Animation: Franklin Graham's Mr. Christianity Pageant

Franklin Graham uses his patented Christian-O-Meter to determine who becomes the new Mr. Christianity! Contestants Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich try to out-Christian Rick Santorum, but they can't fool Graham and his trusty Christian-O-Meter!


"Mitt, you look just the right height in that suit!" 


Watch the cartoon on The Final Edition, and find lots more funny stuff from some of the best comedy writers in TV and print. Or watch it on Mother Jones and find lots more from some of the best political writers on the web!

Oprah Winfrey Cover for The Utne Reader

The Utne Reader cover I did for Stephanie Glaros (one of my most favorite art directors, ever) is out, featuring Oprah Winfrey graduating from her network talk show to her new role as tv tycoon and publishing magnate. I'm not an Oprah acolyte so was unfamiliar with the details of her harrowing childhood, hideously molested as a child and finding refuge in TV shows and imagining herself accomplishing grand things in a brilliant future.


After reading the article, my first sketches showed Oprah as a child, watching her imagined future self on TV, Oprah as Mary Tyler Moore tossing her beret in the air (the opening sequence of the TV show that Oprah loved as a girl), Oprah holding the young version of herself protectively, both of them looking into the future, stuff like that.


After some back and forth, it was decided they wanted Oprah alone on the cover, in a graduation cap, holding the emblems of her huge success, looking glam but somewhat serious. Oprah's not easy to paint, her weight has fluctuated pretty wildly and with lots of different hairstyles and makeup and all, it's very hard to pin her down. And that's a picture of her as a child on the cover of the magazine she holds.

State-Sanctioned Rape

I started this cartoon about a week ago when I read about the mandatory ultrasound law that passed the Virginia state legislature last week and only awaits the (promised) signature of Gov. McDonnell. You can see it on the front page of The Final Edition, as well as on Mother Jones.


This law would force every woman seeking an abortion, without her consent, to undergo an ultrasound. Since the majority of abortions are performed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, this will mean that they will be subjected to vaginal penetration with an ultrasound probe. This is equivalent to enforcing state-sponsored rape, in an effort to manipulate (and punish) women seeking abortions.

Animation: This Un-Christian Nation

I was confused about the Catholic bishops association and right wingers spraying spit about infringement on their religious freedom last week over birth control coverage; it looked to me like the religionists were seeking to impose their beliefs on everyone else. After all, the government wasn't saying anyone had to use birth control, and of course the Catholic businesses didn't have to offer coverage for birth control if they chose not to take advantage of the tax breaks. So I decided to see what the founding fathers had to say about us being a Christian Nation. 


My first web searches returned great results! Man, what crazy, incendiary, positively atheistic quotes I found on many, many websites! Those founding fathers were some tough sonsabitches! I wrote up a neat little script for this week's cartoon, with all these badass quotes. I drew up 6 founding fathers and started animating them. I was all charged up!


But then Barry suggested I better triple check the quotes, that some poor atheist out in California had put up a billboard quoting Jefferson, and the quote was spurious and made the guy look like a doof. Looking like a doof goes against my religion, so I did some more checking.


Oy. Everything I had were misquotes, or so taken-out-of-context as to make them equivalent to misquotes. But you know what? I found plenty of material that was perfectly legit and also perfectly supportive of my contention from the start that this is not a Christian nation and the founding fathers specifically and categorically intended it not to be a Christian nation. They were quite deliberate in separating church from state; they'd seen the horror that melding the two always wreaks, in the countries from which they came. 


I'm not disputing that any of the founding fathers were raised Christians or were personally Christian. Personal religious beliefs are not the issue.  What's important and worth repeating (as often and as long as radical religionists continue their spread of lies) is that the founders laid out a country wherein religion and public policy are separate.


The cartoon is up on Mother Jones and on YouTube, above.

Animation: Komen's Dirty Pink Laundry

Last week the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, the breast-cancer-research advocacy group, cut its grants to Planned Parenthood, in a thinly-veiled effort to appease right wing anti-abortion groups who want to rob women of their right to choose. Under pressure, Komen caved and reversed their decision (for now), but in the process of reading about Komen, I found out a lot more about their disgraceful practice of "pink washing" corporate sponsors who make and use toxic, cancer-causing chemicals in their products.

It's up on The Final Edition, as well as other fine sites around the web.

Abortion Burka

I’m re-posting this animation I made one year ago about the radical Republican war on women. Given what the Susan G. Komen foundation did this week in cutting its grants to Planned Parenthood, it's clear we have to step up our defense against this disgusting assault

Link to animation

Rough Sketch about Low I/Q and Racism/Conservatism

I just read an article on Huffpo about a study linking low IQ scores in childhood with racist and conservative beliefs in adulthood, so I posted this super fast sketch in Cartoon Movement's Newsroom:

Link to cartoon

UPDATE: I uploaded a woodcutty version of the idea on Cartoon Movement; I think I like it better than the original sketch.

New on The Final Edition: Mitt's Blind Trust

My latest animation is being featured on The Final Edition, the site created by Tony Hendra, former editor-in-chief of Spy magazine, with an all-star list of contributors from the ranks of The Daily Show, SNL and Real Time with Bill Maher.


The cartoon they're running: With all this talk about Mitt's blind trust, he's here today to ask for your blind trust! Your blind trust in voting for him. With him is his beleagured dog, Seamus. Check it out.