| Wow, those military parades can’t even keep a totalitarian awake. Jun 16 |
President Trump’s Shitstaffel Chief Stephen Miller, who is currently getting a busy signal from his wife, the New Musk GF Du Jour, has had a busy week rounding up school children, four year olds, and people who pick crops to feed his emaciated Goebbels face.
He had Trump send U.S. Marines, the California National Guard, and any loose Boy Scout troop to patrol the streets of Los Angeles, to no real effect, since what was, in fact, going on was 4,000,000 people getting ready to go to a Dodgers game, brunch, or Disneyland.
This cartoon features a device called “transmogrification”, which means that you make a human into some other weird, surprising object. I think. As I have previously noted here, I am always looking for a little phrase that I can turn into a drawing. They’re not puns, per se, they’re word play. So I kept thinking about the phrase, “Stephen Miller’s biggest fan,” which, of course ultimately called for me converting Trump into an actual fan, which was surprisingly easy to do. Sometimes, this doesn’t work, at all. This worked fine, as Trump’s mouth is open all the time when he’s not pouting. Throw in a whirling blade, build the face around it, and there you go.
I am remiss in not featuring Miller more. I drew him a few times during Trump 1.0, but mostly haven’t done that much about him. I can see this needs to be done much more going forward. It’s my patriotic duty.
I can only imagine the chitchat between Miller and his equally odious wife when he found out she was going to join Musk and his 12 other wives in California.
X-wife, if you will.
Anyway, let’s move on, shall we?
I couldn’t resist doing this, even being part of the Resistance. I have always called The Home Depot “The Home Despot”, and even genius buddy Joel Pett, my colleague late of the Lexington Herald Leader (don’t get him started, either) said he calls it the same thing.
When I set out to do a storefront, I always have to take some care that it at least vaguely resembles the actual business. I drew Walmart the other day, for example, and carefully reproduced the Walmart logo. In this case, I noted that Home Depots usually have that orange lattice on the top of the building. Not exclusively, but usually. When I draw lattice (most frequently on NASA rocket launch gantries, I am usually kind of winging it. I suppose if you carefully examined the lattice, you would probably note that it isn’t technically correct, but I also know it’s unlikely you will give it that level of scrutiny, and thank God.
Then there’s the tank.
I almost never look at tank photos anymore, and just draw a tank the way I want it to look. I suppose that now I have brought this up, I also may have to do that, just to amuse myself. I remember looking at older cartoonists work in 1980, and noting that they would draw television cameras from 1950, with multiple interchangeable lenses sticking out. I would sigh, and draw them correctly, because I am so hip and with it.
I drew a camera a few years ago, and I got a note from a cameraman saying, hey buddy, you might want to check out the way cameras look now, which I did. Wow, were they off. I assume this means that there’s now a new generation of cartoonists looking at my cameras and shaking their heads about how out of it I am.
I’m 64, after all. You can’t keep up with everything. I used to listen to American Top 40 in 1976 and knew every single on the Billboard chart, and whether it was rising or falling. “Oh, Bungle in the Jungle has dropped to Number 24”.
Let’s resume the countdown. NUMBER THREE!
Normally, I don’t like to do cartoons like this, which are simply paens to someone. I’m not above it, but I was delighted to see and hear Gov. Gavin Newsom’s speech the other day where he acted like he wasn’t exactly setting the table for his political future. He sounded like a guy who actually was passionate and sincere about the direct threat of authoritarianism facing this country, California, and him.
Look, I know Newsom is, in fact, a politician likely lining up for 2028, if we have an election, which I do not assume at this point. But he showed a lot of courage and character, and I give him props for doing so.
When doing these types of cartoons, the subject is usually dead or leaving office. There is a fine line between interesting and cornball, so I kept thinking “beacon”. That’s when I saw Gav as a lighthouse. I also really enjoyed drawing this as:
- I enjoy drawing water.
- I enjoy drawing dark skies.
- I enjoy drawing blue and yellow drawings.
- I enjoy drawing Newsom.
Newsom is beyond good-looking, honestly. I’ve talked to him many times in person, and I find myself looking at him as an objet d’art—how did they do that? He looks better in person; he almost has an AI appearance to him. Obama: same. JFK: same. Reagan: same. When we have to tackle the good-looking politicians, male or female, it’s something of a challenge. Prior to television, it was perfectly normal to elect politicians who weren’t handsome or pretty. Radio faces, and all. Now most electeds look like weekend weathermen or saleswomen at Nordstrom.
Next?
This was kinda fun.
I’ve never drawn the iconic JFK birthday song by Marilyn Monroe, who was dressed in “skin and beads, and I didn’t see the beads,” according to historian and Kennedy guy Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.. Finally I got my chance here.
I had originally labelled Marilyn Monster as “FASCISM,” which would have fit better. Labeling is tough, people, and the only space I had was where you see it, although in closer examination I could have put it on the tail. I then decided to say “AUTHORITARIANISM,” which was still a bit more accurate than fascism, although I am very open to your counterarguments.
| POLLHow best to describe the Trump Administration?Full-on fascistAuthoritarianIncompetent with a hint o’ fascism |
Michael1942's Blog 