the unhappy part. First of all, when I say I want a happy ending, I don’t want the protagonist to DIE in the last 5 minutes.

And is there really a happy? Because if Jack’s OWN SON wasn’t real in the sideways world, who’s to say all the happy reunions were real? Okay, he gains his LOST pals, but loses a son. Yeah, maybe the son wasn’t real, but then what about all the people we know? Logic disconnect.

I’ll write more in my TV blog, when I get time.

As far as the science mentioned here…

Molecular biologist J. Craig Venter, the primary author of the report detailing the findings, described the converted cell as “the first self-replicating species we’ve had on the planet whose parent is a computer.”

Not that impressive, it turns out: the inside part is artificial, but it still lives in a real cell! Spin, much?

More cartoons:

1. Chia Pet Cartoon of Barack Obama.*
2. Dancing With the Stars leeches off of The Bachelor. Thanks, ABC.

A lot of very busy, important sites have linked to me in the past for some reason, but I was amused, and, yes, a little concerned, when I was linked on Google’s finance page for BP Oil for my recent cartoon on them. I loved the high volume traffic from this, but there’s a reason editorial cartoons are on the OPINION page, and not in the Business section! I mean, I was literally one of the first 2 or 3 cartoonists to have a cartoon out on the oil spill, since I work on the weekend and since I can’t resist any green issues. So I was furious at British Petroleum. But still, I am a capitalist, and it makes me sad that something I might do would end up on their finance page, when they are trying to make money…

So, anyway, back to the cartoons for this week’s LA Times roundup. (I explain how and why I do this roundup over here. Because the Times needs me, they really, really need me.) As I promised last week, we have a theme this week of the oil spill disaster. There were some really great, moving cartoons, and even the usual old-fashioned guys who still think the world is just black and white, look good with this subject.

steve breen carbon footprints cartoon from gocomics

This is a gorgeous cartoon by Steve Breen- really more of a poster or illustration look. It reminds me of botanical illustrations in a way. I’ve seen a couple exhibitions of them – it’s so inspiring, the way they marry science and art! The stiff way these animals are all profiled, and the fact that one is half way out of the picture is interesting, too. And on a personal note, birds are kind of my thing, so I picked live rather than dead ones for these cartoons. This drawing is not reminiscent of SoCal beaches – well, maybe down in Oceanside a bit – but birder culture is very big, and growing here.

drew sheneman oil spill cartoon from gocomics.com

I picked Drew Sheneman’s cartoon right away, because it really made me laugh! Whoever said Republicans don’t have a sense of humor must have been a Dem. I don’t know Sheneman’s work that well, but Gocomics says he is on the left. So is he making a leftie jab at Republicans? Or did he know how funny this was when he wrote it? I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt! Funny. This cartoon would probably have looked better in color, but this is fine, too, with lots of shades.

signe wilkinson on buying oil at the pump, from gocomics.com

Signe came out with this cartoon very early after the disaster. It just makes a good point in an effective way. I didn’t get why it was 2 panels at first, as I would have done just one, but that’s probably because she’s much more experienced than me, and even better, too! This is a great cartoon. And I’ve seen cars here and there in LA, so I think the Times readers will understand this one.

cummings on Louisiana gumbo from gocomics

Ah, Cummings, another cartoonist with just one name. Cummings is one of 3 honorable mentions this week, for an excellent and attractive rendering of a sad situation. (Back to personal note: yes, this crawfish is dead, but we can’t see any details, so okay.)

marshall ramsey mother's day and bp oil cartoon from gocomics

Another cartoon that made me laugh! It’s rare that I find 2 cartoons a week that make me laugh. It’s this guy’s expression and his flyaway hair and reluctance. Or maybe I shouldn’t even try to analyze it.

matt davies bp blame cartoon for gocomics

Matt Davies works only in black and white, that I have seen, but he uses a lot of white and you can actually tell what is happening, which is nice. An amusing idea to illustrate the fact that BP, Halliburton and TransOcean are all blaming each other for the catastrophe. And I don’t usually like puns, but this works. Thanks, Matt.

Thanks, indeed, to Gocomics, where I got all of my cartoons this week (and where they have hundreds you can see for free, and even sign up to get them delivered to your email), and all of the excellent cartoonists who work so hard to give us expression even in an emergency like this. As I write this, it looks like BP is making progress in containing, and even cleaning up part of the spill. I wish them the best, hurry up, and NEVER EVER do this again, you stupid stupid idiots.

My cartoons this week:

illegal immigration in az cartoon

Love this one!!! LA really did declare war on Arizona! More later!

medical marijuana cartoon

endangered fish in california cartoon

Captions spelled out for Google: Happy mother’s day to mother earth from bp oil, dispersant for gulf spill blame game, with bp, halliburton, and transocean, louisiana bp gumbo of crawfish in a dish, authorities are investigating who is responsible for this massive oil spill. at gas station: would someone turn this stupid thing off?! At Gulf Coast: What a terrible tragedy. Republican: I know. Look at all that wasted oil. Carbon footprints, with egrets, mallards, crab, maybe a pelican walking out of ocean.

Notice that I didn’t use any cartoon that says Drill, baby, drill, or Spill, baby, spill. So very tired and old – even the usually cool LA Weekly used one by Patrick O’Connor this week that said that. You can see tons of these drill cartoons over in Daryl Cagle’s roundup – and he has some very good ones without those words, too, thank goodness.

Btw, Sarah Palin did NOT start that annoying phrase, “Drill, Baby, Drill”. From The Hill:

Two senior Republicans on Tuesday distanced themselves from the controversial “drill, baby, drill” phrase first used by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and repeated prominently by 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

“That was not a Senate Republican phrase,” Kyl said. “I think there was a candidate that used that. I think our phrase was ‘drill here, drill now,’ meaning here in the United States and as quickly as oil and gas leases are going.”

Roberts said Republicans were always uneasy with the catchphrase.

Steele is believed to have used the phrase first in his address at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota, where the delegates took to chanting it. Conservative blogger Erik Rush also used it around the same time, and Palin employed it that October in an exchange with then-vice presidential candidate Joe Biden.

So it sounds like no one knows who first said this expression. Daily Kos adds:

There are political reasons for shouting “drill, baby, drill.” It’s a feel-tough bounce for folks who want to give a kick to “tree hugger.”

Whatever.

More cartoons:

1. Have you ever tried to wipe oil off your soul?
2. Political oil, immigration, Facebook cartoons for the LA Times for May 2, 2010.

I’m a little late for my roundup of last week’s best cartoons. Okay, way late. Dealing with insurance companies, filing a report with the CHP, going to the doctor – none of them very fun at all.

I think I’m on the other side, though. And I couldn’t let the whole week go by without pointing out the best cartoons of the week…for the Los Angeles Times crowd, that is! (Speaking about editors and awards, I used to write bitter posts here about Time Magazine’s Cartoons of the Week. I don’t bother anymore. Turns out Time chooses cartoons from only 3 syndicates – BORING – and so their choices are extremely limited, and are only what they pay for. Like every newspaper in town. So their famous award…not so meaningful now.)

Aside from the BP oil spill – which according to my own stats, ranks right up there with Tiger Woods in the public’s interest and concern – not that many big stories last week. The headline on USA Today for Friday’s big news was about the weather: Gloom predicted in several states. That says it all.

As it happens, all my picks this week come from Cagle Cartoons, which is the most local syndicate to Los Angeles, anyway.

cameron cardow cartoon on bp oil spill and goldman sachs

What a great looking cartoon! Cameron Cardow is not only pretty, but has combined two issues in one: both the oil spill and the Goldman Sachs dustup (piggy activity).  Even though we are home to movie stars (and of course, oil wells, if you remember Beverly Hillbillies) all of us here know that even the stars love a good bargain! Why do you think  swag bags proliferate at every single event? And so, the LA Times gets a double header with this cartoon.

Great colors, limited gradient or fade tool (my least favorite effect in Photoshop) and super concept. Funny, there are an awful lot of Goldman Sachs rear ends in this cartoon…  

(I love this cartoon, but there are so many good oil slick cartoons out right now that I think I’ll also make it the theme for next week.)

jimmy margulies cartoon on the greek economy

I just love a little mythology thrown into the mix! Kind of like Lost does, but Lost is rather sucky this season, so let’s concentrate on Icarus. I knew Icarus was a Greek hero who made his own wings and flew too close to the sun and died, very sad. But Wiki also adds that he could have been the person who invented sails on boats, which is somewhat like flying, I guess, since roller coasters hadn’t been invented yet, and then he still died by falling out of the boat and drowning. (like Fate, in Lost…)

I like the Jimmy Margulies’ imagery of the Mastercard and Visa melting. Does this really represent Greek’s meltdown? Who knows? But it does relate to our own country’s confused and dysfunctional relationship with credit cards.

nate beeler cartoon on fannie mae and freddie mac and greek crisis and obesity

Here’s an article about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, since I’m unable to help you with this. It’s something about mortgages, and if I am ever lucky enough to own a house in my lifetime, I’ll read about it then. Even though houses are out of reach for so many people here,  real estate is super important in LA, so the Times will dig this cartoon by Nate Beeler!

At first I thought the cartoon was on the running theme this year on obesity, so it works that way, too. I didn’t even see Uncle Sam squeezed between them – I’m not a fan of donkeys, elephants, or Uncle Sam as symbols – until I had already downloaded the image. Oh, and it’s something about the Greek Debt Crisis, as well. Here’s a triple-subject cartoon for you, Times!

Honorary Mention: here’s one by Mike Lester, on National Prayer Day.

mike lester cartoon on national prayer day

I didn’t know there was such a day, but it’s a great idea, isn’t it? It’s kind of a lightweight cartoon, and the very loose drawing style matches that. I like all the sketchy pen strokes here – casual, yet controlled. I don’t know why his name is so childish and dark, however; it distracts from the easy lines.

People think of LA as being Godless. That’s not true. We don’t talk about it much, but we pray, we do.

Thanks, everyone, for the terrific cartoons I was allowed to share with everyone today! And thanks to Daryl Cagle for letting me borrow them.

My own cartoons:

census cartoon for republicans

cartoon on hollywood unemployment

And I hope you caught this one, one of my favorites!

cartoon on jack and jill -or illegal immigration, pick one.

Captions for blind Google: Icarus flies into the sun with Greek debt, Mastercard and Visa. An appropriate punishment for Goldman Sachs Executives: cleaning the Gulf shoreline of oil from BP. National Prayer Day – Governor says Pray! That’s a switch. The other 364 days they say Pay! Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Uncle Sam: Tsk! That’s what happens when you don’t keep yer house in order! Hey, buddy, ol’ pal! Can you spot me another $11 billion? Greek Debt Crisis.

More cartoons:

1. Political oil, immigration, Facebook cartoons for the LA Times for May 2, 2010.
2. Editorial cartoons for LA Times, April 2010.