Iraq veterans are having trouble getting in-state tuition at UMd

"It's just a slap in the face."- Diamondback article on the issue.

Yay, he's president! Now, what's on tv?

Three Big Flat Tires

Here's hoping I won't offend gay people.

Turkey delicious.

Felon folly

The Savvy Student...is a douche.

Scooters on Campus

Our stimulus package is bigger than your stimulus package

Slots referendum passed

Slots Referendum

Polls

Ted Stevens

People getting upset

I've been drawing a comic strip called Professor Gorilla in The Diamondback for several weeks now and I finally got proof that folks are reading it. Though that proof did come in the form of a guest column in the paper about how sexist and racist it is.

Here is the column link and text (special note - I write my comic strip under the pen name "Ted McTinder."):

Guest Column: The 800-pound gorilla
Kumudha Kumarachandran
Issue date: 10/27/08 Section: Opinion

It's been 43 years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964; 88 since women got the right to vote; and 143 since the abolition of slavery. You would think that by now we have come a long way as a more unified society, right? Well, when I see cartoons like Professor Gorilla in The Diamondback, I feel the need to take a step back.

I am referring to the four-part series featuring Professor Gorilla's substitute and his obsession with Jung Sung's "talking" breasts. While I am certain that Ted McTinder meant for the cartoons to be in good humor, they are sexist and racist in nature. They isolate women, who make up 50 percent of this campus, and Asians, who make up about 14 percent. Like all racism and sexism in today's media, it is subtle and can be defended as satire so that we don't fight back, or even realize we are being discriminated against.

Jung Sung is sexy, but also extremely intelligent. She also has a very Asian-sounding name. In those three simple details about her, I can already see three incredibly strong stereotypes that face Asian Americans in the media every day. First, there is the hyper-sexualization of Asian women. You've seen this image before: an East-Asian beauty decked out in a revealing silk robe or dress. You'll be sure to see it during Halloween, when hundreds of girls sport their "Sexy Geisha" and "Dragon Lady" costumes. While it is regrettable that the media promotes this perception, it is worse when it is played out in real life as a "joke" that alienates people on this campus.

Second, there is the Model Minority Myth, the stereotype that all Asian Americans are incredibly intelligent and hardworking and do not need government assistance. You might pick up on this in TV shows, when you notice that Asian actors are usually playing the nerd in class or a doctor. This stereotype often deprives underprivileged Asians of getting the resources and help that they need.

Finally, there is the Forever Foreigner stereotype that insists on a specific idea of Asian people as the "Other" in society, who are never really seen as American. The cartoon further perpetuates the idea of the foreign Asian girl who becomes the exotic "other." In fact, Asian Americans have a long and diverse history in this country that dates back to the early 1700s. It is a history of people that have fought long against racist perceptions that have caused much injustice in the community.

Although the racist nature of the cartoons is subtle, the sexism is definitely more pronounced. The substitute professor ignores Jung Sung's intelligence because he is too busy looking at her breasts. I understand this is supposed to be the joke behind the strip, but is it necessary to take a cheap shot at all the women on this campus by telling them their minds are secondary to their bodies? We are at an institute of higher learning, and I would think the students would be able to utilize intelligent humor and know better than to further the oppression our society lays out for us.

It is funny to me that our generation is so adamant about rallying for change, but when it comes down to eliminating simple forms of language and humor that are tools of oppression, we write it off as being in good fun. We'll chant "Yes, we can," but when it comes down to it, we don't care enough to actually do something about it. John Mayer might make it seem acceptable for us to be "waiting on the world to change," but change will never occur if we apathetically sit on our asses.

Kumudha Kumarachandran is a senior government and politics major and is head of the AASPIRE committee of the AASU, which focuses on Asian American women. She can be reached at Kumudha.Nadine@gmail.com.

Super Candidates

It's because he's Hawaiin

Voter Registration ends October 14

FiscHole Responsibility

My Views on a shuttle bus

Stock Brokers, Congress and the Almighty Market

Jack Perry wants English to be College Park's official language

This issue is local to College Park, Md.

Another cartoon about the economy!

I've been on an economy cartoon binge, three in a row on the same topic. That's bad news bears for someone who wants to keep his jun fresh and edgy. But with this, I'm not concerned. News on the economic crisis changes daily, it has been lede story for the past week and opinion pieces on the matter reflect that. As should my cartoons. So as soon as the economy settles out (not soon) I can get back to the presidential election, or global warming, or any other of those stock issues we cartoonists shamelessly rely on for inspiration.

Stock Market Plummets, Fed loses it in the sun

Capitalism don't fail me now.

It's a scary thing when capitalism stops running smoothly. This year has been a disaster, but the government has managed to step in and prevent the economy from collapsing when major investment firms have fallen into financial ruin. As a result, there were a lot of funny cartoons about banks asking for loans from tax payers.

However, the Lehman Brothers are seemingly the first major firm denied the federal helping hand and we're seeing how destructive financial mismanagement actually is. The Lehman Brothers are about to be liquidated. Like a mattress store shutting down. Everything must go. This will probably happen to several more corporations this year. It will suck.

Cartoon Response

A letter to the editor ran in Friday's Diamondback about my cartoon a few days ago. It went thustly:

Skepticism on slots

Congratulations on your Sept. 9 editorial cartoon! You should reprint it every day from now to November. The cartoon says it all: Why stop with gambling, when there are many other socially undesirable practices that could be set up under state sponsorship and made to generate revenue? Of course, nearly half the slots revenue will go to the private firms that operate the racetrack and the business. And, of course, even legal gambling generates all kinds of unsavory (and sometimes illegal) sideline activities. The bulk of the funds will come from the pockets of poor people who are hoping for a lucky windfall, and therefore gambling is an even more regressive way to generate revenue than a sales tax. But nevermind: There may be some pennies left over for "education" (whatever that actually turns out to be). I am disgusted and ashamed the Board of Regents have been browbeaten into supporting the slots initiative, and I hope the student body will repudiate this support.
Lee E. Preston
Professor
business school

Here's a link to the original.


It's not often you get positive response to a cartoon. It's nice though. I'm looking forward to inciting negative criticism this year as well. We'll see what the future holds.

Lipstick

This cartoon doesn't send much of a message, its more of an acknowledgment that "lipstick" has been a real buzz word in the campaign. I don't like that we're using rhetoric about putting makeup on animals as points of debate, but I suppose we have to argue about something. Just hope the lipstick thing doesn't go any farther. Maybe move on to blush or eyeliner.

Slot machines

Slot machines were an issue when I was in high school, back when Robert Ehrlich was governor of Maryland. He championed the things, but the Maryland legislature shot him down. Now it seems O'Malley has support to legalize what was deemed immoral four years ago. We're sliding into the gutter, I suppose. I drew a cartoon about slots for my high school paper. Later, if I can find the thing, I'll post it.

Palin BABY mania!

I don't care that Sarah Palin's daughter is having a baby. It's a wonderful thing even, especially if this baby inherits its grandmother's good looks.

On the topic of grandchildren, there hasn't been a "first grandchild" in a while, has there? I suppose Barbara and Jenna Bush were H.W.'s grand kids during his term.

Palin mania.

I hope this makes sense.

Creativity Song

I've taken a bit of time to work an animation for the pilot episode of "Sunflower Express" a childrens show set to air of Bowie public access channel...sometime.

Flier

It's been a while since I've designed a flier, so I wanted to make this one good. My friend Jack, who plays bass for the College Park band The Summary asked me to draw something for their next gig. I agreed to. If you're in College Park August 8th, try to check out the show.
Oh yeah, this one I sketched in pencil and inked digitally with my wacom. Here's the original sketch.

Naked Bush

I'll write something about this cartoon later. It's 5am and I work tomorrow.

*Edit - 07/30/08 12:26pm*

I'm at work now, and I'm pissed, but I don't want to talk about it. I want to talk about this cartoon. This is my favorite version of Bush to date. Thank god I got a good one in, because there's precious little time to do him anymore. Mike Luckovich draws my favorite Bush. He small and clueless (I just spent ten minutes trying to write a sentence explaining why I like Luckovich's Bush, but my brain's not working today. There's more to it, I'm just having trouble expressing it).

The lettering is a custom font I created using the wonderful free tools available at fontstruct.com It was a pain to make and still needs work, but its worth it to avoid handwriting everything.

I cheated on the oval office, and my wacom made it possible. I pulled a photo into photshop and traced the outlines on a separate layer, removed the photo and completed the shading freehand. Now you know my dirty secret.

RSS is super

I've finally understand Really Simple Syndication and have started subscribing to my favorite bloggers' feeds through Google Reader. Realizing how much I enjoy aggregating all my favorite internet material prompted me to make the luxury available to anyone who reads my blog. The folks at www.feedburner.com made creating an RSS feed easy and even provided a sweet little link icon. Look at it, over there, on the left side of the page.
Anyhow, if you enjoy the pleasures of aggregation, now you can subscribe to El Blogo de Mike O.

wacom-generated editorial cartoon 3

I'm getting better with the wacom, faster at least. Today's cartoon comes from an idea I picked up reading August J. Pollak's blog. He's smarter than me and did a better cartoon on the subject. I got to draw a dude barfing though, and that's probably the best side-view of an apartment building I've ever done.

Okay, I'm blogging from...

Okay, I'm blogging from the couch right now. So, we're gonna take this out a little bit on the Internet once we get up frim the couch and look on the Internet. And, go look at my blog, do a demonstration on it. How great it is to blog just like talking to your phone. All right, see you there. listen

Powered by Jott

wacom-generated editorial cartoon 2

Here's my second digitally-drawn cartoon. I wanted to do something on Budweiser because I've lately grown fond of the beer and finding out that the company is selling to InBev unexpectedly made me feel as loss of pride. Its a shame we're losing competitive edge in the world economy, but I suppose its years of American arrogance and worldly ignorance coming back to bite us in ole' tuckus. Whatever the case, here's my cartoon.

wacom-generated editorial cartoon

This here is my first go at a cartoon created completely on my computer. I am very happy with the art, because it achieves the sketchy "luckovichian" style I've been striving towards for a while now. It also pisses me off a little that I haven't been able do do this with traditional pen and ink. It means i'm a pussy in the physical world. I wouldn't take risks with pen and ink for fear of the tedious touch-ups and re-dos I'd have to do if I made mistakes. None of that with the wacom tablet--I screw up as much as I want and just erase over whatever's wrong. It's wonderful, but again, an unwanted reminder of my pussyness.

What with that, I'm not sure this cartoon is a good one for the message it sends. I think you have to be too much inside my head to get at the bigger idea I want to portray. Seeing as most viewers aren't telepathic, this cartoon will likely bomb.

Whatever.


Wait...one more thought. Handwriting is a bitch on the wacom.

Janitor sketch

It was something like 3am. I couldn't sleep and went out for a walk around the office building near my house in Fredericksburg. Noticed some lights were on inside. When I walked past the front door I saw a janitor fella squeezing a mop out and getting to work. It was 3am. Thought it was poetic. Sketched a bit before going to bed, and here's what it was.

Boy MonsterI

I have not posted much lately, but that's ok because no one reads my blog anyway. Ha ha. But I just received a Wacom Intuos3 drawing tablet from the mailman today and got to draw something directly on my computer. No pencil ink eraser, just me and photoshop. Made me figure that not posting art I made and like on the computer is very lazy. No scanning to do. Just save the file for web and upload it. So here it is. A creepy baby sketch for my comic book thats coming, Boy Monster.

-O.

Hey Carry(?). This is...

Hey Carry(?). This is Mike I'm blogging from my cellphone. All I'm doing is talking to my cellphone and it's transcribing everything in about 5 minutes it's gonna put it directly on to my Blogger. I don't have to type anything. Sure there's a couple of misspellings maybe, but that's the voice(?) technology. And I can update more frequently without any trouble. Plus, I hate typing so check it out. This is my blog listen

Powered by Jott

Student Government Presidents

The student government president at Maryland gets a pretty good deal. He oversees legislation affecting a student body that is largely uninvolved in the legislature. Things happen in the student government and for the most part no one notices. Its a shame though, because students get awfully upset about things not going their way, but they've got to blame themselves for not paying attention.

This new guy, Sachs, made his inauguration speech about getting students involved. And then he proposed we have a spring fling. You know, with food and stuff...to get people involved. Give me a break, Sachs.

Hillary's Hope

Here's a cartoon about Hillary Clinton as here campaign enters its final through. Its cheap rhetorical play but I was shot for ideas and running up on a deadline. The drawing could use some work too. Anyhow, enjoy.

Clinton knows magic!

Hell yeah Hillary. Take the taxes off the consumers and put the burden on oil companies. That should do the trick to end our oil problems (sarcasm). That's a damn cheap trick. Do you think the American people will vote for you because you made it easier for them to travel in the vacation season? Maybe. But screw that. We need some long-term solutions to the energy crisis that is wreaking havoc globally. The oil will run out. No doubt about it. So we need to start thinking long-term, otherwise in 50 years things are going to be very very bad. Oil fuels everything. We ship goods nationally and internationally. We need oil to create just about everything we consume. So as our stores start to deplete, our luxuries will too. America has lasted too long on an attitude that our economy can bounce back from anything. My attitude--oil shortages will throw the world into the most difficult struggles we have experienced in over a century. It could be worst than the Great Depression, when oil dependency was not an issue. We need to gear ourselves for hard times, and a last ditch "vacation tax" isn't helping.

Obama pops a zit

I was disappointed reading the news that Obama denounced Rev. Wright today. I must have had too high hopes that Obama's Philadelphia speech back in March would put an end to all the ruckus. Seems it hasn't. I'm no analyst, so whatever I say about the implications of Obama's denouncement doesn't mean much. Ben Smith at the Politico took a good look at it though, see what he had to say.

Democrats, Dogfights & Superdelegates

I'm taking the 'ole "Hillary and Obama are still at it" route with this cartoon. Not proud that I'm pounding this issue down the readers' throats, just like every other cartoonist out there (look at all of them: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13). But, I've also got to consider most folks don't read every cartoon on the American Association for Editorial Cartoonists' web site and therefore won't know I'm doing the same thing as everyone else. So I feel less guilty.

Check out these cartoonists who gave quality angles on the Hillary/Obama issue .

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Matt Davies, Journal News

Jimmy Carter, not stupid

Jimmy Carter has taken a lot of guff in the media for his recent visit with Hamas leaders.

Most political cartoonist are jumping on the anti-Carter bandwagon, see:

William Warren, Wake Forest's The Old Gold and Black . 2008 winner of the Charles M. Schulz, Scripps Howard Foundation national journalism award for college cartooning.

Randy Bish, Tribue-Review

Clay Jones, Free Lance-Star

Steven Lait, Oakland Tribune/MediaNews

Mike Lester, Rome News Tribune

Robert Ariail, The State

Carter is overwhelmingly cast as a tool for terrorists.
I disagree. Carter conversed with these leaders to get their take on peace with Israel. "What do you want?" he asked. And they told him they would peacefully accept Israel as a neighbor if a treaty, accepted by the Palestinian people, returned Israel's border to the one established in 1967.

However unlikely this peace may be, it can only be achieved through open communication between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Unfortunately, many Americans label Hamas a terrorist organization, which is valid given their violent nature, but they dismiss their political legitimacy. Hamas has achieved popular support in Palestinian elections. They represent the interests of a portion of the Palestinian population. They serve a function within the government. With its growing popularity, Hamas's terrorist attacks will likely decrease as the organization tests its political effectiveness.

This creates a difficult situation for an American leader hoping create peace between Israel and Palestine--he must treat a perceived terrorist organization as legitimate representatives of a portion of Palestinians. "The United States doesn't negotiate with terrorists," wholesome Americans say. "You're not winning any brownie points back home."

Fortunately, as a former president, there's no more political ladders for Jimmy Carter to climb and brownie points shouldn't interest him. He's doing the dirty work nobody else wants to do. He's doing something right and everyone thinks he's either an asshole or senile for doing it. I find that admirable. Unfortunate that cartoonists are jumping to the seemingly popular Jimmy Carter bomb belt or terrorist lap dog imagery.

"Here's to you, Mr. Carter."

edit (good cartoons):
MStreeter, of the Savannah Morning News has given a fresh take on Carter

Three new toons + blabber

I just got my registration squared away for SPX 2008. I'm excited to exhibit again, because my experience last year was wonderful. I made a bunch of money selling my cartoons and was able to buy some good books from some great artists.

However, I was under-prepared for the event's scale--I showed up with on the first day with about a dozen photocopied comics and sold out well before the evening ended. This year I'm coming with at least two new books and some large scale art. If I'm really lucky I'll get a spot near an outlet to plug my laptop in for animation stimulation.

Sorry for a short post. At work. Gotta go. Work.

Obama's got balls

I watched Obama's speech because my friend told me his grandfather, a Hillary supporter, decided to change his vote to Obama upon hearing the thing. I was pleased. Obama avoided convulsive political rhetoric and starkly addressed American race relations. There is resentment amongst blacks, whites and all minorities, he said, and though the resentment is rarely as visible in the public sphere as it once was, it remains a commanding issue in American society and politics.

Took some balls to do that.

The speech was on my mind when I visited my parents for the Easter holiday. I asked them what they thought of it, and was disappointed to find neither had seen Obama speak. I was surprised to realize the contrast between and my parents and I's political engagement. They vote, yes, but don't watch the news channels and take a stance on every issue that develops in politics. They know the major stuff but don't pay attention to the little things that I find important.

But I just figured out why this is--I'm a political cartoonist, dummy. [slaps forehead]

Done-skey

This here is the last Nut Butter. I'm quitting the comic strip gig so I can do more stuff, like draw better editorial toons, illustrate and self-publish comics books, animate and build websites. It's bad timing, though, because a recent set of letters published in the Diamondback angrily called for me to "get the hell off my features page" as one girl put it. I've been doing this business for two years now and my work was reflecting a growing disinterest in the comic strip--I was getting lazy and too comfortable with it. It was more like a job I'd half-ass than a fun activity anymore, so things were getting crappy.

However, I noticed this before the recent letters to the editor, so I don't want anyone thinking that I quit because of their rhetoric. I've been gearing to quit for about three weeks now, and was waiting for the Diamondback's editor in chief to find me a replacement. This ain't an excuse for crappy comics, just an explanation, because I don't want any of the "I know what I'm talking about, I'll write a letter to the editor" people getting uppity.

Spitzer Swallows

My friend Melissa came up with the wonderful "Spitzer Swallows" headline. I must also credit Carrie for coming up with it separately but at a slightly later date. It may not accurately convey the news value of the Spitzer prostitute controversy, but it is funny as hell. Anyway, seeing all the press conferences of the governor apologizing and later resigning, I've found the funniest part of the whole debacle is the man's teary-eyed wife, always at his side. The two Harvard Law graduates rode the political ladder together and now it's all come toppling down over some high-end hookers. The man has some taste in women. A smart lass for a wife and some expensive pussy on the side. It worked out for awhile, sir, just too bad you got caught. He'll be shamed publicly for some time, and will never make it in elected office again, but he's got his cash and can retire comfortably. Rough when your life rides on your ego like that. You can lose it so fast. Bummer dude.

Art students.

An art student girl wrote a letter to the editor today in the Diamondback. She said my cartoon, Nut Butter, sucks. She can say what she wants about the jokes being poor, but when she attacks the art, saying "his comics are poorly drawn," that boils the blood. My experiences with the art students here at the University of Maryland is that most of them are full of art theory bullshit and don't cut it when they bring pencil to paper. So here's my stab at giving a miserable art girl what's coming.




And a note to add, this Laura Cooke character has long-time beef with the Diamondback cartoons, as documented by her comments in the "Fuck the Diamondback" facebook group. Her sole contribution to the group's message board, which largely lambasts the paper for poor reporting and sensationalism, was this:

Laura Cooke wrote
at 9:21am on December 14th, 2007
You guys forgot to mention the revolting monstrosity that are the comics.

Way to go Laura, you've had your say, now here's mine: College won't last forever, and soon you won't be paying the salary of tenured art professors who give you encouraging remarks about your mediocre paintings. Enjoy your fake little world, it will be over soon.