The Sorensen Monologues
Gun Nut or Mass Shooter?
I’ve actually been to the Kroger supermarket in Charlottesville where a 22 year-old man made national news by waltzing through the store with an AR-15. He has since been banned from the premises. I mean, really. If I see some random person with an assault weapon in a public place, I’m not waiting around to find out what their intentions are.
Licensed to Share
Related article here. I use both Facebook and Instagram with the awareness that my data is being mined in probably unimaginable ways, but asking for driver’s licenses (or birth certificates!) is a bridge too far. Especially for people who use a pen name or stage name for professional reasons, or reasons of personal security.
Dirt-y Politics
Commenters on another site where this cartoon appeared accused me of “playing the race card” with this one. I have to try very hard to put myself in the mindset of someone who thinks the Republicans’ sudden interest in changing the way electoral votes are apportioned in certain swing states has absolutely nothing to do with race. This post by Jamelle Bouie in The American Prospect gives a nice rundown of the problem. As Bouie points out, the end result is a gross distortion of the popular vote that privileges the land:
In addition to disenfranchising voters in dense areas, this would end the principle of “one person, one vote.” If Ohio operated under this scheme, for example, Obama would have received just 22 percent of the electoral votes, despite winning 52 percent of the popular vote in the state.
Fortunately, it looks like that plan may be fizzling in my old home state of Virginia.
Pride and Prejudice Anniversary Comic
Ever wonder what Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” would look like as a one-page comic? For the novel’s 200th anniversary, NPR Books asked me to create such a thing.
A technical aside: this was the first time I’ve ever had to lay out a comic specifically with mobile device readers in mind. Apparently NPR gets huge amounts of mobile traffic, so they split the comic up into individual panels that rearrange themselves depending on platform/screen size. Pretty interesting, and something Jane Austen likely never imagined would happen to her novel as she wrote it two centuries ago. (For a truly meta experience, check out this Storify of a Twitter conversation about making comics “responsive” between two news design people and myself.)
As a creator of complex female characters, of course, Austen was very much ahead of her time. Two hundred years ago, she was more highly advanced than most Hollywood screenwriters are today.
What’s Up With This Site?
I find myself in the curious position of being “in between websites” at the moment. Rather than wait to unveil my new site (this one) in all its perfect, finished glory, I’m going to be polishing it up publicly. Of course, I intended to do this a couple weeks ago, but found myself suddenly slammed with freelance work. So if you’re looking for anything beyond my current strips and blog posts right now, please visit slowpokecomics.com. And one of these days, I’ll get things fixed up around here.
Lance’s Harsh Landing
I highly doubt that Lance Armstrong will need to apply for demoralizing low-wage work to make ends meet. Dude could live quite handsomely off the value of his real estate holdings alone. I actually find the whole thing more fascinating than a source of schadenfreude. What really bothers me about Armstrong is not so much the doping, since pretty much everyone seems to have been doing that, but rather the way he made life hell for people who told the truth about him. To be so aggressive against people who inevitably start to talk… well, I just don’t know how he slept at night. Lots of exercise, I guess!
My pet theory before his confession was that he had doped earlier in his career, but kept returning to the Tour de France to show he could do it without doping a certain number of times. Guess I got that wrong.
While doing this strip, I noticed that drawing Lance is oddly like drawing his fellow Texan George W. Bush.
Bright Ideas from Wayne LaPierre
This is neither here nor there, but while drawing Wayne LaPierre, it occurred to me that he has slightly weird hair. It swirls over his brow in a sometimes-bulbous arc that, for me, evokes shades of Jimmy Swaggart. You’d think a guy who gets paid around a million bucks a year by the NRA could afford a better stylist!
Trend Forecast 2013
Not about fiscal cliffery, as I had an early deadline for the holiday. But you’re sick of that nonsense, right?
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I noticed a mini-flurry of authors of books about presidents on the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Apparently books (and movies) about presidents are hot now. Especially Lincoln. He is the bacon of presidents.
2012 Wrap-Up: Stuff I Did This Year
Hard to believe it’s time to change the copyright date on my cartoons again, but alas, here we are. I’m both humbled and happy to report that 2012 was my best year yet as a Cartooning Professional. Thanks to all those publications that made it possible by using my comics and freelance illustrations, and thanks to readers who lent their support through print orders, donations, and thoughtful comments here and elsewhere.
Some highlights of 2012:
In March, I found out I was this year’s Herblock Prize Finalist. With my prize money, I purchased an emerald-encrusted mechanical pencil with a burled walnut barrel and deluxe boar leather handgrip. OK, maybe I didn’t.
In May, I flew to Vegas for the National Cartoonists Society annual gathering. There, I mingled with a number of the nation’s comic strip artists amidst the constant presence of cocktails. I felt briefly fancy, then returned home with a suitcase full of dirty laundry and no longer felt fancy.
Road trippin'
Shortly afterward, Mr. Slowpoke and I began an epic road trip from the Northwest to Austin, TX. During the drive, while we were somewhere in the middle of Utah, Kaiser Health News posted my comic about freelancers and health insurance (“An Open Letter to the Supreme Court About Health Insurance“), which blew up and became one of KHN’s most-read stories ever. (Clearly the SCOTUS decision upholding the Affordable Care Act was all thanks to me. You’re welcome.)
In June, I attended Netroots Nation in Providence, RI, where I was on a panel with fellow Daily Kos cartoonists Tom Tomorrow and Matt Bors. As an added bonus, Paul Krugman showed up in the audience while I was at the podium. Fortunately, I realized this after I sat down.
Making new friends at Big Nazo in Providence, RI
Also in June, I found out that I won the 2012 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Awards for Best Cartoon. Huzzah!
In September, I covered the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte for the Austin Chronicle and C-VILLE Weekly. I can now say I saw the Foo Fighters live.
Me with the entire Obama family
A few days later, I was off to Washington, DC for the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention, where I gave a few presentations. I participated in the cartoon version of a “Literary Death Match,” in which I was narrowly defeated in the final round by Keith Knight, who drew better blindfolded than I did (I’m sure he cheated).
With Clay Bennett and Tom Tomorrow at AAEC. Photo by Bruce Guthrie
My travel season finally over, the fall brought an abundant harvest of freelance work, most notably a series of WPA-style posters for the National Women’s Law Center. This gave me a chance to admire the incredible handiwork that went into the old WWII posters, and to spend way too much time thinking about fonts.
Around this time, the Center for Cartoon Studies unveiled a tribute poster to Matt Groening’s “Life in Hell.” I was flattered to ask to participate. My contribution was published on Slate.
The year was rounded out with a pleasant interview with Tom Racine of “Tall Tale Radio.”
Whew, I’m exhausted just thinking about all that stuff. Here’s hoping 2013 is similarly righteous. I’ll be unleashing a completely revamped website in the new year, so stay tuned for that. Cheers!
If we policed the U.S. the way we do Afghanistan
A blessed rerun this week so that your humble hostess may recharge her batteries. Unfortunately, this one is just as relevant than ever.
A couple commenters on Daily Kos have argued that I am comparing apples and oranges by placing military action in a police scenario. To which I replied:
I am aware that the rules of war are different from the rules of domestic policing. The point of this cartoon is to provide a thought exercise about how we might feel living under the constant existential threat of death from above.
Employing drone strikes (or airstrikes of any kind) to take out a few suspected militants — especially in populated areas — is using excessive force. It’s both cruel and dehumanizing to the Afghan people, and counterproductive strategically.
Respect for the Deadly
As soon as word broke of the shootings in Connecticut, the familiar cries not to “politicize” the tragedy ensued. I find this plea curious on a number of levels. First of all, the people urging others not to “politicize” gun violence seem to come from a particular political perspective with remarkable consistency. You might even say their request is a political statement itself. It’s almost like they think gun control advocacy comes from some random whim wholly detached from incidents such as this. But the ready availability of AR-15s does not happen in a vacuum.
More details on the NRA-ALEC connection.
Fiscal Cliff Funnies
I’ve said it before, but you can’t cut workers’ wages and benefits — and generally destabilize their lives six ways from Sunday — at the same time that you slash the social safety net. That’s simply uncouth.
