Tag: Bearman cartoons

  • Why Google Plus is better than….

    Why Google Plus is better than Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Digg

    So it is no secret that I have been somewhat neglecting my friends on facebook, twitter, etc because my time on social media has been taken up by Google Plus.  While it of course has some limitations I wish they would work out sooner rather than later, the above cartoon pretty much sums up why it is better IMO than other social media.

    As always let me know if you need an invite.  And for people who have recently joined who are lost, ahem Bo Lumpkin, a fellow cartoonist Debbie Ohi has created a nice page with links to help get you started.  You can find it here.

  • Editorial Cartoon: Man v. Food

    Bearman Editorial Cartoon: Man vs Food

    Today’s editorial cartoon is based on a reality show addiction in the Bearman household called “Man v. Food”.  The premise of the show is food junky, Adam Richman, travels all over the United States to show viewers pig out spots in different cities.  The last half of the show highlights a local restaurant with a food challenge (ie. eat a crap load off food or something really really spicy).   If Adam beats the challenge he proclaims “Man Won” and makes a hand sign of the letter “M”.  If he loses, he proclaims “Food Won” and makes a hand sign of the letter “F”

    The wife and I are enamored with the show and Adam’s ability to indulge to the point that he gets the food sweats yet doesn’t pass out, crap himself, or have a coronary.  We have noticed his waist line has increased over three seasons of the show.  So thankfully this season, Adam has passed the torch to average joes and just hosts the show.   Entertaining still, but not quite as much as wondering when the EMT’s were going to be called in.

    ***UPDATE***

    Our friend James from Obscure Gentlemen webcomic tackled this same topic.  Go check out his hilarious  version here.

  • Commenter Word Cloud – Tagxedo

    Tagxedo Word Cloud of Bearman Cartoons Frequent Commenters

    So I found a very fun site that George Ford will now yell at me for him wasting countless hours playing there.  Tagxedo not only lets you create word clouds but also allows you to create custom shaped word clouds.    I created a list of my top commenters over this year.  By duplicating the names of the most frequent commenters in my list, it allows you to see them bigger than the rest.  And the custom shape?  You might recognize it as the silhouette of my famous green hair gravatar. 

    What is nice is that Tagxedo will take your blog or twitter feed and automatically create a word cloud for you.

    Right now adding custom shapes, like my gravatar, is free while it is in Beta but head over and check out this video on 101 Ways you can use Tagxedo.

  • Editorial Cartoon: Google Plus Gifs

    Editorial Cartoon poking from of oversharing of animated gifs on Google Plus from Beartoons.com

    This editorial cartoon about animated gifs on Google Plus came from my time on there over the past two weeks.  For those of you who engage with me on Twitter or Facebook, I apologize as I have been sucked into the world of Google + and though it has it’s limitations, I prefer it over both platforms.

    The Good

    • Take the best of twitter in that you can follow the message streams of anyone you want with the best of facebook that allows you to see pictures, links and more than 140 characters and that is the promise of Google Plus.
    • Being able to engage with people you admire and feel like your message isn’t lost.
    • The ability to put the people you follow into different circles that you create.  For example, I have a circle for people I folow that don’t follow me, webcomic people, art people, learning people, etc.  At any point I can only look at the postings from any individual group AND I can have a posting only show up to specific individuals or circles.

    The Not So Good

    • Unless you link your photo albums to Googles photo sharing site Picasa, the way it manages your pictures is horrible.   I would love to see a feature that allows you to choose “insert picture” and have you be able to choose a specific picture from a specific album.  I am hoping there is a fix for that soon or I am doing something wrong and someone will correct me.

    One complaint I hear from others that I am not so sure I mind YET is that some circles are so incestuous with the same people that 5 people can share someone else’s post and it shows up every time in your stream if you have all five people in your circle.  The one complaint you hear most about is oversharing of animated gifs.  Again, so far I don’t mind them but I love when someone says “I know people don’t like animated gifs but I HAD to share this one because it is so cool.”

    So is it ironic that I had to make this cartoon an animated gif in order to make a point of animated gifs?  Is it even irony?  I don’t know since all the “experts” said none of Alanis Morrisette’s examples in Ironic weren’t ironic.

  • Confidence vs Competence

    Confidence Vs Competence Cartoon

    As promised here is the cartoon inspired by the book The Invisible Gorilla by Dan Simon and Chris Chabris.  What does this cartoon have to do with the video I posted on Wednesday.  Nothing.  haha  I took my inspiration from a different part of the book.

    Charles Darwin observed that “ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge” In face, those who are the least skilled are the most likely to think better of themselves than they should – they disproportionately experience the illusion of confidence. (page 86)

    It is because of this behavioral trait that the Friggin Loon is able to constantly post a stream of stories on stupid criminals.  Their confidence in their ability outweighs their knowledge on how to actually pull off the crime.

    In group dynamics, especially at work, most of us have heard the cream will rise to the top.  But it doesn’t.  How many times have you walked away from a meeting knowing that the direction the group decided to take is the wrong way but you felt you didn’t have the power or the influence to change it.  Next time, you might need to jump out there and respond first.  In one experiment the authors did they found that a group trying to solve a hard math problem went with the first answer offered up 94% of the time.

    …group leadership wsa determined largely by confidence.  People with dominant personalities tend to exhibit greater self-confidence, and due to the illusion of confidence, others tend to trust and follow people who speak with confidence.  If you offer your opinion early and often, people will take your confidence as an indicator of ability, even if you are no better than your peers. (page 98)

    So how many of you “know” of superiors who are only in their position because of their own self confidence versus their skill?  How many of you think YOU should be in that position?  And then, of course, is your confidence in being able to do that job equal to your own competence?

    *** Side note:  I was so underconfident that I was spelling “competent” correctly, that I looked it up at least 3 times in writing this post.

    *** Side note 2:  I got rid of the Digg button below and added a Google +1 button for those using it.  For those who are not and need an invite, let me know.

     

     

  • What Would Dexter Do?

    What would Dexter Do in the Casey Anthony case - Cartoon (Yes Version)

    Editorial Cartoon What Would Dexter do in the Case of Casey Anthony (No version)

    What What Dexter Do?

    View Results

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    Today’s Editorial Cartoons started as one but as usual my better half disagreed so I created a second version and decided to run a poll among my readers to see your take.  First, I have to say that I am completely against vigilante justice and as pissed off as you can be about the decision in the Casey Anthony trial, calls for individuals to do harm to her outside the justice system is way off IMO.   Remember, Dexter is a fictional character that real people shouldn’t emulate.

    Some background for those not familiar with the series.  Dexter is a series on Showtime starring Michael C. Hall who plays Dexter Morgan.  As a toddler Dexter witnessed his mother murdered in a terrible way.  He was adopted by a cop who later saw serial killer tendencies in Dexter.   Dad must have been off as well because rather than seek help for his troubled son, he created a Code by which Dexter follows to determine whether someone should be executed by his vigilante justice.

    According to the Code:

    • Killing innocents is NEVER allowed
    • Always take time and make sure you have the right person-EVIDENCE
    • Be extremely careful with the killing and more importantly the PREPARATION
    • Remember: YOU control your urges to kill, they don’t control you.

    Once the verdict hit, several people started calling for a Dexter type judgement and this video popped up:


     

    Taking on the mind of Dexter, I say Casey Anthony doesn’t meet the code.  Like OJ, most of us are confident she did it but the evidence was sometimes murky and circumstantial.   As part two of the code states, Dexter won’t violate the code because he doesn’t have solid evidence (yet somehow he is able to find evidence that the “professionals” can’t).  My wife disagreed and therefore I put it to you all.  Go vote in the poll under the pictures.

     Oh…and get the fan art version of a Dexter tshirt at the Beartoons Store.

    Dexter T-shirt

  • Lindsay and Tony Caricature

    Lindsay was the winner of my Facebook caricature contest.  She didn’t make it easy, sending me four different pictures that show she changes her hair color more than Duncan changes his underwear.  But here is my result (including one of the original pics)

     I asked Lindsay what she liked to do and besides hanging with her kids, she said drink wine and procrastinate…thus the name on the wine.

    And just because I had some time last week, I went and caricatured a Beartoons regular, Tony McGurk (sans the beard in the pic because usually he is more manscaped than this).  Check out Tony’s own cartoon stylings at TMComics.

     

  • Editorial Cartoon: San Francisco Circumcision Ban

    Editorial Cartoon - San Francisco Circumcision

    So it seems our friends in San Francisco think there needs to be a ballot issue on the November election on whether or not to ban circumcisions, even for religious purposes (see here). 

    I am all for parents deciding whether or not to circumcise their child.  However, I completely disagree with this ballot initiative and find some of the tactics by the proponents a bit out of bounds.  For one they liken it to female genital mutilation that goes on in some parts of the world.   All medical experts I found said it is in no way true.

    Then they began releasing a series of comic books called Foreskin Man that highlight in one issue a doctor and another a mohel (Rabbi who performs the circumcision for Jewish boys) who are evil beings that will do anything to circumcise a boy even against his parent’s wishes.  Brian Hagen of Pen Grenades believes it has crossed the line into an anti-semitic rant (Go read his review). 

    Whether it has or not, all the proponents of the legislature have done is remove all meaningful dialogue from the discussion.

  • Peter Falk Cartoon

    Peter Falk Cartoon

  • Editorial Cartoon: Mad Libs Creator Dies

    Editorial Cartoon: Mad Libs Creator Leonard Stern Dies

    Today’s editorial cartoon is a salute to one Leonard Stern, creator of the world famous Mad Libs, who passed away last week.  For anyone that grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, it was because of Leonard that long family car trips were bearable (and allowed my father not to have to “pull over this car” because we were acting up again).

    Mad Libs led the way for those activity books with the orange pen that the answer appeared when you colored in the book.  I can’t remember what they called them.

    So I created a Mad Lib of my own below.  Fill in the words and hit “Go Mad”, then copy and paste your story in the comments section.

    Mad:)Glibs - free online Mad Libs
    A Bloggers Tale
     

    VERB ENDING IN -ING
    NOUN
    VERB ENDING IN -ING
    TYPE OF BUILDING
    VERB PAST TENSE
    NOUN
    NAME OF A CITY