Does it look too wierd? From time to time I like to focus on subject matter from different angles. Todays was from directly above. I don't know how effective it comes across but it took a lot of work and self doubt before it was finally done.

It shows Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty swimming in surplus cash. While green money is distinctive of American dollars it still makes sense, to me at least, to represent Canadian money as green as well, despite in reality it's multicoloured. For those who thought I painstakingly drew each and every bill you'll be disappointed to find out that it's simply a multitude of the same image, cut and copied, slightly rotated, and pasted:

...with a few individual bills applied randomly. Here's a smaller scale of the tile pattern:

The tragedy in all this is that I forgot to send it into the image archives of the Spectator before leaving work last Friday. A free lance cartoon ran instead.

It was a hectic day of cartooning yesterday. I drew three cartoons, and I'm only used to drawing one a day. Here's what happened. I came into work thinking I'd do something on all the attention Tom Cruise was getting from the media who were suggesting he had met his "fall from grace" after having his ties cut with Paramount Pictures. I'm still wondering why so many even care about that story. Anyways...a new story broke by mid-morning when Astronomers meeting in Prague announced that Pluto would no longer be listed as a planet. It tied in nicely with the demotion of Liberal Borys Whats-his-name at the Party's associate Foreign Affairs critic after his Hezbollah flag waving stunt last week while visiting Lebanon:

Incidentally, many U.S. cartoonists compared Tom Cruise's demotion to that of Pluto's.

While I was drawing the above cartoon thoughts swirled in my head about the people responsible for all the hype about Pluto, so I decided I had to draw something about them:

This isn't the first time I've targetted nerds in an editorial cartoon. (Note the hate mail I received about this one on the right side of the page.) So wary of another assault on me by Hamilton's nerd community I opted to keep this off the local paper and sent it out to the syndicate instead.

By 5:00, I was packing up and ready to go home when word came in that Hamilton's Mayor, Larry DiIanni, had plead guilty for violating the Municipal Elections Act for allowing donors to overcontribute to his last election campaign. The sort of stuff that's causing the more 'Activist' elements of Hamilton to scream "Corruption" when in fact all this is over mere technical oversights... but anyway... one of the mayor's punishments is to write an essay:

And to those who were wondering, yes, the background was prefabricated thanks to a previous cartoon...

...featuring Stephen Harper well over a year ago.

When I was away last week I missed a story about a rat infestation in a neighbourhood on Hamilton Mountain. With the local councillor coming to the rescue of some concerned citizens who weren't getting any help from City Hall, Terry Whitehead became a local hero and only naturally fit the role as the Pied Piper:

Spec Columnist Andrew Dreschel already made the comparison last week, so this cartoon is more an illustration of his commentary than an editorial cartoon. It just had to be drawn.

I seem to be setting a pattern by mixing local politics with fairy tales. Perhaps in the lead up to the November municipal elections more of these type of cartoons will just have to be done. So be it.

Well, it's been about three months since I started this blog and it seems to be working well for me. To most I probably sound like a big windbag, but here's hoping a few of you appreciate my ramblings and rants enough to make return visits. This seems to help me think a bit, and it serves as an excellent means for which my wife can figure out what's going on in my head.

So far the list of editorial cartoonists who are blogging is short, yet it seems to be growing quite steadily. All of the blogs below are from the U.S. No cartoonist in Canada seems to to feel compelled to publish a blog, although Michael deAdder of The Halifax Daily News has tried, and seems to only update whenever I call him up and request an update. Perhaps Canadian cartoonists choose wisely not to write as it is universally accepted by editors and journalists that we editorial cartoonists are the worst spellers on Earth.

I'm going to be off for the next few days so there'll be nothing new to add to this blog as I plan to remain away from most modern technology for the duration. In the meantime, have a look at what's to offer in the Editorial Cartoon blogosphere. If I've left any out please leave the url's in the comment section.

Daryl Cagle Editorial Cartoonist / Syndicator

Nick Anderson The Houston Chronicle

Matt Davies The Journal News

Mark Anderson Chicago based cartoonist

The Daily Cartoonist Professional Cartoonist News

Bill Saunders The Milwaukee Journal (retired)

Chip Bok The Akron Beacon Journal

Clay Jones The Fredricksburg Free Lance-Star

Kevin Siers The Charlotte Observer

Marshall Ramsey The Clarion Ledger

Ted Rall Left wing cartoonist

The Cartoon Blog Cartoon News

Reb's Politically Incorrect Blog Cartoon review

Matt Bors Cartoonist/cartoon critic

Jim Borgman The Cincinnati Enquirer

Mikhaela Reid A self described "angry cartoonist"

Mike Luckovich The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tom Tomorrow An offbeat Cartoonist

Gary Varvel The Indianapolis Star

Cox and Forkum A right wing duo

When I worked in the foodhalls of Harrod's big London department store back in the 90's I was constantly being asked by tourists if I could hand over a plastic bag adorned with the gold lettered Harrod's logo. Most of the time the requests came from North Americans who I suppose thought that if they were seen walking around with a Harrod's bag people might consider them aristocratic or rich. In reality though, it just screamed out "I'm a tourist", or "I'm an idiot carrying around a tin of overpriced hard-as-a-rock shortcake". This was in contrast to the true Londoners who, when buying their bacon, often refused plastic bags, or "carriers" as they call them over there. One regular customer often reminded me that she didn't want a carrier because "she wasn't in the habit of being a walking advertisement."

Walk the streets of London and throughout the British Isles and you'll notice a great majority of Brits of the same mind. Canada to a lesser extent. Once you get to the United States, however, logos and corporate designs are everywhere... and everyone seems to be a walking billboard, on their shirts, baseball caps, pants, shoes, etc. Take a look around and you'll see for yourself, we've become all too accustomed to the visual pollution walking around. From time to time, it's fun to poke fun at the messages we're constantly bombarded with. The satirization of logos is a very common tool used by editorial cartoonists. Here are some of mine:

I've had a lot of fun at Hamilton's expense, especially around the time they were coming up with the new logo for the amalgamated city a few years back. Here's another one.