My cartoon: Roberts takes the gavel

I would probably just post this in the front page story about Bush nominating Roberts to fill Rehnquist's spot, but those things are big enough without having to wait for graphics to load too. So, below the fold you will find my take on the nomination of Roberts for Chief Justice...

They didn't even wait for the corpse to get cold because they had to distract from Katrina. I tried to make my cartoon as crass as Karl Rove's scheming.

•  Cartoon mojo?

  I will donate any mojo to the Red Cross for Hurriance relief.

  by Joe Willy on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 10:55:33 AM PDT

  •  Not only was that in possibly bad taste

    but I couldn't even spell it right. Seriously, it wasn't meant to be in bad taste if anyone takes it that way (the cartoon was, not the tip jar comment).

    by Joe Willy on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 10:57:40 AM PDT

•  Is Garfield good or bad?

  It's better than Garfield, sure, but so is blank paper.

  by mungley on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 11:20:36 AM PDT

  •  Ouch

    Not only can I not get any mojo for the couple of hours I spent this morning working on this and sharing it with my fellow Kossacks, but then this: Blank paper is better than Garfield. My cartoon is better than Garfield. But is my cartoon better than blank paper? Yeesh... maybe I don't want to know the answer.

    Actually, Garfield is not just bad- it really sucks. Would it surprise you if it was revealed the thing was just randomly generated from a stack of art and some random punchlines?

    by Joe Willy on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 11:25:59 AM PDT

    •  Didn't want to insult

      Now that I know Garfiled is bad, you get mojo.

      He is better than Marmaduke and heathcliff.  AND the Republican talking point piece of crap Mallard Fillmore.
      

      by mungley on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 12:32:07 PM PDT

•  Where's the punchline?

  Regardless of it's being in bad taste, it doesn't serve the purpose of a cartoon.  The setting is redundant.  You could have achieved the exact same purpose by simply rewording the caption into a declarative sentence.  Stuffing your words into Roberts' mouth is entirely out of character and rings false.  If your thesis is that Roberts: SCOTUS:: Brown: FEMA, you'd be better served by visually tying the 2 together.  The corpse of Rehnquist is entirely superfluous, which is why this cartoon is in bad taste.  

  The artwork's decent enough for editorial cartoons, though.  I know I couldn't do it.  Keep trying.  This is meant constructively.

  by Bangatank on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 12:05:10 PM PDT

  •  Thanks for the feedback

    Actually what you said is good criticism. Most people would have a completely different idea and offer it as some sort of "advice." You put your finger on what bugged me about it but I couldn't put it into words.

    Although, in my own defense, part of my argument is that Bush/Rove aren't waiting for the corpse to cool off before nominating Roberts (early reports were that nothing would happen until Rehnquist had been mourned/honored) because they need the political capital so that's why I used the setting. Really, what I'm saying is that they would steal from a dead guy if they could get a political boost out of it- in this case Roberts is a stand in for the administration which is symbolic because that's what he will be once he's seated on the court. The punchline may not fit perfectly but at the time I couldn't think of a better way to illustrate why they felt the need to once again use Roberts' nomination to distract from bad news and how it was in such poor taste (my first drafts had Bush using Roberts to cover a pile of flooding victims so I guess you could say I cleaned it up).

    by Joe Willy on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 12:17:27 PM PDT

    •  I've got an idea

      I can't draw for shit, so I'll just throw this idea over to you and if you feel like drawing it up, it's all yours.

      A half-finished wall under construction.  Written across the wall are the words HOMELAND SECU--Y.  The other letters are missing where the wall is unfinished.  The foreman is speaking to the crane operator.  "There's not enough in the budget for that part.  It's not that important anyway."

      by Bangatank on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 11:27:11 AM PDT

  •  I got the point!

    Karl Rove needed a distraction, Reinquist's passing wasn't doing the job, and Rove needed to show that Bush was able to make quick decisions, way too quick in this case.

    Roberts can be in charge of this countries court system for more years then the hours Bush took to make the announcement, much less the decision.

    by Tomtech on Mon Sep 05, 2005 at 04:48:56 PM PDT