Saturday, November 1, 2008

Throw Out the Vote

Bizarro is brought to you today by Political Justice.

This classic Bizarro appeared in papers days before the last presidential election in '04, and it is my favorite political cartoon I've ever done. At that time, Rove was in full swing as liar-in-chief for W's reelection campaign.

When this first ran, I received a few emails from angry readers who were still on the Bush bandwagon. Amazingly, one of them whose email was particularly vitriolic, wrote back the next year when a lot of info about Rove and Scooter Libby were in the news, and apologized for his original email. He had seen the light.

Rove is one of my least favorite humans in the world. Though dirty tricks have never been unusual in politics, he has taken them to new levels, finding ways to blatantly lie to the American public in ways that play to people's most base qualities of bigotry and fear, thus getting them to vote against their own interests to avoid an imagined threat. McCain was a victim of this kind of campaigning when he lost the nomination to Bush, but now uses the same tactics against Obama with robo-calls that attempt to convince voters that he is everything from a terrorist sympathizer to a Manchurian Candidate. The examples linked above are not necessarily Rove's creations, of course, but he has inspired this environment of ends-justifies-the-means sort of campaigning.

Yes, as some of you are saying right now, the Democrats have done their share of lying. But the facts will verify that nothing along the order of Rove's tactics are as ubiquitous among Democratic campaigns as they have become in Republican ones.

It seems now that most of America is rebelling against this kind of abuse of power, as McCain continues to plummet in the polls and shows on the Fox News Channel's ratings are experiencing a distinct downward slide. Let's all pray it sticks, before the Neo-Cons take our country into the Third World for good.

Unless it is already too late.

On another note, when this cartoon first came out, something in my schedule prohibited me from being able to color it myself. There is a default system in place when this happens and the syndication company has a unit that colors cartoons for artists. Some artists use this service routinely, instead of coloring their work themselves. You can see from this example how the colors in this version look much more like the average daily comics.

17 comments:

isee3dtoo said...

This cartoon reminds me of when Bill Clinton (or The Clinton's) first ran for President, I heard on some news program (I think it was Face the Nation at the very end of the show)...

"If you hear something three times in Washington DC in must be true."

Then the person who said it, said...

"Hillary Clinton is the smartest women in America"
"Hillary Clinton is the smartest women in America"
"Hillary Clinton is the smartest women in America"

Ever since that episode, on every opportunity I have had (i.e. every visit to DC), I say something out loud, usually in a very loud voice, three times and hope it comes true.

All you Red Sox fans should thank me for 2004 and 2007. :-)

isee3dtoo said...

Dan,

I love the fact that you explain the differences in your comics. For example how the coloring was done by someone else in this comic. I also love how you put a contributor on the signature when someone gives you the idea.

I loved the e-mail you sent out on the Dallas newspaper how you showed the long format "horizontal" version they switched to versus the more "vertical" version you use in the blogs. I actually noticed the additional art work in the long format and wished you would use the version that showed the most artwork here on the blog.

I love the little bits of education you give concerning your career on here. You give credibility to your expertise. As a long admirer, first in the Chico News and Review then in the SF Chronicle you are now teaching me some of the find details of a comic and you give credit to where credit is due. I would love to see the prototypes, drafts, etc. or the evolution of your comics on here. I hope you show that.

As for the politics, I am a republican by birth but have believed for the past 12+ years the RNC are bunch of greedy idiotic folks. You bash them hard but you can, this is your blog. And on election day we will be both voting for the same President. Hopefully the house and senate will grows some gonads soon.

Unknown said...

Great cartoon and a particularly prescient post considering the news I just read about Obama's illegal alien aunt outing!

But I'm curious about your coloring technique. I'm guessing you do it all on the computer after you've scanned in the line art? Do you use Photoshop? If so, do you use multiple layers or color all in one?

I've just started doing some semi-professional comics coloring myself and know I have a lot to learn! Thanks!

SAYOTTE316 said...

as most of you may know fido's url has been permanently blocked from the blogspot it is i now who must discuss his pepere

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing as Chris.
You should post an uncoloured version and run a colouring-in contest!

Anonymous said...

Wow - I was a philosophy major in college and this cartoon just blows me away! I'll bet it finds its way onto many perceptive professors' syllabuses (or is that syllabi?).

(Also: thanks for blocking fido.)

SAYOTTE316 said...

Sad dan, very sad i spent one week crying for both

Mike Duffau said...
penny,
and like i said earlier...i have an opinion like all of you do. dont take it personal...its all a goof. i dig my neanderthal way of expressing myself...yous either love me/hate me, but im not changing. hope you can understand.

Friday, September 26, 2008


Jeremy said...
Mark me down for hate, Mike.

How many is that now? See a problem? didn't think so.

I hope you die

Friday, September 26, 2008

HollyBerry said...

i like that karl rove is sitting on the ground like a little kid taking lessons from his master.

and THANK YOU THANK YOU for blocking fido, even though i have a feeling sayotte316 is going to take the reigns. please, sayotte316... for the love of all that is holy.. DON'T just be annoying because you are able. we who frequent this blog are sick of the stupid.

Penny Mitchell said...

Sayotte316, you realize you're quoting my personal little troll, right?

Dan, it's not too late. I refuse to ponder that it might be too late because Canada is just too freaking cold.

We will see history made on Tuesday and this nation will be on its way towards regaining the respect of the rest of the world. You know bin Laden endorsed McCain, right? For real. The hate-o-meter will take a dive when Obama gets voted in. "The war on terra" will finally start to ratchet down, and it won't be because of one FREAKING THING done by the Bush administration.

I WILL see Bush, Cheney and Rove behind bars in my lifetime. I will.

Period.

moquiti said...

Great cartoon, and I expect it will outlive its subject!

I really have to wonder at a person like Rove, who is so singlemindedly committed to political sleaze. Examples of people who are that dedicated to their mission, however corrupt, wrong-headed, unconventional, or pathological, are quite rare. Or at least they used to be. Now they seem to be coming out of the woodwork to claim their brief time in the slimelight.

One just has to have faith that they'll burn themselves out quickly.

Nashe^ said...

Dan! I actually remember this cartoon!

ldisme said...

I don't think Plato would have wasted more than 15 seconds with Rove. But perhaps that's a sneer on Plato's face as he gets ready to toss the firecracker at him.

P.S. I am so glad I found your blog and kind of think of you as the Aesop of the 20th and 21st century. Thx for being you Dan.

SAYOTTE316 said...

Penny,

But to say i hope you die and two weeks later he really does its just awful. :(

PS Anonymous was Fran and Fido, notice right after Dan pulled plug on Fido they all left

Penny Mitchell said...

Sayotte316, I did not say that I wanted anyone to die. It was someone else posting under the name of "Penny".

Knock it off, or grow a brain. You pick.

marine_explorer said...

"Rove is one of my least favorite humans in the world."

He certainly shares bears some resemblance to him.Nobody should forget that guy either, nor who conceived the "Big Lie".

However, a question Americans should now ask themselves is this "Why did we ever fall for such obvious lies--were our motivations selfish?" We need to apply the parallels of past notorious regimes to help understand how this happened.

Now I hope that a leader like Obama will inspire in people the courage to be honest with themselves--and our country. We need that hope.

Batocchio said...

Thanks for a great cartoon! The explanation of the coloring is interesting.

Anonymous said...

I haven't gone anywhere. But thanks.