By “friends,” I mean my favorite TV shows, but no, I’m not exaggerating. I look forward to certain shows all day or all week. And then I get a little nerdy, and run over to TWOP (Television Without Pity) to see what those guys have to say about it. (Diff shows draw different commenters. Some are smarter than others. You have been warned.) I love my TV shows.

Life on Mars is dead and buried.  Prison Break has been pronounced dead by Fox for 3 months now, with just a few shows left, moved to the always dead Friday. I’ll write about them later. But Reaper, the rare show that works as both a comedy and a drama, and is totally, always compelling, has just recently been pronounced dead by Hollywood Reporter. I think it’s a premature burial, and still very much alive. Let’s work to save the one that still has a chance to live… (Full disclosure: before I became this cartoonist person, I worked in the studios for a few years, and so I analyze behind the scenes as much as in front of the screen.)

About Barack Obama: “I can’t believe it’s been 100 days and he’s still standing. Do you think it’s like Reaper, and he made a deal with the Devil?” © D. Barstow 2009, All rights reserved.

If you liked The Screwtape Letters, (yes, by the same C. S. Lewis who wrote the Narnia books, which are much better than the movie The Chronicles of Narnia – although I haven’t seen the movie :) ), you’ll love Reaper. Read more »

“Now I’m confused. Is that a black hole, or the maws of AIG?” Cartoon ©D. Barstow 2009

Who doesn’t love a cartoon bashing AIG, the worst insurance company of all time? And there’s a dog in it for you, too.

I’m choosing this cartoon for the Illustration Friday assignment, Subtract. All artists know that to subtract means you better deal with the negative space, dude! (subtract it) This was for Slate, and I did it right before the big news broke about AIG asking for even more money, for those f-ing bonuses. On this day it was just “normal” money they wanted.

I thought AIG was an insurance company, but some cartoonists were doing it as a bank…I think it’s an insurance company FOR banks. But this whole idea that the world’s economy will collapse if AIG dies is a bunch of baloney. I don’t believe it for a minute, and I’m sure there’s at least one more cartoon heading down that road.

The Drawing

I had a somewhat modified version of this cartoon that I did years ago, when I did a whole bunch of astronomy cartoons. I knew a couple of cartoonists – Sidney Harris and Nick Downes – who were doing pretty well doing cartoons for science magazines. (And books: Whatever Happened to ‘Eureka’?: Cartoons on Science and Einstein Simplified, Revised Edition: Cartoons on Science!)
Read more »

“Melissa, rejected from the Bachelor, joins cast of Dancing with the Stars…and we get our first sonic boom from reality tv.” (A different version of this is here.)

Why I Did It

It’s a brand new world. Now I have to read the newspaper – I mean the bits besides interesting murders, the funnies, and local stuff that makes me mad. Because my syndicate, Uclick, is waiting for more, more, more cartoons, with hungry maws. (and I just used that word in a cartoon recently.)

And I have to send in the cartoon by 6 PM my time, so there goes my Sunday afternoon, unless I do it in advance. Today I didn’t know yet what I would do. I had some ideas: that wolves can now be killed in many states (Obama said he would protect them with the ESA, which lasted, oh, about a month) , Obama’s continual pouring out of money into sinkholes, etc. But you know what I was most excited about today?  TV reality news, people! ABC did a mashup of The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars.

About the Cartoon:

One of the things that I’m loving about my new gig is trying different styles. I didn’t want this cartoon to be too busy, as it has two panels already, and text in each. I could have colored each item, but why? And how fun to just have this red jagged sonic boom thingy (pointing at the words sonic boom) and really making the whole black and white thing pop! I’m really pleased with this one!

More: People leaked the new “Star” in Dancing with the Stars, Season 8! It’s Melissa Rycroft, the rejected one (well, engaged, and then rejected) bachelorette from the latest Bachelor!

Rycroft, 25, is to fill the slot vacated by Access Hollywood host Nancy O’Dell, who had to withdraw from the competition on March 5 due to a knee injury. According to a source close to the production, the Dallas beauty, who has had only days to rehearse, is expected to perform live on Dancing’s Monday premiere.

(TWO stars were injured before the Season even starts on Monday, March 9; Holly Madison (from the The Girls Next Door Playboy show) is believed to be taking over for singer Jewel.)  Read more »

“What’s a 5-letter word for a woman who’s both a barracuda and a pitbull?”

I don’t know, tell me. I don’t do crossword puzzles, I do Soduku. (Actually, my favorites are logic problems.)

But you know who they’re talking about, right? And the word they might be thinking of? Only a few more days left to love this cartoon! Not to say anything negative about Sarah Palin – she’s taken enough teasing. But the election will be over, and then things will become clearer. This can be taken a couple of different ways. Hey, it’s more original than commenting on Sarah’s farking hair.

Note: no swear words appear in this post, but feel free to use your imagination. And yes, two 5-letter words come to mind right away, and they’re not proper names.

The Drawing
I’m not sure if the perspective here is totally right. I do know her desk is right. It’s an antique, with a brand new laptop on it. She has a pleasant view of the backyard as she writes a note to a friend. The cartoon as reproduced is too small to see that her eyes are serious, bordering on annoyed. However, they have a hot marriage.

PS. I still do cartoons that I think are funny, not to get someone elected. So don’t go thinking you know which way I roll.

*Update; I’ve now moved all my election, editorial, and political cartoons ONLY over to my new blog: The Opposite of Wrong. That’s where you’ll find all the new political cartoons, too. Hope to see you there.