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This December was a time for me to contact old friends and spend time with family. I enjoyed the time to relax and catch up with people and see how they were doing. During that time, I got a chance to paint and do some art projects that I had been putting off for a while. This year I've gotten in the habit of scouring the newspapers and magazines for ideas for the cartoons that I've been doing for the Tri-City Voice. For the months of October and November, I've been mostly doing cartoons on the sad state of our economy and I wanted to try to do new subjects.
I decided to try to do a few more comics with these characters that I created a few months ago. The idea for this particular cartoon was from an article I read by Howard Zinn for the March 2008 issue of the Progressive magazine. Zinn write:
"I'm talking about a sense of proportion that gets lost in the election madness. Would I support one candidate against another? Yes, for two minutes- the amount of time it takes to pull the lever down in the voting booth.But before and after those two minutes, our time, our energy, should be spent in educating, agitating, organizing our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the neighborhoods, in the schools. Our objective should be to build, painstakingly, patiently but energetically, a movement that, when it reaches a certain critical mass, would shake whoever is in the White House, in Congress, into changing national policy on maters of war and social justice.
Let's remember that even when there is a 'better' candidate (yes, better Roosevelt than Hoover, better anyone than George Bush), that difference will not mean anything unless the power of the people asserts itself in ways that the occupant of the White House will find it dangerous to ignore."
I'm not sure yet where I want to go with these characters, other than that I want them to deal with political issues. I've got this vague idea in my head of trying to create a comic with likable characters like Charles Schulz's Peanuts, but also that is politically relevant like Doonesbury or Bloom County. There are two political cartoons that I particularly would like to emulate. When I was in college, there was a great political comic in the alternative newspaper The Metro called Washingtoons that was by Mark Alan Stamaty that was really insightful and funny. The other cartoon was the political cartoons that Jules Feiffer used to do for the Village Voice. Both Stamaty and Feiffer had great insights into culture and politics and whenever I read them, I always had something new to think about. If I decide to continue using these characters, I hope they have that same thought provoking quality that Stamaty and Feiffer have.
My last cartoon is a gift for my father-in-law. I've really grown to like and admire him, and we often have nice talks about sports, the economy and movies. For this gift, I took one of my cartoons that was published in the Tri-City Voice and painted it. It was fun.
Published January 6, 2009 by Angelo Lopez |
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Art
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Economy
Media
Political Cartoons
Politics
Comments (5)
Angelo, I love the new comic strip! I'm very fascinated too about your process and materials. Do you draw these in ink or pencil or both? How big are they? What kind of paper do you draw on? Do you do a preliminary sketch on one paper and the final one on the other? Tell us more! It's wonderful!
Nora
Posted by Nora Thomason
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January 7, 2009 10:12 AM
Posted on January 7, 2009 10:12
I am an avid reader of political cartoons, Angelo, and I love the ones you posted above: well drawn, insightful, relevant, progressive, and funny. Can I find more at the Tri-City Voice website? Yet another talent, very impressive.
Posted by Bill Shanahan
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January 7, 2009 2:44 PM
Posted on January 7, 2009 14:44
Thank you both Nora and Bill. I use a pen and brush that I dip in india ink. Usually I do a sketch first in my sketchbook and I draw and redraw until I get the picture that I want. After that, I photocopy the rough drawing and trace the photocopy on to a bristol board. Then I ink. I usually ink in front of the t.v. while my wife is working away on the computer and we talk about our day.
Bill, if you'd like to see more of my cartoons, you could go to the Tri-City Voice archives at http://www.tricityvoice.com/archive.php and click on the date and look for page with the crossword puzzle. It's usually on page 24, but not always. On the bottom of the page, underneath the crossword puzzle, are my cartoons. Here are my latest cartoons here , here and here . I've been in the Tri-City Voice for about a year now, so 2008 should have most of my cartoons, from the Spring on.
Posted by Angelo Lopez
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January 7, 2009 4:50 PM
Posted on January 7, 2009 16:50
Angelo, your cartoon strip really is wonderful. From beginning to end, how long did that strip take you (how many hours over how many days)? How large is the bristol paper you speak of? In what format (bristol paper or digital?) do you offer it to the newspapers when you give it to them to print? This is so interesting!
Posted by Nora Thomason
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January 8, 2009 11:45 AM
Posted on January 8, 2009 11:45
Thanks Nora. Just a clarification though... the comic strip is not in the Tri-City Voice, it's only being published so far here in Everyday Citizen. Only my one panel cartoons are at the Tri-City Voice. I thought I'd try out the comic strip and see if it gets a positive response and see if I can improve and sustain an ongoing series without running out of ideas.
I usually do rough sketches Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then I ink Sunday night and Monday night. That's for all my cartoons. The briston board is 11 x 14 and I usually email my finished cartoons though I mail it once and a while. I get my art materials at Michaels, Aaron Brothers, and University Art.
It's fun. Calvin and Hobbes has a collection where in the introduction, Bill Watterson explains how he does his cartoons. I am always interested in reading artists interviews and seeing how they do their art. Some cartooniss have phone friends with other cartoonists, so they don't get bored when they have to ink an intricate page. There's a magazine called the Comics Journal that interviews different cartoonists.
Posted by Angelo Lopez
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January 8, 2009 5:04 PM
Posted on January 8, 2009 17:04