The Week in Cartoons, Annotated

It's only been a month? Not even.

Well, I suppose the phrase “I don’t even know where to begin” is going to run through my head for the next four (or 20) years. So I won’t say it. But, in the words of an actual president, Lyndon B. Johnson (remember when we thought he was deeply flawed?), let us begin. Or it let us continue? Anyway.

Here’s my Smerconish. com cartoon:

This was probably my favorite-ish cartoon of the week. A frequent question posed to your buddy here is: “Do you have a favorite cartoon?”

I do not.

My usual flip response is, “Yes, my favorite cartoon is the one I just finished.”

The truth is, I have drawn about 13,000 editorial cartoons. Then I drew a comic strip called “Mixed Media”, and that’s another 1,500. Throw in freelance art, book illustrations, and all that, you’re moving to then north of 15,000 range. That’s a lot.

I remember when the terrific gag cartoonist George Price died, The New Yorker said that he had published over 900 drawings in their magazine over 60 years or something.

OH MY GOD. 900? HOW DID HE DO THAT?

You can see we’re in a mood tonight.

Anyway, this was a cartoon I really liked this week, even if it’s hard to say, wow, that’s my favorite. I took the time to look at the display case at the National Archives, kind of adhered to it, except when I didn’t, and the theme obviously struck a nerve.

Next up:

This is a California-specific cartoon for the Chronicle. Our New Dictator doesn’t like high-speed rail, which should have been built in California about 55 years ago. It’s still not finished yet, and many people say (me, and I am sure others) are puzzled that it doesn't connect San Francisco with Los Angeles—yet. Naturally, the senile idiot who happens to be the 47th president thinks anyone could “rent a limousine” and just drive to L.A. (or, actually, Bakersfield), or fly “for $2”.

Mr. Populist.

Not sure I’ve seen that $2 fare on my Southwest app.

I drew a lot of high-speed rail cartoons in my Previous Life, and enjoy doing them. Again, it’s not exact, and doesn’t have to be. One thing I will say that I fussed with on this particular drawing was the width of the rails.

The fact is, I drew them too wide for the train, and had to move them down a shade in Photoshop. You can’t tell I did that, probably, and they’re still little wide, but close enough. As I previously noted, I work on deadline, this is a cartoon, not an oil painting, and it’ll be OK.

Next:

Kinda dug this one, mostly because I spent a lot of time with the lights on the Potomac. Again, this probably isn’t exact, but it’s pretty close, for a cartoon. I looked at many photographs of the Kennedy Center (I’m also writing a Substack piece on the subject, but I had a lot of schedule disruptions this past week, so it’s not quite done yet).

The Kennedy name now has an entirely different context, and what a shame.

If the building is the star of the drawing, I like to amuse myself with different perspectives and lighting. I noted this a few weeks ago about drawing the U.S. Capitol. So I tried a pretty bold color palette. I went with the yellow/orange/thing, and spent about 30 minutes hitting all those water ink blobs with the yellow paint bucket. Turned out good enough, I guess. The stars might be a little too pretty for light-polluted D.C., but hey. It’s art.

Next? This:

This was probably the cartoon most popular with readers and editors. I’m not that great at aspects of Photoshop (any accomplished Photoshop person could have done what I did here in two seconds, but I am not accomplished. I’m good enough to get it done, period. I have a pretty good color sense, I think).

I made a color paper copy of the TIME cover, pasted it on a piece of paper, drew Trump, threw the lettering on, and ran it through Photoshop, and it worked out fine. Naturally, I drew Trump too low in the original drawing, so I had to slide him up a bit.

I note that Trump, of course, denigrated TIME in some aside—”are they still in print?”, I think he said. Considering his new slave Marc Benioff, a formerly sensible person who’s always bragging about the progressive culture of Salesforce, which he owns, made him Person of the Year, you’d think Trump would be a bit more forgiving. I could have told Benioff that Trump would cut him off in two minutes, which he did.

He gets rid of everyone, and, honestly, I am setting my watch to the explosion of the Trump-Musk relationship.

A lot of cartoonists do the Trump tie too long, but no one does it backwards.

That’s mine, baby.

Next?

I drew this on the fly for the Chronicle in my hotel room in San Francisco, where I was giving a few speeches. I actually worked in the Chronicle building at Fifth and Mission Thursday for the first time. I met a few of my colleagues in the Opinion section, and one of them noted I was very “old school” with my ink bottles and circle templates. I am now a human archaeology exhibit. which is fine. I loved it. I sat in my cubicle, which can be adjusted up or down, with power. At the Chronicle, you have to make a reservation for a cubicle if you’re not there four or more days per week.

Anyway, I hadn’t worked in a newsroom in 19 months, so I was almost emotional about it. I could tell I was a little excitable, and I was joking around with my quieter colleagues for a bit. Felt good.

The trouble with working out of my studio is that all my protocols go out the window. I don’t have my bug scanner or copier, and I discovered that the Chronicle copier requires A) my drawing to fit its tiny aperture, which it didn’t, and B) that they’re requiring people to use an ID badge to unlock the copier.

I drew this in my room, as I noted, and I drew it too large for the hotel copier, which also had a tiny scanning bed. So it’s a little cropped, but since this ran online, that space is a bit more forgiving on a phone than it is on a printed page. Note the jiggly, blobby signature I had to redo. In newspapers (or media companies), the job is to get it in on time and presentable.

Next up, the cartoon I did for the Chronicle at the Chronicle:

American Journalism Hero and Managing Editor for Opinion Pete Wevurski happened to be sitting close to me this time, and I have to admit I only had the theme and the title of the cartoon when I got into the building at about 1:00 PM (parking: $30, four hours). We’re professionals, and there’s a saying in cartooning: “Do you want it good or do you want it by Wednesday?” I wrote the text and penciled it up in about 45 minutes or so, had Pete take me down for a coffee and a sandwich down at the fun little coffee shop they have at Fifth and Mission, and had plenty of time (so I thought) to do a creditable job of inking it and coloring it in Photoshop.

Well, under normal circumstances, I would have had enough time. What happened was I had that aforementioned copier aperture issue, and that really slowed down the process. There was cutting the drawing into parts, moving the pieces around, and lots of tape.

I did manage to get it in before five, which is slightly before when my next speech was supposed to happen (parking: $50).

I had a great time at Sacramento Seminar and at the University Club. Fun folks, great questions. If you’re in the Bay Area or Sacramento, and are interested in me as speaker, give me bump at jackin60@gmail.com. I will relentlessly promote my Substack, of course. I enjoy meeting new folks, and it gets me out of the house.

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Hey, Folks! Hope you get tomorrow off. I won’t, exactly, but that’s OK. I take time off during the day, and I’ll be fine. Anyway, thanks for the new paid subscriptions as I glide into 7,000 subscribers. I am in your debt. Have a great evening. Off to watch the NBA All-Star Game.—J.