Time for a new cartoon! Actually, although the color is new, this is quite  old – one of the first cartoons I ever did, and part of a series I did with coffins. I was surprised, death is a fairly common topic with cartoonists – I heard Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of the New Yorker, say that he gets a fair number of dead cartoons each week.

Raindrops keep falling on my head...coming from a coffin under a tombstone

Don’t get me wrong – I hate this song. I don’t like songs in my head, or humming the same one for days. I can’t remember who sang this…Neil Diamond? Someone will know. And it rains a lot where I come from.

This cartoon is for Illustration Friday’s topic, unbalanced.  Nothing like a coffin cartoon to prove I’m that! This is from my morbid collection, which I only bring out to show special guests. And you.

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Well…this is one of the few good new shows this season, so Glee is on my must-watch list. But tonight proves what a schizophrenic show it is; it’s trying to drag in both adults and, well, all the rest of you.

They alternate between grown-up situations, like adultery (or thinking about it, as Jimmy Carter would say), compromise in ethics or one’s goals, and life -changing decisions, and for the kiddies, after school specials, problems like who gets the solo, what is “really cool”, and how to come out to your father over and over and over. (Kurt is a great singer, bad actor. Everything he says is camp, flaming, and not believable. Especially when he tries to do the loving, fashion-whore son.)

Will is the main character. He’s the teacher of Glee Club. I like that he has flaws, is not socially adept at reading people, or at least women (his wife’s non-pregnancy), and his pig-headedness. Yet many viewers complain that they wish the show would drop all the teachers. Someone show them the way towards the CW.

Also, it’s so so so gay. Not to mention politically correct. Yeah, I know, some of it’s on purpose. It’s the major part that is so tedious and repetitive.

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Disappointing, but expected to see Aaron leave. Boy, I got tears in my eyes when Len gave him that special tribute at the end, and said he was like a son! He didn’t have to do that. Someone commented that they’re not watching DWTS to see therapy, but I am!

He learned how to control himself, and that will take him far in life. And I thought Karina was about as good a teacher as I’ve ever seen her. Very focused on him.

Meanwhile, bratty Kelly jumps for joy when he goes and she stays. Sure, she came up to hug him after – learned that in reality TV, did ya? Whatever. I can’t see her appeal at all. I guess I should just be happy I don’t crazy hate her, like Marie, or Chloris (the show killed her, folks, not me) or the worst ringer ever, Kristi the automaton.

Aside from results, a pretty good show! Liked the singers. I was looking forward to seeing Susan Boyle. Not stupendous, but very good. I loved her dignity, and her tiny little waves, like the Queen does! And I usually don’t like many dancers besides our own, but the couple on Michael Buble’s last dance was so good! I was taken with the yellow and black costumes, but it wasn’t just that – they really stood out.

Other dancing: Tony and Chelsie not as good as with Julianne. Also, those were some weird gymnastics she was doing. Not very dancy. And the Macy’s dance…first of all, my heart sank when I realized Mark Ballas was going to dance with Sabrina. Oh, that’s funny, NOT. How can I even pay attention when I know these 2 are exes??? What idiots to vote for them both. Plus…I don’t want to dis Derek’s best friend, but I can’t stand Mark B. Watching him in the group dance last night, he just always looks like he’s showing off himself, not his partner.

Which is also why I preferred Jonathan to Maks tonight. Maks is handsome, but the look on Jonathan’s face is so loving, and his movements so caring, I just want to be there!

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This tweet below, from a man who is one of the best selling single-panel cartoonists in the country -  his drawings of big nose, big feet, bug eyes, to go with his obvious gags, must please the most obvious editors, obviously.

I do so many tech cartoons, I figure it’s time to get on Twitter and see what it’s all about.

Ya think?

This is why single panel cartoons and magazine cartoons are a dying breed. There are many cartoonists like him, using a style they learned 40 years ago, with the same type of 1950’s humor – ie, puns, a word twist, easy stuff. No thought or research required. Stuck in their own rut, afraid to try anything new. Whatever works, right?

I’m a pragmatic capitalist, so yeah, up to a point.

But it’s not art, and you’re not trying, and you don’t care, and I could never call you a good cartoonist. Even though I wish I had your income.