Below is the latest The Pain -- When Will It End?
Updated 3/31/04

Artist's Statement

I know I said I would no longer be treating George Bush as a hapless buffoon but that and all other self-imposed rules go out the window when I have no other ideas. Obviously this cartoon is ridiculous. I just had nothing this week, in spite of having watched two entire days of testimony in the 9/11 investigation.This was compelling viewing but all I got out of it was one vague, unformed premise about George Bush in exile on an island somewhere, trying to order American beer. I met my friends Alex and Kristen for a wine-tasing lunch Thursday afternoon and told them they had to help me come up with a cartoon idea. We ate filet mignon and drank about ten glasses of wine each but we never did get around to coming up with anything. I woke up what I thought was Friday morning but turned out to be 6:30 Thursday night and went out for a beer with colleague Emily Flake. I told her about my exile idea and she graciously handed me this notion of Witness Protection. Somehow it didn't turn out as funny as it seemed Thursday night, which I attribute entirely to my halfhearted execution. The best thing about it, if you ask me, which if you're reading this you de facto have, is the drawing of the bored, insolent checkout girl. I thought it was a kind of poetic justice to turn George and Mr. Cheney into a crunchy liberal couple. (My friend Carolyn suggested it would be even more ironic if they were a gay couple, but in the end the classic humor of Mr. Cheney as a lady won out.) It also makes sense that they would max out their new credit card, not being very experienced at any kind of fiscal restraint. I think this scene may have been inspired by a scene in Vineland, in which Federal informers Frenesi and Flash discover at a supermarket that they've been dropped from the government rolls. Would that George and Mr. Cheney were as well.

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