Last updated on January 3, 2023
Any excuse for a cartoon. I drew this cartoon about a week before Obama’s first 100 days were up, because I got the date wrong. And I used the name of my favorite TV show, Reaper in it, just because I can.
Ah, Reaper, the rare comedy-drama that works both ways, and is totally, always compelling had just recently been pronounced dead by Hollywood Reporter. If you liked The Screwtape Letters, (yes, the same C. S. Lewis who wrote the Narnia books which are much better than The Chronicles of Narnia, because that’s for kids, but I’m a grownup) you’ll love Reaper. The Screwtape Letters is a series of letters from Uncle Screwtape, a demon, to his demon nephew, on how to do it better: that is, how to tempt man and womankind, and what evil is, and how to make it.
I don’t know if the extremely clever writers of Reaper actually read this book, but I saw that Ray Wise, the only actor in Reaper I was familiar with, saw a lot of films with a devil to design his portrayal. And boy, does he knock it out of the park. He is the perfect devil. And Sam is his perfect victim.
The Reaper begins with Sam, a slacker who works at a Home Depot type place because “college made him sleepy” waking up on his 21st birthday, ready for a normal day at his boring job. Then he meets the devil. Turns out his father, an attractive appealing advertising exec, promised Sam’s soul to the devil when he turned 21, in exchange for keeping his mother alive during some illness. (I think, the deal isn’t quite clear.) Sam has 2 jobs now: his job at The Bench, and his work for the devil to find different souls who have escaped from hell and bring them back. He’s allowed to let Sock and Ben, co-workers at The Bench, in on his secret, and they help him out in the chase.
One of the most beautiful things in this show is that even with the setup of a different soul (scary bad people of all types) to get every week, EACH EPISODE IS ALMOST TOTALLY SURPRISING! This is just not a predictable show. How rare is that! And thank God!
Other things I love are in the original post on my other cartoon site, Why I Did It.
Save Reaper.
Another great site on it that I highly recommend here: ReaperDMV.
And about Obama? Oh, I get cranky, but I think his 100 days went pretty good. Everyone was scared. Now they are scared and a little panicky. At least I am. So much is gone, and the new hasn’t arrived. But I really thought his bailouts went overboard, and went to all the wrong people. Let’s see if I’m proved right for the rest of the year. His rating for the first 100? B minus. That gives him lots of room for improvements. Today it would be more like a C. Do you agree?
For cartoon fans: Lettering is super important for these Slate cartoons, as I only get 500 pix, and if you can’t read it, you can’t get it. In this case, I decided to have fun by putting it on a background of taupe brush strokes. Maybe it makes it harder to read, but if I didn’t experiment, I wouldn’t be much of an artist…
I think Obama came out pretty good. His mouth looks a little like how the talented Carol Lay draws! And again, took a chance with the turquoise couch and the lime green table and the magenta sweatshirt. Your eye kind of bounces around. Oh well, it’s like dancing – you get more points if you cover the whole floor.
Caption: “I can’t believe it’s been one hundred days, and he’s still standing. Do you think it’s like Reaper, and he made a deal with the Devil?” ©D.Barstow 2009
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