The Week(s) in Cartoons, Annotated by Gregory Bovino

Got a little behind on this particular column due to the firehose of news we're currently experiencing...

It was a loud week in Lake Wobegon, people. I grew up there, and it ain’t right. It’s not…so not Minneapolis. But as my Minnesota buddy Keith Hansen (who is astutely not living in the United States, at the moment) said, “I’m proud of our homies.”

Me, too.

Let’s look at some of these cartoons.

I like doing this type of cartoon, because it’s caricature-heavy. I am often asked, gee, Jack ol’ boy, how to you get these editorial cartoon ideas we see, maybe too much, in my inbox?

Well, as I tell them, it’s a writing job, not a drawing job. If you start with the drawing first, it’s usually a modular plug-and-play idea. I usually meander about my kitchen at 5:00 AM, muttering phrases like “Tantrump”. I then draw off the phrase, not a sketch. I’m not above doing that, but it’s not usually how I work.

While Trump is a superficially easy caricature, he also isn’t, because he doesn’t have a full range of emotions and facially expressions. When smiling, he looks like a kid at Sears getting his picture taken: fixed, denturey grill smile. Ugh. His scowls and anger are his main facial expressions, which lend themselves to my tender inky mercies.

Like, the man’s eyes are dead, for starters. Like a weird rodent, or a snake. Reptilian. I hardly ever show his large, flat pupils and cornea. They convey nothing but an empty soul.

Let’s move on.

Here’s the Smerconish cartoon. I am not pretty mindful of the fact that Michael shows these on CNN, so I am now trying to make them television-screen friendly and not overly-ornate, which I tend towards, sometimes. I liked this one, and it didn’t take a whole lot of time. Did the cracks with a uniball micro in three minutes, and I was more concerned about the ice color than anything else.

Had to hit Trump’s bald spot. I have a running joke with my dawg Rick McKee about drawing his bald spot, as well as his neck slit. I will often send him a short animation of me hitting those to amuse him. He needs cheering up—he lives in Florida.

There is a rare open-eye Trump, too.

Speaking of eyes, it is now clear (?) to me that I am rapidly losing vision in my left eye, which makes drawing a challenge. This also happened to me during the pandemic, so obviously I need to get to the ophthalmologist soon. I have an appointment Thursday. I am getting through this by leaning in closer, mostly, and am now writing my column at 36 pt. type. Sigh. Anyway,. I expect to get this all fixed shortly as I am now a proud Medicare recipient.

Kinda dug this one.

Again, I walked around trying to find the coffee maker at 5 with one eye in the dark while I chewed on NATONATONATONATONATO. Finally I came up with this, and it worked just fine.

I guess my nice touch was the upside down flag (light self-congratulations).

Drawing grass is the bane of my existence, and I have to draw a lot of grass, because Fat Ass is usually on the golf course. I don’t throw down a bunch of green and call it good. I put a yellow tone underneath, but getting that red-yellow-blue color balance is easy if Dipshit is in the cartoon: red tie, yellow hair, blue suit. Every other color is on the table.

This would be a drawing in search of a punchline, which I thought of after I started the drawing. I felt that just with the “All those in favor,” it worked well enough, but I also thought I’d eventually think of the little kicker in the corner. I think it occurred to me late in the inking phase, which takes anywhere from 45 minutes to maybe three hours if I’m struggling under water. Normally I have things under control in the pencil phase, but I also am open to late audible calls on the line of scrimmage (stop thinking about the Seahawks).

I also like throwing Trump’s tie end randomly in the drawing to give it a little extra red punch. I do this all the time. It’s usually hanging off his desk, which he has soiled after JFK used it.

This one may have been a function of my AWOL left eye, and it is simple—I also hope it happens to be true. Looked a little better last week than it does now.

I did like it, however.

As I was writing this, I got an alert on my screen from The Hill that read: “Minnesota ICE situation stokes fears of civil war”.

Yeah. It does. People, I have no idea how this plays out, but Minnesota seems to be the template: stick with the non-violent resistance. I kind of non-confidently think that the second these ICE raids start slowing down the economy, the business community (a lot of it), will raise hell with these fascists.

I cannot imagine a dumber political strategy for Trump than lighting up his Second Amendment people, period. And they are rightly mad.

I will write about my gun ownership history later.

But I’m not opposed to the ham and eggs hunters/target shooters/shotgun/rifle/pistol folks. I don’t want military rifles out there, but someone decided that these things should be available to the public, which is obviously a dumb idea.

As the central tenet of his people seems to be abortion, guns, and religion (their religion), picking off the gun people is a dumb political strategy.

Drawing lots of anything (rubble, etc.) is hard. I decided to draw the guns with a Flair pen and get it over with. I could have bogged down in it, but I decided it didn’t matter. The volume was the key, not the intricate detail.

I don’t think I wrote about this one, or, at least, I do not recall writing about it.

I started with the bipolar bear part, then added the Orangeland part after the usual 5 AM wandering.

I do a lot of wandering.

In using anthropomorphic imagery, sometimes the subjects face doesn’t quite match the animal’s facial structure. Here, it’s an OK fit. Not great. Good enough. I did enjoy doing this, and thought it apt. I won’t discuss the blood volume, but I think it’s about right. I did look at an actual polar bear photo in drawing this. I didn’t look at the fish, as I have drawn and written five fishing books—although I may have screwed up the fins. Want to buy one? Look HERE. I recommend An Inconvenient Trout and Angler Management. End of sales pitch.

Here’s my San Francisco cartoon, and it was excruciating to draw. This was an all-planning cartoon, and I hate to plan. That’s why I’m a cartoonist. I decided to do it with a uniball, so I didn’t have to constantly check my brush tip—I had a lot of real estate to cover, and didn’t want to get bogged down.

I was going to do a Super Bowl in San Francisco cartoon Thursday, but then I remembered the SB isn’t until next Sunday, so I decided to hold off for a slam- dunk subject (mixed metaphor, sorry—not a home run).

Just for fun, here’s my last week’s cartoon on SF’s star-crossed Great Highway, which The City can’t quite decide what to do with.

What else is there?

Here’s the illo I did for Comstock’s—I do the HR column art. Honestly, it’s really fun, the art directors and editors give great writing prompts, and I enjoy it. Plus, that’s my actual cat in the frame.

I guess that’s it for now. Getting ready to figure out the rest of the afternoon. I can assure you that dishes are indeed involved.

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Hey, YBs! : Have a great day. I’ll likely be quiet tomorrow. Keep the faith. I try to.—J.