My first Sarah Palin cartoon.

I am all kinds of thrilled that I’ve been invited to submit cartoons about the election to a major publication!!

I don’t think I’ve ever done any political cartoons until recently. (My father used to suggest that if I did them, I would be a “real” cartoonist,? but fortunately – I think it wasn’t until he held my first book in his hands – that mantra has stopped, or at least slowed down. Well, here I am, Dad!)

I don’t know any cartoonists who mix the genres, actually; you’re either funny or serious, and I always choose funny! (Plus, what about those arrows and signs and symbols and nametags and scrawling ink splotches all over everything in editorial drawings? Kind of messy.)

Sarah Palin as a child, about all the heads of

stuffed animals on her wall: “They’re not toys, they’re trophies.”

Original cartoon next.

I have certainly made my opinions known about Los Angeles political figures in my Op-Ed Cartoons blog, but I don’t think of cartooning as my favorite way to prove anything.? Words are faster.? But it’s easier to find humor in national topics than local…not as close to home!

One of the caveats of this project that they gave us cartoonists: Don’t try out for a Pulitzer, please.

Speak for yourself, sir. Aim high. I have a few I’m already enamored of, but I thought I’d present this one here, as an example of how to rework, work it, baby.

The Drawing
Hope you can read the caption: “They’re not toys, they’re trophies.” This is my first try at actually lettering with my Wacom tablet and pen, and boy is it hard – my hand has been cramping up.  (Any suggestions, cowboy cartoonists?) But the Wacom is much easier to color with and change some lines here and there. Which I did, as you can see, comparing this with the original cartoon, next:

Trophies from school field trips. I’m an idiot.

This is the original early drawing, but not the original caption, although I like the school field trips one. Sadly, this reworking of captions, and even drawings, can go on for quite a while if the writer isn’t happy with the first concept. Years, in fact. Especially if the writer is me.

But I do like young, innocent Sarah!

*I now post political and editorial cartoons in my new blog, The Opposite of Wrong. That’s where all the new ones are, too. Hot.