Cartoonists With Attitude

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I had to share this–my mother made a newborn nightgown for my baby-to-be out of a Cartoonists With Attitude T-shirt!

Also, Happy New Year!

I was going to write about how bad this decade was but everyone still living has already done that. I’ve drawn almost 700 editorial cartoons about the outrages and silliness that went on this decade, so I suppose I’ll let those speak for me.

This year has without a doubt been the best and worst of my life. I won’t get into the details, but the bad things opened the door for the good things, as often happens. I feel the urge to move on but think the New Year feeling of rejuvenation will be delayed a little bit for me.

I’m in the home stretch of my first graphic novel, War Is Boring, and am working around the clock to meet the deadline in early February. I’ve never slept less. God bless the coffee and music that motivates me. I won’t be able to truly relax or get to the many things I have planned for 2010 until then.

So next year looks promising and I have a long “To Do” list for both my personal and professional lives. I’ll have one book out, be working on two others, and trying to lay plans that ensure when the tens end there will be at least 700 more editorial cartoons bearing my signature.

I’m also planning on having more fun in my life. Which is why I’m buying a banjo.

Happy New Year.

Who’s more incompetent: The TSA or the Al Qaeda graduates who can’t seem to build bombs that go boom? Unlike everyone who is freaking out over the recent failed terrorist attack, I don’t think we need full body scans and even more intrusive safety measures. The airlines are incredibly safe–we should all be nervous about driving or walking on sidewalks on New Year’s Eve. Janet Napolitano, save us from the drunks!

You can’t get firearms and big bombs on planes–hence the annoying shoe stuff. The 9/11 plot worked once, but I pity the fool who tries to take over a plane with a box cutter these days.

And as we joke about the underwear bomber, let’s not forget about my predictions regarding butt bombing.

Sometime tomorrow, after I shake off the New Year’s hangover and remove the noisemakers and bottle caps stuck in my beard, I will be updating this website and officially ending the BFW Holiday Bargain.

And as 2010 rears its head like Putin over Alaska and the International Date Line, I’d like to thank everyone who bought Fun Stuff or donated in 2009. Newspaper page counts were way down this year, and you all helped turn a shit sandwich into a peanut butter & jelly one. Next year, let’s aim for bumping it up all the way to roast beef!

Posting and other internet-based tomfoolery will return to their normal levels next week.

In today’s Minimum Security comic, Nikko diverts shipments of PopTarts: http://ping.fm/OiarL

“Whenever I hold up the gun against the enemy, my dream is social equality.” — Navmila (sp?), a Maoist guerrilla/squad leader in India

Today. Yep. Today. I’ll be going to Things From Another World in the Hollywood District in Portland to hang out and sell my comics as part of the Indy Comics Week. 2-7pm.
I’ll have original art and my dirty comics in addition to my usual crap.

http://www.tfaw.com/
http://www.tfaw.com/blog/

Also: this week I’m posting a new comic on the www.act-i-vate.com website. Bookmark it and check it. There might be some overlap with my blog - but mostly it will be original material.
http://act-i-vate.com/creators?id=50

Boom Studios is producing a brand new Too Much Coffee Man mug. Should be pretty cool. The plans are to make it change images as you add hot water. I’ll have more details on this soon. But it looks like the pre-order is available now.

That’s about it… working on a collection of the New Yorker rejects. Here is an anemic rough version of the cover:

And on a non-rejected note. This next issue of the New Yorker sports one of my cartoons:

This is an open thread. Post what you like; it’s all good, baby! Self-link love has been approved of by the motion picture association of America, and also my mom.

1. David Link on a marriage broken up because the husband came out as gay: “The whole enterprise of gay rights has been to deconstruct this fabric of insincerity. No one is well served, gay or straight, by making us bear false witness against ourselves. In coming out, Gareth Thomas was doing no more than admitting what could no longer be denied; his regret was not for personal wrongdoing, but for the wrongdoing he felt the world demanded of him.”
2. Seven real pro-family gifts from congress.
3. I’ve long admired Tony Judt’s political writings. I didn’t know that he is disabled, with a progressive condition that has almost entirely paralyzed him below his neck. His short piece “Night,” about getting through the nights when he is immobile, is excellent. (I did wonder why he doesn’t have a voice-operated computer positioned so he can use it from his bed, but my guess is that he wants to encourage sleep, not put off going to sleep).
4. Why women’s rights are a lousy argument for keeping US troops in Afghanistan. “To empower Afghan women, politically, would require either some kind of permanent NATO protectorate or else a deliberate effort to restructure Afghan politics in some much more fundamental way—either take power out of the hands of armed groups, or else to empower women to become militia leaders and warlords on their terms. We’re not seriously contemplating doing any of those things, for some pretty good reasons, but given those realities we shouldn’t kid ourselves too much about what we’re doing. The Taliban are horrible for women and the plan in Afghanistan is to entice them and their horrible views into a power-sharing agreement!”
5. This really amused me – a series of photos someone left on his camera, to encourage anyone finding the camera to return it to him.
6. A visual guide to the scientific consensus on global climate change.
7. Alyssa is right: This is profane (and includes use of the “c” word) and to call the violence “gratuitous” is like calling the Ocean “moist.” And although the trailer says “mature audiences only,” that’s obviously not true: If I was really mature I wouldn’t have enjoyed this trailer enormously.

Taking a holiday break, I wasn’t planning on a cartoon this week for In Contempt. But the Christmas day testicle bomb FAIL proved inspiring. For some definitions of "inspiration."

Page 26 of the "Search Party" story line is up at Wanderlost. Ma Pig gets an unwelcome surprise.

Everyone else is doing it, so why can’t we? (The Strokes? Bo-ring!) I’m going to refrain from calling these the “best” of the decade, as there’s so much music I haven’t heard. Just compiling this list made me realize that about 90% of what I listen to is from the last century. These are the albums that appealed to my ultra-melodic sensibilities, or in the immortal words of Nick Lowe, PURE POP FOR NOW PEOPLE. In no particular order:

1. Ladytron - Light and Magic
Tough to choose between this, 604, and Witching Hour, but I find Light and Magic somehow the most consistent.

2. Dungen - Ta Det Lungt
Hearing “Panda” on the radio for the first time was one of those “What was THAT?” moments. The rest of the album, while different from the single, is also great.

3. Miss Kittin and the Hacker - First Album
“Stock. Exchange. Woman.”

4. New Pornographers - Electric Version
Again, tough to choose between this and Mass Romantic, but Electric Version was my first love. Twin Cinema also noteworthy.

5. Calvin Harris - I Created Disco
Warm yet angular keyboardal goodness for the synth lover’s soul. Sophomore effort not so much.

6. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues
Let the bells ring! A full-bodied, transcendent masterpiece.

7. Ween - Quebec
The album that made me realize they’re not just jerkoffs, but geniuses.

8. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
A perfectly-crafted pop album.

9. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Psychedelia for millennials. And lead singer is the son of an altweekly editor. What’s not to like?

10. The Rogers Sisters - Purely Evil
A dark horse submission, but had this been recorded by the Talking Heads in the ’70s, it would be considered a classic.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Pansy Division - Total Entertainment!
Fischerspooner - #1
Gang of Four - Return the Gift