This is a typical day in the life of the Bearman household.  My wife can do twenty things around the house and never say a word about it.  I, on the other hand, like to boast or at least announce every menial task that I do.  ”Just want to let you know I changed the light bulbs in the bathroom and you didn’t even have to ask”   Now just for reference this isn’t some typical screw job bulb.  They are the damn halogen mini lights so I actually have to climb up on the counter to my own peril, hope they don’t explode in my face, make sure the pins align correctly, and all in the dark so I don’t blind or burn myself.  uh…am I bragging again?

Now my female readers might look at this and say, “typical man.”  BUT, I would say it is a learned response when you get married.  It is a preemptive strike.  Women think they do everything around the house.  So they start piling on chores for the man trying to get him to do their share.  By bragging about how much we have done no matter how mundane, we make you think before you start requesting things get done.

Though my wife has even worked her way around that.  Some show was saying that women shouldn’t nag their husbands to do chores but rather speak positively about the things they do in order to encourage them to do it more.  So now once a week without fail, my wife will tell me “You know you look sexy when you clean the cat litter”

Weigh in.  Anything similar happen in your experience?

se let me know if I missed anyone and if you want to get involved click on the image below.

Today’s editorial cartoon is inspired by Time Magazines cover story on what is known as Attachment Parenting and the controversial cover photo.  Here it is in case you missed it (Click image for a Time Q&A with the mom)

I guess this image has caused some controversy both from the side who think letting your almost 4 year old still breastfeed and the attachment parenting advocates who think that this does not show the nurturing aspects of the practice.  Forbes Magazine has a great round up of different articles on the subject.

So what are your thoughts??  Good idea, bad?  How long should a kid sleep in the same bed as their parents and/or breastfeed in your opinion?

Happy Mothers Day…in that honor I’ll share with you this ditty I posted on G+

Charity Challenge Update

Week 2 Breakdown:

$10 for Using ME in their Cartoon -

• Warren Frantz at Off Season Comic

$10 Blog about the Challenge

• Bo Lumpkin at Gatorhead
• Rachael Black at Yoyodine
• Red at Momma’s Money Matters
• Robert at Refrigerator Magnate
• George Ford at Addanac City
• Jande at Aedre’s Firefly

$5 Adding me to Blog Roll or Adding Banner

• Soma at Somkritya
• Cha at Dontchawannadream
• Sandee at Comedy Plus

$1 for ever new follower on Google Plus at http://googleplus.beartoons.com

359 NEW FOLLOWERS in a week.

Which gives us a week 2 total of ………$444 and a grand total of $926…Holy Crap I almost hit the goal.

PLUS:

I had 2 people donate money to Crayons2Computers in honor of Bearman Cartoons

Liz Krane - $25

Red – $25

So I will be matching those and last week’s donations with $105 of my own at the end of the month

Please let me know if I missed anyone and if you want to get involved click on the image below.

Image by Bearman, Story by Dan Soto

Former child star, Linus Van Pelt (no relation to Stephanie Van Pelt), has been tapped to be featured on an upcoming episode of the hit show “Hoarders”.

Recently, ToonMZ, spent a few minutes with Linus about his upcoming appearance.

“It’s all Lucy and Snoopy’s fault” (referring to his older sister Lucy Van Pelt and his best friends dog). “For years, they tried to take my blanket and I successfully fended them off each and every time. Then one day, I got up to get my bottle of Makers Mark and took my eyes off my blanket for a split second. That was the moment Lucy and Snoopy had been waiting on forever.”

After a few moments to blot his eyes, Linus continued his story.

“It was at that moment that I realized I needed a backup plan. I needed more blankets. I knew I would not survive this cruel life with only one blanket and cruel friends. I have spent every day of my life finding and storing every blanket I could get my pudgy little fingers on. Salvation Army, Goodwill, Wal-Mart and anywhere I can find a blanket either old or new, is not safe.”

ToonMZ was not able to get a direct (or honest) estimate from Linus about how many blankets he has collected but our team of expert guestimators was able to get a quick peek in his condo and came up with approximately 1,924,000 blankets.

Update: ToonMZ has just learned that the estate of the late Charles Schultz has given its blessing to an upcoming “Peanuts” special entitled “It’s the Great Hoarder, Charlie Brown”

Click below to Support the Charity Challenge

Today is the day.  Beware of the Sith day.  All over Google Plus on friday I was unindated with posts about “May the Fourth Be With You” in reference to May 4 being Star Wars Day.  So of course I couldn’t go with the masses and needed to blaze my own trail.  Thus Beware the SIxTH of May.  Several people questioned me because there is already a “Revenge of the Fifth” but honestly with the typography and play on Sixth/Sith, mine is way better.

Charity Challenge Update

I can honestly say this is turning out already to be the most successful charity challenge yet only after one week.  So I thank all of you who have already done stuff or are planning to do more.  Let’s look at Week one Breakdown.

$10 for Using ME in their Cartoon -

• Mark Stokes at Zombie Boy
• Neal Edwards at Subparker
• Tony McGurk at Tazmanians

$10 Blog about the Challenge

• Duncan at Mad Hatters
• Mach3 at itravel blog
• Bo at Bo Lumpkin
• Eric Johnson at Made for Art

$5 Adding me to Blog Roll or Adding Banner

• Duncan at Mad Hatters
• Starla at Starla’s Chat
• Scott at Solo Social

$5 because the Friggin Loon added a category to her posts called “Friggin Ohio Home of Bearman” because even though she is an Aussie somehow, 50% of her posts have to do with crazy people that live within 100 miles of me.

$1 for ever new follower on Google Plus at http://googleplus.beartoons.com

392 NEW FOLLOWERS in a week.  That is more than has “liked” my facebook page in 3 years. haha

Which gives us a week 1 total of ………$482 more than double 2011

PLUS:

I had 3 people donate money to Crayons2Computers in honor of Bearman Cartoons

Holland Rhodes – $5

Shani Hiraoka - $25

Nancy Schreck – $25

So I will be matching those donations with $55 of my own at the end of the month

Please let me know if I missed anyone and if you want to get involved click on the image below.

My writing partner Dan Soto was MIA this week so if he comes up for air, I will add the story.  I always was suspect of Archie Andrews never deciding if he wanted to date Betty or Veronica.  I could see him growing up to be a huge polygamist.

Charity Challenge is going great.  Thanks all for the support.  Will update on that on Sunday.

Yes it is that time of year once again.  The Bearman Cartoons Charity Challenge, where you do stuff and I donate money to worthy charities.  I have been extremely fortunate that both my wife and I are gainfully employed during this tough economic times so I am upping the ante this year.

This is the Fourth Year I have done this so far donating $1656 ($336 in 2009, $630 in 2010, $690 in 2011) and it will run until the end of May.

Many of you know that I do this challenge each year to raise awareness of my blog while giving money to charities who need it.  Historically, this has been the majority of my advertising budget for the year so if you enjoy Bearman Cartoons, please help by spreading the word on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc and/or thumbing up on StumbleUpon or Reddit.

As in previous years, the first $500 raised will once again go to the Cincinnati FreeStore Foodbank. This charity does great things not only to feed those in need but also to help families get back on their feet in other ways.   Anything donated above $500 to the max $1000 will go to support the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati.  I have a relative with Down Syndrome and this organization does an incredible job working with the families of those afflicted.

But that is not all.  Some of you know I donate 100% of my commissions directly to Crayons to Computers.  It is a free store for teachers allowing them to stock up on school and art supplies for their students/classrooms.  So I am going to match dollar for dollar anything you donate to Crayons to Computers up to a max $500.  When donating just make it in Honor of Bearman Cartoons and they will know how to notify me.

I will donate the indicated amount for each thing that you do in the month of May:

• $10 – For any cartoonists who uses ME in a cartoon in their strip.  Use “BEARMAN” somewhere in the toon.  Maybe it’s a character’s name, a name on a bar sign in the background, integrating my green haired gravatar into a background character or even loosely as “Check out that Bear, man!”  Be sure to link back to this post so I know to include you in my tally.   I know some of you work with a buffer so if you plan to post after May just contact me and let me know and I will add it to the list.
• $5 – Add http://beartoons.com to your blog roll (for those who don’t already have it)
• $5 – Add a Bearman Cartoons Banner Ad (found here) on your site or if you already have one upgrade to a larger size.  Link it to http://beartoons.com
• $10 – Blog about my challenge to your readers and link back to this entry in your post – http://beartoons.com/2012/04/29/bearman-cartoons-charity-challenge-2012
• $5 – Send a picture of yourself wearing a t-shirt from our shop OR send a picture that showcases that you are a BEARMANiac. Photos will be showcased in weekly updates and also appear ongoing in the BEARMANia section.    See below for my favorite fan pic from Lynn.
• $1 – Circle/Follow me on Google Plus – http://googleplus.beartoons.com.   Currently I have 13,218 followers.

If you add me to your blog roll, add/upgrade your banner, include this challenge in a post, please indicate in the comments. I’ll post a weekly update of the money raised and who did what to raise the money with links back to your site if applicable.

Thanks for your continued support.

Story by Dan Soto.  Another ToonMZ parody exclusive.  What happens when Richie Rich gets older and fat?  Probably this.

Capitol Hill
Washington, DC

At the behest of key Republican Senators, Richie Rich, the world’s richest kid, flew to Capitol Hill yesterday to testify before the Senate on behalf of the 1%. With his best friend, his dog, Dollar, sitting faithfully beside him, Richie adamantly defended the 1%.

“I made my money the old fashioned way” he exclaimed in his unmistakable high-pitched voice. “I inherited it!” He went on to explain, “These 99%-ers have no idea how hard it was on me growing up with the unlimited amount of money I had at my disposal. I’ve earned the right to be proud of my 1% status. That’s something you 99%-ers will never, ever understand. Right, dollar?”

After the Senate hearing, Richie flew all Senators and staff members to Disney World in Paris for fun, games and dinner with Mickey and Minnie.

With today’s editorial cartoon, I have no doubts that a conservative would never vote for Obama to spite Romney.  However it is true that many conservative groups are calling on him to move to the right or lose their support.  So isn’t that really the same thing?  Tony Perkins (no not the actor), of the conservative group Family Research Council said this:  “And so if the party is moving in a different direction, we are not going there.  The only reason there was an alignment with Rick Santorum from our constituency is because Rick embraced the ideas, the policies and the principles that our organization and our constituency believes in…If they don’t, they’re not going to get the unbridled enthusiastic support that Rick Santorum enjoys.”

So maybe they don’t vote for Obama but more likely just don’t vote.  If you have choice between supporting a guy who agrees with 50% of your beliefs versus one that supports 0% (obvious exaggeration), wouldn’t the logical thing to do is try to get something out of it?  Or do you enjoy bitching about the country for another 4 years?  I guess I will never understand the mindset of the far left/right.

On a different but not necessarily lighter note, I did a caricature tribute to Dick Clark this week.  New Years Eve won’t be the same without you (and please no Mayan jokes…I have heard them in every form the last week. haha)

Story by Dan Soto.  Illustration by Bearman

Local residents in the small town of Bedrock are in an uproar over the shooting of Bamm Bamm Rubble. Bamm Bamm, the adopted son of Barney and Betty Rubble, was shot by Sgt. Boulder of Bedrock while peacefully walking towards the policeman and holding nothing more menacing than a turkey leg.

“It was cold blooded murder” cried Betty Rubble who lost her only son. “All Bamm Bamm was doing was was trying to offer Sgt. Boulder a bite from his turkey leg!”.

“I don’t quite understand this.” explained his father, Barney. “It’s not like he had a bag of candy or soda in his hand. For crying out loud, it was just a turkey leg!”

Local authorities have given the following statement regarding the shooting.

“This morning at 7:31 AM, Bedrock Standard Time, Sgt. Boulder was being approached by Bamm Bamm Rubble with what appeared to be a significant sized weapon. Sgt. Boulder attempted to warn Mr. Rubble to freeze but to no avail. Mr. Rubble continued in a threatening manner towards Sgt. Boulder while yelling the words “Bam Bam” in defiance of the officer’s direct order to freeze. As Mr. Rubble continued forward, Sgt. Boulder, who has been on our force with stellar credentials for 24 years, drew his weapon and, once again, ordered Mr. Rubble to freeze. Mr. Rubble defiantly disregarded this order and continued to advance toward Sgt. Boulder which left him with no choice. Sgt. Boulder has been questioned and released and is found to have complied completely within our code of ethics. There are no plans for further investigation at this point”

“Prehistoric profiling. This is nothing less than prehistoric profiling and neither I, nor Wilma will stand for this”, said Fred Flinstone, the Rubbles’ neighbor.

So my last politically inspired cartoon poked fun at the Republicans so now it is the Democrats turn.  Time and time again I see Democrats invoking the spirit of Ronald Reagan to shame Republicans into agreeing with their policies.  Somehow Reagan has turned from representing all things evil with Conservatives to the voice of an elder (albeit deceased) elder statesman.

Recently President Barack Obama invoked a quote from Reagan to defend the Buffet Rule (a plan to up the tax on the rich) calling Reagan (gasp) “a socialist” compared to the ‘Republicans of today.  At the same time he said “Trickle Down Economics” didn’t work…a phrase that was the basis of the Reagan plan.

The difference is how they are looking to go about it.  Obama wants to raise tax on the über rich…something the majority of Americans will get behind simply because it doesn’t affect them.  However, what Reagan wanted to do was similar to all Republican platforms generally and fight to reduce taxes.  I am not one of those people that clamors for tax deductions.  I think they are a necessary part of living in an advanced society.  However, I hate it when my tax money is wasted because of politics that both sides tend to partake in.

AND, I agree with Reagan that the key isn’t to just raise taxes on the rich.  It is to remove all the tax loopholes that seem to be available to the rich such that people like Warren Buffet pays less as a percent of income than his secretary.  Hilarious that Buffet will make that point but still take advantage of those loopholes himself.  Simplify the tax code, get rid of the loopholes that seem to pop up and we won’t need to worry so much about whose taxes should be raised or not.