This Week’s Cartoon: The Rise and Fall of the Goatee
Before a torrent of angry, goatee-defending email is unleashed upon my inbox, let me say I am mostly a fan of our furry friend. I find a well-maintained goatee to be far more appealing than a scraggly hipster beard filled with artisanal doughnut particles. What I'm talking about here is how the chin beard has been bastardized, its centuries of coolness diluted by present-day dipwads.
I'd already been thinking of doing a cartoon on the shifting symbolism of goatees when I noticed Pepper Spray Cop had one. He's clean-shaven in the head shot that's been floating around the internet, but he does have one in footage of the UC Davis incident (via Queerty):
This Week’s Cartoon: “Laziness Craziness”
I swore I wasn't going to do another Occupy Wall Street cartoon since I've done so many of them lately, but I couldn't help myself. I find that there's much to say about the Occupy movement and surrounding issues, while I don't have many exciting insights yet about the Republican candidate-buffoons beyond pointing out that they are, in fact, buffoons. I'm sure they will inspire cartoons as the race heats up.
I feel this one violates my policy of trying to show rather than tell, but it makes a point about something that's been driving me nuts. (See related cartoon from 2007, "The Mental Welfare State," about people too lazy to pull their brains up by their bootstraps.)
The Simpsons Beat Me!
In the comments to last week's cartoon blog post, reader Nick furnished this screenshot from e Simpsons episode, which bears an eerie resemblance to the first panel to last week's strip.
Pretty eerie, huh? I have no memory of that Simpsons gag, even though I probably saw that episode at some point. But to give credit where credit is due, I thought I'd post them both here. The placement of the well is especially mind-blowing, but I would add that that's where it goes, composition-wise.
This Week’s Cartoon: “Killer Kleen”
I found out about the scented-laundry-product study last week thanks to a brief article in The Oregonian. To quote the original press release from the professor who led the research:
Analysis of the captured gases found more than 25 volatile organic compounds, including seven hazardous air pollutants, coming out of the vents. Of those, two chemicals – acetaldehyde and benzene – are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as carcinogens, for which the agency has established no safe exposure level...Emissions from the top five brands, they estimate, would constitute about 6 percent of automobiles’ acetaldehyde emissions.
Puts "mountain fresh" scent into a whole new perspective, doesn't it?
Longtime readers know I violently hate leaf blowers. I still can't believe most people regard these infernal shrieking monsters as a "normal" part of life. There's always one blasting away in my neighborhood, destroying the peace and quiet. I've noticed that the amount of work being done with them is often minimal or downright imperceptible compared to the public disturbance they cause. I swear, my neighbor just enjoys waving his blower around like a metal detector as he strolls through his perfect grass. And yet we can't necessarily see the crud they spew into the air, or the sound waves radiating out for blocks, so it's all good, man.
I lived in rural Virginia for several years, where some people still burned their trash. In case you were thinking of escaping to the country to avoid dryer vents and leaf blowers...
For more on the ultra-plush toilet paper issue, Greenpeace has been on the case. I'm not a TP radical, but I've always been of the opinion that super-soft rolls run out too quickly.
PS: A Daily Kos commenter linked to an article about these awesome Japanese toilets. I want one.
This Week’s Cartoon: “The Latest Debt Ceiling Demands”
Ugh, what more can I say. This whole thing reminds me more and more of Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine every day. Manufacture a crisis, use the ensuing sense of panic to impose draconian cuts to programs people desperately need, and voila! Utopia at last. Never mind that Reagan raised the debt ceiling 18 times, and Dubya 7, or that Clinton balanced the budget, or that the vast bulk of our current deficit was formed under Bush. The hypocrisy is simply astounding.
The m&m's in the first panel are, of course, a reference to Van Halen's infamous contract rider stipulating that the brown ones be removed. David Lee Roth has explained that the point was not to be a prima donna, but to test to see if stage crews had read the contract carefully. I love this quote:
I came backstage. I found some brown M&M's, I went into full Shakespearean 'What is this before me?"... you know, with the skull in one hand... and promptly trashed the dressing room. Dumped the buffet, kicked a hole in the door, twelve thousand dollars' worth of fun."
I decided to make the m&m's that Republicans object to the green ones, since, you know, they hate anything green.
A Toast to Troubletown
I've been meaning to write about my friend and colleague Lloyd Dangle ending his altweekly strip Troubletown. Troubletown has been one of my favorite cartoons over the years, and this was its last week. I can attest to the fact that he's a nice guy, too. We did a cartoon reading together once in Berkeley, and he totally saved my butt by borrowing a digital projector from a friend so I could show my Powerpoint slides. (Lloyd always used an old-fashioned slide carousel to avoid such predicaments.) He also let me stay in his son's room at his house and cooked me a great dinner. Not only can he draw, but the man knows how to prepare an artichoke! We at Casa Slowpoke raise our drinking glasses high.
Escape From Ronald Rump… Again
Matt's latest cartoon has moved me to share a comic I drew seven years ago, the last time we went through a Donald Trump-oriented media frenzy (click for larger version).
The corresponding blog post from April 27, 2004:
I sometimes watch late-night comedy shows while drawing the strip. One night recently, THREE shows in a row had interviews with Donald Trump or a sketch about Trump. When the networks want to ram something inane down our throats, they sure don't hold back. No wonder a majority of Americans still think Iraq had something to do with 9-11, even though the White House once quietly admitted this was false (it was barely covered).
So, you see, this happens once every seven years. He's like a PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS!
Stumptown Comics Fest
I'm going to be wandering around the con this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon, and will be appearing on a panel Sunday at noon about the possibility of starting a NW chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. If you happen to be there, you are invited to bump into me as I drift about and say hello.
Pages
Categories
Blogroll
- AAEC
- Cagle Cartoons
- Campus Progress
- Cartoonists With Attitude
- Comic Riffs
- Daily Cartoonist
- Funny Times
- GoComics
Archive
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
Meta
