More on Pakistan

Even if Musharraf wasn't behind the assassination, he wasn't giving Bhutto the kind of protection she deserved. Also, turning your head makes you just as culpable as the actual assassins in my opinion. So here's one about that. All you fans of Democracy should enjoy this one. Let's hope the new year brings peace to Pakistan. It's a simmering pot, with a nuke sitting on top of it.

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I'll be posting another Pakistan toon in the next couple of days that ran in Sunday's LA Times. Stay tooned for that.

Have a SAFE and HAPPY New Year!

Cheers,

Ed

GWB - Helping Spread "Democracy" the world over

More like "Hypocrisy."

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Benazir Bhutto - Rest in peace.

"Just Draw Me..." he said..."OK..." I said...

I really liked talking with this guy in Washington last year. Very personable, interesting, intelligent. But then I started delving into, and researching some of his positions on the issues. Ouch.

We couldn't be farther apart on what's listed here.

His catch phrase during his speech to the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists was "Draw me. Just draw me." I'm more than obliged to take him up on that.

BTW, as mentioned previously I planned to do this entire cartoon on the Wacom tablet in Photoshop, and that's exactly what I did. Can you tell the difference? I'm kinda liking how these are coming out, and can't wait to do another one.

Cheers,

Ed

Coo Coo Kucinich

Here's a rough sketch for a Dennis Kucinich cartoon idea I'm working on. I wanted to make sure that I had the caricature down first before I incorporated the idea. I met this guy last year, and at the time he was begging us cartoonists to draw him. He's about to get his wish from me. Stay tooned.

As for drawing this digitally, I plan on doing another one this afternoon on my Wacom tablet to compare qualities. We'll see if I can tell a difference.

-E

Digital,digital,digital...

So I went a little crazy this year with the computing purchases, but I want to get to the point with at least one computer where I can do everything without pencil and paper. I think I might almost be there with my latest toy - The "Bamboo" from Wacom. If you haven't tried one of these babies out yet, you're really missing out. In Photoshop it gives you a very responsive feel. You can sketch, make notes, move around the desktop, everything without having to change back and forth from a mouse. I highly recommend it if you do a lot of sketching on the road, or if you're planning to make the eventual jump to ALL digital (like I am). This sketch was done in about 3 minutes on my Bamboo in Photoshop with #2 Pencil brush. It's probably the first time I've done a digital sketch, and said to myself, "wow, that really looks like pencil!"

I'll be back next week with all new posts and cartoons, but in the meantime I'd like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season!

Cheers,

Ed

Workin' the Jesus angle

They're all doing it. And the timing couldn't be better with Christmas coming and all. Now comes word that Huckabee is putting subliminal crosses into his ads. I wouldn't doubt it. Seems they all want to be most pious. Most "on high." I just wonder if Mr. & Mrs. America can see through all of this.

"I saw Cheney hurting Santa Claus..."

Just havin' some good clean fun.

Enjoy!

Halltoons Updated! 24 new cartoons

If you get a chance, skip on over to http://www.halltoons.com/ . I've just updated the site, and you might find a few cartoons that weren't previously posted here. I used this Barack Obama caricature as my new header.

Enjoy!

-Ed

Back to 75%

Well, after a weekend of coughing, hacking, spitting, sneezing & wheezing, I'm back to about 75% health. Getting sick sucks, but at least I got it out of the way before Christmas. I did follow the news though. With puffy eyes I managed to see that the Mitchell report finally came out. Here's my take on the whole steroid fiasco. I think they'll never control it now that the genie is out of the "bottle." They might as well just let everyone take steroids, so there's a level playing field. Eventually we'll end up with a separate species of super men, that we feed to the lions when they lose. Oh wait, we're already there...

AHHHHHH......CHOOOO!

What the hell? I never get sick. But for some reason I went to bed last night feeling crappy, and woke up this morning feeling even crappier. Oh well. Just gonna have to schedule everything for next week, and hope that this passes. I feel like I've swallowed a cheese grater, and my stomach hurts like hell. But enough bitchin' - that's not what you came here for. Here's my final syndicated cartoon of the week (thank God). now if I can just find that bottle of Advil...

Happy Weekend.

-Ed

PS - Update those passwords & watch out for the "Evil Twin!"

Bah!

Let's hope, for all our sakes, people actually start to pump some money into the economy this Christmas. Doesn't look good. Alot of people will be scaling back spending (including our family - we're doing secret Santas this year).

As promised...

Sunday December 2, LA Times opinion page:

Final post of the week

Hello all. Well, it seems that a Russian armada is headed to the Mediterranean Sea. Not that this should come as a surprise to any of us paying attention to what's going on in the former USSR. There is a patriotic fever-pitch for all things Putin there now. And you can't really fault the Russians. They've as much right to post ships there as the rest of us, but it makes you wonder, what the former KGB agent's agenda might really be.

Happy Weekend. Duck and cover.

-Ed

Remembering not to forget

I'll let this one speak for itself. I will say though that I'm always amazed at the simian characteristics of our
President's face.

In my day....

...they didn't have sissy school buses for riding your ass to school. You'd have to WALK five miles to school, in the freezing cold, and your feet would bleed, and you'd like it. You'd shout "Hey! Look at me! My feet are bleeding masses of flesh!" and you'd LOVE it!

I really like Dana Carvey. Maybe a little too much.

Anyway, one of our school districts has implemented a new code, stating that if you live within 2 miles of your school you can't take the school bus. You figure out the rest.

Enjoy.

Here's the rough:

Ape Sh*t

Sometimes I've just got to get down on my knees and thank the Almighty for the fact that I do cartoons for a rural paper. Only in Baker County could you have a story like this. It seems that every year around this time, someone spots some form of ape-like creature lurking around the woods of our fair county. One year the gossip was that Bigfoot was on the loose again. The next year (and I'm not making this up) they thought it was half ape and half kangaroo (thus the moniker: Killer Kangaroo). It seems that this year the primate resembles an Orangutan. They've yet to name it, but I suspect "Oranguman," has a scary ring to it.

Anyway, this cartoon started out as just some guy shooting arrows at a cardboard cut-out of an orangutan, but the more I thought about it, I wanted to tie this in with hunting in Baker County (which is huge). Here's what I came up with. Oh, and one more time, God bless you Baker County!

Back from a mini-working-vacation

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. I spent most of last week in Savannah, GA, and I must say it was most enjoyable! And wouldn't you know it, the minute we get there, I get an illustration job for one of the big three publications in the US? I didn't complain. I just whipped out the pens & paper, and called up the local Kinkos to make sure they had a scanner.

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Here's the rough. I'll post the finished drawing, and a pdf of the full page after it runs in Sunday's edition.

Look for more frequent posts this week, as I get back into the swing of things.