OOh, great dustup on Time Magazine’s list of Best Editorial Cartoons of 2008!

You’ll have to decide for yourself if they made the right decision, and if these cartoons are the BEST. My opinion? (taking into consideration I only started to read editorial cartoons 9 months ago.) I didn’t understand 2 of them. One is terrible, not even a cartoon, and is only self-promotion by Time. The Oz one is a nice drawing.

Anyway, Ted Rall thinks the editors there suck. Ted is a well known syndicated political cartoonist, radio guy, and no doubt creator of other things I don’t know about. He is also editor at a syndicate (don’t know which one) and president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. He got mad at Time’s lame editorial picks, and let them have it! Daily Cartoonist published his letter in full, and here is an excerpt:

Your list of the Top 10 Editorial Cartoons of 2008 is an insult to editorial cartoonists, many of whom are losing their jobs to the economic downturn in the newspaper industry. In 2008 hundreds of brilliant political cartoonists produced thousands of hard-hitting, thought-provoking and hilarious cartoons about everything from the flash in the pan that was Sarah Palin to the rise of Barack Obama, and all you could come up with was this phoned-in crap?

More at the link! Well, when has a cartoonist ever kept his mouth shut when he sees bad work? Not I. One bad cartoonist spoils the place for everyone. Read more »

The President-Elect Chia Pet cartoon, © D.Barstow 2009.

Kind of self-explanatory. A satisfying Christmas gift or Election Celebration centerpiece. Available only for a limited time, for only $1000, and is sure to sell out this Christmas [or Inaugural] season. (On TV it’s limited, only while the chia pet ads last. Available longer right here, on this cartoon blog. )

An enterprising Josh Madison set up a Chia Pet Diary, with pictures for each day, so you can see it grow. (He has a cow. I’m the only one who has the President-Elect Chia Pet.)

Here is savontv.com, also interested in chia pets:

Q: Why are Chia items only sold during the holiday season?

A: Chia Pets and Chia Heads are handmade pottery items. It takes an entire year to produce enough Pets and Heads for one holiday season.

Who believes this, raise your hand? Oh well, it’s okay to believe in Santa, so why not handmade Chia Pets. And Joseph Enterprises actually owns and makes Chia Pets, but they don’t believe in the internet, nor in websites – they’ve been around for what, 20 years? And no website!!! -, so no linky here.

Not Time Magazine’s Cartoon of the Week, AGAIN. Do they not get festive? Or is it the idea of Barack Obama with an afro? Go dig in the dirt, Time.  Read more »

This gay man wants what he wants.

Proposition 8 cartoon  Silent. Sign says: I’m mad as hell, and I’m going to take it some more.

Am I being disrespectful? Or funny? Only an editorial cartoonist knows for sure.

I was surprised when Proposition 8, here in California, got picked up by gays all over the country as a rallying cry. I thought it was a state by state thing. I mean, didn’t Massachusetts say yes? And maybe other states.

What gets me is the whining, and attacks on churches now. Here in LA, they decided the problem was the Mormon church, because they had ads in favor of Prop 8, even when the LA Times had polls immediately after the election that it was mostly blacks and Latinos that voted against Gay rights. How many of them were Mormons, do you think? Real mature.

Think this is a good cartoon? Remember, I don’t have to explain everything. Some political cartoons are puzzles. Find more comments on Gocomics.

"But it says here you have 350 years experience in overnight delivery." © D. Barstow 2009, All Rights Reserved.

I decorated my blog for Christmas! But does Santa seem depressed to you? Maybe it’s because we can’t see his rosy cheeks and red nose.

(There is a cartoonist that we all know, not naming no names, who draws her character only from the back! I can’t remember if any character in the panel has a face, but the main one has only hair. She said it’s because she can’t draw faces, but also because it lets Everywoman identify with her. Well, I guess so… As it happens, this cartoonist has connected with many pharmaceutical companies, so she’s doing well financially. Perhaps I can claim Santa has rosacea, and this will be my start to fame and fortune.)

Anyway, Santa is too good for the Post Office, but not savvy in applying for state unemployment. Anyone want to help him out?

Love this drawing!  It ran in a very happy paper with a happy editor this month.