Donna Barstow Blog #2

I only use Paul Newman’s legendary salad dressing.

“I’m thinking about putting my face on our new product line, like Paul Newman does…would that turn you on?” ?D.Barstow 2009

I heart Paul Newman! Not so much for his movies, although he was great – but for entering my own life by doing movies on location, where I found him in person.

I was dating the special effects guy on one film, and I remember he had to build a special sweat hut so Paul could sweat off all the beer he drank each day and still look trim for the film. (What, no Paul Newman beer? I think I saw a beer in his hand every time I saw him.)

New Yorker cartoons

color illustration friday movies cartoon

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By Donna Barstow

Obama encourages hunting in the stupid states.

wolf cartoon

The subject this week for Illustration Friday is “intricate,” and I found these wolves to be just so very detailed and particular.

As it happens, this was also today’s cartoon I did for Slate, so kill 2 with one stone, and all that good stuff!

The Cartoon

This took a long time to draw! I had to study how wolves look different from dogs or coyotes, and how they stand, their fur, nose, etc. And put a bunch in, crowded. And figure out what accessories they could wear. I have to say, as I drew the little one with a potted plant on his head, I got tears in my eyes, he was so cute. Usually I crack myself up, but this went in the opposite direction… Can you tell I love the way these wolfies turned out?

Here in the blog it really needs an outline, with all that white in it, but in the space they give me in Slate and GoComics, it looks fine. (Gocomics has comments.)

The Story in the News

All the facts are in my OpEd Cartoons blog.

Right after Obama took office he cancelled Bush’s plans to rewrite the Endangered Species Act, affecting wolves, among other animals.

Slate cartoons

illustration friday slate

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By Donna Barstow

Dancing With the Stars causes a mashup cartoon with Jason Mesnick.

“Melissa, rejected from the Bachelor, joins cast of Dancing with the Stars…and we get our first sonic boom from reality tv.”

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.)

I don't Watch TV Slate cartoons

bachelor dancing with the stars dwts editorial reality tv tv uclick

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By Donna Barstow

In which I get syndicated.

Hey, I’m back. Can you believe it? It’s that darn Illustration Friday… it keeps pulling me in, daring me to match the new topics they put up each week, rain or shine, holidays be damned. (They’re international and free-spirited over there.)

This week’s topic is celebrate. I have some things to celebrate this week, yes, I do!

First is Valentine’s Day, which was Saturday. I didn’t get any, so I guess I’m a little sad about that, but I still enjoyed the decorations and the free design ideas all the advertisers threw at us non-stop. I can remember the smell of white glue and the crinkly rough feel of the lace when I made them in school, too. (And how I admired other kids who seemed to have a much better grasp of design, with blue hearts, and layers, and other stuff I can’t remember.) Design is really unrecognized art.

Then on Monday, President’s Day. Well, not a very interesting holiday, and no mail, hate that. (Hate even more that the Post Office STOLE my mailbox last week. The neighborhood public one. It’s not like I live on a farm, or some rural area. This is Los Angeles. On a major corner, on a very busy 4 lane street. They are so f-ing lazy, I guess they just couldn’t be bothered stopping at the box to pick up the mail. Yes, I could hear my mail drop to the bottom, as there was so little in it, but so what!!)

But President’s Day was a perfect day to start my syndicated Editorial Cartoons! Yes, I’m branching out: I’m syndicated on GoComics. And this is even more surprising: I’ve gone to the dark side – editorial cartoons! Well, someone has to do it. I have about a dozen cartoons up there now -some favorites from the fall election and new ones as they come to me.

New Yorker cartoons

food cartoon illustration friday political cartoons

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By Donna Barstow

Donna says hey.

Donna says hey. I’m back, more later.

Uncategorized

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By Donna Barstow

I miss my computer. Backup, you peeps!!

Thanks to those of you still here! Have been pounding the heart of my computer for 10 days trying to make it live. Right before Christmas I got spyware from GoComics. (yes, it’s all cartoons, which is shocking enough. What kind of person likes cartoons and also sends spyware out?) Later, when they hired me 2 months later, I found out many other readers also got trojans and spyware from there.? You really have to buy the membership, or watch out….

I used Kaspersky Antivirus once before, and actually bought a copy, which I never activated – and yet the site told me it is already out of commission. So I downloaded the new trial version. Next morning…Kaspersky locked me out. Totally. I thought it was my fault for 3 days, that the password I had written down for Windows XP was wrong. Nope. I couldn’t even get in through safe mode, or any form of safe mode.

Kaspersky didn’t reply to my email, and had no answering service. No one helped on their forum. Took it to Staples, who couldn’t get in (even though he had the same problem with someone else with Kaspersky), and then Fry’s. Always fun carrying a 40lb computer into stores! Fry’s said I had to buy another hard drive, to make that the C drive, and install Windows on it. (DO NOT reinstall Windows on your original drive or it will wipe it clean!! Says so right on the disc!) Make sure the other original C drive is not connected to the motherboard.

Then, after you install XP on the new HD, hook up the old C drive, and Windows will recognize it as the D drive, or other drive. Then I can see the files, and copy them over to my new C drive, and then wipe the original C drive clean. I understand this, but it’s still terrifying. I get dizzy and sick to my stomach everytime I have to open up the computer and do these things.

Tech Tips for Artists

not funny tech

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By Donna Barstow

Ted Rall gives Time Magazine what for.

OOh, great dustup on Time Magazine’s list of Best Editorial Cartoons of 2008!

You’ll have to decide for yourself if they made the right decision, and if these cartoons are the BEST – I started to really study editorial cartoons just this year, and they don’t seem great to me, but I am not one to judge. Yet. (Give me a little time, and I’ll be circling like a shark…)

Anyway, Ted Rall thinks the editors there suck. Ted is a well known syndicated political cartoonist, radio guy, author (Wake Up, You’re Liberal!: How We Can Take America Back from the Right), and no doubt creator of other things. He is also editor at a syndicate? and president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. He got mad at Time’s lame editorial picks, and let them have it! Daily Cartoonist published his letter in full, and here is an excerpt:

Your list of the Top 10 Editorial Cartoons of 2008 is an insult to editorial cartoonists, many of whom are losing their jobs to the economic downturn in the newspaper industry. In 2008 hundreds of brilliant political cartoonists produced thousands of hard-hitting, thought-provoking and hilarious cartoons about everything from the flash in the pan that was Sarah Palin to the rise of Barack Obama, and all you could come up with was this phoned-in crap?

More at the link! Well, when has a cartoonist ever kept his mouth shut when he sees bad work? Not I. One bad cartoonist spoils the place for everyone.

Some of the comments at Daily Cartoonist:

So much for not directly insulting the cartoonists involved ;) That said, bravo. Particularly enjoyed the “clean and sober” slice. Time magazine has become as relevant and useful as an ’80s cocaine binge.

Wow.? This was already mailed, right?? Well, in that case, um, wow.

I’m in agreement with Ken. This wasn’t a well thought out letter. I agree with the sentiments but this is not how you persuade people. As much as I hate using tact, it is necessary. Bad move.

In the Biz Slate cartoons

political cartoons ted rall time magazine

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Donna Barstow Blog #2 Posts