9-11 Photographer Unknown.

Famous Falling Man photo from 9/11. Apparently the photographer made several photos of this man, one of which shows him aiming straight down, like an arrow.

I’m not sure if this is the same photograph sequence that Esquire talks about, although it’s obviously a tall man.  Esquire gets a little dramatic talking about what the AP photographer, Richard Drew, had in mind with his photos, but this still gives me chills:

They jumped to escape the smoke and the fire; they jumped when the ceilings fell and the floors collapsed; they jumped just to breathe once more before they died.

More cartoons:

1. 9/11 Cartoon in 2009.
2. What Barack Obama could learn from Balloon Boy Dad.

2nd amendment cartoon on the 4th of July

They’re not legal in Philadelphia, either, but they have them in the Amish counties! Yup, Dwight Schrute territory. Right next to the special quilt fabrics and needles.

The writing on the corner is a soupcon of Outsider Art. What crazy people and others do – lots of word and writing to get the idea across.

That little boy looks so happy.

More on gun control to come, of course.

Cartoon caption: Amendment 2a: The right to bear sparklers. Happy 4th to our troops.

More cartoons:

1. Tofu for Thanksgiving cartoon, not necessarily vegan.
2. My first Sarah Palin cartoon, gun included.

soldier's grave and ipad cartoon

This cartoon cracked me up, but I am dark, so dark.

I don’t know who gets my cartoons, really. I’m just grateful that most editors do. But my editor at Slate didn’t put this really interesting drawing, with toned colors and mood and a really funny joke, on the front page! Astounding! Also, annoying.

Yes, I know Memorial Day is to honor downed military. But not everyone gets the gravity, especially young people.  The fact that the delayed health care plan may have killed this guy… and that getting his new iPad was equally as important (and it’s purple, which seems to be allowed at Apple)… This is Saturday Night Live humor, at least in my eyes.

Caption for blind Google: Gramps, thanks for protecting our country…I’m sorry Obama didn’t get the health bill done in t ime for you…and I finally got that iPad I wanted… JACK SHEPHERD, SOLDIER, LOST, HUSBAND and Here lies Politico.

Have a peaceful, honorable, and, yes, funny Memorial Day.

Also, I’m kind of behind in doing my LA Times editorial roundup, but look for one tomorrow.

More cartoons:

1. Ink spill cartoons for the LA Times for May, 2010.
2. 9/11 Cartoon in 2009.

I think I’m on the other side, though. And I couldn’t let the whole week go by without pointing out the best cartoons of the week…for the Los Angeles Times crowd, that is! (Speaking about editors and awards, I used to write bitter posts here about Time Magazine’s Cartoons of the Week. I don’t bother anymore. Turns out Time chooses cartoons from only 3 syndicates – BORING – and so their choices are extremely limited, and are only what they pay for. Like every newspaper in town. So their famous award…not so meaningful now.)

Aside from the BP oil spill – which according to my own stats, ranks right up there with Tiger Woods in the public’s interest and concern – not that many big stories last week. The headline on USA Today for Friday’s big news was about the weather: Gloom predicted in several states. That says it all.

As it happens, all my picks this week come from Cagle Cartoons, which is the most local syndicate to Los Angeles, anyway.

cameron cardow cartoon on bp oil spill and goldman sachs

What a great looking cartoon! Cameron Cardow is not only pretty, but has combined two issues in one: both the oil spill and the Goldman Sachs dustup (piggy activity).  Even though we are home to movie stars (and of course, oil wells, if you remember Beverly Hillbillies) all of us here know that even the stars love a good bargain! Why do you think  swag bags proliferate at every single event? And so, the LA Times gets a double header with this cartoon.

Great colors, limited gradient or fade tool (my least favorite effect in Photoshop) and super concept. Funny, there are an awful lot of Goldman Sachs rear ends in this cartoon…  

(I love this cartoon, but there are so many good oil slick cartoons out right now that I think I’ll also make it the theme for next week.)

jimmy margulies cartoon on the greek economy

I just love a little mythology thrown into the mix! Kind of like Lost does, but Lost is rather sucky this season, so let’s concentrate on Icarus. I knew Icarus was a Greek hero who made his own wings and flew too close to the sun and died, very sad. But Wiki also adds that he could have been the person who invented sails on boats, which is somewhat like flying, I guess, since roller coasters hadn’t been invented yet, and then he still died by falling out of the boat and drowning. (like Fate, in Lost…)

I like the Jimmy Margulies’ imagery of the Mastercard and Visa melting. Does this really represent Greek’s meltdown? Who knows? But it does relate to our own country’s confused and dysfunctional relationship with credit cards.

nate beeler cartoon on fannie mae and freddie mac and greek crisis and obesity

Here’s an article about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, since I’m unable to help you with this. It’s something about mortgages, and if I am ever lucky enough to own a house in my lifetime, I’ll read about it then. Even though houses are out of reach for so many people here,  real estate is super important in LA, so the Times will dig this cartoon by Nate Beeler!

At first I thought the cartoon was on the running theme this year on obesity, so it works that way, too. I didn’t even see Uncle Sam squeezed between them – I’m not a fan of donkeys, elephants, or Uncle Sam as symbols – until I had already downloaded the image. Oh, and it’s something about the Greek Debt Crisis, as well. Here’s a triple-subject cartoon for you, Times!

Honorary Mention: here’s one by Mike Lester, on National Prayer Day.

mike lester cartoon on national prayer day

I didn’t know there was such a day, but it’s a great idea, isn’t it? It’s kind of a lightweight cartoon, and the very loose drawing style matches that. I like all the sketchy pen strokes here – casual, yet controlled. I don’t know why his name is so childish and dark, however; it distracts from the easy lines.

People think of LA as being Godless. That’s not true. We don’t talk about it much, but we pray, we do.

Thanks, everyone, for the terrific cartoons I was allowed to share with everyone today! And thanks to Daryl Cagle for letting me borrow them.

My own cartoons:

census cartoon for republicans

Comments on Republicans are 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.)

cartoon on hollywood unemployment

Comments on unemployment are here. (no link now, see above) And I hope you caught this one, one of my favorites!

cartoon on jack and jill -or illegal immigration, pick one.

Comments on illegal immigration are here.

Captions for blind Google: Icarus flies into the sun with Greek debt, Mastercard and Visa. An appropriate punishment for Goldman Sachs Executives: cleaning the Gulf shoreline of oil from BP. National Prayer Day – Governor says Pray! That’s a switch. The other 364 days they say Pay! Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Uncle Sam: Tsk! That’s what happens when you don’t keep yer house in order! Hey, buddy, ol’ pal! Can you spot me another $11 billion? Greek Debt Crisis.

More cartoons:

1. Political oil, immigration, Facebook cartoons for the LA Times for May 2, 2010.
2. Editorial cartoons for LA Times, April 2010.

* UPdate: Different version of this in Psychology Today.

I have a growing collection of Sad Cartoons, it appears. I could have put this in the Holiday category, but that wouldn’t have been appropriate, when this is a memorial cartoon for September 11.

I forget that holidays are big in newspapers. Newspapers, and in schools! I never forget what happened that day, of course, but wasn’t paying attention to the calendar. Fortunately, I follow Daryl Cagle on Facebook and Twitter, and he put up a whole slew of September 11, 9/11, and 9-11 cartoons, no matter how you spell it. I noticed some good ones there. A lot of the cartoonists used the “eleven” part in Sept 11 to be the two Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Very clever…the first 3 cartoons, anyway.

So then I had to work to think of a totally different idea from that!

I always think of the sky that day. The black smoke, the falling, burning tower, the falling bodies – when I make the effort to think of someone besides myself I think about those people in the Towers over and over, and the terrible decision so many made: burn or jump. I remember telling a friend at the time that I couldn’t understand why they didn’t have helicopters right there to swing ropes or whatever to the poor suffering people. He made fun of me, but I still think it was logistically quite feasible.

But anyway, the sky was so blue and beautiful, like I never think of NYC looking usually. With the whole tragedy going on, in it, around it, and under it, it stayed that way. It’s now in my permanent collection.

Caption: “Remember? That’s the color of the sky on Sept 11.” “And we’ll never forget all the brave men and women who were there.”

More cartoons:

1. Building a mosque near Ground Zero? It’s a NO-brainer.
2. 9-11.

"I cannot tell a lie. Forget the cherry pie." © D. Barstow, 2009 All rights reserved

Hey, I’m back. Can you believe it? It’s that darn Illustration Friday… it keeps pulling me in, daring me to match the new topics they put up each week, rain or shine, holidays be damned. (They’re international and free-spirited over there.)

This week’s topic is celebrate. I have some things to celebrate this week, yes, I do!

First is Valentine’s Day, which was Saturday. I didn’t get any, so I guess I’m a little sad about that, but I still enjoyed the decorations and the free design ideas all the advertisers threw at us non-stop. I can remember the smell of white glue and the crinkly rough feel of the lace when I made them in school, too. (And how I admired other kids who seemed to have a much better grasp of design, with blue hearts, and layers, and other stuff I can’t remember.) Design is really unrecognized art.

Then on Monday, President’s Day. Well, not a very interesting holiday, and no mail, hate. (Hate even more that the Post Office STOLE my mailbox last week. The neighborhood public one. It’s not like I live on a farm, or some rural area. This is Los Angeles. On a major corner, on a very busy 4 lane street. They are so f-ing lazy, I guess they just couldn’t be bothered stopping at the box to pick up the mail. Yes, I could hear my mail drop to the bottom, as there was so little in it, but so what!!)

But President’s Day was a perfect day to start my syndicated Editorial Cartoons! Yes, I’m branching out: I’m syndicated on GoComics. And this is even more surprising: I’ve gone to the dark side – editorial cartoons! Well, someone has to do it. I have about a dozen cartoons up there now -some favorites from the fall election and new ones as they come to me.

Political cartoons, and the differences between them and general gag cartoons are legion, which I’ll go into another time. But it’s fun to try something new, so I’ll drink to that.

Today’s cartoon is from my self-syndicated restaurant feature, Daily Special. I updated the caption for my chocolate book, to read: “I cannot tell a lie. Forget the cherry pie. Cherish the chocolate cheesecake.”  Only my readers will be able to tell me if that’s funny, but it cracks me up! After all, why can’t a good waiter be both a poet and alliterative?

More cartoons:

1. Hello world!
2. Am I mean?