The Roadside Artist

Banned from public view! Banished to the nether regions. The cartoon that newspaper editors don’t want you to see…

Back story: The owner of the Anchor Inn in Oceanside Oregon has managed to enrage many by announcing that he’s turning his business into a strip club. Seems like good cartoon subject matter to me!

So I doodled one of my cartoons and sent it off to the Headless Herald.. I mean the Headlight Herald newspaper (Tillamook County). They’re real sensitive about the name. But the editor rejected it with just a note that “it wouldn’t be suitable for our purposes.”

Meaning what? It’s not funny? Too controversial? Someone might think you are for the strip club? Isn’t having a bit of edge supposed to be a critical part of an editorial cartoon?

Look, it’s funny. Well, I think it is funny, anyway. It doesn’t mean I think they should have a strip club in a town that small. Also, it’s TRUE - we have a lot of seasonal jobs, right? These would be …”different.”

In ANY case, running my cartoon would be more likely to make readers laugh than to make them think that the Headless…er, I mean Headlight Herald was promoting nudity.

Eh, whatever. I’m sure the editor will hate me now but I’m really not dissing him. I just wish he could have a little more courage. Maybe someone could explain that to him.

I may go drop a few copies here and there just to stir things up.

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Lucy is another of the feral kittens that I rescued last year. She’s growing into a very nice cat, if a bit high-strung. But, we all love Lucy! BTW, here is a cartoon-caricature of her:

Get a Lucy ‘I’m Losing It!’ T-shirt for $9.99

Oh, how did she get to be called Lucy, you ask? Well.. because she’s mostly black and white…like the TV show, I Love Lucy. Yeah, it’s stupid, but when you are rescuing feral cats too, then you can be more brilliant.

You can see some of the earliest Lucy pictures and read her early life story here and here. Those posts cover other rescue kittens, including Lucy - but if you look around you’ll see pictures of her when she was VERY LITTLE.

She’s a very affectionate little cat..kind of small and petite. But she is also very opinionated and doesn’t mind expressing her dissatisfaction if things aren’t going her way. Even so, we STILL love Lucy!

Lucy has been to the Vet, so she won’t be having any kittens of her own. It’s one more thing for her to be angry about.

I hope my drawing of her will help earn her some cat food! I like rescuing feral kittens but it is VERY expen$ive. The shirts help Lucy pay her own way in the world. So you can do your part, too.

And I will keep taking care of her as long as I can….

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Oh, Hammie the Cat - the hamster cat, is all too real. This is just a cartoon-caricature of him…

Get the Hammie tshirt for only $9.99

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you know about my rescued feral kittens. I wrote about them here and here, and you’ll see this little guy in both of them: The first rescued feral kitten from last year was the orange no-tail I named Hamster cat. Well, here he is today…

Hammie The Cat tshirt for $9.99

He isn’t exactly tail-less, as you can see - he has more of a POOF-BALL for a tail. I guess you could call it a bobtail ..sort of… More after the jump, including a close-up photo and a the truth about Hammie’s future…

Such a sweet little guy! And life seems so unfair at times.

Hammie “Hamster Cat” is alive and well, thanks to some quick intervention. He is very affectionate, but I think he’s a bit traumatized and has abandonment issues. For instance, he likes to/needs to have a “binky” (a piece of cloth to chew on while he falls asleep), perhaps because he was alone for many days before I rescued him. He was only about four weeks old at the time so I’m sure he was starving. I fed him on a bottle for a while, until he learned to eat solid food. He was really too young to lose his mamma. But then, that’s why I say that life is so unfair at times.

Hammie is always in a good mood, now. Well, he gets lots of attention, so why shouldn’t he feel better? In the cartoon, I imagine Hammie thinking that people are pretty stupid, because he tells us what he wants and we can’t figure it out. How can anyone misunderstand “meow” for petesake?

He is about 7 months old now and has really blossomed since his days as a nearly-dead four week old feral kitten. For his sake, I may do a whole series of Hammie The Cat cartoons. You know, just to help pay for his room and board.

Truthfully, it’s a difficult situation because I have a few other rescued ferals, too, and this gets to be more than a handful after a while. Hammie is sweet enough to be adopted out but homes are few and far between AND his little emotional issues would certainly get in the way.

It can all be very stressful: I already spend more on cat food than many people spend on their own meals for their whole familes. Nevertheless, as long as I am able I will continue to take care of Hammie and his friends. If you get a shirt, though, it will help.

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I’ve done several President Bush caricatures, and I wanted to do this for a shirt because I liked it. The shirt is perfect for your boss…

Commander Guy t-shirt only $9.99

The president says, “I’m a commander guy” although it was often quoted as “I’m the commander guy,” making it seem a bit more illiterate.

Actual quote:

“By the way, in the report it said, it is — the government may have to put in more troops to be able to get to that position. And that’s what we do. We put in more troops to get to a position where we can be in some other place. The question is, who ought to make that decision? The Congress or the commanders? And as you know, my position is clear — I’m a commander guy.” (source)

Now, “I’m THE commander guy” is funnier, and I wanted to use it - but that wouldn’t be fair. It would certainly fit-in better with the famous, “I’m the decider” though, wouldn’t it? It would also fit with the latest meme floating around, about a wild-eyed President Bush thumping his chest while shouting “I’m the President!” (source) (source)

I seem to have a problem with all the caricatures of George in that I end up making them a bit too realistic and not so much cartoon-like. I don’t know why. My best “toon” style George Bush appeared in my Bush vs Pelosi cartoon..well, in my opinion anyway. But this one wasn’t bad - it has a nice lateral distortion. I finally settled on this one because it has a certain understated off-kilter look. Caricatures are supposed to be at least a LITTLE funny, after all!

I’ll keep working on it.

Hopefully, we can all just get along…

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