The New Boston Tea Party

Oh, so it turned out the Boston cartoon I thought wasn't going to be published, was published today in The Daily Iowan. I thought it was going to be old news before today, since now the news isn't so much catching Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, but how he is being criminally charged. But I'm grateful that The Daily Iowan put it in the paper anyway.

For more on this cartoon, click here.

I only now realized that I forgot to put my signature on this one. Oh well.

The Sixth Great Lake (plus the New Boston Tea Party, plus a shout-out to Erin)

In light of all the flooding throughout the Midwest:

Another map-themed cartoon in today's Daily Iowan. I tried to cover all the areas I knew were facing floods: Chicago, where flights were delayed at O'Hare, and Indiana, where there was a flood-related fatality, and then around here in eastern Iowa (although where we live is fine, in case you're wondering).

I also did another Boston Marathon bombing cartoon. The Daily Iowan didn't publish it today, and I don't think they can save it for later in the week, since it might be old news by then.

So I'll post it here.

Last week's saga in Boston was something, wasn't it? I wanted to draw something that showed the entire United States surrounding these two terrorists. I tried to think of something that represented 300,000,000 vs. 2. This is what I came up with.

My sister Kandis pointed out that the cartoon works in another way, because Dzokhar Tsarnaev was found in a boat. I realized, "Oh, I should have drawn a motorboat instead of an old colonial era ship!" That would have been a good idea. Oh well.

Oh, that reminds me, I should give credit where credit is due: for my Tax Day cartoon, I should publicly acknowledge that my beautiful wife Erin helped me come up with that idea. My first idea was a college kid with an accountant doing his taxes, saying something like "I wish I could hire someone to do this for my homework." But how many college students hire an accountant? So Erin thought of someone who comes to class exhausted because of working on his taxes. And that led me to think of the "hungover" element. Erin definitely helped me come up with something better than I came up with myself. Thanks, Erin!

A Little Busy Right Now

Here's a cartoon in The Daily Iowan that combines the tragedies in Boston and West, TX, and North Korea:

This week has been fascinating from a journalist's point of view, and I've been watching the Boston story especially. Of course, it's also been horrific. I can't even imagine what Bostonians are going through right now. I don't think I've ever had the feeling that I'm only safe if I'm locked up in my home, and even then I might be in danger. I don't think I've ever experienced that terror.

Here are a couple of awesome Boston tributes that were spread around this week:

In Tuesday's New Yorker magazine

On The Colbert Report, on Tuesday

I did another Boston cartoon earlier this week, but for some reason The Daily Iowan didn't publish it. Good thing I have a blog to publish it on!

In case you need some explaining: that's Paul Revere outside the Old North Church, pausing on his famous Midnight Ride, to take in the sadness.

Political cartoons aren't always funny or sarcastic. Occasionally, a cartoonist takes the opportunity to portray the community's emotions and sorrow, or recognizes history and heroes. I've noticed cartoons like that on the anniversary of September 11, or on Veteran's Day. I've never done that before - any tragedy over the years has always been when I wasn't currently drawing cartoons. (The Newtown school shooting was on the last day of final exams last December, so I was done drawing cartoons for The Daily Iowan for the semester.) So this was my first time trying out a serious cartoon. I thought it turned out pretty well, but for whatever reason it didn't end up in the paper.

I'm doing just one more week of Daily Iowan cartoons, so stay tuned!