Donna Barstow Blog #2

Michael Jackson shared his death with TV icons.

Michael Jackson cartoon of grave, with Farrah Fawcett and Ed mcMahon

(Originally published in my OpEd blog.)

Sure, I’m curious why he died. But nah, I never thought he was funny. Not the animals, the plastic surgery, the kids. Nor is his death funny. I’m sad a talented performer died so young. But what about Farrah Fawcett, or Ed McMahon? NO. Not funny, either. All sad. (And Michael Jackson’s death is not more important than theirs, thanks. All deaths are equal.)

But my job as an editorial cartoonist is to comment or reflect on the news, not make instant flower bouquets, or practice sanctimonious phrases.

Actually, this is the first time a well-known figure has died since I started doing cartoons for Slate in February, so I wasn’t sure just how to approach it.

Slate cartoons That's not funny

celebrity death cartoon tv

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By Donna Barstow

Star Trek for Mother’s Day?

Apparently my Slate cartoon didn’t post properly today, so my work was for naught. One of the joys of online commerce… So here it is. Almost too late for Mother’s…

New Yorker cartoons

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By Donna Barstow

How ABC killed Life on Mars.

Anyway, I wrote about the TV series Life on Mars at Mayor Sam last fall, because I loved the concept so, so much. (Those ABC bastards don’t even have shows up to link to anymore!!) Briefly, a cop gets hit by a car in the present, and wakes up still a cop, still in NYC, in 1973, and spends the rest of the series trying to figure out if he’s in a coma, dead, time travel, etc. The episodes were filmed with a yellow glow, and include some great groovy scenes of hippies, old cars and attitudes, and even the Twin Towers (in the first episode only. Why, did the CGI cost too much?) Also lots of 70’s tunes, of course. I’m not into music at all, but a lot of people liked that the most.

The actor is a quite hunky, 40ish Irish guy who never let his accent slip once. Harvey Keitel – well, I’ve liked him better in other things. I really liked Gretchen Moll, and grew to like her more. The Sopranos guy with a stache overacted.

But I want to be clear that Life on Mars didn’t die a peaceful death. ABC killed it, with ugly knife wounds all over the place. They were GIVEN the premise, and a lot of the episode plots, from the very successful UK series of the same name (which has a spinoff). ABC HAD the setup, the familiar audience, the interest, the timing, the characters, even some of the dialogue from the England show. The cast changed, of course, and the one big change, and quite an improvement, was just moving the show from England to NYC. So why couldn’t they keep it alive???

I don't Watch TV

life on mars tv

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By Donna Barstow

Warning to all cartoonists.

If you found this page it means that Womanist Musings, the site that hates women, is still making money from the junk she makes up about people. She stole one of my cartoons, and maybe a second, I’m not sure, and took it down only when I threatened to call her host.

I don’t know anything about this woman except that she’s African-American and likes to hate people. Especially white people, apparently. Especially white women. She is anonymous, so already she’s an anonymous asshole, right? She makes blog money from readers like you, who keep coming back to the hate and rage and the copycat ?news?? on her site. This site steals from real news sources,? since no one there is a real journalist, and otherwise she would have no content at all!

After investigating her really weird post about me, I’m embarrassed for her, though, to be honest. She’s obviously a very sad woman, who hates an entire race. She is, honestly, the worst sexist and racist I’ve seen in years. Here she is again, at Feministe:

There is however another group of women which I hold in equal contempt; and they would be the Pearl Clutchers. You know who you are. The oh noez not me crowd. You are the kind of woman that professes to be all about equality, until a WOC [woman of color] has the nerve to point her finger at you and say the word privilege…

Here is a newsflash: The oppressor does not get to tell the oppressed what is and isn?t oppression.

The entire world caters to you pearl clutchers ,and I for one need a break from the bullshit. Don?t upset the fragile white woman, the mother of the great race.

I’ve never heard the term pearl clutcher before…and that’s because she apparently invented it! Her posts are in the top 5 for Google for that phrase. I guess all white women get slammed with that label in her world. I suspect that she’s suffering from paranoia, and possibly schizophrenia…

That's not funny

fans

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By Donna Barstow

My friends are dying.

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.)

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.

IMAGE REMOVED BECAUSE GOOGLE STOLE IT

I don't Watch TV Slate cartoons

barack obama cartoon books editorial slate tv

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By Donna Barstow

Getting the E Ticket to Disneyland!

“Nice, but the one at Disneyland was better.” All rights ©D. Barstow 2009

The topic for Illustration Friday this week is “impossibility.”

Well, the suitcase is talking, right? And sometimes it seems an impossibility that I’m a real cartoonist. More later.

————–

Notice anything different? I’m redoing the colors & tweaking the design. This takes forever, as I never learned CSS properly – and actually, I don’t know who has memorized the mess, anyway. Does anyone know a css app that would be helpful with this, maybe have shortcuts? Anyway, comments on the changes are welcome.

The Drawing & idea

Once upon a time, there used to be many magazines and papers that used cartoons, and one that bought a lot was called something like Travel Weekly, or Travel & Conventions. (actually, I forget the name, but it was out of NJ.) You know it’s an older cartoon because no one carries suitcases like this anymore! It’s all soft poochy things, or ones that have wheels, that have soft flexible sides. That are getting smaller each year, to fit the airlines new regulations and extra charges.

Anyway, a good portion of travel time seems to be spent at the carousel, waiting for baggage to come down, and wondering if someone, anyone, will pick me up to take me to the next destination. Cause they have to wait for me, to wait for the bags, to wait for the handlers…

It’s just a quick sketch, that took longer than I would have liked, since I didn’t know how to draw the carousel.

Which brings us to Disneyland. When I first moved out here, I kept hearing about Knott’s Berry Farm, and the name alone was enough to turn me off.

New Yorker cartoons

black & white cartoon illustration friday travel cartoons

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By Donna Barstow

Who doesn’t hate AIG?

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

NOTE: My political cartoons for Slate have all been moved to The Opposite of Wrong, where I skewer all the cartoons!

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 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. Insurance companies are always up to no good.

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!)

In the Biz Slate cartoons

art editorial illustration friday

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Donna Barstow Blog #2 Posts