#91: Inaugurate! Inaugurate!
Hello fighters,
And so it begins, the next era in all things US politics. I don’t know for certain what’s going to happen, but if last time was anything to go by, we could all be in for a bumpy ride.
With this in mind, this week we get a story with some fairly ambiguous morals, and we get an rather awkward alien visit.
Bracing oneself,
Chris
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Caption: “And then the bad man, who had been convicted of all those bad things, got his wish and became President, and completely ruined the moral of the story.”
It’s inauguration time! And what a bedtime story this is turning out to be.
Maybe it’s closer to the dark stories of the Grimm siblings than it is your average picture book, but it’s all there and it’s all happening.
Best to hold onto something.
P.S. Keen-eyed watchers of my Instagram will note that you might have seen this before, albeit with a different caption. The reason for the change? The news cycle goes pretty fast and the original dropped about a week later than it needed to. It missed its boat and found itself on a less funny, more confusing one.
A little artist’s note: I really like this one. I like the gag. I like the composition. I like the balance of shading. Everything.
Obviously, this is a political cartoon. But, it just felt like something I wanted to say and this felt like the right way for me to say it. I had originally drew this to pitch to magazines for publishing, but as I had drawn it while on holiday/vacation, and as it was a reflection of current events, I just didn’t get around to submitting it anywhere in a timely fashion. So, well, I figured the next best thing was to get it out into the world through here (and Instagram, mostly Instagram).
As noted above, this originally had a different angle, but the illustration was very similar. Below is the original. For context, this was aimed for just after the election when US courts had begun to close their cases against Trump as it was too difficult to charge a future-sitting President. [shrug emoji]. Anyway, here it is.
Caption: “Our leader? Oh boy did you pick the wrong time to ask that.”
Well, what would you say to a couple of visiting aliens?
I know, I know, I’m presuming. Maybe they would want to meet the leader. Maybe they wouldn’t have a preference. Maybe they paid good money for the meeting. Or maybe they thought they had landed somewhere in Europe.
What would you say?
A little artist’s note: This was a recent New Yorker reject that was rejected just in time for this very politically charged week. It’s a simple gag, and it’s not going to win any medals, but it definitely reflects an awkward moment in time. Or maybe the best moment in time if you lean that way.
Visually, this one is pretty simple. Although in earlier versions it had a whole array of background things which I eventually cut when I realised they just weren’t needed.
Also, as a bonus, here is an alternate caption for you.
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