I was influenced to do this cartoon after reading some graphic novels that some friends have asked me to read. For several years now I've struggled to reconcile the feelings of anger and sadness over some conflicts that I had over some church conflicts that I had a few years ago and doing these cartoons in some ways helps. I've notices how cartoonists are using the graphic novel format for personal expression that is not necessarily purely humorous or about superheroes. As usual I struggle a bit with my writing, but I enjoy drawing the pictures. This is a fictionalized account of my time at a church, so it loosely depicts my experiences. I'm a bit too cowardly to confront people the way the main character does in my cartoon, but it's what I wish I did. My cartoon is not really political, but I remember reading how feminists in the 1970s said that the personal is political. So maybe in that sense, it is a political cartoon.

American Splendor is a graphic novel about the life of its writer Harvey Pekar. I first heard about this from the movie American Splendor, starring Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis. American Spendor takes vignettes of Harvey's life, sort of like how Seinfeld depicts the mundane aspects of life. In many ways American Splendor is like Grace Paley's short stories in that both show how heroic are the struggles of average everyday people. Several different cartoonists illustrate Harvey Pekar's stories, but my favorite is Robert Crumb. I never really appreciated Crumb's work until I started reading American Splendor. But in seeing his work on American Splendor, I see how good a storyteller he is. I love his scratchy pen and ink style of cartooning. Before I was always put off by his sometimes violent depictions of women, but I look at his work now and appreciate his skills as a writer who's willing to write about his own neurosis and about things that other people do not want to admit that they think about. Many cartoonists today appreciate Crumb for opening up the subject matter that comics can deal with.

If you like Robert Crumb's artwork you may be interested in looking at the cartoons of Harold Gray . Harold Gray is the creator of Little Orphan Annie, a popular comic strip that started in the 1920s. I don't much care for Gray's conservative politics, but I overlook it because he's a wonderful storyteller and he has such a wonderful way of inking his cartoons. If you compare Harold Gray's comics in the 1930s and 1940s to Robert Crumb's artwork, you will see the same scratchy ink work. I think that Gray's art was a big influence on Crumb, and it's a big influence on me as well.

Persepolis is the creation of Marjane Sartrapi. It chronicles her childhood in Iran as the Shah fell and Islamic revolutionaries take over the Iranian government and forces its religious doctrines on their countrymen. Sartrapi is from a family of leftist Iranians and the family looks on in horror as their lives become more circumscribed by the fundamentalist doctrines of the Iranian rulers. Sartrapi's independence and outspokeness increasingly becomes a danger to herself and her family in a country that tries to stamp out those qualities from Iranian women.

I haven't read this graphic novel yet, but I hear that Maus is a great graphic novel to read. It came out during my time in college and it concerns Art Spiegelman's parents experiences in the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. The Jews, Germans and other characters are depicted as mice, cats and dogs, and it is universally acknowleded as one of the great literary accomplishments of the graphic novel medium.

A last recommendation is Ethel and Ernest , a graphic novel by Raymond Briggs. Raymond Briggs is the creator of the children's book The Snowman. Ethel and Ernest is a wonderful novel about Raymond Brigg's parents and their marriage of over 30 years. It's a sweet marriage, depicting the joys and arguments and forgiveness that come with a long marriage of two people who deeply love one another. The artwork is wonderful. It looks like Brigg's art is a combination of pen and ink and watercolor. After reading the book, I began to appreciate my own parents more.

If you enjoy this cartoon, take a look at these links for more of my political cartoons at Everyday Citizen:

Jasper Escapes the Detention Center
Jasper At A Detention Center
Jasper Meets a Poet
Jasper's Day
Jasper Tackles Health Care
Jasper Protests the War
Jasper and the Economy
Jasper Sings a Protest Song
The Road To Health Care Reform Cartoon
A Cartoon about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
A Cartoon about My Experience in an Evangelical Church
A Cartoon about Political Debate
A Cartoon On Gay Marriage