They do have 3 cartoons on Sunday, however, here and in the paper (tiny). But they’re edited by Joel Pett, a cartoonist in Lexington, KY. Lexington, really?? As far as I know, Joel has never lived here, and is Lexington in any way similar to Los Angeles? Well, they both begin with L, I guess. Anyway, Joel only chooses cartoonists in his particular cartoon group, which leaves out 15 or 20 of the top editorial cartoonists in the country.

I’m the only New Yorker cartoonist who also does editorial cartoons, so I have a good background in both. As an award-winning cartoonist and editor, and since I’ve been a cartoonist for the LA Times for 6 years, and, maybe, most importantly, actually live IN Los Angeles, I decided it’s time I stepped up to do the job myself. :)  Now, let’s pick today’s winners!

Tony Auth is a great cartoonist. I picked this one for several reasons: he was first out of the gate on this issue,  on the new coastal oil drilling Obama just approved. (boo, hiss, even though I don’t have all the environmental facts yet. Just because I don’t trust Obama.) It seems to be pretty common that editorial cartoonists will pick a name or word and then decorate it like an insane calligrapher. But he did a good job here, and the oil spatters are truly dramatic, spilling over the name itself.

People from other states (like Kentucky) might not realize that in LA oil rigs are common. Not out to sea, but they have baby ones like 12 feet tall in people’s backyards! They call them grasshoppers or some insect, and they are SO CUTE bobbing up and down. I hate driving to the airport, but I take the long way just to watch them.  I love industrial things. (more cartoons below.)

Next, I chose Marshall Ramsey‘s cartoon of an Easter egg hunt, and the big golden egg of Jobs hiding behind the tree! Very amusing! Good spring colors.

I have rarely, if ever seen this style of cartoon in the LA Times, and of course they don’t have color – even online. They rarely have holidays, either. But it’s time to shake things up there, and use cartoons people are AMUSED by – especially when they appear on a holiday, don’t you think?

Also, unemployment is much higher here  in Cali than almost any other state. Staggering.

I also picked this one by Michael Ramirez, the last fulltime opinion cartoonist for the Times. He actually lives here in SoCal. Did anything happen with Israel this week in the news? I don’t know. I don’t know that much about middle east issues. But I assume Michael does. Sometimes cartoons are used to instruct, or point something out to us, and the Times deserves an international cartoon. I like the design and rhythm in this.

Runner up is Walt Handelsman, below, both because I like the message, and I really like jigsaw puzzles. (I just saw some in Costco for like $17. Yowza.) Obama has a lot of work in front of him, but you know, life is more fun when you look at it as a game.

More on why I’m doing this: I edited a Barnes & Noble calendar and 2 books, and I was recently invited to be a judge for a national cartoon contest, so this is a piece of cake. I’ll edit the cartoons for the LA Times, thanks, and post my selections right here! I’ll pick from Gocomics.com and from Politicalcartoons.com, neither of which Joel covers; but if you are a cartoonist in another venue, and would like to be considered for my weekly roundup, by all means submit your best cartoon of the week (only one per week, please) to me at my email on my Contact page.

Also, Joel often picks his own cartoons for the roundups. I won’t be doing that. You can see my California cartoons, most of which appear in the Sunday LA Daily News in print, here or in CalWatchdog, and my Slate cartoons are both here and in Yahoo.

Thanks for playing, everyone, and more next week!

And let me know what you think of my choices!

My own cartoons this week: (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.)

Bad priest cartoon.

Canary cartoon.

Evil health insurance cartoon.

More cartoons:

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

It seems logical that Santa would visit the unemployment office AFTER Christmas, of course, but those pesky editors just aren’t in the mood to buy Santa Claus anything after Christmas Day – I guess they think the cartoon should be half price! This year, with over 10% unemployed (as Obama confirmed  in the oh so casual before Christmas White House Special that Oprah did, that has already aired twice – yeah, it’s over 10%.) seems like unemployment is any time of the year. There’s a good chance many Santas didn’t get to work this year at all, so I hope this makes sense both before and after Christmas.

Yikes, unemployment went up to 12.5% in California, the Los Angeles Times said!

California still has the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation, yes, and its unemployment rate is a whopping 4.5 percentage points higher than it was in October 2008. But the job gains are a significant part of a trend that’s seen the pace of job loss slow as the economy pulled itself back together again.

What the hell do they mean?

California actually added 25,700 jobs in October, making this the first month since April of 2008 that the state has gained jobs.

Truly, sometimes I think they just rearrange facts at the Times to have something new to say.

Anyway, I added 3 elves to this particular Santa, so we know he’s the real one, and I’m sure he worked this year. Didn’t I get some Christmas cards, and don’t I have a new monitor coming real soon?! Could not resist having one of the elves holding a new Christmas toy – perhaps an iPhone, or – wait a second- wouldn’t it make more sense if it were a BLACKBERRY?  Ho ho ho.

Cartoon caption: “But it says here you have 350 years experience in overnight delivery…” at the Unemployment Office.

I must say, I had a lot of fun fooling around with a rough bumbling Photoshop brush for the background, and even for Santa’s suit. The colors are exactly what I was hoping for.

More cartoons:

1. Santa is unemployed and may need Prozac.
2. Graduation chuckles for the undereducated crowd.

You know who inspired me to do this cartoon? Two liberal cartoonists, Ted Rall and Rob Tornoe.  Ted writes about the war and other things making him itchy about Obama – he’s just not a fan this year! And Rob has issues with gay rights. BIG ones. I’ll post a couple of his gay cartoons later this week.

Anyway, they are just so annoyed, I felt I had to rub it in with this cartoon. :)

Cartoon caption: THE DISCOURAGED DEMOCRATS CLUB. No rich people. Obama hasn’t done any big shakes for gay rights. We’re still at war! Is Afghanistan next? Come ON, you guys! We have almost 90% employment!

Are you one of them?

I think it’s the no rich people that makes me laugh the hardest. Dems hate rich people!

More cartoons:

1. Two more cartoons I’m glad I didn’t do.
2. Something about gays, a Time Magazine un-cartoon of the week.

Honestly, this seems like a cartoon a liberal would have done. Woe is me, we’re bad people, let’s forget to be happy when we can mope.

Or maybe they’re proactive capitalists, and they know the way to help the economy is to spend money, even if it’s for a Halloween par-tay. Or network at a party, that really does help. I started guest blogging last week for the LA Weekly, because I know Jill Stewart through the late great Cathy Seipp, and also from the LA Press Club. Hella lot of work to write newsy blogs, but fun!

Back in March, CNN said 4 states had already hit 10% unemployment, including California. Bloomberg says Obama predicted it back in June. However, today Bloomberg says as of September it’s 9.8%, so maybe these numbers are a little suspect, or according to who’s reporting.

Cartoon caption: “Maybe we should consider having a 10% Unemployment Party, rather than a Halloween party…”

Anyway, I finally figured out how to use that shadey stuff, fade from one color to another,  in Photoshop, always forget what it’s called. Too much of it in illustrations- and there’s too much of it around – is just so fake & plastic-like, but a little certainly does help legibility and atmosphere and backgrounds. I used it in 2 places in this cartoon! Watch me start to overdo it! I was inspired by a Halloween cartoon from Daryl Cagle’s Syndicate, by , which uses a very limited palette – I’ll try to get it for you. A limited palette can even have just one color (plus black and white, which aren’t colors), but with even just 2 or 3 colors it’s bold, and even shocking! With this cartoon, I limited it to grey-greens and oranges. I really like the way it came out. YMMV.

I’ve seen some strange signs the homeless make – some touching, some just, well, strange – but I wrote that he needed help with his self-esteem because it’s LA here. And funny.

More cartoons:

1. Great Halloween cartoon of haunted house!
2. The vampire and Sarah Palin.

Graduation thoughts: Choose fonts for resume, Look for good unemployment, Daytime TV. ©D. Barstow

What to do with your new diploma? Ewww, I hate daytime television! Never ever watch it. Even though I do like talk shows.

And I’ll never get unemployment, now that I’m self-employed. :( :( :( :(

I do like fonts, however. I got this idea after I read someone on MySpace who wrote, seriously, that he had just finished his 5-year plan, and now he just had to find a font for it. It still makes me laugh! Maybe I’ll redo this resume dealie next year.

Frankly, I hope these grads get off their duff, do some real work, and go buy my books.

Also, this cartoon is covered by the DMCA and copyright, and may not be used without permission.

More cartoons:

1. Santa was laid off. AGAIN.
2. I need to frequent more bars.

"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.

More cartoons:

1. Santa was laid off. AGAIN.
2. Limited Calorie diets make monkeys cranky.