I’m about to find out. I’ve lived here over 15 years, so I have some answers, but what about the heart of it, where all the decisions are made? This month I started my cartoon for a new journalism group that’s covering the state of California, named appropriately enough, CalWatchdog. (Still waiting for a dog in the logo.) It’s connected with – get this – a think tank, called Pacific Research Institute!

I’ve done cartoons in all kinds of venues, but I have to admit, never a think tank. I’m so excited to be a part of it, and especially to have my name associated with something that sounds so…smart. This is Arnold’s last year, so I’m prepared to have as much fun as you can have with a German, and to explore issues all over California. (JUST KIDDING, German-ophiles!) So keep an eye on it, as I’ll be uploading cartoons about California there before they go on Slate or appear anywhere else.

Cartoon caption: You get three wishes, but balancing the State budget is out of my league.

I was originally going to do this idea for the bank bailouts, saying she doesn’t believe in them, but don’t tell my editor at CalWatchdog this! In fact…why not do another fairy tale for Slate!? Certainly that fairy gibberish by that cartoonist on Gocomics  – Pibgorn which I just had to look up – is super popular, and Gocomics is constantly pimping it.

Hmm, just noticed that it isn’t a cartoon, it’s a graphic novel, with some story and a photoshopped illustration for each day. It gets several hundred comments. By Brooke McEldowney,  (a Man)  who also does a normal comic strip   – forget the name now, as I don’t read it.

Even with all those comments and hits, it’s still not one of the top 10 comics on Gocomics, however…Well, who can figure out cartoon lovers, eh?

The cartoon above is also on the front page of Slate today, and more comments about it might be found here. (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.)

Check in tomorrow for some cartoons I liked, and some I didn’t like, about Haiti.

More cartoons:

1. California Elections are coming, California elections are coming, etc
2. Earthquake 7.2 in Mexicali today.

"When the deadline passed, and California couldn't make its budget, it began to eat its own young..."©D.Barstow 2009

Sometimes ideas come to me out of nowhere! In this case, I think I began with the sentence up to budget…and then just tried out some endings. I also don’t know why I thought of Mickey Mouse! It’s not like I like the character, or like Disney in any way. But it was a symbol that one could hurt…

I only do cartoons about California now and then, as it’s obviously not national, but an LA Times article said recently, the State Treasurer claims it’s “too big to fail.”  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said they’d have to make education cuts – which I say, hallelujah – we have a terrible record of even teaching kids to read and write, with the most corrupt school system, at least in SoCal.  He also talked about selling landmarks like San Quentin! and the LA Coliseum.  The WSJ reported:

Other properties on the governor’s list include a landmark concert hall called the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif., and fairgrounds in Sacramento and near San Diego. It’s unclear how much the proposal could actually raise.

Disneyland was never mentioned, of course, but everyone associated it with California. I couldn’t remember what Mickey looked like, so I had to Google him. There are some artists – maybe a lot, I don’t know- who seem to have a photographic memory, and just know how something should look. That’s never been me. I’m almost the opposite. I find it very hard to remember faces or clothes. For me, it’s words and ideas first. So I think I did a pretty good job with him, but wondered if cutting off the fingers was too much. At least I didn’t add any blood. (full disclosure: when I was drawing him, and I cut off his fingers and his ear, and he was crying, I got tears in my eyes. See, I’m not the tough oped cartoonist you thought I was.)

And I like the caption, drawn as a storybook page that ends quite tragically.

More cartoons:

1. If California was as cool as Glee.
2. Sometimes it sucks to be gay.