"Now I'm confused. Is that a black hole, or the maws of AIG?" ©D. Barstow 2009

Who doesn’t love a cartoon bashing AIG, the worst insurance company of all time? And there’s a dog in it for you, too.

I’m choosing this cartoon for the Illustration Friday assignment, Subtract. All artists know that means you better deal with the negative space, dude! (subtract it) This was for Slate, and I did it right before the big news broke about AIG asking for even more money, for those f-ing bonuses. On the day I did this, it was just “normal” money they requested.

I thought AIG was an insurance company, but some cartoonists were doing it as a bank…I think it’s an insurance company FOR banks. But this whole idea that the world’s economy will collapse if AIG dies is a bunch of baloney. Too big to fail? I don’t believe it for a minute, and I’m sure there’s at least one more cartoon heading down that road. Read more »

"I'm thinking about putting my face on our new product line, like Paul Newman does...would that turn you on?" ©D.Barstow 2009

I heart Paul Newman! Not so much for his movies, although he was great – but for entering my own life by doing movies on location, where I found him in person.

I was dating the special effects guy on one film, and I remember he had to build a special sweat hut so Paul could sweat off all the beer he drank each day and still look trim for the film. (What, no Paul Newman beer? I think I saw a beer in his hand most of the time.) Read more »

"Thanks to Obama, we're not ENDANGERED in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, UT, OR, WA, etc. We're target practice." ©D.Barstow 2009

The subject this week for Illustration Friday is “intricate,” and I found these wolves to be just so very detailed and particular.

As it happens, this was also today’s cartoon I did for Slate, so kill 2 with one stone, and all that good stuff.

Right after Obama took office he cancelled Bush’s plans to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, affecting wolves, among other animals. I took note of that, knew I wanted to do a cartoon on it, but then put it aside because I wasn’t sure if the EPA was already done, or just thinking out loud. Once you have to write about the news – and believe me, as an editorial cartoonist I’ve become a better journalist – you notice how much of the news is really stuff that might happen, or will happen. Then they report it all again when it does happen, as if it’s fresh meat!

So as I was saying, it actually did become law last Friday. Only Obama RESCINDED his protection promises for wolves, and turned them over to the lawless states, not the Federal government any more! So Bush’s original plan succeeded.   Read more »

Rejected Melisa from The Bachelor joins cast of Dancing with the Stars. And causes our first sonic boom from Reality TV. ©D.Barstow 2009

(A different version of this is here.)

Why I Did It:   It’s a brand new world. Now I have to read the newspaper – I mean the bits besides interesting murders, the funnies, and local stuff that makes me mad. Because my syndicate, Uclick, is waiting for more, more, more cartoons, with hungry maws. (and I just used that word in a cartoon recently.)

And I have to send in the cartoon by 6 PM my time, so there goes my Sunday afternoon, unless I do it in advance. Today I didn’t know yet what I would do. I had some ideas: that wolves can now be killed in many states (Obama said he would protect them with the ESA, which lasted, oh, about a month) , Obama’s continual pouring out of money into sinkholes, etc. But you know what I was most excited about today?  TV reality shows, people! ABC did a mashup of The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars. Read more »