The Week in Cartoons, annotated...

We conceptualize and explain, so you don't have to...

I’ve decided to just do a weekly round-up of the cartoons, with the value-add of my pathetic, dribbling explanations of how I got there on the ideas and execution. It’s useful for me to do this, anyway, because I’m frequently not sure how I got there. Anyway, here goes:

This was my first cartoon for the week. I had been chewing on this one for several days, unsure if I could indicate Unit Size in a cartoon. I called a serious person, also known as an editor at A Major Newspaper In The Bay Area Even Though This Wasn’t For His Rag, and verbally described the idea. He went along with it, so I went there. Now that Donald Trump has shattered every cultural and taste norm in America (mushroom—Google it), I think this is OK. I remember in 1985 being horrified that urine testing was introduced into the national political dialogue by good ol’ Dutch Reagan of Tampico, Illinois. Each cycle gets worse. Much worse.

Oh, this guy Clinton had my six year old daughter saying, “Listen to me…I did not etc.,” which I blame him to this very day for.

I think the size issue was introduced by Mr. Magic Mushroom at a GOP debate, where we all had to listen to this moron defend his Presidential Package on national television. Here we are.

Also, I am now putting an upside down flag pin on this mendicant until I don’t have to draw him after November 5.

I also assume this clown is going to immediately announce he’s running in 2028, too. What sayeth you?

This is my weekly cartoon for Michael Smerconish of CNN and Sirius XM. He’s a great guy, about my age, and a really fun, charming fellow. He offered me a gig on his newsletter immediately after I was (insert your word for what happened to me on July 11 here) fired by McClatchy.

So I bang out a cartoon first thing for him on Monday morning. I decided to use this idea for him instead of the Mushroom Magnitude cartoon, because I didn’t want any trouble.

I really liked this cartoon because I got to throw in a load of Easter Eggs, which is what cartoonists call little additions in the background. In my Sunday Chronicle cartoon, I can usually get 6-12 in per cartoon since it runs a half a print page (tab). In this cartoon, I got to draw on this Easter Egg Hunt:

1. An LBJ mug

2. A box of old grandpa Werther’s, which I misspelled.

3. An Atwater-Kent console cathedral radio

4. Walter Cronkite

5. A Zenith TV

6. Rabbit ears

7. A damned fine portrait of FDR.

8. A tossed-off Harry Truman

9. Jack Kennedy, which I slaved over. Zoom in on the eyes. I did them in Photoshop. There was no ink there. Couldn’t get them right at that size (about a quarter—seriously)

10. My son’s headphones.

11. That’s ten.

12. Stop making numbers.

13. Oops.

Anyway…this got a lot of bounce around the interwebz. It’s comfort food for kids my age—most of you, I’ll bet. I was born in 1960. I remember a lot of this stuff. Sigh.

I did both of the above on Monday. I don’t like to do two in a day, but welcome to the New Freelance Lifestyle ©.

NEXT UP: Lost in space…

I really enjoyed drawing this one, because I’m a space guy.

Again, Trump weightless (heh) is a major advantage to any self-respecting political cartoonist. This is playing off the two astronauts who are waiting for Uber/Boeing to bring them back. This will happen, maybe by X Slimeball South African Aerospace. No one is panicking. If this had been a real emergency, of course I would have avoided it.

Drawing Trump’s weightless hair was a big moment for me, so I enjoyed that. I got to reference:

1. Sartre

2. Sharpie

3. Project 2025, which they will implement, their goddam lies notwithstanding.

4. His X phone.

5. A piece of orange lint I put in as a favor to a paid subscriber friend, who is a major artist. See what you get with paid subscriptions?

6. Biden as Satan, Sharpiefied.

7. That’s only six. I don’t count the MAGA hat.

I also love drawing falling or floating bolts. Don’t ask me why.

Which brings us to…

I loved drawing this, which I did after the Lost in Space cartoon. I finished this about 4:00 PM, which is when my hands usually craps out. This is very close, crampy work, kids. I can write all day, but drawing really gives me a workout.

OK, I didn’t like drawing the first panel, because it required perspective on lettering, which is, in the words of Fatboy Orange, a bitch.

This is something that shows you whether someone can draw passably or not. I draw pretty well in perspective (well enough for a cartoon, but don’t ask me to draw schematics, which a dear 88 year old friend did for Aerojet before he became a famous painter). That dude is amazing.

Anyway, I enjoyed drawing the second panel, which shows a lot of detritus. A little screwup on perspective lettering on one of the signs on the ground, but otherwise a serviceable representation of Light Attendance at a Rally. No Photoshop here. No, that’s a Trumpian lie. I did the whole thing in Photoshop. A lot of my insane colleagues in this business do the entire cartoon on tablets or Wacom Cintiqs, which takes a lot of dribble out of the line. I don’t use these things because I don’t want to reverse engineer mistakes.

I move letters around all the time in cartoons. You wouldn’t believe how sparse some originals are now. I just blow in blacks, etc. Mostly I try to draw a clean original. When we get to my Chronicle Sunday cartoon, I’ll show you what I’m talking about. Not there quite yet.

Moving on, we have the mentally ill congenital liar Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. telling the Harris-Walz team he’ll drop out for a job.

Here’s a job, pal: Go away.

I had put off drawing The Dead Bear in Central Park Scam for awhile, waiting to use it for precisely this kind of metaphor. I love drawing this idiot, who makes me so sad for his sibs who are mostly pretty solid kids trying to protect their political legacy.

I’ve talked to several of them over the years, and they are sincerely committed older folks now.

The trick on this cartoon was the bear, and not making it gross. I decided on a top projection. Normally I don’t like to do label cartoons, but if they’re simple, I’ll do it. I’m not a nut about it.

I think I hit Walz dead-on in the caricature.

Harris is still hit-and-miss for me, but I’m getting there. She’s harder to draw smiling. Her face in repose is easier

.Which brings us to the Money Shot, the Sunday Chronicle cartoon.

I have been become a friendly acquaintance of former Mayor Willie Brown recently. I’ve had lunch with him several times, and will see him this Saturday as well. He’s really a funny guy and a wise soul, and who can’t use that in their lives? Willie was in the news this past week with Trump’s assertion he was on a crashing helicopter with the Mare, while the mayor was dishing on Vice President, which was a hallucination.

When we come up with these things, we are thinking, hmm. Helicopter metaphors, right? The Apocalypse Now metaphor was the idea, but I didn’t have that title until until An Editor From A Major Bay Area News Organization Founded in 1858 Located At Fifth And Mission mentioned the actual movie title . I texted back, “Apocryphal Now", and there it was.

The original story had Mayor Brown puzzled, as it didn’t take place. Then there was some media speculation, I think in The Failing New York Times, that it was Jerry Brown. Nope. Chris Cadelago at Politico California finally determined that Trump was in a helicopter with former Assemblyman Nate Holden, who is 95 and chipper. He is also Black and a head taller than Willie. But hey, the BUHLACKKKKKKSUH all look alike to an Orange Patriot.

At panel 4, we have Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who Trump said he loved (unless he was with BUHLACKKKSUH who wanted to rent his apartments) and his crowd size. Of course, everything Trump says is either a lie or wrong (MAKE AMNESIA GREAT AGAIN), so he messed that up, too.

I drew King from memory, interestingly. I went back and checked his eyebrows, though.

The final panel with AHNULD was easy when I thought about it whilst roughing up panel 2, where I remembered GET TO THE CHOPPAH! Bingo. Cartoon ends, I go home.

Quick Easter Egg check:

1. My dad was in the First Cav, so that was fun to toss in. My Editor Pete W. (anon.) was also an Army Louie at West Point, so he let it stay in. Sometimes Lt. Pete (no relation to Lt. Dan, to my knowledge) will contribute punchlines. Guess which is his?

2. Falling bolts (see above).

3. Wilkes Bashford, a famour SF clothier favored by Willie Brown. Obvs. My greatest moment thus far with WB was when he said my suit looked nice.

4. Got to do a Young Jerry Brown, which I enjoy, complete with Schopenhauer (and yes I had to look up the quote) and Aristotle’s Poetics, which I did read at Portland State.

5. Changed the helmet words around. Walt Kelly’s“Pogo” used to do that on boats. Loved that.

6. Used the idiotic Trump nickname “Kamabla”, which makes no sense.

Here’s the rough sketch so you can see the difference between the ink version and the final color version

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OK, kids. Gotta take a break. I’ll posting some San Francisco Chronicle content soon, and more Subby-Only writing, probably tonight.