The Week in Cartoons, Early and Annotated

We draw these things so you don't have to...

It was a truncated week, people. After 8 days in Honolulu on my wife’s dime, I’m now headed to Montreal for the joint Association of Canadian Cartoonists/Association of American Editorial Cartoonists confab. I’m in my last year as AAEC president, so this will be a bit bittersweet.

OK, a lot bittersweet.

Anyway, let’s get to the cartoons.

This was my first cartoon on Monday, for Smerconish.com. I have to say one of the things I’ve noticed in the Harris campaign is her iron adherence to her composure and messaging. Trump, of course, can’t keep a game face on for more than a camera shutter click, so Harris’s ability to keep smiling is, well, beyond my comprehension. I think it’s clear that Harris holds a slight advantage in this race, although anything can happen.

In fact, it did yesterday, where Jack Smith got his tres damning re-indictment pulled together, demonstrating that Mike Pence was indeed left for dead by his own president.

Memo to Vance’s file: he’ll let you die, too, if it suits him.

I’m warming up the Harris caricature now, and noticing all sorts of nuances around her eyes and mouth. We’ll get there, but her smile is really preternaturally permanent. I think she’s smiling when she’s asleep, like Jimmy Carter.

Next:

The putrid, racist, crazy Mark Robinson gubernatorial bid in North Carolina continues, damaging Trump (how can it not?) and throwing his Crazyland/Kristalnacht into chaos. I drew the storms in North Carolina as a metaphor.

The question of whether some metaphor or subject is “too soon” was raised by a reader in Charlotte with me, and I guess it depends where you are. Tragedy plus time equals comedy, I’ve heard. I decided to go ahead and do it anyway. I am sure that NC Democrats would understand the meaning. I saw lots of California forest fire metaphors used by editorial cartoonists a few years ago, and I did not and do not take weather I’m experiencing personally. Have at it.

Number three on the runway (I’m sitting at Gate A-14 here, so this is a lived metaphor):

Again, here is a similar metaphor and drawing, but empathizing with the poor MAGA guy who trusts Trump. This isn’t about climate per se, it’s about stupid, short-sighted budget cuts under Project 2025, which Trump disavows (another lie). His top guys all worked on it, and JD Bowmanhamelvance even did the foreword to the author’s book. They want to cut NOAA.

NOAA.

And throw you in a gulag.

I like drawing dynamic cartoons, and I was happy with the socks blowing off and Trump’s cotton candy combover blowin’ in the wind.

Imagine if NOAA wasn’t there anymore. It’s like getting rid of traffic lights to save a million bucks. Hey, 45, you know you live in Florida, right?

Note two red roofs, airborne, in this and the Robinson cartoon.

The color red is always a nice punchy accent, and sometimes you’d be amazed by how little red is in a cartoon. Winslow Homer was a master of the small red color accent. I first noticed this at the DeYoung art museum many years ago.

Next? This:

Former FLOTUS Melanija Knavs Trump is back on the scene, for bucks. Surprise. She rolls out her book a month before the election, and charged the Ripon Society of Wisconsin $237,000 for a speech. Apparently she also asked CNN for $250K for an interview, and they politely declined. Of course her people said it was a mistake.

It’s always a mistake. Or a joke.

There is nothing I will miss about these people. Nothing. And, my God, they’re rolling out a bitcoin company weeks before the election. Prostitution used to be an honorable profession. These creeps will stop at nothing for a buck.

I love drawing Mar-A-Lago scenes. The pinks contrast nicely with the blues and greens, although I HATE DRAWING GRASS. It has to be done right, and it’s very time-consuming. Bushes and trees I like. Grass? No. I banged this one out fast, so I didn’t micro-obsess on the lawn like I would normally.

I have to check to locks and wash my hands. Again.

Do you smell gas?

Anyway, here’s our next contestant:

Let’s play What’s the Difference Between The Cartoons? If you said that I added snow, you’re right! I knew something was missing when I sent it out, so I added a little Minnesota Powdered Sugar for Vance’s donut…

Yes, yes. The Veep Debate between a liar and a human.

As I watched the debate, I thought Walz did just fine, even if he missed some openings. I wonder how the Harris team wanted him to handle Vance, because going after him would be something I would personally relish, without notes.

Walz is new to the national stage, and Vance has been doing book tours and running his mouth on camera for awhile now. OK? So he’s an accomplished, practiced liar. He only gets rattled when he’s around regular people, who he professes to like. He can’t even order an effing donut without sounding like the main character on Resident Alien.

Maybe his OS needs updating.

Polling showed the debate a wash, and if anyone came way from that debate thinking Vance should be anything other than someone who sells reverse mortgages on late night cable channels, well, I’m saddened that you’re that gullible.

See also: my column on the debate in The San Francisco Chronicle, which I posted this other day. Short version: Vance is a goddam liar. The only reason there was the perception of his “winning’ the debate is that he’s an adept mendicant and prevaricator, and, yes, I like those words.

Trump, I am sure, was unhappy because Vance beats him at this own game.

If this freakshow wins, I am pleased that I have a fresh U.S. Passport. I am open to your suggestions for where to request political asylum.

Next…

:

I do a local cartoon, usually about the Bay Area or The City each week, and the talker there is the reprehensible bastard, John Fisher, who owns the A’s.

Oh, any sentient person loves the A’s, and they have had, off and on, legendary teams. My dad, in 1970, made fun of the uniforms, and I am not quite sure why. Maybe they offended his Minnesota Aesthetic, which ran from green plaid to red plaid.

Anyway, Fisher moved the team temporarily to Sacramento (en route to Las Vegas, of course) , a fine city that seems truly bipolar about whether Sac should be “happy” about this.

I don’t want to get too deep in the weeds, but if there is anyone more deeply unpopular in the Bay Area than John Fisher, and I include Elon Musk, I am not aware of that individual.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill (I am pretty sure it wasn’t an executive order, but I’m six time zones off, currently, from where I was on Sunday morning) that named the above members of the animal kingdom as “The State _________”.

I ran this idea off in a text to my editor/guru Pete Wevurski, who is a former sports editor and copy chief at the Chronicle. He responded like Victor Hugo’s agent, who, in receiving a letter from Hugo that read, “?”, and the agent responded “!”

Finally:

Over the years, I have adopted animal themes to amuse myself (OR-7, Sutter —Jerry’s Brown’s dog, Delta smelt, nutria, and so on…), and Mayor Breed has gifted me with her panda pursuit, which she got.

Naturally, the pandas live in the Bay Area, so they have to have a smart house.

WTF.

She asked Sam Altman and some other Tech Bro I can’t recall (six hours off time zone) to give $25 million to this panda smart house.

I thought this was going to be easy, but I really had to go back and research what, precisely, a panda does all day (jack shit).

But I made it work.

I think. I’m not a smart person six time zones off.

***********************

Thanks for supporting my efforts here. Substack has pretty much saved my life, emotionally and financially. If you’re a free subscriber, thank you. If you’re a paid subscriber, I will buy you a smart panda house*.

*not a legally binding offer. Not available in red states.