The Eighth Day

Today's J. Post cartoon

2012-01-26T20:00:00.002+02:00

The latest round of high-profile protests in this country now goes to the Ethiopian community, complaing about the usual things like racism and whatnot. As opposed to other protests in the past, however, media coverage has been rather muted, leading to this idea.

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

2012-01-13T10:54:00.000+02:00

When journalist Yair Lapid announced that he would run at the head of a new political party in the next elections, national media went crazy, devoting massive coverage including polls showing he could win up to 15 seats. The problem? Elections are only scheduled for October 2013, making all this excitement just a wee bit premature.

I originally intended to have the cartoon depict Bibi Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni as owners of horses representing their parties (the Knesset's two current biggest), standing by their horses in a stable or racing stalls and looking miffed while the all the media fawn over the dark horse owned by Lapid, but decided to do this simpler version instead.
Two things I now regret about this drawing: the horse's legs are going too far forward, making it look like he's about to fall over backward, and the bookie's answer sounds more passive than confused--it should have been either "is only in another" or "isn't for another." Oh well.

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

2012-01-09T10:59:00.000+02:00

No, America is not the only country with an illegal immigration problem and a porous southern border. In our case, it's not Mexicans, but people from Sudan, Ethiopia, and other Africa countries, looking for refuge or (more often) better economic opportunities, infiltrating Israel via the Sinai.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Blue 0.7 mm pilot pen
SerifPhotoPlus Starter Edition

Today's J. Post cartoon

2012-01-01T22:54:00.001+02:00

In another development of the ongoing State of of Israel vs. The Chareidim drama, Rabbi Yosef Elyashiv, one of the top rabbis of the chareidi community, went on record saying that it's impossible to lead a life of Torah observance if one integrates into the secular world (i.e., serves in the army, gets a job, etc.). This spectacular display of shortsightedness inspired me to contrast it with just a small sampling of some famous rabbis from over the generations who did, in fact, have real "secular" jobs.
Rabbi Yochanan HaSandlar (3rd century CE) was more precisely a sandalmaker (or possibly an Alexandrian--there's some debate as to his surname's meaning, but he was a contemporary of rabbis who were launderers (Rabbi Hoshayah), tailors (Rabbi Abba Bar Zamina), cotton merchants (Shimon HaPakuli), and so on). Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105) is the most famous of all the Torah commentators. Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon (1135-1204) is better known as Maimonides and was not just a physician but the Sultan of Egypt's personal doctor and a scientist to boot.
UPDATE: Reblogged by Tom Carew of no surrender-ne pasaran.
Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-12-28T11:30:00.000+02:00

Had this idea a while back and finally got around to drawing it. Pretty pleased how it came out, all things considered, especially since it's hard to make a recognizable face on a circular surface.
Admittedly, Putin has only been elected to his second go-around as president of Russia after two turns as prime minister while Medvedev has only been president once before becoming prime minister for the first time now, but the sentiment of the now-protesting Russian voters is still the same.

In case you're confused, here's a timeline:

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-12-14T15:40:00.002+02:00

With Israel closing (and, as of today, reopening) the Mughrabi Bridge for the umpteenth time, I figured the time was ripe for this reaction to the overreactions the Palestinians have eveny sitinkin' time we try to do anything near the Temple Mount, be it archeological digging or public infrastructure.

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

2011-12-13T21:58:00.002+02:00

The Jeruslem Post's website's erratic uploading of my cartoons continues, with two put up together some time after their initial submission, for the second time in the past few weeks. One already saw print 12 days ago; the other is below:

With a new Israeli ad campaign aimed at bringing expats home getting plenty of flak overseas for its perceived insults to the American Jewish community, now's a good time to caicaturize one of our biggest failings: Hasbara, our word for public relations. Whether it's ad campaigns for yordim or explaining our side in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, we somehow always find a way to stuff our foot in our mouth and leave the message forgotten by the wayside.

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 J. Post cartoon

2011-12-12T15:22:00.002+02:00

Just a general comment on the state of the euro these days. If it goes, so do the economies of those relatively least-unscathed by its wobbling (and that's without even mentioning what's going on with the PIIGS).

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 J. Post cartoon

2011-12-08T23:59:00.001+02:00

After rioters attacked the British embassy in Teheran, causing the Brits and several other European countries to withdraw ambassadors and/or embassy personnel, Iran tried to woo them back with the promise that they would beef up their security. Seeing as how it's widely suspected that the rioters acted under direct sanction of the regime, this is not completely reassuring.
The fox, particularly its head, was heavily inspired by the look of Wile E. Coyote.
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

Ripped From the Archives: January 2009

2011-12-05T15:59:00.001+02:00

Full disclosure: I never received the January issue in the mail and can find no sign of its existence at Issuu.com, so I have no idea if any of the following made it in or not.

Ah, Moshe Feiglin... if Bibi Netanyahu is Superman, then Feiglin is Lex Luthor. Or possibly kryptonite. Except that Superman is an amoral, spineless SOB (and I think it speaks volumes about our local politicians that he's still the best man for the prime minister's job anyway). Escaping that mixed metaphor, Feiglin has been a political thorn in Netanyahu's side for many years. but each time he gets knocked down (i.e. maneuvered around) he just pops right back up. Must be frustrating.
This was the second time I'd ever drawn Bibi and the first time I began altering his look to how I draw him today--the more true-to-life pointy eyebrows and the checkered shirt, symbolizing his cheap hucksterism (which usually shows up nowadays as a checkered tie).

In 2006, the government squared off against demonstrators protesting the destruction of nine houses in the settlement of Amona, with violent results. When, at the time, some likened it to a pogrom, Olmert and his cohorts lashed out at them furiously, terming it incitement and provocation. Fast forward two years, and these same people were terming far lesser violence occurring between Jews and Palestinians in Hebron a pogrom...

Looking back at this one, it doesn't seem nearly as clever now... nor as funny.

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-12-01T19:50:00.001+02:00

Always so quick to condemn Israel for use of excessive force whenever we accidentally kill Palestinian civilians whilst targeting terrorists, the UN has always remained conspicuously silent whenever American bombs miss their mark. The newspaper headline seen above is just the latest in a long, long string of such incidents perpetrated in the region by the US army.
UPDATE: 4 minutes after the first one, became second cartoon reblogged on no surrender-ne pasaran.
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

2011-11-27T18:09:00.000+02:00

The (Egyptian) natives are restless, complaining about the army holding too much power in the ongoing transfer of power, so they've (re)taken to the streets, including the famous Tahrir Square, to protest. It is, as the above fellow notes, all very deja vu.
On a side note, I went online to research the Arabic words you see above. Thus the sign really does say Tahrir Square (or, to be more precise, Mīdān at-Taḥrīr) and the riot shield really does say "police", or rather a phrase I found under the word "police" on the riot shields in a photo of Egyptian policemen.

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

Today's jpost.com cartoons

2011-11-24T18:04:00.000+02:00

After some delay, both of this week's political cartoons have been posted to the site. Let's take alook, shall we?

While I'm no supporter of Barack Obama, the field of presidential candidates currently available to Republican voters (a situation best summed up by this Dave Granlund cartoon) leaves me shaking my head in disbelief. Still, every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case it's me itching to caricature a whole slew of highly caricaturable politicians. The result is before you. (The skin tone on Obama and Cain is off, but that's what I get for coloring on a laptop with an adjustable LCD screen.)

With both China and Russia blocking serious sanction measures against Iran and Syria in the UN, these two rogue states are singin' (or at least walkin' comfortably) in the rain. It was fun to draw Bashar Assad as an old-style gangster complete with zoot suit. Fun fact: this is my heaviest political cartoon by file size to date, clocking in at a whopping 3.3 MB.
UPDATE: Reblogged by Daniel Dagan.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch) (both)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen (both)
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen (both)
Black marker (first)
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0 (second)
Serif PhotoPlus SE (first)

Bonus pic: the initial pencil sketches for the Republican nominees!

Rick Perry is the hardest of the lot to draw accurately, and you won't find many political cartoonists who draw him in similarl ways (looking back at the end result, I think I made his face too squashed-looking). After him comes Bachmann, who does have distinctive facial features which were nonetheless somewhat difficult for me to distill into a recognizable caricature. Easiest is Herman Cain.

The next iteration of Rister & Rob cartoons

2011-11-21T15:12:00.001+02:00

Drawn using:
Blue ballpoint pen
Black ballpoint pen

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-11-17T15:41:00.001+02:00

I've talked beforehand about the knee-jerk reaction of Tzipi Livni and Kadima to assign blame to the Netanyahu government for absolutely anything they can think of, but lately they've been joined in mindless overreaction by the rest of Israel's Left, who have been loudly announcing The Death Of Israeli Democracy and The Advancement Of McCarthyism et bloody cetera, after several admittedly controversial bills were brought up for possible passage into law. This overblown hysteria is exceptionally nerve-grating to me, prompting this reaction.

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

2011-11-15T12:00:00.000+02:00

It's not often that I get an idea from an article headline, but when I read about the Quartet trying to "jump start" the peace process, something just clicked.

Reanimating the dead = apt comparisons ahoy.
The look of Igor and the lab definitely drew inspiration from The Far Side.

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

In Pixar We Trust

2011-11-11T13:56:00.000+02:00

This one's for you, Coren ;-)

Drawn using:
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-11-09T14:11:00.002+02:00

Finally changing the subject, let's take a look at how the highly-touted "Arab Spring" is faring:

Oog. You know, I would have probably used a frying pan and fire to make my metaphor clear, but this fit in better with the theme. Getting rid of dictatorships? Good. Falling under control of religious Muslim extremists? Not good. Falling under control of religious Muslim extremists elected by democratic means? Ironic.

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-11-08T10:18:00.000+02:00

Yes, this makes two cartoons in a row about "Palestine"'s admission to UNESCO. Sue me.

The Palestinians' claims that Israel is destroying "Palestinian antiquities" and "erasing the Palestinian character" of places like Jeruslem, while laughable on their own, are doubly ludicrous when placed against the Palestinians' own history of systematically destroying or damaging Israeli heritage sites (which actually are both (a) Israeli and (b) ancient), such as Solomon's Stables on the Temple Mount, ancient synagogues in Gaza, and the above-seen Joseph's Tomb, which has by now been torched and vandalized on a number of occasions (although never, admittedly, by Mahmous Abbas wielding a flamethrower)--in addition to steadfastly denying the Jewish and Israeli nature of said sites--so as to further their claim of our not "belonging" here.

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

Drama Llama

2011-11-05T13:56:00.000+02:00

To inject MOAR DRAMA into any situation, simply call upon the Drama Llama. He'll always be there for you.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black ballpoint pen
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Serif PhotoPlus SE

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-11-03T14:38:00.000+02:00

In a move of dubious legality and morality, UNESCO (remember, the ones who unthinkingly accepted outlandish Palestinian claims on the history of Rachel's Tomb) have officially accepted "Palestine" as a member-state of the organization, even though they are not actually a state. Mocking the UN and its offshoots is like shooting low-hanging fish in a barrel of fruit, but sometimes a cartoonist's gotta do what a cartoonist's gotta do. For those who are unaware, UNESCO stands for United Nations Education Security and Culture Organization; and I decided to showcase just exactly how "Palestine" qualified for each of these categories. Note the map showing the entire territory of Israel as a single Palestinian state (their idea, not mine), and the marquee advertising Jews IV: The Revenge.
UPDATE: Now my second cartoon to be featured on Brabosh.com.
Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Blue 0.7 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

What You See Is What You Get--or is it??

2011-11-01T23:09:00.000+02:00

'90s Kid, as possessed by the Entity, a.k.a. [spoilers in alt text], as featured in the conclusion of the latest Atop the Fourth Wall storyline. I took some artistic liberties with his appearance, making him seem more ominously "glitchy".

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 SE

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-10-27T00:02:00.000+02:00

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

2011-10-26T16:03:00.001+02:00

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

2011-10-24T00:13:00.000+02:00

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

2011-10-22T23:59:00.001+02:00

Drawn using:
Blue ballpoint pen

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-10-18T18:36:00.001+02:00

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

2011-10-16T16:34:00.001+02:00

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

2011-10-10T01:16:00.000+02:00

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

2011-10-07T14:09:00.001+02:00

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

2011-10-05T13:18:00.021+02:00

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

2011-10-03T14:24:00.009+02:00

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

Without Millions pencil sketch portraits

2011-09-28T11:42:00.022+03:00

I was tasked with creating pencil portraits from photos of the founders of the real estate/community-building group Without Millions for their site's About Us page. All I can say is thank G-d for backlit LCD screens, because they enabled me to do a lot of tracing without which I doubt it would have come out nearly as good.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-09-25T23:37:00.030+03:00

My hometown's in the national news, but it's not pretty--a group of nutty ultra-Orthodox Jews have been harassing the national-religious schoolgirls who study in a school built near their neighborhood, shouting stuff like "Prutzah" (promiscuous) and "Shiksa". Because, y'know, first graders wearing pastel colored clothes and whatnot are clearly ignorant sluts deserving of no respect. Real classy, guys.

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-09-22T14:52:00.026+03:00

After jumping the gun and doing a cartoon on it almost a year ago, the Durban III conference/Israel bash-fest officially opens today, starring guest speaker Mahmoud Ahamdinejad, that noted humanist.
The flags hanging in the background are those of countries who decided not to pull out of the conference: from left to right, Greece, Denmark, Romania, Hungary and Finland.
UPDATE: After the Post reused this cartoon to accompany an article online, said article has been making the rounds among the usual suspects, reblogged by sites like Israpundit and ScrollPost (who magnanimously also put it on Twitter).

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

Ripped From the Archives: July 2008

2011-09-17T23:50:00.002+03:00

Another month with three printed at once.

Drawn in response to renewed murmurs about how it might be a good idea to hand the Golan over to Syria in exchange for ~~piece~~ peace. Nutters.

Yes, believe it or not there actually was a Pensioners' Party and they took 7 Knesset seats (out of 120) in their first election. Eventually becoming a de facto faction of Labor, the party's obviously out-of-their-depth members floundered and squabbled, with three MKs eventually announcing a split from the party. Except that they didn't. Then they did. Then they weren't sure. The whole back-and-forth was exceptionally diverting and provided excellent cartoon fodder. (In October, two of the three rejoined the main party and the third formed yet another offshoot. None of them made it back to the Knesset following the elections in February '09.)

Just general commentary on the abysmal state of the Kinneret's water levels.

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-09-15T14:27:00.000+03:00

You know, I've done cartoons about Egypt before; I've done cartoons on Iran and Libya and Syria and Dubai, and cartoons with Jordan and Turkey and Lebanon and Tunisia and even Algeria, and of course I've done cartoons aplenty featuring Israel and the Palestinians. But there's at least one notable Mideast country that I have not yet worked into a political cartoon: Yemen. Time to fix that!

Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, faced with an uprising similar to the one going in Syria, is very slowly and begrudgingly giving up his grip on power... and sometimes, frankly, the only way to illustrate a situation is simply to convert it into a visual medium. Originally I was thinking about maybe putting one or more people on the bottom, saying something like, "Okay, that's good, now keep going," but I think this came out pretty well as it is.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Blue 0.5 mm needle tip pen
Blue 0.7 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus6.0

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-09-11T23:56:00.002+03:00

Where were you when the world changed?

It's a cliche thing to say, I know, but some cliches exist because they are true. And indeed, on the 21st century's "day that will live in infamy", the world did indeed change--forever.
I was in my psychologist's office in Jerusalem, finishing off another weekly session. A little earlier then usual, my mother comes bustling in. "We need to go."
What's happened?
"There been an attack on the Twin Towers."

Some clarification is in order here. Up to that point, I had never to the best of my knowledge so much as seen the Twin Towers, let alone know anything about them beyond a passing familiarity with the ubiquitous name. On the drive home, my mother explained that they were these two really tall skyscrapers in New York. Automatically, my mind envisioned a simplistic child's version of the site--two elongated boxes of brick and mortar and cement, standing on end, covered in a zillion windows, reaching for the sky. And that was, in fact, pretty much exactly what the Twin Towers were in real life. There was nothing exceptionally glamorous or memorable about them, like the Chrysler Building or the Empire Stae Building. Just a couple of boxes and nothing more, a singularly aesthetically unimpressive and unimaginative sight. From a visual perspective, anyway.
To many other people they were symbols of America's general and economic might. To some people, they were targets.
I was too young to remember the first WTC attack in 1993, but growing up in Israel had made me used to the concept of terrorist attacks on civilian locations. As opposed to Americans, to whom terror attacks were something than for the most part happened in other countries usually full of brown people, knowledgability about terrorism was an integral part of life here, running the gamut from suicide bombings to airplane hijackings. This, however, I could sense was something bigger. Much bigger.

So there we were, in the car, driving back home down the highway. My mother had seen the initial coverage on a TV in a clothes shop where she was passing the time. So, this was big news. Okay. But what did that have to do with us?
"Uncle Marty works in the Twin Towers."
This gave me pause. While I cannot claim to be particularly close in any special way to my Uncle Marty, having met him only on fewer than a dozen visits to the US in my lifetime, he was still my uncle and a nice guy to boot. This was profoundly potentially earthshaking news. In my 12 years of life, not one close relative of mine had yet died. This helped reinforce my childish sense of invincibility: death and other disasters were for other people. I and the people I loved would last forever and nothing bad would ever, ever happen to us.
The illusion was beginning to crack.
"What floor does he work on?"
"The eightieth, I think."
Eightieth floor... wow. Oh my. If a plane hit the Twin Towers, then it would pretty have to hit pretty high up, right? Let's say it didn't hit his floor. If he was above it, could he get down? If he was below it, could he make it out before something... awful happened?

The cellphone rang. I picked it up.
"It's Glenna."
Glenna. Glenna's one of my mother's closest friends. After many years in Israel, she was now living in St. Louis. She was closer to the action. She could tell us what was what.
Mechanically, I relayed the information I was reeiving from cross the Atlantic to my mother. Two planes hit the two towers. A plane had hit the Pentagon. The Rose Garden. A bomb in a DC mall. Fighter jets had shot down a plane. Two planes. Hijackers on one plane were negotiting with the authorities. Too much. Too much.
Home. I just wanted to get home. Home was shelter. Home was safe.

Home.
My father's back from work early. Pacing. Reciting Tehillim with a manic fervor. My younger brothers are sitting around, confused.
Where's Uncle Marty?
No one knows. No one knows yet. Was he in the tower? Was he in the subway? Out on the street? Was he... was he...
No. This would not happen. This could not happen. I turned all of my childish belief and stubbornness and denial and focused it on one thing and one thing only: Uncle Marty is not dead.
Phone rings.
It's Aunt Esther.
"Marty is not dead. He's alive."

Whooping. Hollering. Drawn-out sighs of relief. Amidst it all, I scurry away into the bathroom and bend over the sink, crying, crying tears of relief, the first and only time in my life this has happened to me.
"He's not dead... he's not dead..."

Uncle Marty, it turned out, was late to work that morning and was still in the subway when the first plane hit. From there on, it was only a matter of time until he finally got an open phone line to his house.
And in the bathroom, I wiped my eyes and washed my face and walked out to face the brand new reality.
Where were you when the world changed?

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

Thing and Thing and Thing

2011-09-10T21:15:00.025+03:00

I have no idea what the person who entered this keyword phrase was looking for when it led him/her to TED, but by golly I'm going to provide it!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you John Carpenter's iconic Thing, Marvel Comics' Thing, and Thing One from The Cat in the Hat!
I know they don't really look right--so sue me. I drew all three from memory.

Drawn using:
Blue 0.5 mm needle tip pen

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-09-08T23:54:00.033+03:00

You know, after drawing stuff like children being scared of rockets striking their vulnerable school buildings and evil dictators beating the embodiment of their own civilian populations to a bloody pulp, it's nice to just kick back and let rip with an old-fashioned humorous cartoon whose sole purpose is to make you laugh instead of wince:

Mind you, there is no actual strike currently going on among Israeli doctors at the moment (although their labor dispute is still dragging on and many residents' resignations have been tendered), not to mention that operating surgeons wouldn't leave their posts in any case, but hey--a laugh is a laugh, amirite?
Fun fact: I was going to call the janitor "Bob" until I remembered that we're in Israel. Such is life.

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

Today's Jerusalem Post cartoons

2011-09-06T22:47:00.071+03:00

In a first for me, two of my political cartoons debuted on the same day.

In print, we got this, delayed over from last week. Just a humorous spin on how Muammar Gaddafi's whereabouts continue to be unknown following his recent overthrow. (I was tempted to do a "Where's Waldo"?-type cartoon to illustrate this, but decided not to because a) time reasons and b) other cartoonists have already done it, far better than I can.)

Online, we have Bashar Assad beating the crap out of Syria's civilian population. This one's an extended metaphor that got out of hand: it started as a comparison between "strikes" in the Middle East (AIRstrikes in Libya, striking as in HITTING in Syria, and being ON strike in Israel), which got scrapped when the Libyan revolution basically came to a close. Then I tried to rework it a little later into just a comparison between Israel and Syria, but was stumped how to present it most effectively and anyway didn't have the "feel" for it. Then I got to thinking how strikes can also be BASEBALL strikes. Then I decided to mix it all up and show Assad the batter STRIKING a Syrian catcher while being called out on a progressively higher STRIKE count by the Global Community in the role of an umpire. Then for good measure I stuck Uncle Sam in the background on the pitcher's mound, waiting to throw the Ball of Freedom to the Syrians, because hey why not. From an artistic standpoint, I really, really like how this one turned out, particularly Assad, whose caricature I have very, very clear in my head but am not always successful in transferring to paper. (And in case you're wondering, 00 not only refers to Assad being a worthless zero, but also neatly ties in to the year he took control of the Syrian government, as hinted at by the 76 on the USA uniform.)

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-08-29T21:43:00.018+03:00

Fifth consecutive political cartoon to be published by the Post. Man, I am lovin' this new op-ed editor--hasn't a day gone by since he took over that there hasn't been a cartoon by somebody or other in print.
Anyhow, cartoon!

The new school year is nigh--with very different concerns for students in different countries. ("Color Red", ot Tzeva Adom, is the alarm that sounds whenever a rocket gets fired from Gaza; it's activated so frequently that it has unfortunately become part of our national lexicon and Southern residents' nightmares.) To top things off, thanks to bureaucratic snafus and other factors, many Southern school buildings still haven't received potentially life-saving structural reinforcements.

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

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-08-26T10:54:00.003+03:00

While I got the inspiration for this cartoon specifically after reading a news article about Majid Jamali Fashi, the convicted killer of an Iranian nuclear scientist back in January 2010, being accused of having been trained by the Mossad, it's no secret that throughout the Arab world the Mossad is used a sort of catch-all conpiracy-theory boogeyman by the authorities--one need only look back at the Dubai incident for proof.

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-08-24T23:45:00.010+03:00

After a series of simlutaneous terror attacks that left 7 Israelis dead, the PA's biggest concern is, indeed, complaing about Israel's military response against the perpetrators. Boo hoo.

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

Cartoon black and yellow bloons to draw

2011-08-22T23:39:00.011+03:00

Just what is a "bloon"? Frankly, I have no idea. Is it a bird? A reptile? A sentient plant? An alien from another galaxy? Not a clue! This, however, did not deter me from illustrating the aforementioned keyword search:

So, what do you think? Any of these look like a bloon to you?

Drawn using:
Black ballpoint pen
Serif PhotoPlus SE

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-08-18T12:30:00.005+03:00

Two days in a row! This is an auspicious time indeed!

Israel's announcement of planning to build additional housing in the West Bank town of Ariel has sent the Palestinians (not to mention sanctimonious international diplomats) into a tizzy, accusing us of thereby obstructing the dead-as-doornails "peace process"--an accusation, funnily enough, that's never leveled at the PA.
UPDATE: Now my latest cartoon to be reposted elsewhere on the Web--in this case, Dutch-language pro-Israel site Brabosh.com. Thanks, Mr. Van Minnebruggen!
UPDATE 2: Repost #10 on Daniel Dagan's site.
Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-08-17T23:47:00.017+03:00

Not to belittle the protestors' problems, but... well, this joke was simply staring me in the face!
Please note Waldo in his second cameo in my political cartoons.
This has the notability of being my single heaviest cartoon to date (over 2.5 MB).

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

Bookplates for the Helene and George Rhodeside Humor/Laugh Therapy Section

2011-08-14T23:35:00.005+03:00

Sadly, the father of Benjamin Library's head English librarian passed away less than a year after her mother. She had the small consolation of being at his side, on a trip to America, when it happened.
In his memory, she has decided to rededicate the library's Humor section in honor of both her parents, and asked me to redesign the section's bookplate. I had two different ideas, so I drew and submitted both of them--and both were accepted.

As before, the grayed-out parts are the original design that I expanded upon.

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

Business Toon Parade: High Safe Technologies

2011-08-12T14:32:00.016+03:00

The Business Toon Parade comes to a close for the foreseeable future, ending with this offering courtesy of antivirus provider High Safe Technologies:

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

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-08-07T19:11:00.003+03:00

The scheduling ways of the Jerusalem Post's online management continues to perplex me. Not only is this cartoon a week old, it's not even topical anymore, as the Default was avoided with hours to spare (though from an artistic perspective, I will admit to being quite pleased at how it turned out, particularly the Republican elephant, whom I had never drawn before, as opposed to the shipful of Democratic donkeys).

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

Business Toon Parade: Targeted Web Content

2011-08-06T22:42:00.015+03:00

With a bland--sorry, brand--name prominently including the word "Targeted", it wasn't much of a stretch for me to conjure an archery-based cartoon for it.
As you may have guessed, the red archer is visually based on Speedy/Arsenal/Red Arrow.

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-08-04T22:07:00.015+03:00

Social issues protests have erupted all across the country, all aimed at Bibi Netanyahu's government, naturally, the contrarian opposition led by Tzipi Livni is just pleased as punch at this development, even though none of them did anything to fix said issues while they were in office.

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

Cheetah Kangaroo Boy

2011-07-31T23:33:00.028+03:00

Now, here was an interesting keyword referral for TED. Not only is it a singularly random set of searchwords, but it could be easily interpreted in two different ways.
For instance, did the searcher want a picture of a cheetah, a kangaroo, and a boy?

Or did they mean a combination of the three--a cheetah-kangaroo boy if you will?

What would that look like?
Probably something like this.

Now that's just plain dang weird.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black ballpoint pen
Adobe Illustrator CS3

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-07-28T13:22:00.009+03:00

The Israeli Medical Association (pictured, right: IMA chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman) are having a bit of a snit at the moment about how much Israeli doctors are currently being paid (hint: not much) as well as other issues in a full-blown labor dispute, while the Finance Minstry, led by Yuval Steinitz (right), is being all complainy right back. I thought this cartoon fit the level of discourse perfectly--and by happy coincidence, on the very day I drew it, Eidelman declared a hunger strike.

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

Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Business Toon Parade: PromotionalVideos.us

2011-07-27T15:26:00.012+03:00

I had a number of ideas for the rep's last line; the one that almost made it in instead was about being on Oprah.
Note the Oscar on the top shelf there.

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

Business Toon Parade: Two more marketing companies

2011-07-22T17:33:00.018+03:00

Online Marketing Israel

Marketing Ninjas

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

Another Hesder shirt design (unorganized)

2011-07-20T12:55:00.022+03:00

These are the drawn elements for another shirt for the same Hesder class as last time. Please note the Ma'alim Chiyuch shirt cameo (top right).

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-07-18T23:48:00.012+03:00

Yet another cartoon appearing out of sync, eight days after submitting it and four full days after it first appearing on the Post's website.

Mazal Tov to the brand-new nation of South Dudan--and good luck... because they're going to need it.

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

Business Toon Parade: Just Email Marketing

2011-07-17T23:20:00.029+03:00

Looks like I'm going to be kept busy in the immediate future doing more humorous promotional comic strips for different companies, thanks to the popularity of my previous two efforts. Feels nice to have my actual talents being utilized for once instead of my acquired garphic design talents.
This one's for an e-mail marketing service.

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

Window tinting logo

2011-07-10T13:55:00.018+03:00

Did this logo for a local window-tinting company (the text is a placeholder and is not the same font as in the final thing). Had to go through several different graphic representations of their product's effect before I hit on one they liked. Notable in that now it's displayed prominently on an enormous sign hanging off the owners' building.

Drawn using:
Adobe Illustrator CS3

Republished illustrative cartoon in the J. Post - again

2011-07-07T10:53:00.019+03:00

Well, this is disconcerting.

The above political cartoon, which got made it onto the Post's website on Sunday, was unexpectedly used today to illustrate an op-ed article about Labor's woes. Longtime readers of my blog (zero) will remember that a similar situation occurred two years ago; at the time, I was promised compensation for my work's unintended use. (Oh, didn't you know? The Post has no budget for paying its political cartoonists, so everthing I do for them is strictly voluntary. Just FYI.) Despite signing and sending in the requested paperwork, said money never materialized. I guess it's time to try again... and hope the outcome is better.

Get on the map!

2011-07-06T12:50:00.009+03:00

Portion of a proposed poster design promoting an online marketing company.

Drawn using:
Adobe Photoshop CS3

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-07-03T23:43:00.009+03:00

It's a five-man (or four-man-and-one-woman) race for the chairmanship of the Labor Party, the once-proud bastion of Israel's political left currently making its way down the toilet.

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

The return of Rister & Rob cartoons

2011-06-30T20:21:00.002+03:00

Drawn using:
Blue ballpoint pen
Black bappoint pen

Rhyming Raisin

2011-06-28T19:38:00.027+03:00

When told to create a mockup of an imaginary e-commerce website homepage, I decided to go nuts. So much of my graphics work deals with such uninspiring names that it leaves me feeling creatively stifled; out of the blue, I thought up the name "Rhyming Raisin" (as in "rhyme and reason"), and then immediately knew what the logo had to include--the Peanut Butter Jelly Time dancing banana, recolored to resemble a raisin. I took liberal inspiration from other sites for various other page elements, but it's the name that I'll forever cherish.

Drawn using:
Adobe Illustrator CS3

WebDesign Israel comic strip

2011-06-23T14:20:00.026+03:00

Following up on my earlier ZDH Consulting strip, this comic's humor was born out of a conversation with my boss about the company that basically went the exact same way as depicted above (although of course not quite as comical).

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-06-21T23:23:00.023+03:00

For the first time in recent memory, Israeli consumers have galvanized themselves into organizing a boycott against more-expensive-at-home-than-abroad cottage cheese, with similar campaigns against other exorbitantly overpriced products in the planning stages.

The biggest cottage cheese producer in Israel, Tnuva, also has the most recognizable and iconic product packaging symbol--the house, hills and tree depicted above being stormed by the fed-up torch- and pitchfork-wielding mob.
UPDATE: It worked! The dairy companies caved in and lowered their prices.

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

Today's jpost.com cartoons

2011-06-15T23:13:00.019+03:00

The Post's online people finally got around to posting the cartoon I drew last week along with this week's.

Obama became the latest American president to reiterate loud and clear his refusal to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Nothing new there, but it does get on my wick.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (above: IAEA chief Yukiya Amano) continues on the whole to be blithely oblivious to Iran's true intentions vis a vis its nuclear ambitions.

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

Costume design in the DCnU

2011-06-12T23:44:00.056+03:00

All right, so maybe it's not exactly what "piping" refers to, but just saying "lines" sounds redundant. However, the endpoint is unavoidable: Costumes in the new DCU look incredibly cluttered. Speaking as an artist, adding random lines everywhere does not make a character fun to draw. I'm not necessarily asking for oversimplified, completely smooth outfits (such as exhibited in the Timmverse cartoons), but all of these just take the concept way too far--and while on one character it may be understandable (if still annoying), when just about every other costume has it, it just becomes flat out laughably ridiculous. Check out some of the worst offenders:

Armor for Superman, lack of pants for Supergirl, Deathstroke's anime sword, even Batgirl walking at all--all of these are topics for another discussion (one that doesn't belong on this blog), while all I have eyes for are the lines, lines, willy-nilly lines, as far as the eye can see.

Drawn using:
Blue 0.5 mm needle tip pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

Webinars 4 All

2011-06-09T23:53:00.016+03:00

These are the two different-size versions of the web banner I created for Neil Lazarus's online seminars site.

Drawn using:
Adobe Illustrator CS3

Superman's marriage to break up?

2011-06-07T14:29:00.031+03:00

There are strong rumors floating around that part of the upcoming DC Comics relaunch (dubbed the "DCnU") involves getting rid of the marriage of Lois Lane and Clark Kent, a.k.a. Superman.

Instead of like it was with the death of Lian Harper, when I got angry, this time I'm just sad. In both cases, I'm less affected by how well executed the stories around them are (it's One More Day! Only the Devil's not involved!) than by my emotional connection to the characters themselves. Little Lian was a bundle of joy that didn't deserve to die, and even less so in such a brutally stupid manner; Lois & Clark is one of the greatest comic book romances of all time--possible even the greatest--and are quite happily married. They don't deserve to be split up just for the sake of making Superman "more accessible" or goodness knows what.
UPDATE: The split has been confirmed, along with a whole host of other maddening details that are beyond the scope of this blog to comment on.
UPDATE 2: Reblogged by thehappysorceress and thence by numerous others on Tumblr. One thing that vexes me is that I am credited as "Ramat Beit Shemesh", when even the most cursory of glances would have shown my real name. Sigh...

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

Optimum SEO

2011-06-05T22:57:00.008+03:00

Logo for a Search Engine Optimization company. They have a nice slogan.

Drawn using:
Adobe Illustrator CS3

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-06-01T17:27:00.010+03:00

Drawn after Richard Stallman, the founder of Linux (whose mascot this is), caved in to pressure and cancelled a series of lectures in Israeli universities. Maybe it is a bit of an overreaction, but the visual was just too good to pass up.
UPDATE: Reblogged by Daniel Dagan, for the ninth time.

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

With Apologies to Bill Watterson

2011-05-28T23:17:00.024+03:00

Honorable Mention, TitansGo.net Complete Fourth Season DVD Giveaway contest, 1/20/08

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

The inspiration.

Computer doctor

2011-05-25T14:07:00.008+03:00

This is an image I made for a computer repair website.

Drawn using:
Adobe Photoshop CS3

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-05-22T22:53:00.015+03:00

Didn't particularly impress myself with how this one turned out from an artistic viewpoint, but I think it gets the message across nonetheless.

Obama recently made a big speech detailing how he wants us to just pull back and hand the Palestinians a country based on the 1949-1967 armistice lines, known colloquially as the "Auschwitz Borders", as well as implicitly accepting various details of the Palestinians' bogus historical narrative. In the days since, he's dialed it back somewhat, but nowhere near enough to give me second thoughts about this cartoon.
UPDATE: Eighth cartoon reposted by Daniel Dagan.

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

It's OVER NINE THOOOUUSSAAAANND!!!!!

2011-05-19T12:02:00.032+03:00

Wow, what a predictable post title to mark my latest milestone, huh? Well, I apologize, but it's an Internet Law that whenever this particular number is mentioned, that line must be quoted. On pain of... I don't know. Something quite painful, I'm sure.
So here's a montage, but a little different this time around: instead of drawing representative characters from my most popular posts, I'm republishing them in different sizes, signifying how popular each one was:

Stats!

A total of 30 pics each accounted for at least 1% of the grand total of hits
That was from a total of 65 with at least 5 hits
151 pics in all got specific referrals
The top 10 posts only accounted for 31% of referral traffic
And no post received 50 entry hits
Finally, and most infuruatingly, the person pushing me over (at 6:18:48 PM EST) hailed from none other than... Fairport, New York, USA. What's so infuriating about that? Because visitor #8,998 was from Dubai--and the two right afterwards were from South Africa and Jamaica. Why can't I ever have somebody from an exotic location as my milestone man??

Drawn using:
Adobe Photoshop CS3

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-05-18T23:55:00.001+03:00

I drew this one last week, but it got in this week. What the hey.

Depending on your frame of mind, it's really depressing or amusing (or both) how the opposition, led by Kadima's Tzipi Livni, constantly blames Netanyahu for e-e-everything that goes wrong. Peace talks fail? Bibi's fault! Doctors on strike? Bibi's fault! Water shortage? Bibi's fault! JFK assassination? Probably Bibi's fault, too! Most of the humor in this situation comes from the fact that it's so blatantly obvious that they're using every single opportunity they can to try and assert that somehow they're still relevant to the public discourse when it is equally obvious that they are not; hence the cartoon.

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

Today's jpost.com cartoon, plus predecessor

2011-05-16T12:02:00.046+03:00

When Syrian citizens infiltrated the Israeli border at Majdal Shams on Naqba Day and ran into resistance from the IDF, Bashar Assad predictably took the opportunity to complain about this from his moral low ground.

It's a nice, simple cartoon, and while drawing it I realized that I may in fact have been subconsciously influenced by a similar, unpublished cartoon I drew about half a year ago:

This was drawn soon after the Mavi Marmara incident, when the PKK carried out some terror attacks in Turkey. Turkish president Recep Erdogan, who had previously taken Israel to task for butchering some murderous IHH terrorists on board the flotilla, immediately proclaimed that "Turkey will not surender to this language of violence." The hypocrisy of the quote caught my eye, and this cartoon was the result.

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

FatDino

2011-05-14T23:30:00.012+03:00

Logo+mascot for a website. Bid not selected.
Actually traced this one in AI from the original pen drawing by hand instead of letting the computer do most of the work.

Drawn using:
Adobe Illustrator CS3

PPC Manager

2011-05-11T11:17:00.003+03:00

Logo for a Pay-Per-Click management company.

Drawn using:
Adobe Illustrator CS3

Chaim BePlus ad

2011-05-08T23:06:00.012+03:00

This was done for an ad campaign by Chaim BePlus, an Israeli nonprofit organization that gives financial advice to young adults. It was used in e-mails and flyers, and even appeared on a magazine's inside cover. There were two versions made, the one above and one in Hebrew.

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

Ripped From the Archives: January 2008

2011-05-06T15:34:00.004+03:00

One of the following three cartoons became my first ever published political cartoon, in the Jan. 2008 edition of ShiurTimes magazine. They never sent me a copy and never answered my question as to which one it was, so feel free to guess!

Already covered here.

Although I drew the one about the end of the teachers' strike first, I think I thought of the idea for this one even earlier.

A big news story at the time was the government-led campaign to evict Hebron residents from a house monikered Beth Shalom, which had been bought from a local Arab who later backed out and claimed that (all evidence to the contrary) no such transaction had taken. Eventually (IIRC) the army was indeed called in to carry it out. Talk about your misplaced priorities...

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black ballpoint pen
Black marker (first)

Daily Deals Israel

2011-05-04T16:25:00.017+03:00

Logo for the Daily Deals Israel daily deals site, a.k.a. "Chaval Al HaKesef" (Don't Waste the Money).

Drawn using:
Adobe Illustrator CS3

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-05-02T22:11:00.006+03:00

Drawn for Yom HaSho'ah (Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day). I really like how the smoke and the lettering came out.

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

Lian playing darts with Ted and Ryan

2011-04-29T12:14:00.052+03:00

From: big_daddy_d
So...after all that..Maxwell Lord..still ****ing got away?

From: fleur_de_liz
Somewhere, Ted Kord is flipping a table and cursing colorfully.

From: pyrotwilight
Ted: Fer CRIPES SAKES PEOPLE.
Lian: What happened now Uncle Ted?
Ted: *sigh* Nothing. Just more drama. Let's get back to playing darts with Ryan.
-- scans_daily thread, 28/4/11

I'm sorry, but the mental image of Lian Harper playing darts with Ryan Choi and Ted Kord in the DC Comics afterlife was too good for me to pass up.
This little scene is set sometime before or after Ted's above outburst; Lian has just made yet another bull's-eye (she's an Arrow kid, what do you expect?), frustrating Ryan, whose "Bwuuuh?" face is making Ted snicker. Note Ted's 52 shirt. The star on Lian's shirt, of course, refers to her hometown of Star City.

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

Today's jpost.com cartoon

2011-04-27T21:57:00.000+03:00

This one looked a lot better in my head... it's supposed to show how Bashar Assad's "crowd control" techniques will in all likelihood come around to bite him in his own butt.

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

Last week's jpost.com cartoon

2011-04-25T21:38:00.002+03:00

After the Pesach ban on writing and drawing, I'm back!

I'm probably beating a dead horse with this topic, but the juxtaposition of Gilad Schalit's plight with the (then upcoming) Festival of Freedom was too good to pass up. Next year I'll probably go with Jonathan Pollard, unless (b'ezrat Hashem) Mr. High-And-Whitey deigns to release him before then.
Oh yeah, and I also got the blog's 8,000th visitor during the chag. No biggie.

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

Target Exterminating

2011-04-17T01:02:00.006+03:00

Logo for a NY-based pest control company. Incorporating the target into the letter O was my own idea.

Drawn using:
Adobe Illustrator CS3

Bat eating a fruit

2011-04-14T23:51:00.026+03:00

There's these fruit trees some people have in the garden around the corner from that recently have been getting visits from bats around 9 PM. They're most likely Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus), the most common fruit bat found in Israel. (Incidentally, did you know that bats compose Israel's largest group of native mammals? I didn't.)

Note: not an actual drawing of an Egyptian fruit bat.

I do so enjoy watching bats. I don't get to see them so much, and there's something about them that's... "cute" isn't the right word. Neither is "awesome". "Fascinating", perhaps. I mean, the concept is one of Nature's best proofs that G-d has a sense of humor: a mammal possessing the ability to fly. (And don't even get me started on the platypus.)

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

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-04-04T11:09:00.001+03:00

Yeah, Richard Goldstone. Remember him? The Jewish South African judge who headed the UN commission of inquiry on Operation Cast Lead that basically damned the IDF from here to eternity? He's just recanted the report's allegations about Israel deliberately targeting civilians. Two years later. Yeah, thanks a lot, Richie.
UPDATE: Now the latest cartoon picked up by Daniel Dagan.

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

THE GREATEST DRAWING IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

2011-04-01T16:28:00.002+03:00

Behold, ladies and gentlemen: today I present to you the

GREATEST DRAWING IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND!

The

GREATEST DRAWING IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

can make Chuck Norris cry!

The

GREATEST DRAWING IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

cures cancer!

The

GREATEST DRAWING IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

is more awesome than pirates fighting robotic tigers, Space Marine Spiff, and Old Man John McClane all put together!

In short, the

GREATEST DRAWING IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND

cannot be described by mere words!

So without further ado, here is

GREATEST DRAWING IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND!

Nerofe ISK, Ltd.

2011-03-30T23:01:00.011+02:00

Logo for a pharmaceutical company (main variation; others are in different color schemes).

Drawn using:
Adobe Illustrator CS3

Today's jpost.com cartoon (also: 7,000TH VISTOR!)

2011-03-28T22:25:00.013+02:00

In the latest bit of absurdity. the University of Johannesburg voted not renew their ties with Ben-Gurion University, then went on record saying they did not support boycotts against Israel.
And a big thank you to whoever-you-are from Fort Worth, Texas, for being The Eighth Day's seven thousandth visitor, clocking in today at 4:58:51 PM EST. (No, there is no special cartoon to mark the occasion--when you pass 2,000 hits in a single month, you tend to get blas'e about it.)

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Nlue 0.7 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus 6.0

A cow in moon boots and a confused Buddha

2011-03-25T10:09:00.005+02:00

No, the two are not necessarily connected, although there's no denying that a cow in moon boots would confuse anybody, let alone Buddha.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Blue 0.5 needle tip pen

Battery mascot

2011-03-23T20:17:00.012+02:00

Mascot proposal design for a power company. Project cancelled.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil (sketch)
Blue 0.5 needle tip pen
Serif Photo Plus SE

No to a nuclear Iran

2011-03-21T14:03:00.011+02:00

Made this cheerful little slideshow as per a customer's request.

Drawn using:
Photoshop CS3

6,000TH VISIT

2011-03-19T21:41:00.000+02:00

The hits are now coming so fast that I can no longer keep accurate track of what brings my visitors here--today the hit total for the month passed that of the 28 days of February (1,242), itself over 400 more than in January (822), which had been double the highest of any month's total up to that point (395). The most I can tell you about my latest milestone visitor is that he/she clicked in late yesterday on Friday, March 18th, 2011 (inexactitude due to it being Shabbat), when the single-day record of 99 hits was broken--smashed, in fact, reaching an unprecedented 349. There's a good chance that he/she was referred here via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook, all of which have been aiding Monday's Jerusalem Post cartoon go semi-viral, apparently struck by the raw chord of emotion.
To those of you reading The Eighth Day for the first time: Welcome, and I hope I can keep you reasonably entertained. Please feel free to leave feedback in the comments.
To celebrate, here's two cartoons that were printed, also on Friday, in a local charity's Purim mock newsletter!

I was asked to include at least one cartoon about either my city (Beit Shemesh) or the charity (Lemaan Achai--donate now!). This is it. It refers to the craze our municipality has for building traffic circles, including in completely unnecessary places that hinder traffic instead of helping it.

After publication I discovered, to my surprise, that they are many English-speakers who do not in fact know what a "pink slip" is. (For the record, it refers to being fired.)
Chag Same'ach!

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

Mini political cartoon--blog-exclusive

2011-03-16T20:13:00.024+02:00

Thank you, LA Times. So killing innocent Jews, including women and children, is a natural response to Israeli settlement building? Oh wait, that's right, they were "settlers", meaning they had no real worth as human beings. While you're at it, why not perpetuate the lie about the "cycle of violence"? G-d, you make me sick.

Drawn using:
Blue 0.5 mm needle tip pen

Today's J. Post cartoon

2011-03-14T10:11:00.002+02:00

I have nothing to add to this.

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

UPDATE:Thanks to Miriam Schwab, Eli Cohen, G Baigel and Uri Man, for putting this out on Twitter; IowaCartoonists, for retweeting it on Friendfeed; the National Council of Young Israel, for having it lead off their weekly newsletter's list of links; Stan the Good Shabbos Man, for reposting it on his website; and the Lev LaLev Fund for including it in their monthly newsletter.