Running Headlong

Today's cartoon in The Daily Iowan.

With this one, I definitely didn't want to do any jokes about Oscar Pistorius being a double amputee. To me, that would be too easy and too cheap a joke. If I had a nickel for every time someone tweeted "He doesn't have a leg to stand on! Ha ha ha ha!" then I could pay off the student loans of everybody at the University of Iowa College of Law.

Grade Point Average = Gun Permit Application

Published in today's Daily Iowan.

This cartoon is based on this story:

UI suspends sharing student information for gun permits following investigation

I'm not a big gun guy. But this just seemed sort of bizarre to me, that the University of Iowa was sharing FERPA-protected information with the sheriff. I'm all for open information, as a proud member of the journalism profession. But looking at a person's grades to determine whether someone qualifies for a gun is probably unnecessary.

Happy Oscar Weekend!

It's Oscar weekend, everybody.

Two of the leading movies for Oscar nominations seem to show different sides of the Obama presidency.

This cartoon didn't turn out quite as well as I hoped. In the letters of "Zero Dark Thirty," that's supposed to be a predator drone and someone being waterboarded. It's kind of hard to tell. And, I know there's a famous waterboarding scene in "Zero Dark Thirty," but the more timely story with President Obama is the predator drones. I don't know if there's anything with predator drones in "Zero Dark Thirty," so it might not be exactly accurate to combine current events with the events of the movie.

But, even if that isn't all clear in the cartoon, I think it still works. If nothing else, it associates President Obama with getting Osama bin Laden. Which might not be a strong criticism, but at least it's logical.

Chuggin' along

Who knew that I would draw more cartoons about the Department of Agriculture than, say, the State Department?

This is another cartoon about Sen. Tom Harkin's retirement. Late last week, current Secretary of Agriculture and former Governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, said he won't be running for the now available Senate position, even though he would have a lot of support. This makes it easier for U.S. Representative Bruce Braley to take the primary in the Senate race.

Wrestlemania

The news that the International Olympic Committee is dropping wrestling from the Olympics is pretty bogus.

It especially hits home here in Iowa, where the University of Iowa has been a wrestling powerhouse for a while. The governor and one of Iowa's U.S. Representatives have vowed to respond to the IOC's decision.

Hence, today's cartoon in The Daily Iowan:

So, I'm sorry to say that even after living in Iowa for more than six months, only now as I was preparing this cartoon did I learn that our governor, Terry Branstad, looks gloriously cartoony. I'm going to have to incorporate him into more cartoons in the future.

Little known fact: I actually used to wrestle. Well, just one year. For some reason, the sports schedule my eighth grade year did not have basketball and wrestling at the same time. I had a couple of friends who wrestled, and I decided to try it out. I never won a single match, but I went from knowing absolutely nothing about wrestling to knowing how to beat someone by the end of the season. I was named "Most Improved" on the wrestling team that year.

Happy Valentine's Day, Liberals!

This is sort of the same theme as Tuesday's cartoon. And, twice in the same week, I feature a 2012 presidential candidate shirtless. Hmm...

Holy Retirement

When I woke up Monday morning, did I know that before the day was through, I would be drawing the Pope sitting on a beach with a shirtless Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton in a swimsuit? No, no I didn't.

 

In today's Daily Iowan.

Bilingual

In today's Daily Iowan:

President Obama seems to feel more free these days. Not that it's all bad. But it is different.

I drew a pretty awesome cartoon yesterday about Pope Benedict XVI resigning ... this State of the Union was already planned. But I hope the Pope cartoon makes it in soon. It's a doozy.

The State of Iowa Basketball

Here's this season of Iowa basketball in cartoon form:

In today's Daily Iowan. Not one of the greatest cartoons I've ever done, but it's current and topical.

In case you can't tell, from left to right in the back, that's Michigan State, Indiana, Ohio State, and Michigan, and in the front, that's Northwestern, Penn State, and Iowa.

Iowa's doing pretty well beating up the cellar dwellers. But the Big 10 seems to be good this year ... Iowa not included.

To be honest, I'm not paying attention to college basketball nearly as well as I wish I were. I know BYU basketball isn't doing anything remarkable this season, but that's really all I know. Such is law school.

Good news?

This cartoon is based on this story:

UI audit finds no irregularities in athletics department, Gray situation

Transparency

University of Iowa's president, Sally Mason, has been going through a lot from the Iowa Board of Regents. Some of it has to do with Peter Gray, the Iowa associate director of athletics student services, who resigned last November amid allegations of sexual harassment.

There have been other similar incidents over the past few months. So the Board of Regents would like some more transparency for the university. Specifically, there's an idea to have an "transparency officer."

UI officials back Regent Lang's transparency proposals

Hence, this cartoon:

In today's The Daily Iowan.

Oblivious

And the Manti Te'o jokes continue.

So I actually drew two cartoons, one for either team winning. For some reason, The Daily Iowan has the other cartoon online ... I'm not sure if that was on purpose, so that no matter what happened, at least either the paper or the website would be correct. I was a little worried, because I saw it online first and I thought, "Oh no, they ran the wrong cartoon! I wonder if my cartoons were too confusing ..." But I was relieved to see the right one was published in the paper.*

Here's that other cartoon, in case you're curious:

Obviously, it's simply the reverse of the cartoon above. Which I could foresee as being confusing, if a newspaper editor under a looming deadline had to choose between the two.

How about that blackout, huh? I wish the Super Bowl weren't so past press deadlines, or else I definitely could have come up with a cartoon about that. (For some hilarious Twitter reactions, go here: The Funniest Tweets of the Great Super Bowl Blackout.)

* The Daily Iowan has since fixed the cartoon online.

Syncopated

Am I right?

(Published in today's Daily Iowan.)