2/27/11

Today's jpost.com cartoon

Yet another one about the continuing political crisis in the Arab world. Today's focus: Libya!

This one took a lot of inspiration to think up. I knew I wanted it to be about Muammar Gaddafi and the protests in Libya, tying it in to the general Arab protests if possible; in the end, I decided to go with the angle about how many of the (generally young) protesters have mobilized using new media like Facebook and Twitter. Remembering that Twitter and peace are both symbolized by birds, I decided to focus on that.
After debating for a while on just how to best represent the idea of the birds bringing down the Arab dictators, I was struck with a sudden flash of inspiration, recalling the #1 most popular iPhone game, Angry Birds, which provided a ready-made destruction metaphor (and had also been used by Israeli satirists before).
Everything came together pretty quickly after that. I'd originally intended to have the dove of peace flying in/being flung from the opposite direction, but decided that was metaphoric overkill and just had it perched on the ruins crushing Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. (Hosni Mubarak, of course, is the one under the pyramid on the left. Symbolism, folks!)
UPDATE 1: Video released on YouTube one month later by user "egorzhgun" with same basic premise. Goes viral. Cartoon just sits there. Cartoonist sighs, gets on with life.
UPDATE 2: Cartoon reposted on the Forty Two blog.

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

2/24/11

Neil Lazarus lecture advertisement poster

Designed this poster from scratch for a lecture about Israel given at the London School of Economics.

Drawn using:
Adobe Photoshop CS3

2/22/11

ZDH Sales comic strip

Promotional comic strip done for an international outsourcing call center's website.

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

Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Adobe Photoshop CS3

2/18/11

Boy seeing a pencil

Another recent TED keyword phrase that caught my fancy. It sounds so bizarrely specific I just had to draw it :-)


Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil
Blue 0.5 mm needle tip pen

2/16/11

WebDesign Israel banner ads

Two animated banner ads done for the company I work for.

Drawn using:
Adobe Photoshop CS3

2/14/11

Today's jpost.com cartoon

Well, it's official: Hosni Mubarak has relinquished the Egyptian presidency and joined Tunisia's Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali is the list of deposed Arab despots.

Now all that's left to do is to figure out just who gets to be in charge...

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

2/11/11

Basketball-related logos

These are two pictoral marks created for proposed logo designs for a basketball academy. Not chosen.

Drawn using:
Adobe Illustrator CS3

2/6/11

4,000TH VISIT

Merely one month (minus a day) after marking the 3,000th Visit milestone, The Eighth Day is already up to four thousand and counting, with dozens of new visits from all over the glove each day! I'm pleased as punch! Despite guests from all over the world (including a rather sizeable portion of Arab countries that helped push this cartoon to 126 hits in a mere three weeks), the visitor that pushed us over the edge at rather prosaic 3:08:19 PM EST, hails from the rather prosaic Plymouth, UK. Still, good show anyway, old chap/chapette!
The intervening time span has showcased several encouraging diversification trends:
  • 27 posts each garnered at least 1% of the thousand hits (previously, that number was 18)
  • The top 10 most popular posts accounted for 43.7% of all visitors' entrances (previously 56.8%, meaning a drop of 13.1%)
  • Only 2 posts had over 50 hits, or 5% of the thousand (last time around it was 6)
  • With just 12 new posts, 114 different entries scored hits (as opposed to 94)
  • And best of all, there was definite turnover at the top--only 5 of the previous top 10 most popular posts remained there.
I say "best of all", because this time I have an excuse to draw a new montage scene!

This drawing represnts the most popular pictures of The Eighth Day; when planning, I noticed that the subject could be easily arrayed into a nice little standoff of villains vs. heroes (plus a background/environment).
The aforementioned political cartoon of the fall of Tuinisia's President Ben Ali proved to be TED's biggest hit, garnering nearly twice as many hits as this pic, which I am pleased to report is the very first result in Google Images for "Judas Liz", as well as being on Page 1 for "Iron Liz" and "Linkara" (Alas, "Mechakara"--the fourth participant--only rates Page 2).
My first Linkara drawing proved its durability again, finishing in the topmost group for the fourth straight time. The same went for the Tortoise and the Hare and Young Justice: The Next Generation. The only other repeat performer here is the rattlesnake mascot.
It was a good time for political cartoons as three others also leapfrogged upwards--well, four if you want to get technical, but since two of them appear in the same post it's sometimes difficult to tell which one brought their visitors here. As such, they are ably represented here by their common factor: horrible weather conditions. The other two are December's Star Wars takeoff and October's tree-cutting semi-metaphor.

Drawn using:
No. 2 pencil
Colored pencils
Colored markers
Black 0.4 mm pilot pen
Black 0.5 mm pilot pen
Black 0.7 mm pilot pen
Serif PhotoPlus SE

2/3/11

The ClueFinders' Green Lantern

Okay, so it's only one character instead of a full-scale thing like my Blackest Night Muppets. Still, this was such an intriguingly bizarre keyword phrase ("cluefinders green lantern") that I just had to draw it.
(I'd initially planned to indeed do a full spread of all the gang in Lantern uniforms, but quickly realized that only Joni's character displayed any outstanding emotion.)

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

2/1/11

Panther logo

Stylized black panther done for a logo bid. Not chosen.
This was mostly photo mnipulation using preexisting panther logos, altered according to the buyer's wishes.

Drawn using:
Adobe Photoshop CS3