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! UPDATE: now Signe Wilkinson is there, after I complained for 2 years. Only, it’s a lie, because she’s NOT one of the top 10, she’s #15.)

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. Comments on Facebook in prison here. (Sorry, no link now. Uclick threw away 2 years of my cartoons on Slate, Gocomics and Yahoo News when they kicked me out of Gocomics.)

adult entertainment in california cartoon

Porn (pron?) in Van Nuys? Say it ain’t so. Comments on porn here. (no link, read above)

red oil spill cartoon

What’s red all over? Comments on this strange cartoon here. (No link, read above)

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. The beach, the surf, and California’s political campaign. Aah.
2. Ink spill cartoons for the LA Times for May, 2010.

I had to wade through a lot of elephants saying no to Obama (for Supreme Court nominees), and a lot of  Tea Party ridiculers, and of course Sarah Palin haters, before I found these gems. (I think Glenn McCoy and I may be the only cartoonists who even attempt to shed light on the liberal wussy left.)

I’ll start off today with a cartoonist who is firmly conservative, however: Lisa Benson from Gocomics.com.

Lisa Benson of Gocomics

Lisa is very local – lives somewhat to the North of LA, and is the cartoonist for a California paper. She usually attacks Obama, rather than political issues in general, as is true in this cartoon. For instance, one (like me) might target the evil bombing countries, but she prefers to blame the President! I picked this cartoon because the Nuclear Summit was in the news this week, and Obama’s facial expression and casual whistle as he walks away made me smile!

I guess I’m not always the best critic, because at first I thought she was saying Obama did a good job! But since the bomb is National Security, I guess not. Still, good cartoon (even though I don’t agree with the point of view) and she draws a credible Obama. Some other cartoonists might want to practice him, since he’ll be around for a while. :)

Mike Luckovich of Gocomics.com

I picked almost all captionless cartoons this week. I prefer words, in general – no Wordless Wednesday for me! Also, I’m not a fan of black scratchy pen scrawls in online cartoons. Perhaps it looks better in the paper, which usually pays the bigger cartoonists like Mike Luckovich, so I see why they don’t want to change their style.  But nowadays, most people will see it online.

However, I couldn’t resist this one  of the Pope sweeping the pedophile scandals under the rug! (Why, they look like little children’s heads, disembodied from the horrible rapes from the offending priests… I have a dark soul.) And the Pope is obviously drawn with Uncle Fester of The Addams Family in mind! (from cartoonist Charles Addams, great New Yorker cartoonist.) 

Wordless, and it works, Mike Luckovich of Gocomics.com!

I’m making notes on a couple of the Catholic Church scandal cartoons I’ve come across, as the passivity and negligence and lack of responsibility unfold. (My own cartoon on the priest rapes (Sorry, no link now. Uclick threw away 2 years of my cartoons on Slate, Gocomics and Yahoo News when they kicked me out of Gocomics.) is here.) As of a year or so ago, the population of Los Angleles makes the former minorities (mostly Hispanic) now a majority. So, yeah, Catholicism would be the main religion here. How do they go to church and not ask questions now?!

Here’s a lighthearted cartoon from David Fitzsimmons  of Political Cartoons, about the Supreme Court nominee process.

David Fitzsimmons of politicalcartoons.com

Unlike most of the other cartoons I found, David has made the process into a game of basketball for Obama, and the elephants are part of the game, not the evil enemy. There are some famous basketball games in LA that go on for years! I think it’s mostly people in the industry and scriptwriters. “We’re not just rich cliques, we’re homeboys!”

It’s all a game, people.

I’m a fan of Fitzsimmons for the limited palettes he often uses – that is, limiting the colors in his cartoons to 2 or 3 colors. In this case, it’s a little bit more than 3, but still in the same palette area. The swirls on the wall don’t really make sense, but that’s what makes them fun!

I can only choose 3 cartoons for the Times, but this is a hearty Honorable Mention I wanted to include this week.

Steve Greenberg of politicalcartoons.com

Steve Greenberg is another local cartoonist of Political Cartoons, who lives just outside of Los Angeles, and a friend as well. (He came to my booksigning, didn’t he?!)

I don’t agree with the concept – we all get pollution, rich and poor – but the soft neutral coloring here, even though the cartoon is about toxic chemicals, won my heart! The LA Times deserves the pretty, even though they ignore it in their artwork. And pollution of any kind is something we in California, and in SoCal particularly, can NEVER EVER forget.

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. And if one of your cartoons is chosen and you want me to link to your blog or site, just let me know.

My own cartoons this week:

No sex for war - C. Thomas

Comments on Lysistrata here. (Sorry, no link now. )

Dwarves  in a coal mine cartoon. (Sorry, no link now. )

Are really good brownies considered a medical miracle?

Comments on pot brownies here. (No)

Medical Marijuana requires munchies.

Captions for blind Google: The rich get richer, and the poor get their byproducts. Basketball game for the Supreme Court. National Security and nuclear warhead with Obama. The Pope sweeps messy pedophile priests under the rug.

More cartoons:

1. Editorial cartoons for the Los Angeles Times Opinion section.
2. Editorial cartoons for LA Times, April 2010.

As happened last week, as I start going through the week’s cartoons I always start thinking – there aren’t enough good cartoons here. Uh-oh. And by the end I’ve picked more than I can use, and I feel very happy that there are so many great, entertaining cartoons out there! In spite of the economy, the foolish newspapers who have let their Editorial Cartoonist go, or use less cartoons than ever (LA Times, I’m looking at you), cartoonists are like crocuses, popping up even in the snow. Very proud to be part of the gang.

Ahmadinejad the Cat nuclear energy cartoon - Christo Komanitski from Cagle Cartoons

It’s funny, I don’t like foreign movies at all, but I do like some of the international cartoonists very much. Look: I’ve never seen an editorial cartoon that is completely wordless! You could use this for Wordless Wednesday! No labels, perfect.

This cartoon is not only quite charming, in a French 1950′s textbook way -  it explains a complicated, sensitive international news item in a way everyone can appreciate. I can’t speak for the cartoonist, but I read this as Ahmadinejad waiting for scraps to fall from the table of the bombs Obama and Netanyahu? are dismantling.

In Los Angeles, we’re of two minds about cats: we pass laws that they can’t be declawed, but also don’t want feral cats to just die…Anyway, I think it’s usually a dog who waits for scraps from the master’s table, and this looks more like a monkey, but the point is clear. Thanks, Christo!

Joel Pett death coal cartoon from Gocomics.com

I thought news teams did a great job this week investigating the Massey scandal of ignoring safety violations in the coal mining disaster in West Virginia. I read one story where one of the men who died, Josh Napper,  had a premonition the weekend before the disaster and wrote letters to his family – perhaps stimulated by gas leaks so bad the day before that the miners got out of work early. UGH to this disgusting company! And I’ll have my own cartoon on coal mining up tomorrow on Slate and Yahoo.

Joel of Gocomics lives in Kentucky, and I think they have a lot of mining there, too. (I don’t know the area that well, just as I’m sure Joel doesn’t know a lot about California, although he chooses cartoons for the LA Times.) Interesting that he didn’t dis the mine owners responsible…just pointed out that mining is dangerous, almost like the deaths are the fault of the meanie coal!!  The little button reads Friend of Coal;the text is a little small, and this is a problem online, and I ignore lots of cartoons because of this – hello, learn your medium, guys.

But Joel did a great job with the menace of the death skull, and the whole idea, so kudos, Joel.

Dana Summers cartoon on immigration from GoComics

Dana Summers has a loose, easy style that I always like. This is the only cartoon of all the ones I reviewed that made me laugh! It’s okay to laugh, even when you’re reading the LA Times. How much of the news this year has been about health care?  Too too much. On to the next White House problem. And, uh, yeah, immigration is always the problem hiding in the corner, in California. Great work, Dana.

Honorable Mention goes to Randy Bish at Cagle Cartoons.

Randy Bish on paying taxes cartoon at Cagle Cartoons

UGH, tax week.

I didn’t read this in the paper, I heard it on talk radio from Tim Conway Junior: that almost half of all Americans don’t pay tax!!! I thought I misheard it. I couldn’t believe it. And filling out forms is the worst part, I think.  I still haven’t finished doing taxes! Too many little receipts floating around and Schedule C is the pits.

Randy’s style and big lettering is certainly ideal for online cartoons! I like the funny little outline around each figure, and even around the orange juice!

Thanks to everyone for participating, and remember to send me one cartoon each week if you think I might not find your cartoons elsewhere. An explanation of this roundup is here.

My own cartoons this week:

Massey coal mine is run by a dwarf. (Sorry, no links now. Uclick threw away 2 years of my cartoons on Slate, Gocomics and Yahoo News when they kicked me out of Gocomics.)

Earthquake cartoon.

Easter bunny and the Tea party cartoon. No.

Cartoon captions for Mr. Google: Who do we see about switching sides? About half of Americans pay no federal income tax.

Death figurehead is friend of coal mining.

Can we please move on from health care? Si. Immigration.

Silent cartoon: Ahmadinejad the Cat sits at the feet of Obama, another important man, and the nuclear bombs.

Joel’s picks for this weeks cartoon are over here (no, they’re not) – I think. The LA Times has always had a problem linking cartoons, even when I was in there every week.

More cartoons:

1. Editorial cartoons for the Los Angeles Times Opinion section.
2. Political oil, immigration, Facebook cartoons for the LA Times for May 2, 2010.

"IF KIM JONG IL WANTED TO BE A DO-GOODER." ©D. Barstow

I think I just wanted to draw my first nuclear bomb.

I don’t know why, but when I saw how seriously the news was taking reports of Kim Jong Il setting off nuclear bomb tests, it made me kind of giddy, like laughing in church. Perhaps I am a bad person (but not saying I’m wrong, of course.)

I mean, the man might be sick,  in a coma – or there are concerns he had a stroke. In any case, he’s been out of view, so we don’t know what he’s really doing. Today the timesonline (UK) said:

Mr Kim, 67, is believed to have suffered a stroke last year that removed him from the public eye during several key national events. The medical machinery needed is among a number of items banned under the trade embargo on North Korea, which followed the regime’s first nuclear test in 2006.

Oops, this is what happens when you ban things.  

Mr Kim’s health and the destiny of his country are closely linked. He runs the nation via a personality cult that has emphasised the vigour, strength and youthfulness of the “Dear Leader”.

Interesting. In any case, I don’t know if he’s trying out bombs as a science experiment, a threat, or preparation for something worse. But maybe, if he’s not well, he would like to do some good in his name, before his health could get worse. My suggestions are in the cartoon:

• Plastic bags, because it seems impossible to get rid of them, and they don’t decay very well, gross.
• Useless councilmen. I will not mention my councilman (Tom LaBonge) because that would be unkind. And sometimes he does something good. But if you live in a city like Los Angeles, you quickly realize that councilmembers hold WAY too much power. (Jill Stewart, deputy Editor of the LA Weekly, told me she thinks of them as medieval lords.)
• Ring tones. So quickly boring.
• Liberal talk radio. They sound self-righteous, the few times I’ve heard it.
• Add your own.

More cartoons:

1. Nuclear radiation from Japan!!!!!!
2. What would happen if you wore a Swatch watch today?