4 November 2005

Dug the Nov 02 comic beyond all reason: every bit was friggin' perfect, the feco-fonted spltrch, Cheney whistling as he deliberately looks away from his man's suicide [1], Rove screaming in mortal agony (a comforting image for cold winter nights), the half faces [2] of  Bush presenting Jenna, and the crowning touch: not only is Bill Clinton on Jenna's well-rounded ass, but he has a rose in his teeth.  My hat is off to you, as is my larynx after laughing for five minutes straight.

[1] The crunc- is brilliant.

[2] You must have seen work on facial asymmetry. Apparently the left side presents the darker side of the soul while the right side is the lighter; try covering left and right on photographs.

Thanks for your compliments on my work. I'm especially gratified that you noticed the asymmetry of the Bush's face; this is a nuance to which I devote a fair amount of attention and effort, and to which I'm glumly certain most readers are oblivious. I often give a character two different, sometimes contradictory, expressions on the different halves of his face to imply, ambivalence, conflict, or an emotion changing over a moment, the cartoon equivalent of a grace note.

I vividly recall an illustration of facial asymmetry in a textbook whereby two composite Richard Nixons had been created, each out of one mirrored half of his face. They looked like two separate parallel-universe Nixons, both recognizable but subtly different from one another. However, I don't recall reading that these halves are thought to reflect good and evil sides of one's personality, like President Nixon and Mr. Dick. If only we could have freed Nixon the thoughtful, visionary statesman from Nixon the paranoid schemer.

Tim

9 November 2005

Howdy,

Quite a while back the City Paper ran one of your comics featuring a faux Egyptian inscription featuring Duhbya in the role of George, Son of George.  Could I please get a copy of this?  Perhaps you could prevail upon your webmaster and friend to create a separate archive of cartoons related to the Reign of Stupidity, AKA 2000-present in the United States.  Barring a freebie, could you let me know if it is available in one of your books.

Regards,

Jeff D.

Jeff D.,

The drawing that you refer to is "Celebrating 5.000 Years of Imperialism" and is available in the files March 19, 2003, and in the second book of Mr. Kreider's, Why Do They Kill Me? The inscription also it is cuneiform.

Respect,
C.-H.

11 November 2005

Not sure if Tim saw this one... seems like there should be a cartoon in it.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4421818.stm

George met with the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. Jose commented on how nice George's suit was, and George responded, "God told me to wear it."  A moment later he added, "That's a joke."

Ann:

A rare instance when I deign to take over electronic correspondence from Ms. C.-H., because this suit joke is by far the funniest thing I have ever heard the President say. It genuinely delights me. Also it indicates a greater degree of self-awareness than I thought he posessed. The joke is only ostensibly at his own expense; really it's mocking those Godless' Europeans perception of Bush as a Jesus-freak yahoo. Still, it is fucking hilarious. It's been cracking me up all day.

By the way, have you ever seen the wedding video shot years before his Presidency in which Bush, drink in hand, makes fun of the groom at length? It used to be available on www.thesmokingun.com. He's a funny guy. If he hadn't had such powerful connections and had instead just been a floor salesman at Joseph A. Bank or a Datsun lot, he might have turned out to be an okay person. Sigh. I wish he was still drinking.

Inspired by this joke I have written a letter to the President, offering to draw any cartoon idea he sends me. We will see where this gets me.

Regards,

Tim Kreider

18 November 2005

[In response to Tim's offer to draw any cartoon idea President Bush submitted]:

Thank you for your generous offer. We sometimes pass around your City Paper cartoons at Cabinet Meetings and get a chuckle out of them.  We disagree on many things, Tim, but funny is funny (Show yer tits--ha ha). So here is my cartoon idea.  I am talking to VP Cheney:  "Well, Dick (ha ha--don't put the "ha ha" in), I guess you won't be getting to ride your scooter at Christmas this year."  That's it.  I guess it might be funny if Dick said something back, like "oh you got me" or something, but I'm not sure.  I leave that up to your humor expertice.

Thanks,

Your President