Every year The CLAW selects one lucky “at risk youth” (at risk of being seriously awesome) and awards them the YOUNG CARTOONIST OF THE FUTURE Scholarship consisting of a over-sized novelty check for photographic purposes and a large sum of money. This year The CLAW was able to AWARD $370 dollars to Ms. Amelia Davis, an art student at Cogswell Polytechnical College in Sunnyvale, California.

While Amelia tries to eat her novelty check, why don’t you browse her inventory of amazing illustration art here at http://lupis-fox.deviantart.com/ Yes!!!! Excelsior!

Learn more about the CLAW scholarship and see past winners here.

Meeting is called to order. SECRET CLAW OPENING RITUAL: What are Robots? Robots are Cool. Zombies Must Die! Shoot ‘em in the head. [One CLAP] Ceci nes pas une pipe. [Rotate Self 3 Times]

Old Business

1. CLAW vs. the World Bowling Challenge . . . ?
2. Non Profit Status? Mark Monlux is much to busy to do the paperwork.

New Business

1. Adopt Amocat as new Open Swim meeting space – RR tasked with talking our way in there.
2. CLAW online store – So far only RR has posted anything
3. STAN SHAW REPORT – motion to taunt professional Tacoma cartoonist Stan Shaw PASSED.
4. Beautiful Angle Local Currency project – limbo. Motion to pester Lance exponentially in September PASSED.
5. Tacoma Art Museum – members committed to July 31st CLAW team-up with Frost Park Community Chalk Militia to bring chalk art to dead concrete of TAM. Passed.
6. FeedTacoma.com Comics Page – Members discussed picking a day to post their comic strip. New members are still thinking of new strip ideas.
7. Agreed to appear on PODCAST: Northwest Convergence Zone – Sunday July 25th at about 5PM?
8. JUNIOR CLAW CADET NO. 12 to be voted in soon! Check out Shawn Clayton

Show and Tell

• Mark Brill has a new gay-furrydom time travel comic out. UNBELIEVABLE + ASTONISHING!
• Stowe gave a preview of his latest SCATS web comic
• VEX zine is interested in a CLAW collaboration… RR brought in his VEX zine collection.  CLAW’S MESSAGE TO VEX: Show us the money! Minimum donation to CLAW Scholarship fund is $150.

SECRET CLAW CLOSING RITUAL: What are Robots? Robots are cool. Zombies must die! Shoot ‘em in the head! [1 CLAP] Beware the flying monkeys.

It’s FREE to attend. Free to mingle. $4.00 for an elusive tile. And well meeting the C.L.A.W….priceless.

(Disclaimer: For legal reasons, value may not be assigned to meeting any member of The C.L.A.W as most victims are haunted by the experience well into their senior years.)

Monkey Tile Preview

Monkey Tile Preview

Monkey Tile Preview

Monkey Tile Preview

Here are some details:

100th Monkey Tacoma

Location:

The Stonegate
5421 S Tacoma Way
Tacoma, WA 98409

June 23rd 7:30 to 9:30.
Band: Mr. FUSION
Tile artist: THE CLAW

Bring food and beverage to ’share’ and measly $4 for collector art piece and support the monk

NO cost art community building

A special note from the artist:

Dear reader,

Please join us in an effort to lessen our shame as fez wearing artists. We hope that through community awareness, other artists will take us more seriously. Only with the help of viewers like you can we overcome the life of oppression that awaits us. Shed some light on the plight of the artist.

And while you’re at it take home one of these cute monkey. They need loving homes where they can be admired and doted over.

Humbly yours,

-Adam M Botsford

ps: If you’re making baked good to “share”…The C.L.A.W. really likes cookies. Big ones! Much thanks.

see more of our cartoonist absurdity in our flickr pool.

Go to http://www.cartoonistsleague.org/scholarship/ and get your forms in by MARCH 15th in order to be considered.

RR's MS Paint Parody of Far Side Cartoon Art

Remember the Far Side?

Elliot Trotter, Mark Monlux, James Stowe, RR Anderson Photo by Kevin Freitas

Rumors have been flying for the last month about the CLAW’s Great Yearly Ceremony. For a secret society that has been not-so-secret with its secret ceremonies, this secret ceremony was kept…well…pretty secret. In fact only a select few other than the membership were invited to the event, which was his in the historic Knights of Pythias Temple in Tacoma, Washington on the dark and gloomy evening of January 4th 2010. The extravaganza showed the changing of the guard with Two of the Four Eyes stepping down, and Two new victims being called into leadership.

Unlike other organizations, which have a democratic process to determine leadership, the CLAW thrust leadership upon its hapless membership. When you are called, you serve. Bu wa ha ha ha ha ha!

Shaking their mantle of responsibility were Elliot Trotter and RR Anderson, the masterminds behind the CLAW’s conception. Now sharing in the wealth of chores and labors are Jeff Hawley and Michael Shaudis. Remaining on the council for another year of sterling leadership are Mark Monlux and James Stowe.

The CLAW also took this time to semi-publically thank the Friend of CLAW, individuals who proved themselves to be very strong supporters of the CLAW. You’ve seen the invites, now you get to meet the recipients:

Kevin Freitas, Warren Caves, John Munn and Dave L. Photo by Kevin Freitas

Kevin Freitas – Photographer Extraordinary, and creator of FeedTacoma.com
Warren Caves – Owner of Tacoma Art Supply
John Munn – Owner of Comic Book Ink
Dave L. – A Really Good Guy

Yet more rumors abound! It’s possible that the CLAW might make next year’s Great Yearly Ceremony available to the public. If you think that tickets, supporting the CLAW Student Scholarship Fund, would be a good idea, then let the CLAW know.

The CLAW sends a special thanks to the Knights of Pythias. The CLAW encourages its reader to check out the Knights of Pythias, who believe the ideals of loyalty, honor and friendship.

And here is Adam the Alien’s special Vlog-Tag of the event”

Issue No. 005, Courtesy of the…
CARTOONISTS LEAGUE OF ABSURD WASHINGTONIANS!

Available at these “REAL AMERICA” Tacoma business establishments:

• What Shope? (seems to have a real connection with our target audience)
• KING’s Books
• Mad Hat Tea Co.
• Tacoma Art Supply
• Urban Xchange
• Puget Sound Pizza
• Crescent Moon Gifts

coming soon….

• Red Hot
• Origins 21
• Comic Book Ink?

yet, AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD ON CLAW ZINE ARCHIVE!

Back issues of our “Terror of the CLAW” Halloween Zine Edition have been stuffed into the City Arts bin at the University Washington bookstore.
* Issue NO. 5 is carefully designed to offend everyone!

What can we do about this fellows? The Fez of shame has had no effect. We require a QUEST OF WORTHINESS!

Harrumph! Harrumph!

Stowe is sent on a quest to bring the members of CLAW chocolate candy.

To safeway!

Purchase completed. Quest objects obtained. Let’s see that receipt.

“Perhaps you will not be so keen to forget your FEZ in the future comrade Stowe.” Says a skeptical Electric Elliot.

Come let us return to the lair.

Stowe is redeemed.

IN OTHER NEWS: planning end of the year council succession ceremony. Electric Elliot and RR Anderson are stepping down from the Council. Stay Tuned!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3RD 10 am – SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4H 10 am
STOWE has challenged MARK MONLUX to a CARTOONIST’S DUEL TO THE DEATH.
Who will complete their 24 page comic book first? What will RR ANDERSON draw?
YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN A MORE THRILLING DISPLAY OF CARTOON STAMINA!

Comic book Ink has agreed to stay open for business 24 hours in solidarity with CLAW.

SPECTATORS will also have the opportunity to contribute
to CLAW’s YOUNG CARTOONIST OF THE FUTURE SCHOLARSHIP.

Comic Book Ink
1625 East 72nd and Portland ave. Suite 800
Tacoma, WA, 98404

See this wireframe diagram scrawled on a spiral bound cocktail napin? This drawing is going to change the world. And by world I mean Tacoma World and by drawing I mean the idea it represents: A FULL ON FEED TACOMA SUNDAY COMICS PAGE by your friendly neighborhood cartoonists. A line up of strips including but not limited to:

• MARK MONLUX with The Comic Critic and The Return of Stick Man
• RR Anderson with THE TACOMIC (political cartoon)
• ELECTRIC ELLIOT with Bob the Dog
• STOWE with DADDY’S NUT SHOT OF THE DAY
• Jeff Hawley with LOG JAM!
• MIKE SHAUDIS with Ocryx and Joe
• And MORE YET TO BE ANNOUNCED!

Why is this any different than other local collective comic sites like ALASKA ROBOTICS?  Because we are wedding LOCAL COMICS to a LOCAL NEWS/CLASSIFIED/BLOGGING site feedtacoma.com. At long last there will be absolutely no reason to purchase a newspaper like the TNT.  What is more you’ll have a strong personal connection to every comic strip illustrator.  For example say you’re sitting in a favorite dining establishment. You look over and see one of us at another table eating a sixth avenue dog or something.  You can say “hey man I like your cartoon strip!” or “Hey I thought your last strip was a real stinker! Why don’t you draw something funny like you used to do”  We’ll say Yes! You’re right! and BLAMO! A personal connection has been formed.  Next week you can tell your lover “Look, I told him to be funny again and heck if he didn’t do it! HAR HAR HAR!”  You just can’t do that with national syndicated strips.  You think the creator of GARFIELD gives two halibut craps about your and your problems?  NO SKIPPY!

Not only will our strips collectively be awesome, but you’ll be able to buy the strips.  You’ll be able to interact with the cartoonist instantly through comments. You’ll be able to sponsor a strip through cartoon product placement AND OR banner advertising.  YOU’LL BE ABLE TO DRAW IN THE FRIGGIN COMMENT BOXES!!!!!!!  HOLY CRAP I JUST BLEW MY OWN MIND!!!!!

Firstly special thanks to Comic Book Ink owner John Munn for the use of his fine establishment whom all CLAW members have concluded is the ultimate NERD MECCA in Tacoma, WA.  Surrounded by buxom, scantily clad, super heroine statuettes and boxes of minty fresh comic books elite members of the Cartoonists League of Absurd Washingtonians High Council held congress to vote on imperative matters all things cartooned.

1. ART ON THE AVE. – members asked about status of this event. Took roll on who is available to attend. RR Anderson lives within walking distance so he was assigned first shift. Mark Monlux can do afternoon if a table is available for poster sales and zine presentation.  If no table is available members will stage a walk out. We will see.
2. URBAN ART FESTIVAL – STOWE is our point man on this, need to confirm dates, who is available. He’ll follow up on this.
3. CLAW ART SHOW AT TACOMA ART SUPPLY – Warren needs art from us ASAP for opening in AUG 1.  He has offered to mount on foam core board for us. Frost Park art work is ideal for this event.
4. 24 hr COMIC BOOK DAY – coming up in October. Comic Book Ink has offered to host up to 6 or so CLAW members to participate. Comic book Ink is a union operation so strict 24 hr comic book day rules apply (so not like those spawns of insomnia Cartoonists Northwest clowns  north I-5).
5. Iron Artist Competition at Tacoma Art Museum – RR is team leader. Why? Nobody seems to know; however, this event is happening at end of the month and we will dominate. Construction of a ’super fez’ was mentioned as a thought experiment; members are intrigued. Happening July 31st.  Lots of silly questions were mailed to us in a form letter. Will add to wiki for TEAM CLAW to ponder. Need to remember to bring tools. AND ask for a spot with POWER outlets.
6. STANLEY SHAW – talked about how much of a weenie this cartoonist is for refusing to join THE CLAW. The man has inside info to working for CityArts… Mark was assigned to pump him for more info.
7. CLAW ZINE ISSUE NO. 003 DRAFTING STAGE – with issue no. 002 hitting news stands in your friendly neighborhood participating Tacoma businesses now is the time to get issue no. 003 cooking.  RR was assigned editor and the theme we decided on is “THE CITY OF DENSITY” a parody of Tacoma’s famous tagline “The City of Destiny” made famous by George McFly in that Back to the Future film when he says to his future wife: “You’re my density!” We will apply this to comics; trying to fit in as many different vignettes on one page for each member inspired by Electric Elliots tiny strips from Zine ISSUE  NO. 1.
8. OTHER BUSINESS – sadly new member Jeff was the only member unable to attend. We managed to fold many more bundles of zines thanks to help from Member Mike’s wife (who escaped the fate of wearing the fez of shame). Did we mention how incredible Comic Book Ink is? Man that place is SERIOUS AWESOMENESS! Also apparently there is an all you can eat sushi place over on 38th that is rad.

this concludes the secret meeting notes. Please burn this monitor after reading.

How is this possible might you ask?

Thanks to bitchin’ new technology developed by the genius minds at Minutaur.com, time is now ripe for the taking. Take a look at the homepage of Minutaur to see our greatness. More about Minutaur here.

Our resulting message to all of humanity:

Thank you for choosing to exist in the month of July. Know that your life is within CLAW’s jurisdiction. At any point we have the right to pummel you with the greatest cartoons ever, forged from the fires of Mt. Doom. Fear us, read us, draw with us!

CLAW:  Can you tell our readers a bit about your illustration process? Do you start with a sketch? Ink/Color or Scan directly into photoshop, use a wacom etc?

ZS: I do a sketch the old-fashioned way: pencil on paper. I print out photo reference, if I have it, in black and white; I’ve tried in the past printing out ref in color but the color of the photos is distracting, I find. Then, depending on the piece and how much time I have and how I’m feeling about it, I’ll lay down some washes and stuff in gouache and scan that in and finish painting it digitally, or simply scan in the sketch and paint it entirely digitally.

I’m a very early riser, and pretty much all the campaign pictures were done between 3 and 6 in the morning, before I settled down to my regularly scheduled assignments for the day.

CLAW:  Adding Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket is considered by many political cartoonists a boon or a gift from god. Your Palin illustrations are obviously divinely inspired… can you friggin believe that?

ZS: What I can’t believe is that McCain chose her as his running mate. The painting I did of them entitled “The Morning After” truly illustrates what I think they both felt on November 5th. I know I’ve felt that way myself on more than one occasion!

By the way, I collected all my campaign satires into a book called “The Party’s Over”, available on Blurb and all the paintings can be seen in the Politics section of my website, in case your readers would like to see what we’re talking about.

CLAW: How much of a role does anger play in your political illustrations?

ZS: Plenty! I think anger is a great spark. When people tick me off it’s easy to skewer them, and to come up with ideas on how to do it.

CLAW:  Above all other political cartoonists you have managed to capture Mrs. Palin’s berserker snarl with frightening accuracy. Have you ever been to Alaska? (full disclosure: I’m from Juneau, Alaska).

ZS: No, I’ve never been up there, though if the place it littered with Palinesque individuals…well, I ain’t making plane reservations anytime soon.

About the insanely meat-eating expressions I did for my Palin satires: I used myself as a model for all her expressions. I’ve always used myself as the model for facial expressions. I have a hand mirror that I’ve grimaced and growled and snarled into for years.

CLAW: Many of our members/readers are intense fans of science fiction. Are there any behind the scenes stories you can share with us about your [Norman Saunders] dad’s Mars Attacks cards?  Does a science fiction background help you articulate (in illustration form) the horrors in real-life politics?

ZS: Hmmmm…well, I can tell you that my dad didn’t take Mars Attax seriously at all (it was just a job of “bug-eyed monsters” for him), and he was shocked when he discovered,at the one and only comic convention he ever attended, that he was a revered iller.

I have a little anecdote that I’ve often told about me and my dad’s paintings when I was a little kid. And it’s a true one. Here it is:

I used to “correct” my dad’s paintings, when he was away from his drawing board. Usually that would involve painting extra glamorous eyelashes on his damsels in distress. Years later, in my 20’s, I asked Dad if he knew that I used to do that and he said, “Of course I knew! I’d just go back in and paint them out.” It blows my mind, how patient he was about that. I’d kill a kid for doing that to my stuff!

CLAW:  Any money making/saving advice you’d like to share with your fellow artisans  (example: I recently purchased a pencil extender handle which lets me continue to use the pencil all the way to the nub)?

ZS: Hey! That’s funny you mention that pencil extender thing! I teach a senior thesis illustration class at The University of The Arts, and one of my students hipped me to that extender thing just last week. I’d honestly never seen one of those before!

Hmmm…trying to think of other tips… well, not buying stuff is a good way to save.

CLAW: Thanks for your time Zina!

Thanks for asking me to blather on!

CLAW: for more information on Zina Saunders visit ZinaSaunders.com

Congratulations to Adam M Botsford for winning the 2009 Young Cartoonist/Illustrator of the Future Scholarship! Adam has received an over sized novelty check in addition to $100 dollars in cold hard cash.

Check out his amazing pumpkin illustration…

Adam has posted a write up of his experience during the CLAW OPEN SWIM MEET and AWARD CEREMONY which is sewn with well crafted sketches he drew during our group conversaton about the superiority of 1980’s zombie movies.

On behalf of THE CLAW high fez council of MYSTIC EYES, I wish you the best of luck. May your pencil always be sharp and your eraser never besmirched. You are one talented dude worthy of a fez.

In these times of economic hardship, it is hard to believe that starving art students are unwilling to fill out a form in the hopes of getting free cash. The CLAW has received no scholarship submissions to date. And attributes this not the complete lethargy of today’s youth, but rather on the fact that the word has not yet gone out that mulla is available. Students seeking to widen their knowledge of the mystical way of cartoons via recognized structures of formal learning may now rejoice in the knowledge that the CLAW Student Scholarship has been extended another 30 days to April 15th 2009. Please forward this link http://www.cartoonistsleague.org/scholarship to those young innocent faces who will be the sequential art leaders of tomorrow.

Master Cartoonist Stan Shaw Draws Councilman Mark Monlux with Giant Novelty Pencil

Attendees:

1. RR Anderson (member #2) [proxy for Elliot Trotter (member #1)]
2. Mark Monlux (member #3) [proxy for James Stowe (member #4)]
3. Stan Shaw (member in training)

Consent Agenda:

• Monlux report on non-profit status
• Monlux report on scholarship status
  MOTION: Extend the deadline for Scholarship of April 15 2009. Monlux to post on blog,  Anderson to post flyer downtown. Monlux send out Tacomaarts-listserve and Anderson to volcano. Monlux to sending out email to his few school contacts.(Monlux/Anderson) PASSED
• Monlux report on 24 hour comic
• Monlux report on treasury
• Monlux report on Trotter’s interview filming
• Anderson report on Wayzgoose status
  MOTION: That Anderson go to Kings Books choose a poster for Woolworth display and for raffle. Anderson also to select good and bad copy of poster. One for archives on lucky member’s wall and one for members to doodle on for future project. (Monlux/Anderson) PASSED
• Anderson report on Art Museum request
  MOTION: That the CLAW fulfill the request of the Tacoma Art Museum to show chalking expertise on Sunday April 19. (Coinciding with How Things Work Presentation) This event to be announced to participants as the kick off to the 2009 Chalk Challenge season. Anderson to request monetary compensation for the the scholarship fund and/or coffers. Prize for Chalk contest already arranged. (Anderson/Monlux) PASSED
• Looking over Shaw’s cool comics
• Rest of meeting speaking in tongues and auto-mystic drawing
  MOTION: To have next meeting as Open Swim at Mandolin Cafe at 7:30 Wednesday, March 25th 2009 (Mark/Elliott) PASSED

Current Action Items

Each action item should specify the task, the person responsible, and the due date.

TROTTER

• to do tape video interviews of member, One down.

ANDERSON

• to do more interview for CLAW. Requests other seek and do interviews as well.
• to confirm event with Tacoma Art Museum
• to follow through on selecting posters for Wayzgoose presentation at Woolworth

MONLUX

• to start form filing of non-profit status

STOWE

• tba

SHAW

• to photograph office and post via Flickr.

HOMEWORK PROJECTS FOR ALL

• self portrait that’s 400×600 pixels (by 3/25/2008)
• banner art for website

Completed Action Items

• First Newsletter Comic
• Wayzgooze Poster

Tim Kreider* was born and educated in Baltimore, Maryland. His cartoon, The Pain – When Will It End?, has run in the Baltimore City Paper since 1997 and has also appeared in the Jackson Planet Weekly, The New York Press, The Stranger, and Philadelphia Weekly. Fantagraphics Books has published two collections of his cartoons, The Pain–When Will It End? (2004) and Why Do They Kill Me? (2005), and he was included in Ted Rall’s anthology Attitude 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists (2004). His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Film Quarterly, The Comics Journal, Jump Cut, and Lip.  He divides his time between New York City and an undisclosed location on the Chesapeake Bay. *official bio text

C.L.A.W.  was intensely pleased to sit down with Tim Kreider to talk with  him about his glorious craft.

C.L.A.W. How do you make your cartoons? Do you pencil then ink/scan or do you draw them into photoshop with a wacom tablet?

T.K. I draw with pens on pieces of paper and then scan them in at unnecessarily high resolution. Wacom tablets are very handy for jiffying up mistakes in Photoshop, but I imagine it would be about as easy to draw a fine, controlled, expressive line with one as with a wood-burner or a garden hose.

C.L.A.W. Have any of your cartoons been censored and does it hurt your feelings?

T.K. I can only think of two times that the City Paper refused to run cartoons of mine. One was the “New Design for the World Trade Center,” which I sent them the week after 9/11. This was actually an uncharacteristically affirmative, boosterish cartoon for me, and not that dissimilar to the photoshopped image of the rebuilt WTC giving the world the finger that circulated on the internet around that time. But the publisher’s feeling–not my editor’s–was that any representation of the World Trade Centers at that time would be inappropriate. His actual words, which I have not forgotten, were that it “would jeopardize our standing in the community.” I was like, Jeez Louise. Nevertheless they ran the same cartoon a week later, after everyone had started to return to sanity. I wasn’t pleased at the time, but I can’t say I was all that hurt or indignant, either. I had more important things on my mind and it was a very weird week–people reacted in all kinds of strange ways and I’m sure everyone was trying to do what what felt right at the time, whether it was volunteering for the Red Cross in Manhattan or censoring cartoons or hiding at airbases in Louisiana.
The other cartoon was “Me, the Freeloadin’ Negro,” which I sent them a week after some other cartoon, which wasn’t actually about race, had inadvertently caused outrage in the letters pages among some African-American readers. Again, the issue was mostly timing.
Come to think of it they never ran “Graveyard Shift at the Pussy Juice Factory,” either, but this is a drawing I would expect no respectable publication ever to run anywhere in the civilized world.

C.L.A.W. Does having an enemies list on your website increase loyalty of your fan base?

T.K. You would have to ask the fans. I don’t think anyone’s reading my cartoons week after week for fear of ending up on my bad side, if that’s what you’re getting at. In truth it’s been a long time since I’ve even looked at the Enemies List–doubtless it’s in need of updating. It did my vindictive heart a lot of good to create it years ago, but now that I am middle-aged  I’m trying to become a less rancorous person before I end up a bitter little old man and I think, from time to time, of eliminating it. I would advise everybody to make up an enemies list for fun and then tear it up.

C.L.A.W. How do you know when a cartoon is a hit?  What are the indicators?

T.K. My only real indication is the number and enthusiasm of emails and letters I receive in response. Of course it’s possible this is an indicator not of a cartoon’s popularity but of its provocativeness. Some of them just provide more fodder for discussion than others. Webmaster Dave keeps a list of the all-time most popular cartoons but I myself don’t know how to measure this. It’s sometimes a mystery to me why people like the cartoons they do–the same way, I’m sure, it’s a mystery to a comedian when one of his lines becomes a national catch-phrase. The most popular of my cartoons don’t necessarily correlate to the ones I think are the best. Sometimes, I’m sure, people like them because of superficial or random reasons. As with any kind of art, all you can do is throw it out there and hope it’ll resonate with somebody.

C.L.A.W. What are elements that you look for in a provocative freethinking cartoon/comic?

T.K. I’m not sure whether you’re talking about my own comics or other people’s, but perhaps my answer is the same in either case. I don’t usually try to reverse-engineer a cartoon that’ll illustrate an abstract idea or argument when I draw; I just try to think up funny things. Similarly, I don’t have any criteria for cartoons that I seek out or like; all I want is not to be bored. I have to confess I don’t have much interest in comics per se and don’t read that many of them. Obviously I like cartoons that are intelligent, artful, and preferably hilarious. I think the best political cartoonists from the last dismal eight years have been Steve Bell and Ruben Bolling. (But bear in mind that I haven’t read two Doonesburys in a row since the Vietnam War ended and I never even bother to look at any daily newspaper editorial cartoons, so it’s not like I know what I’m talking about.) The only one of my colleagues’ work I check in on on a weekly basis is Emily Flake. I would say that Emily and I share what you might call a Baltimorean sensibility (a city where she and I have both spent significant parts of our lives): a certain preoccupation with the sordid and the unwise–with drunkenness, ill-advised sex, poor work habits–and what Frederic Raphael, in speaking of Stanley Kubrick, described as “an amused pessimism at the notion that people are capable of change.”  [not 100% certain of the accuracy of this quote]

C.L.A.W. Thanks Mr. Kreider, god bless!

T.K. You are welcome; we will see.

Extra  Credit Reading – That’s Not Funny: Rage, Laughter, and Political Cartooning After 9/11

Mr. Kreider’s book Why Do They Kill Me? can be purchased locally through Fantagraphics Books.

Liberals everywhere and even Republicans are wetting their pants calling this the most racist thing since Looney Toons, but is this really a racist piece. Surely, there is legitimate concern that this piece might accuse President Barack Obama of being Ape-like which would bring about a long history of racism towards black people, but does this cartoon really do that?

From a cartoonists point of view there is no indication that the ape is meant to represent Obama in any way. If it were, there would certainly be an attempt at resemblence on an indication through some symbol. But no, the cartoonist chose to draw and ape clearly. Even the dialogue doesn’t connect to Obama as he didn’t WRITE the stimulus bill, he signed it. What’s more is that this incident, in which a woman was recently attacked by a wild ape draws a clear parody attempt between the bill and the attack.

Funny, when people called Bush an ape it was hilarious and acute, but the slight suggestion that Obama’s policy is that of a crazied ape is racist. Sure, I understand the concern, and it’s great to see people stand out against racism, but this cartoonist doesn’t think such was the case.