Ah the lovely internet troll. Anyone that blogs or posts regularly somewhere online has run across this person at least once. Some of you probably ARE the troll. I don’t judge. haha. So give us your best troll story.

This is kind of a search engine experiment. Last year I posted a sign of the wrestler Sheamus. Today if you do a google image search of “Sheamus Sign“, guess whose image pops up first?  So while there are cartoons of internet trolls, it would be interesting to see if I could get this one to page one.  There are a couple other phrases that people use to find my site so I may do cartoons of those in the future.  Any you would like to see?

Yeah it is small, but click it and it will grow really big.    The PICTURE, I am talking about the PICTURE you dirty people.

And check out the one George Ford did as well.

INSIDE

Happy Valentine’s Day. Don’t let those Zombies eat your heart out. Does anyone celebrate Valentine’s Day outside the United States?

Today’s cartoon on condom purchasing and the embarrassment it can cause was inspired by real life.  The other day I had a few things to pick up at the grocery store and I was waiting in line behind a 20 something woman who confidently held a box of condoms in her hand ready to purchase.  I thought to myself that I was so happy to be married so I didn’t have to deal with that anymore.

I don’t know about you but when I used to buy condoms, I tended to throw a couple more non essential items into the basket.  For a time at my local grocery store you had to ask the pharmacist to unlock a cabinet where they were located.  I guess because people would rather steal them than be embarrassed by purchasing them.

Thinking back, condom purchasing wasn’t the only thing I used to be embarrassed doing.  I once was a gopher in an office where I had to buy tampons for the five women that worked there.  Of course none of them used the same type.  So here I went lugging five boxes up to the counter.  The clerk looked at me funny and I said “This is the lowest point in my career.”

Even speaking up and ordering a drink at a crowded bar.  I tended to just hold my money in my hand hoping eventually the bartender would see me.  My wife can’t believe that I ever was shy for any reason.  How about you?  Anything you used to abhor doing that is no big deal now?

Ok so I am over a week late to wish my Aussie friends a Happy Australia Day but other posts came up first.  Long time Bearmaniacs might remember a similar cartoon that I did in 2009 (see post here).  In that post it was all about how Aussie men confessed to not changing their undies for days and the fact that, like their American Brothers, are an obese bunch.

Someone on G+ found it and linked to it and then Dunken Bliths used his magic to animate and change the word balloon just in time for Australia Day.

For the uniformed what we call Speedos are known as Budgy Smugglers in Australia.  A Budgie is a small parrot native to Australia and the look of some guy wearing this bathing suit is like someone smuggling a Budgie in their pants.  Some guys decided to make a brand called Budgy Smugglers (mispelling Budgie but not wanting to change it).

I’ve seen some things floating around the web describing the steps for people to figure out their Blues Singer name.   We never played that game but we did ask people their Porn Star Name.   Plus when else am I going to be able to fit a caricature of Adult Film star legend Ron Jeremy into a cartoon post.  So fess up Bearmaniacs….what is yours?

Oh and someone pointed out that this might be security answers on websites and you may  so your alternative is to tell us your Middle Name and the First Car you Drove.

UPDATE:

The guys at Obscure Gentlemen webcomic actually cared what I have to say.  Go check out my interview with them.  Aidan, George and Tony better go because I give you shout outs.

DC Entertainment (aka DC Comics) has decided to step up for aid to Africa with their We Can Be Heroes Campaign.  Essentially they are putting the Justice League Superheroes (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc.) up front to drive awareness and raise money for famine relief in the Horn of Africa.

Better still they are matching funding dollar for dollar for the first $1 million.

And while this isn’t time for my typical charity drive, I am doing a special one off this week on Google Plus.  For those on Google Plus who want to help, click here to see my post there, and then share it.  For every share of that post I get this week, I’ll donate $1 up to $500 total.

This cartoon was inspired by my attempts over the last 4 months to do more caricature work.  If you get a caricature done by me or someone else there are several reactions you may have.

1. Wow that picture is great and it looks like me.
2. Wow that picture is great but I am not sure it looks like me.
3. That picture isn’t good/flattering but it does look like me
4. That picture sucks and it doesn’t look anything like me.

I have run the gamut of reactions to my own work, though I have only had one person actually tell me number four (yet more probably felt that way).  I had my wife, and biggest critic, look over the work and she said “Yeah it looks like her, she just isn’t that attractive.”  I find that women are way more sensitive to you pointing out prominent characteristics in caricature.  I tend to go more realistic versus cartoony as I do with men.

A piece of advice I got from Jerry Dowling, former Cincinnati Enquirer editorial cartoonist and caricature artist, is that you should over emphasize the size of women’s eyes…they seem to like that.  He may or may not have said something about boob size too, I can’t remember.

He related a story of live drawing a caricature of a woman as her husband was looking over his shoulder.  Suddenly, her husband, who obviously thought the drawing wasn’t pretty enough, said “Don’t you know she is a former Beauty Queen.”  To which Jerry handed him his pen and said “Great, so you finish up the drawing”

My friend and former Cincinnati illustrator Daryll Collins has finally decided to start a blog at CartoonSuccotash.com.  And he has started off strong by mixing the iconic landscapes of Bob Ross with his own cartoons.  For those not familiar with Bob, he had a show on public television for years where he taught people how to oil paint landscapes in about 10 minutes.  In fact I have one of his follower’s works hanging in my house (thanks mother in law).

If you get a chance go give Daryll some love and encouragement.  We want more.

Today’s editorial cartoon was inspired by a blog post from Jeff Jena that blasted Billionaire Warren Buffet for his pittance of a challenge to Republicans in Congress.   Now on one hand, I agree with Buffet that certain tax shelters need to be right sized.  CEOs who take little salary yet rake in stock options because Capital Gains are charged at a lower rate than income.    In the late 80′s and 90′s that rate was closer to 30% and now it is somewhere around 15% so there is precedent for a higher rate.  And we are familiar with the notion that Buffet paid less as a percent of income in taxes than his secretary.  Maybe Warren should start paying her in stock instead.

A Republican pushed through the Buffet Rule Act that gives individuals an option on the tax form allowing them to give more to the IRS to lower the national debt.   Buffet responded saying he would match any Congressional Republican’s donations to the debt dollar for dollar.  While it can be looked at as a “put your money where your mouth is” bet, it is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP on his part.

Based on recent data, Buffet’s net worth is somewhere around $50 billion and the entirety of Congress is around $2 Billions (well overpaid but still 25x less than Buffet).  Let’s put that in perspective you and I could understand.  It would be the same as someone earning $100,000 a year (Person A) saying he would match dollar for dollar in donations that someone earning just $4,000 (Person B) did.  Let’s say they each donate $1000.   That is only 1% of Person A’s income while it is 25% of Person B’s.  $1000 to Person A is nothing so even if all the Republican’s in Congress donated 100% of their yearly income, it wouldn’t even put the slightest dent in Warren’s pocketbook.