RCMP

March 30, 2007

Visitors to my site will note my cartoons on international affairs are few and far between. My cartoons on the federal, local issues are far more abundant in numbers. Occasionally non domestic cartoons will creep in when domestic issues have become dull or just plain tired. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to declare that most people are fatigued with anything having to do with Quebec’s election 5 days ago. The latest big national story is the RCMP coverup, which already has my eyes glazing over and having me think, well haven’t we been down this road before? R.C.M.P. = Y.A.W.N. – nobody around here is talking about it.

So my mind was set on the recent debacle between Britain and Iran which is like a good old fashioned cold war like escalation of good against evil. I have a feeling the Iran thing will be hanging around as long as the RCMP thing — months.

Speaking of international cartoons two of my old galleries have just been updated. The old September 11 gallery has now been amalgamated and showcases stuff drawn related to the War on Terror. The Iraq Gallery has also been updated.

September 20, 2006

Picking subjects to cartoon about is a tricky thing. I wrote in an earlier entry about how the summer silly season makes it a bit challenging to pin down a topical subject that’s the current talk of the water cooler circles. I took this Monday off leaving some delicious issues to bake and grow stale…and then become fresh again (after I initially thought the issue was long past expired.) So drawing cartoons is a balance between covering the different levels of news goings-on, i.e. world, national, provincial, and local stuff, and being sure not to miss the really topical news stories of the day. The big story may not gel for a few days, so it’s easy to get ahead of yourself by cartooning too early, or missing the the story altogether in case the story gets overtaken by other events. What I’ve got to keep reminding myself is that I can’t cover everything. By missing one day in the news cycle, however, you can’t help getting upset when good news stories come and go.

Today I face a whole list of great stories I can draw on, but the trick is figuring out which one will appeal to a broad audience and have the most shelf life. The Muslim world vs. Pope Benedict XVI issue continues to go on. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ranted in front of the U.N. last night, and Stephen Harper appears tomorrow. The Chairman of the CBC quit his job for a rather comedic reason, and the Liberal leadership race goes on with some interest which I haven’t had the opportunity to comment on since early June.