The stupendous, amazing Atlantic City

I'm sorry, I wish I had something cool I could tell you, or offer a bit of insight on this cartoon. But it's 5:00 AM, and I'm beat! Today (well, yesterday) was a great day, as I got to meet two amazing artists that I admire, James Gurney and Richard Thompson. I'll post some pics up tomorrow, but for now, sleeeeee........

John Molinelli, say it isn't so...

Well, I'm back from my emotional roller coaster ride of a trip to Buffalo, and once again find myself chained to my drafting table. So look forward to a bunch of cartoons in the coming days, and some photos from the trip.

Here's an alternate cartoon that I was thinking about this week. The story is that Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli took a vacation trip to Italy accompanied by embattled State Senator Joseph Coniglio, the target of a federal corruption probe. Coniglio has a pretty funny face, so I thought about making his head into a golf ball, with some dialogue to the side. Is it better than the one I did? Worse? Let me know what you think.



Stile: Molinelli, Coniglio vacationed in Italy together
Bergen Record

In Buffalo until Wednesday

This is the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, the home of the original buffalo wing and one of the many places I'll be checking out while I'm up here.

While this means I'll be licking my wing-sauced fingers and hoping the Bills don't make a fool of themselves on Monday night, it also means there won't be any new cartoons until Thursday.

But fear not true believer, the news is just piling up for me to cover. Bob Levy is still AWOL, Blackwater is still being run like a bunch of Mexican bandits in Iraq, and the bears of New Jersey will survive for another season.

Your Fightin' Phils...

Oh those Philadelphia Phillies. Coming back from 9 games down, winning the division, making the playoffs...

And yet, I bet that most Phillies fans thought it would go down like this, and continue to be unoptimistic about games 3-5. But this collapse still isn't as bad as 1964:

1964 was an unforgettable year of heartbreak in the city of Brotherly Love . With 12 games remaining in the season the Phillies had a 6.5 game lead over St. Louis and were selling World Series tickets only to collapse into a 10-game losing streak and a legendary choke/second place finish. Manager Gene Mauch would forever be vilified by Philadelphia fans and media, though he did not depart until the middle of 1968.

Phillies Notebook
Philadelphia Inquirer

Here's the sketch:

Ecko's new Star Wars clothes line

I kid you not. Here's a quote from post on the Star Wars website:

"Mixing street style with Star Wars iconography, noted fashion designer Marc Ecko has developed a new, limited-edition collection of Star Wars-inspired apparel under license from Lucasfilm Ltd. Making this the first time a major designer has teamed up with Lucasfilm, the line will be available this holiday season through top domestic and international specialty stores, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the ever-popular film saga."

Here's the link. May the Force be with you, and continue to destroy my childhood.

Kubies...check it out

Hat tip to: Drew Sheneman

Rudy Giuliaini - the President of 9/11

Both Clinton and Giuliaini hold enormous leads in New Jersey, and state republicans are trying to use Rudy to their advantage. Just this week, State Senator Sonny McCullough and 1st District candidate Nick Asselta attempted to suckle on the 9/11-tit in order to raise some much needed cash.

Too bad much of the GOP, especially in the 1st District, remain uninterested in the current crop of Republican candidates, Fred Thompson included. At this point, the GOP's presidential campaign could be summed up with a giant yawn.

Here is some biased coverage of the event in Cape May:

Asselta/Giuliani Rally Flop
Blue Jersey

“Count” On It: Rudy Rocked the New Jersey Cape
Red Jersey

And less-biased ones:

Giuliani Makes Campaign Stop in Cape May
Cape May Herald

America's mayor courts Cape May
Press of Atlantic City

Here's the sketch:

Welcome to Commerce, eh

Final installment of NYTimes 'The Hard Part'

Today you can find the last installment of The Hard Part by Andrew Jacobs in The New York Times. For those of you who haven't had the chance to read the series, it has chronicled the early part of Mayor Cory Booker's attempts to steer the city of Newark in the right direction.

Today piece, titled In Newark, the Mayor’s Crusade Gets Personal, follows Booker and his mentoring of 3 troubled city youths. And for those of you quick to criticize the mayor, and being a cartoonist, this is usually my modus operandi, I hope you give him a chance and read this article, because it's really touching in the way that Booker make himself accessible to these kids, and the larger public, in a way that his predecessor, the indicted Sharpe James, couldn't even dream of.

Here are some of the best pieces of the series:

Face Time With the Mayor (video)

Access to Mayor Doesn’t Solve All Problems

New Mayor Tests His Promises on Newark’s Reality

In Newark, the Mayor’s Crusade Gets Personal

Get a job Bodine...or several jobs

Another week, another Wednesday, so that means another cartoon for PoliticsNJ. Go check it out, and leave me a piece of your mind. But not literally, because that would be gross.

And for further reading on Assemblyman Francis Bodine, allow me to direct you to some great reads:

GOP piles on Bodine, as Dems cry "Boss"
PoliticsNJ

Bodine defends jobs outside Assembly
Courier-Post

Burlco lawmaker switches parties
Philadelphia Inquirer

Here's the sketch:

Asbury Park Press investigation into public corruption

For those of you that might have missed it, the Asbury Park Press (and six other Gannett papers) began a new series yesterday spotlighting where ethics reform has worked, where it has failed, and where it needs improvement. Apparently, they've spent the last three months measuring the progress of ethics reform in the state.

There are several interesting stories ranging from Bill Gormley, George Norcross and Francis Bodine. But it's their piece on Speaker Joe Roberts and his dealings with Norcross and U.S. Vision that is particularly damning.

Here are some of the more interesting links:

Profiting from Public Service: Four Years Later (main page)

Roberts and the boss: Perfect together

On tapes, Norcross boasts of his political influence

No problem collecting taxes

Basically, New Jersey's roads and infrastructure and crumbing, and the state government is trying to figure out how to fund the repairs needed. But along side this fact, New Jerseyans remain the highest taxed citizens in the country, and our toll roads are highest in the amount of revenue they receive from commuters:

The Report Card
The Express-Times

Engineers: NJ Infrastructure Crumbling
Houston Chronicle

NJ Democratic Party Conference Sketches

Last month, I had the good fortune to cover the Democratic Party's 2007 Conference in Atlantic City for The Press. It's the first time I've ever tired to cover an event like this by sketching, but I learned some valuable lessons that I'll take with me next time.

It was just a shame that the only national candidate to show up was Hillary (strong-armed by her buddy Corzine). Maybe this proves that it was a waste of time and money to push up New Jersey's primary date, a fact I bemoaned in a cartoon I did that weekend:

The best part of the luncheon had to be when Hillary threw out a line that she considers herself an honorary New Jerseyan, but that she doesn't want New Jersey to, "...charge any more property taxes than what I pay across the river in New York." Yeah, uncomfortable reaction by state Dems at best.

Anyway, on to the sketches:

Hillary may have been the only candidate to attend
the conference, but supporters of both Obama
and Edwards were on hand to simply support
their candidates, or in the case of
U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, taking a swipe
at Hillary to do so.


No matter how much they preach 'Party of the people,' normal
folks still seem to stand outside of the political process.


Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts wearingly fields reporters'
questions about Mims Hackett Alfred Steele, 2 assemblymen
netted in the latest round of arrests
by U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.


United we bargain, divided we beg...unless your represented
by the Governor's former girlfriend.


Lobbyists and their electronic devices swarm
outside the conference.


The "honorary New Jerseyan" tries her best to play off
a property-tax jab she unintentionally aimed at the democratic
leadership in attendance.


Just a random face awash in a sea of politicos.


More interesting faces.

Corzine: Hold Me Accountable

This week, it's "Hold me accountable" week over at PoliticsNJ, refering to a repeated statement by our beloved governor during his inargural address in 2006.

Here's a cartoon I did a couple of weeks ago that goes along with all of this:

And here are some articles on PoliticsNJ under the "Hold me accountable" banner:

Corzine the Tentative Reformer
David Rebovich

Despite criticism, Corzine manages to float along
Matt Friedman

Lance hammers Corzine-Riccio connection
Max Pizarro

Corzine v. Codey
Max Pizarro

Welcome to "Hold Me Accountable" Week on PoliticsNJ.com
Wally Edge

Isn't it about time New Jersey had a piece of the NFL?

Here's the sketch:

Sweedish Muhammad drawings controversy: UPDATED 9/21/07

Another year, another Mohammed cartoon controversy. According to Wikipedia, the Örebro-based regional newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published a drawing by Lars Vilks that depected the prophet Mohammed at a dog. It was part an editorial that aimed to defend "Muslim's right of freedom of religion," the very same freedom that should permit the "ridicule Islam's most foremost symbols — just like all other religions' symbols."

Well, apparently Muslims don't have a sense of humor, because on August 25, a group of about 60 Muslims held a demonstration outside Nerikes Allehanda's office in Örebro to protest against the publication. Following the publication, the Swedish police has raised the security level around the newspaper's headquarters and some of its employees have been forced to use bodyguards after receiving death threats. Vilks himself has also received several death threats, and according to The Daily Cartoonist, has a $100,000 bounty on his head (an additional $50k if he’s beheaded).

UPDATE 9/21/07

Here's a video from Reuters with reporters speaking to Swedish newspaper cartoonist Lars Vilks, who says he's not concerned by reports al-Queda in Iraq has offered a reward for his murder.

Here are some links:

Swedish Cartoonist: It’s good to know how much one is worth
The Daily Cartoonist

Police halt Bangla protest over blasphemous cartoon
The Peninsula - Qatar's Leading English Daily

Turkish cartoonists condemn insulting sketch in Sweden
The Journal of Turkish Weekly

Cartoon Response to Demonstrators from Vilks's Weblog
Wikipedia

Artist says Prophet picture meant to stir debate
Canada.com

PoliticsNJ Elected Officials Power List

PoliticsNJ has finished posting their 2007 Elected Officials Power List, and there are some interesting placements of officials throughout the top 50.

Also, enjoy the illustrations for the top 10 on the list. There were provided by some slob named Tornoe.

Problems with my web server

I'm sorry, but I'm having problems with my web server this morning. I'm trying to fix the problem now, so please hang in there!

Maybe Corzine will buy me a new computer...

Mixed Emotions

Over at the New York Times, there is an excellent blog post by Rutu Modan as part of their visual column series Sightlines. This is the first time I've ever seen something like this, and I'm so jealous that I hadn't thought of it first!

Rutu Modan created Exit Wounds, a graphic novel about Koby Franco, a 20-something cab driver working in Tel Aviv. It's a great read, and really dig her loose, simple drawing style, which I think is tremendously evocative and lends itself well to sequential storytelling.

Wilson's big stick

We're back and running on Wednesday, so go check out my latest cartoon over at PoliticsNJ.com. You can also sign up over there for a free wake-up call of New Jersey news, RSS feeds, and more!

Here's the sketch: