Auchtoon!

November 15, 16, and 17 at 7:00PM, Grandville High School Theater

http://gpsblogs.org/ghstheater/

(Please note the two Auchters in the cast.)

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
November 11, 2012

Some consider it bad form to draw yourself into your own editorial cartoons. But for this idea I needed a character to represent the sometimes maddening inconsistencies of the American public and — Hey! That’s me!

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
November 4, 2012

One of the funniest things I saw this election season was a tweet from the actor/writer Albert Brooks in answering the “who would you rather have a beer with?” question:

Well, I’d rather have a beer with Mitt Romney because he doesn’t drink and I could have both of them.

Brilliant. That would be my answer (if I had thought of it first). It’d be a better way of saying, “Ya know, I’m not really crazy about Romney.” Why? Well, putting his actual platform aside (which is what a lot of us Americans do), I don’t like him for the very same reason I never much liked Bill Clinton back in the 90’s — he seems a professional office seeker willing to do or say anything to achieve the next elected level. (To be honest, their well-coiffed full heads of hair may also adversely affect my bald man sensibilities.)

Even so, I really wasn’t looking to unload on him the Sunday before election. I had a couple of other ideas that were presidential-candidate-neutral. (I address Michigan-centric issues, so most ideas don’t involve presidential candidates.) Then last week, Governor Romney made his bizarre automobile-industry statements while campaigning in Ohio. And even after it was clear to all that what he said was either totally false or at the very least extremely misleading, his campaign just seemed to double-down on them. I couldn’t let that go.

That said, please go out and vote tomorrow! Read as much as you can read; know as much as you can know. And if you can help it, keep your feelings about personalities out of it. I won’t presume to tell you how you should vote.

…unless you live in Michigan, then vote NO on Proposal 6. Seriously.

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
October 28, 2012

Yeah, I don’t know. I had higher hopes for this cartoon. There were two thoughts that amused me. The first was about the proposals. Here I am a Michigan editorial cartoonist who is supposed to know stuff about this stuff, and I have a hard time remembering which one is which. (This is, by the way, exactly the reason why ballot proposals amending the state constitution are a bad idea. Who can fully grasp the full intentions of these things, let alone the potential consequences?)

The other thing that struck me funny was the idea of voters with this vague notion of Pete Hoekstra — sort of like, “it must be time to vote because there’s that Pete Hoekstra guy again and he seems to be running for something.” I could try to explain to you why I think that’s funny, but then it wouldn’t be funny.

After that, I was just casting about for additional thoughts. The obvious one last Thursday when I was drawing this was that Michiganders would be totally pre-occupied with the Tigers and the World Series. But by the time the cartoon hit the newspapers Sunday, the Tigers were swept. *Sigh* Maybe that’s why I don’t have any particular enthusiasm for the cartoon anymore. Summer is now totally over and we only have elections to look forward to….

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
October 21, 2012

Four years ago, the McCain campaign pulled out of Michigan in October, ceding the state to Obama. Sara Palin rather famously and publically disagreed with the decision and wanted to fight on. The so-called mainstream media in Michigan never loved her more at that moment. But alas it was not to be. Without a designation as a battleground state, millions of media dollars were not spent here. Most were spent in Ohio.

Fast-forward to 2012. Back in September pollsters figured Michigan to be leaning Obama and again those ad dollars never made it north of Toledo. Luckily for our election economy, we have six ballot proposals of dubious merit for many special interest groups and one billionaire robber-baron to throw money at. And, boy, have they!

So my idea with this week’s comic was simply to tie this together. Since apparently the end always justifies the means when it comes to amending our state constitution, why not guarantee ourselves a piece of the presidential campaign money? Not any more crazy than, say, Proposal 6.

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
October 14, 2012

I may have mentioned this before, but when I was 10 years-old, I got to meet Vincent Price. My folks took us to see a production of “Damn Yankees” at the Start Theater in Flint. (Damn Yankees is a musical about a regular guy, Joe, and a fan of the Washington Senators, a baseball team that always loses to the New York Yankees. He makes a deal with the devil to become the Senators’ star player and lead his team to beat the Yankees. Price, of course, played the part of the devil.)

After the show, we waited in a line for autographs. When we got to Price, I made some mention of his devils tail, something like, “How is your tail?” (A running gag in the show was the devil trying to conceal his tail and it getting injured.) What I said was not memorable and certainly not witty, but Price did give me a professional chuckle and made eye contact with me. I remember thinking two things: “This is incredibly wonderful — I made Vincent Price chuckle” and “That man is impossibly old.”

I was thinking about the tail in particular when I was drawing Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun in the second panel. If you have been unfortunate enough to experience a “Vote Yes for Prop 5/Prop 6” ad (and if you lived in Michigan the past few months, you definitely have), you know the deals Moroun is spending millions to make with you. It’s sickening really to the point of comical (and then back to sickening again). I wanted to add something to let readers know that I think Moroun is playing the role of Mephistopheles here — trying to trick voters into very bad decisions. But I wanted to be subtle, and the tail seemed like a good solution. So take heed Michigan voters! Or in the coming weeks I may have to add the horns, pitchfork, and cape.

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
October 7, 2012

ArtPrize, the world’s largest art competition, took place in Grand Rapids over the past few weeks. Winners were announced last Friday with over $560,000 in prize money awarded. This was the fourth year for ArtPrize, and it was amazingly successful. The big prizes are determined on a public vote — people come downtown and cast votes on what they like. No ads. No campaigning. Very democratic and — especially in an election year — kind of refreshing.

I myself didn’t actually make it to ArtPrize this year. On the beautiful weekends when strolling the streets of downtown Grand Rapids was at its prime, I was laboring on my own sort of art project at home — putting a new roof on my shed. In the many moments when I was adapting my plans (and making yet another trip to the hardware store), I thought about how this thing would make, like, the worst ArtPrize entry ever. As with most large, publically viewable art installation, its purpose and worth is subject to opinion. It’s either a ghastly but marginally functional architectural solution or some sort of God-awful plastic/treated lumber prophylactic or an unwittingly efficient pre-made home for wasps, hornets, and other very angry buzzy things. Or all of these things. Don’t worry. I have no way of transporting it, so you are all safe to go to ArtPrize next year.

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
September 30, 2012

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
September 23, 2012

When I was at the editorial cartoonist convention last week, one of the events was a reception at the US Capitol, specifically the House Committee on Agriculture’s Hearing Room. I’m not really sure what the exact connection to agriculture was, but it was a big room with comfy seats and a pleasant place for House Majority Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Jim McGovern to talk with us. After the formal niceties, we were able to ask the congressmen a few questions. Rep. McCarthy had brought up immigration and voting rights, and things go very testy very quickly. Rep. McCarthy extolled the virtues of voter integrity; the cartoonists challenged him on ulterior motives. Rep. McCarthy strained smiles and explained in a patronizing way the big picture; the cartoonists disassembled the big picture and questioned his logic. Soon aides stepped in and whisked Rep. Kevin McCarthy to his next appointment (whether he actually had one or not). Rep. McGovern stuck to stories about how his father was a liquor store owner. Things went better for him.

This cartoon has been kicking around my head since the primary vote in August. Our Secretary of State in Michigan, Ruth Johnson, decided (despite Governor Snyder’s opposition) to have this question on the ballot: Are you a United States citizen? A valid question for a voter, sure, but one that had never been on a ballot before. It caused a lot of confusion. At first, you had to check Yes to vote. But then during the election day a clarification was sent that voters could opt out of answering the question. Now it is supposed to be on the November ballot. Ms. Johnson thinks it’s “a helpful reminder.” But decisions were not made in time for it to be on absentee ballots. Messy to say the least. If we could just get Ms. Johnson to address a room full of cartoonists, I’m sure we could get this straightened out.

Cool NPR story on the cartoonist convention last weekend: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/16/161241554/another-convention-this-for-political-cartoonists