Saturday, March 12, 2011


I coulda been a contender

Yesterday, Daryl Cagle posted this cartoon, by the Spanish cartoonist KAP on Facebook calling it a "terrific cartoon about the terrible earthquake and #tsunami that hit Japan this morning." 
I did not feel it was particularly terrific, and, within moments, thought of a cartoon that was equally silly and could rise equally as quickly to the status of "instant regrettable pointless cliche."  

Timing of posts on Facebook after a certain point are by whole hours, so I don't know how many minutes it took to hunt up this artwork and add the haunting bit of glurge to turn it into a really stupid political cartoon. But it was less than an hour and I'd say likely more like 20 minutes, tops. I posted it as a sarcastic commentary on crappy cartooning.


This morning, as I go through the political cartoons of the past 24 hours, I spy this from professional, paid-to-do-this cartoonist Chan Lowe, who, I should note, is not a Facebook friend and would not have seen my rendering. He came up with this on his own. 

And I'm sure it took more than 20 minutes to complete, because, in addition to the 30 seconds spent thinking of it, he had to redraw the whole thing, not just add a tear.
 Sigh.

I have missed my calling.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:35 AM

    Well done, Mike. Really, no different (nor any more original,as you demonstrate) than the endless series of 9/11 cartoons with the Statue of Liberty weeping or shielding her eyes.

    Also a pleasant reminder of my Catholic grade school "art" classes, which included both of the cited Japanese iconic images, on postcards with helpful, explanatory notes. Wish I still had 'em!

    - Ted Kerin

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  2. That first cartoon is dreadful, really dreadful. I'd call it ham-fisted but that would be redundant for obvious reasons...

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  3. Aaaaaand *today* we have....

    http://www.rjmatson.com/images/cartoons/RC1681.jpg

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  4. To which I can only add:
    http://bit.ly/feeJ5q

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