It seems the finale of the Tonight Show with Conan O’brien was a ratings success. He almost tripled Letterman’s ratings for the night. Given the decisions the NBC executives have made the last several seasons, I wouldn’t be surprised at the above outcome.
On a similar note, the Team Conan t-shirts are way out pacing the Team Leno ones. Get yours by clicking the image below while you can.
George this one is for you. I wrote an article for WebcomicPlanet on using StumbleUpon and Twitter and being able to post to both using one tool – Su.pr. Check it out here.
It used to be that kids without money were “poor”, then they became “disadvantaged” and then most recently “at-risk”. Well now a well intentioned state senator from California wants to call them “at hope” kids. “Democratic State Sen. Rosa Franklin says negative labels are hurting kids’ chances for success…”
Now I get the intent and I am all for raising the self esteem of all kids, especially those who aren’t born with the same advantages as others. However, I think this label does nothing more than to sugar coat the problems. Kids are NOT considered “at-risk” so they have a descriptor of themselves. They are “at-risk” as a wake up call for the rest of us to get involved to make sure they continue down the right path and get the tools they need to be successful. Changing the name IMO to “at hope” doesn’t change anything but make some people feel good about their word choices.
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While this editorial cartoon resembles Rush Limbaugh it could stand for any fringe person who is given a pulpit to spew lies and hatred. I must give credit to Jammer has written several interesting posts lately, the most recent title gave me the line of Flatulence in Broadcasting (a take off of Limbaugh’s Excellence in Broadcasting Network) which inspired this cartoon. Notice the acronym is F.I.B. Also interesting are Jammer’s posts on hatred and how the fringe becomes the mainstream. The only real error that I saw in the last post is that he only focused on the right fringe, while the left is alive and well (they just don’t get as good of ratings).
One difference though is when Olbermann spews lies and rants, he is is percieved as representing the left but not the Democratic Party. When Limbaugh does it, he is viewed as a party leader? How did this happen? Michael Steele and the moderates need to take back their party from the fringe elements. The fringe represents a small portion of the party yet are getting all the press.
The problem is when a person on the fringe of your beliefs is given a microphone and allowed to talk. Are YOU going to let that person talk for you? Because if you do and say nothing when you disagree with thier words or actions, the fringe is percieved as the Mainstream. When the first Tea Party rally happened in Cincinnati, there were a handful of people who held up nasty and sometimes racist signs about Obama. Who do you think got the press? And while there were some in the crowd who told them to take it down, there were others who chose to ignore it.
You have two choices in that case, either disassociate yourself from the group entirely or stand up when someone is misrepresenting your opinion. If you don’t, their opinion becomes your opinion in the minds of others. There are plenty of websites, that I no longer like to comment on anymore because the owners allow political bile to go beyond discourse. I am all for freedom of speech but remember that YOU control your website. You allow this to happen on a regular basis and their views will become the perception of your beliefs.
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My first encounter with anything close to a Sci Fi Convention was when I worked at a movie theater and we were doing a Star Trek marathon of the first four movies back to back. People were dressed as Klingons, as Kirk, as spock and as other random characters. However the one that made me actually laugh out loud was the 4 foot 10 inch woman dressed like a tribble.
Now with Avatar taking the world by storm will it also take over Comic-Con and other Sci Fi conventions? I am foreseeing alot of blue body paint being sold this year and some of the models won’t be so pretty.
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Now my Australian readership (which is about half the visitors on this site) might take offense to my latest editorial cartoon, but remember I poke fun at Americans all the time.
It seems that when some guys did a blackface version of the Jackson 5 on an Australian Gong Show and guest judge Harry Connick Jr found it offensive, some (not ALL…some) Australians responded that blackface isn’t offensive like it is in the United States.
Then when KFC put out an ad where a white guy gets a bunch of black folks to sit down so he could watch the game by pulling out a bucket of chicken, some Australians responded that Americans took it wrong and it isn’t offensive like it is in the United States.
Now it seems that an Indian cartoonist got upset that Victoria police were slow to indicate that the murder of an Indian student in his belief was a race crime. So he published a cartoon in the Delhi Mail Today of a Victorian Police officer in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. Now the Acting Prime Minister of Australia has come out and said that the cartoon was offensive. Really?? The KKK as I understand is strictly an American racist organization so clearly it can’t be offensive like it is in the United States.
Thanks to the Daily Cartoonist for turning me onto this story.
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So you might notice some changes around here. First I redid the Bearman Cartoons logo. Not entirely happy with it but I am still tweaking.
The second came from a comment on Reddit from someone calling himself GodShapedBullet. He said “I think the comics might be funnier if you lead with them. Nothing ruins a joke like explaining it.” Since most of my stuff was topical and you all probably haven’t heard about the situation, I had been putting the cartoon last. But he had a point so going forward I’ll try to put the cartoon first.
George Ford gave me the idea for this cartoon. He came up with it but never could figure out how to make it fit with the story lines he had going. Now why he gave it to me I dont’ know because it isn’t topical humor. But I had fun with it. Arctic Blast and EQ Comics have strips about crazy Frosty’s right now.
I think the most prolific snowman cartoons come from Tundra cartoonist Chad Carpenter. I thought for sure he would have done this idea and spent 20 minutes going through his archive. Now he may have done it but I couldn’t find it.
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I am a fan of cartoons. Given my chosen decision to do editorial and pop culture cartoons as my muse makes me love learning and knowing what is going on in the industry. Webcomic Planet and Webcomics.com are great sources for those starting out or trying to move forward with their webcartoons.
But to get overall industry information, one of the best sources that I visit often is the Daily Cartoonist.
But it seems there is plenty of animosity between traditional print and editorial cartoonists and webcartoonists. About every six months a pissing match between the two entails. And recently this post which now boasts almost 300 comments, shows the feud is alive and well.
Here is the cliff notes version. Print cartoonists lambast webcartoonists for “giving away product for free” thus cheapening it for all or not being able to make a living under a web based model. Webcartoonists in turn think print cartoonists are old and set in their ways and are only lashing out because newspapers are dying and they want someone to blame but themselves.
No matter what the medium I am both envious of and inspired by anyone who has the opportunity and skill to do what they love on a full time basis. Me on the other hand, have to go back to work tomorrow.
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I hope my Russian friends got their drink on for New Years because new government regulations have set the minimum price for Vodka at almost twice the previous going rate. Part of this crack down was to not only target rampant alcoholism in Mother Russia but also to curb Vodka bootleggers who have captured 50% of the market.
Please tell me how raising the price of Vodka will curb bootleggers. Won’t they up their production? Or am I missing something?
I worked on this editorial cartoon before I read that they are pulling back on the regulations but it still is a harsh reminder of how the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) can have a knee jerk reaction.
After the failed terror attempt on a Northwest Flight last week the following regulations went into effect for international flights:
Now I have no problem with any of those things to promote security EXCEPT for the last one. It is at the point in the flight that they say I can’t get up for the bathroom, that I tend to always have to go. There were domestic flights that I took after 9/11 that they told us we would not be able to get up during the flight (less than 2 hours) so we had better go to the bathroom before boarding. Of course that was after I chugged a bottle of water.
When those of us with weak bladders and spastic colons are hindered in our ability to go when needed, then and only then have the terrorists really won.
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