Auchtoon!

Originally published in the Ann Abor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
April 22, 2012

Ten years ago I was fortunate enough to have an art show in Grand Rapids with my very own cartoons adorning the walls of a gallery for a whole month. It was the coolest, most unnerving thing ever. Cool because there were so many people from the all the corners of my life (as well as folks I never met before) who came to check it out. I was interviewed for TV and newspapers. I drew a mural on a wall. There was a reception, which was a big party, and I gave a talk, and people felt obligated to listen so they were very nice, and Wally Pleasant gave a concert (more on that in minute), and there was dancing and a great big box of York Peppermint Paties.

Unnerving because cartooning (at least the kind I do) is a very solitary experience. I draw alone, I send the artwork off to be published, I post on a website, and people seem to enjoy it because I am asked to make more. That’s how it’s done. Seldom do I see and hear reactions. Never are there 50 of my favorite pieces hanging on walls. Thank God for the Pirin tablets! (Inside joke; ask me about it if you’re really curious.)

How did this happen? Well, as I recall, I answered this very question in my talk. Here’s the procedure: “Step 1, know somebody with a gallery. …and that’s it!” Of course it helped quite a bit that Jean and Mert were (and still are) incredibly generous and indulgent friends. It was also critical to have a generous and indulgent spouse whose name is Jane. (Names other than Jane may work, too, but I’m exclusively a Jane supporter.) In retrospect, it was infinitely cooler than unnerving.

So what does this have to do with…? Ah, here’s the connection: Last week I was recalling the art show and decided to search for the music of Michigan native Wally Pleasant on iTunes, which had not previously been available. But lo and behold, there he was! There was only one Wally CD that I didn’t have, so I bought it. And the first song is one of my favorites. It’s called, “The Day Ted Nugent Killed All the Animals.” I was literally (and I do mean literally literally) humming that to myself when I walked by our TV Wedneday morning and there was a story about Ted Nugent going off at some NRA event. I saw the video and, yep, he did go off. Way off. Embarrassingly off. And so the comic came to me in a serendipitous swirl.

Originally published in the Ann Abor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
April 15, 2012

Two inspirations for this cartoon:

1. There has already been one failed effort at a petition drive to recall Michigan governor Rick Snyder, and now there is another. It’s not an inspiring story of overcoming great odds through dedication and positive thinking. At best, it’s a misguided attempt to demonstrate disagreement with Snyder’s policies. (There are better, more effective ways to do this.) At worst, it’s a cynical attempt to game the system for any sort of a political advantage.
2. It’s fun to draw trains.

Originally published in the Ann Abor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
April 8, 2012

Last week, I wrote about considering perspectives that aren’t necessarily my own, keeping an open mind to other approaches, acknowledging that different positions on a topic can more fully develop the understanding of it. This week, well, I’m not saying I was wrong, because I wasn’t. But there are instances where that sort of consideration may be a bit overrated.

So to the motorcyclists who feel the need to express their awesome rebelliousness and disdain for the dern governments by not wearing a helmet, I say, “Do you really wanna be a rebel? Do you really wanna stick it to the man and opt out of our hated democratically elected constitutional republic? Buy yourself $5 million in insurance coverage and then go ride all you want without a helmet. That will show us all! Go ahead, do it! I dare you!”

Ya know… I guess I made my point, but I felt much better about myself taking the high road last week….

Originally published in the Ann Abor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
April 1, 2012

I didn’t grow up with handguns. My parents didn’t have handguns. We didn’t talk about handguns. As far as I knew, our neighbors and friends didn’t have handguns. Oh, sure, I was aware of them. I had heard and read about them in the news, in the movies, stuff like that. And I guess my great Uncle Mike had some old German lugers that I had seen once, but then Uncle Mike had, like, 400 handsaws and ate pig’s feet jelly so a few handguns sort of fit the pattern of his eccentricities.

All this is to say that I am not predisposed to liking or understanding handguns. In Michigan, there seems to be a hodge-podge of laws regarding concealed weapons and open carry, and how one obtains a permit, and where exactly a person with a permit is allowed to go with handguns. A couple of weeks ago, a fellow in Grand Rapids openly carrying a weapon he had a permit for walked into a public elementary school to vote. Guns are presently banned from school property. That seemed needlessly provocative, but nothing that I thought to draw a cartoon about.

More recently State Senator Arlan Meekhof showed up at a Senate meeting with his properly permitted pistol in open view. Again, I thought it unnecessary, but this time I remembered getting campaign literature from Senator Meekhof and his rather dim view of the idea of gay marriage, mostly because he didn’t seem to either like it or understand it. The cartoon clicked. And it’s as much a challenge to myself as it is to him. Before we go passing laws banning stuff, we should at least try to get past the influences of our initial reactions. Otherwise (and I believe I’ve said this before), I would be in full support of constitutional amendments to ban country music, overripe bananas, and the Los Angeles Lakers.