Today's J. Post cartoon

In the wake of the widely-heralded and probably-disastrous Schalit deal, Israel went through with another prisoner exchange, this time swapping 25 Egyptian criminals for Ilan Grapel, an Israeli-American held in Egypt on trumped-up espionage charges, in a blatant in-all-but-name kidnapping extortion case. Still, as in so many things, there's also a bright side--or at least, an amusing side.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen

Black 0.7 mm pilot pen

Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Today's jpost.com cartoon

I'm not sure why they're running this one when the subject already became obsolete. (Context: for several days after their big earthquake, Turkey obstinately refused all offers of international aid, including Israel's; by today, they finally caved in and admitted that they needed some help. Is the cartoon a bit insensitive to them in a time of tragedy? Perhaps--but the ridiculous [and not to mention self-harming] stance they took just begged to be mocked.)

Plus it gave me a chance to draw the Three Stooges in a political cartoon for the first time (following in the footsteps of Laurel and Hardy and the Keystone Cops), so there's always that.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Today's J. Post cartoon

Published a little late, but what the hey--here's Muammar Gaddafi being tossed into Hell alongside fellow terror-minded Arabs Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
The title is a play on words of "Sic semper tyrannis", the Latin phrase supposedly quoted by John Wilkes Booth after assassinating Abraham Lincoln (there is some dispute about it, but it definitely adds a dramatic element to the story). It means "Thus always for tyrants", and I simply adapted it to the situation.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Blue 0.5 needle tip pen
Blue 0.7 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Revenge of the Rister & Rob cartoons

Drawn using:
Blue ballpoint pen

Today's J. Post cartoon

I actually drew the original cartoon a couple of years back, in December of 2009 to be exact, when it seemed that a prisoner swap for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit was imminent. Instead, it has happened this week, with Israel trading 1,027 of the scum of humanity for our captured boy. It's in a deliberately monochrome style to mirror the bleakness I'm feeling right now. To price, to my mind, is far too high--one soldier in exchange for the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Israelis--civilians and soldiers alike--who will be killed (and they will be killed, make no mistake) by the terrorists we have now freed. Sbarro, the Dolphinarium, Cafe Moment, Park Hotel, the Ramallah lynch... perpetrators from all these attacks and more, whose mere mention is enough to make any Israeli's blood run cold, are now free. Free. It's just... ugh.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Blue 0.7 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Pac-Man: The Musical

If you haven't seen the video yet, please go do so now. In my mind, it deserves to be an all-time YouTube classic. It's got some merrily deranged animation with lyrics to match, and I could listen to it over and over again.

I tried to get the ghosts to form some sort of chorus line, an effect that's hard to achieve when the characters only have a few stumpy legs and no other limbs. Oh well.

Drawn using:
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen

Today's J. Post cartoon

Syria announcing that it would investigate itself to see whether it had perpetrated any human rights violations during the brutal crackdown on anti-Assad protestors over the past year, before allowing the UNHRC to set up a commission on the matter, got a guffaw out of me. I mean, talk about the fox guarding the henhouse! C'mon!

In response, I drew this little bit of absurdity. I personally find the bit about the rabid chickens to be a stroke of genius...

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

M. Night Shyamalan's career in movie titles

Made this about a year ago after a random burst of inspiration. (For the uninitiated, the above utilizes the titles of Mr. Shyamalan's eight most recent writing credits to chart his career decline.)

Drawn using:
Serif PhotoPlus SE

Today's J. Post cartoon

After Congress decided to withhold funding from the Palestinian Authority in response to their unilteral bid for statehood recognition at the UN, the Obama administration got all snippy and vowed to reverse the move. A simple cartoon, but I like how it turned out artistically, particularly Mr. Sneaky McSneakypants on the left.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Today's J. Post cartoon

After both Israel and the Quartet have stated that they're ready to begin negotiations with the PA without preconditions, the Palestinians insist on acting like spoiled brats and insist, among other things, that Israel stop building in the "settlements". What defines a settlement? While it may not be all that politically correct to say so, the above is indeed a pretty accurate summary of the Palestinians' stance on the subject. Not even Tel Aviv is legitimate.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen

Black 0.5 mm pilot pen

Serif PhotoPlus 6.0