Cross-Posted Classics: Crossbones (6/30/09)

Barack Obama is making peaceful overtures to Syria's Basher Assad. Yeah, that's smart...

Boy, some things never change, do they?

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black ballpoint pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Today's J. Post cartoon

Behold! A complete and total butchering of Vladimir Putin's face! Why yes, I drew it from memory and without referencing any actual photos, why do you ask??
UPDATE: Reposted as the "Weekend Cartoon" on Brave New World.

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

It's all about priorities, people.

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

Cross-Posted Classics: Snakebit (6/24/09)

When Mahmoud Abbas releases Hamas-affiliated prisoners from PA jails to spite Israel and the US, he's running a bit of a risk...

It's amazing how crude the caricatures of these three look to me now.

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

Today's Jerusalem Post cartoons

In print:

While most Western countries are ramping up their economic sanctions on Iran, one country noticeable for its lack of "enthusiasm" in this field is Switzerland, Iran's best trade partner in Europe. One hopes that they come to their senses soon.
Online:

Here's a very simple rule to follow: if you say you're going to vote in favor of a bill even if it means you'll be fired from being an committee chairman or cabinet minister, then don't #@^$&%*?ING backtrack. So very, very simple... and if any of these five losers think no one will remember this, then they can just think again. This one absolutely makes my blood boil; the alternative to drawing this was scrawling "COWARDS COWARDS COWARDS" sll over the page. Urgh.

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

Amp Cellular banner ads

Internet ads done for a Jerusalem-based cellphone service provider.

Drawn using:
Adobe Photoshop CS3

Cross-Posted Classics: Tennis (6/17/09)

The ball's been in the Palestinian court many times... and Israel keeps serving 'em up.

For the uninitiated: 1991 - Madrid Conference; 1993 - Oslo Accords; 2000 - Camp David II; 2005 - Gaza Disengagement.
UPDATE: Better late than never, I suppose: three years and twenty-six days after its initial publication, now my ninth cartoon on La Boucle d'Occam.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.7 mm pilot pen
Black marker
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Today's J. Post cartoon

A little late after the fact but better than never, here is the first cartoon of mine about Jonathan Pollard to be published by The Jerusalem Post:

It is, indeed, a rather stunning symbolic contrast: Shimon Peres being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom while Pollard is still stuck in jail and decidely un-free. Despite promises from Peres that he would try quite strenuously to convince Obama to finally give Pollard the pardon he needs to be released, the White House was so unamenable as to announce at a press conference prior to Peres's arrival that their position on the subject was unchanged.
(Just to make matters perfectly clear: I am not saying Pollard is innocent. That is beyond dispute. What I and a majority of Israelis are saying is that he has more than paid his debt to society, particularly when compared to the sentences of those who have committed comparable--or worse!--offenses, and in light of both this and his precarious health, the time has come for him to be set free.)

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

Cross-Posted Classics: Puppeteer (6/15/09)

Kicking off a new series of themed posts, I think it's high time I migrated my earliest Jerusalem Post cartoons over from my moribund first blog, three years to the day after they first appeared.
Eleven days after my first foray into true mainstream journalism, I got published a second time, officially becoming a "regular". The cartoon, along with the original description, are below:

It doesn't matter who "won" the Iranian elections; there's only one real winner... the puppeteer.

To further elaborate on this three-year-old news item: despite the fact that hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad beat more moderate candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi in an Iranian presidential election widely assumed to be not quite kosher, it didn't make much practical difference since in either case the ayatollahs would still remain the power behind the throne.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black ballpoint pen
Black marker
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Lions and lions and lions, oh my

Male adult lion figure at various angles and poses.

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

Surprise! Turns out the Facebook piñata is actually pretty empty.

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

Mama Bear Pema vs. Equalists

My thought process at this point in my Legend of Korra viewing may be summed up as follows:

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

And, in their neverending quest to drive me insane, apparently the creators are going to continue their trend of upping each episode's quota of stakes and mind-blowingosity by having the Equalists taking over Air Temple Island.
You know what this means, right?

Yup, serious **** is about to go down. And I have to wait A WHOLE NOTHER WEEK to see what flavor! Aaaahh!

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil

Today's J. Post cartoon

I'm rather proud of this one, since it took the original metaphor--a pot boiling over--and stretched it without breaking, since there's so many ways to play with it in this situation. The situation, by the by, is that the enormous influx of illegal African immigrants to Israel (particularly South Tel Aviv) has inflamed tensions between them and the native Israelis, and this has indeed reached a boiling point with near-daily altercations between the groups. Netanyahu and Liberman ought to be familiar enough; on the right is Shas's Eli Yishai, the hardliner leading the charge to deport the African infiltrators, and next to him is Meretz honcho (honchette?) Zehava Gal-On, voicing the left's more forgiving approach.
UPDATE: Latest cartoon to be reposted on La Boucle d'Occam, after a two-month lull.
Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition

Today's J. Post cartoon

My apologies for yet another cartoon on the subject of the civil unrest in Syria, but really the situation there is so ludicrous that I could easily spend severals weeks drawing nothing but Syria, Syria, Syria. And of course the ever-incompetent UN as well. My G-d, what a bunch of singularly useless people. Do you know they're still worrying about the ceasefire collapsing? Buddy boys, the ceasefire never was, is not, and never will be. Also, you kind of suck at stopping innocent people from being killed.
Point of note: I am not trying to expilicitly state in this drawing who is "innocent" here and who's not. The Syrian rebels have committed torture and plenty of other war crimes on their own, and with so many soldiers defecting to their side you can't tell who's shooting whom on whose behalf. It's one giant mess up there.

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

Fat Panda

Here: have a fat dancing panda with dreadlocks and a rasta hat. (Concept art for rejected logo bid.)

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Adobe Photoshop CS3