Comic: We’ve Got Nothing Against Immigrants, Except the Immigrant Ones

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Ampersand

I’m chuffed to again collaborate with R.E. Ryan, whose last cartoon with me was “Let’s Outlaw Being Homeless” over a year ago. I love the way his drawing recalls the style of classical cartooning. (Or so it looks to me, I haven’t actually discussed this with him).

I don’t drink and consequently rarely think of setting my cartoons in bars. (Before this one, the last one I recall is Sheeple!, in early 2023). But I should do it more often – it looks really sharp. And it’s an environment where it’s plausible that strangers would end up chatting or arguing, which is the premise of an embarrassing number of my comics.

In June 2025, Congressman Charles “Chuck” Edwards, a Republican, posted on Facebook that “Republicans aren’t anti-legal immigration, we’re anti-illegal immigration.” This is something a lot of Republicans have said, including from the stage at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

But it’s more important to look at what the GOP does than what it says. The GOP has become a party of fanatical immigrant hatred, driven not by logic or economics but by spite and bigotry. Against all immigrants (and especially non-white immigrants), not just undocumented immigrants. (With a few exceptions, like white South Africans, select right-wing pundits, and Donald Trump’s wife.)

On Govtrack, a website tracking the Federal government’s actions, Amy West and Joshua Tauberer responded to conservatives claiming “that the Republican party is only opposed to immigrants who are present illegally” with a lengthy yet far from comprehensive list of recent “Republican legislation and executive orders [which] have sought to limit legal immigration, limit benefits for legal immigrants, and limit the rights of legal immigrants.”

And that was several months ago – before the State Department said that they’d revoke Visas for criticizing Israel. Before Republicans voted to give ICE a budget larger than that of most countries’ militaries. Before Alligator Alcatraz – a literal concentration camp for immigrants – was announced. (This isn’t saying it’s a death camp; “concentration camp” and “death camp” aren’t interchangeable terms.)

Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, wrote:

I visited four continents to write a global history of concentration camps. This facility’s purpose fits the classic model: mass civilian detention without real trials targeting vulnerable groups for political gain based on ethnicity, race, religion or political affiliation rather than for crimes committed. And its existence points to serious dangers ahead for the country. […]

What will happen in the U.S. if the pressure to self-deport fails, as it did nearly a century ago? We’re already seeing aggressive moves against people living in the U.S. legally. The administration is still trying to strip legal status from half a million Haitians who were allowed in before Trump’s return. The DOJ is prioritizing cases involving the possible revocation of citizenship, working to undo birthright citizenship itself and targeting the citizenship of political enemies. The administration wants to define who can be an American in ways that appear profoundly racist, and it seems immigrants are the most politically advantageous large population to target.

All of this is terrible for immigrants. And that alone would be reason enough to oppose it.

But we shouldn’t forget that it harms all Americans, non-immigrants included. Our economy depends on immigration, and in the long run this resurgence of nationalism will make all of us poorer, including our children and grandchildren.

It remains to be seen how permanent the damage is. Will future Democratic administrations be able to undo the attack on all immigrants? And even if they’re able, will they have the political will?

There is one bit of good news this week, which I’m hoping will turn out to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Most Americans don’t support the extremist attacks on immigrants.

A majority of Americans also disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, with 53 percent giving him negative marks and only 42 percent approving of his approach, according to the poll. […]

Brad Jones, professor of political science at the University of California Davis, told Newsweek that other than “MAGA diehards,” most Americans “probably bought into the narrative that immigration enforcement would be focused on violent criminal offenders.”

“This is not what we are seeing. Instead, we’re seeing indiscriminate round-ups, raids, and detentions of individuals ICE and other immigration officials deem to be immigrants. This includes individuals with no criminal backgrounds and even US citizens. The increased focus on this kind of draconian immigration enforcement is revolting to many Americans…”

Frank and I have been making good progress on the new book collection! I’ll post more about that soon, including a preview of cover art.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, plus a tiny fifth “kicker” panel underneath. All panels show the same scene. Two men are sitting at a bar, nursing beers. The first man is wearing a purple zip-up jacket; the second a green t-shirt.

PANEL 1

“Purple” looks suspiciously at “Green” as he asks an unfriendly question; Green replies angrily.

PURPLE: Why do you guys hate immigrants so much?

GREEN: That’s unfair! Conservatives have nothing against immigrants!

PANEL 2

Green lists off items on his fingers.

GREEN: We’re only against immigrants who sneak across the border, because they’re lawbreakers. Oh, and ones who overstay their Visas.

PANEL 3

Green looks up a bit, concentrating, as he continues his list.

GREEN: Plus those here legally as refugees… Student op-ed writers… Those brought here as kids… Latino guys with tattoos… Harvard students… Ones who are only “American” cause they were born here… People who criticize Israel…

PANEL 4

GREEN: But other than that, when have conservatives ever gone after law-abiding immigrants?

TINY KICKER PANEL UNDERNEATH THE COMIC

GREEN: These people should just use the legal pathways to immigration! Which we’re closing!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is an old-fashioned cartoonists’ term for unimportant but fun details in comics.

PANEL 1: On a shelf below the bar, a mouse is guzzling beer.

PANEL 2: There’s a framed picture of Sam Eagle (from the Muppets) on the wall. A highway route sign on the wall says “Route 65 ½.” Fry and Bender, from the TV show Futurama, are sitting at a table.

PANEL 3: Green is still counting points off on his fingers. To facilitate that, he now has nine fingers on his right hand.

PANEL 4: The drinking mouse has passed out.

We’ve Got Nothing Against Immigrants, Except the Immigrant Ones | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc., Immigration, Migrant Rights, etc | 1 Comment

Cartoon: They Will Never Be Shown

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.

Becky writes:

I often choose which cartoon to draw based on personal grievances—I mean, I carry my wealth of life experience into my art. I worked as a cruise ship musician for a few years, and the work environment had all the fatphobia of the entertainment industry combined with the international pastime of mocking American tourists. Once, I interrupted a fat-shaming session to say “Hey, a bunch of my family looks like that.” My coworkers swore up and down that they’d never make fun of my family—that would be mean!—They only make fun of lazy people who deserve it…which they can tell by looking, apparently.

Barry recently got into a long internet debate about whether it’s broadly possible for fat people to become not-fat over the long term. By “debate,” I mean Barry presented study after study showing that weight loss almost always plateaus at a certain point, and the stranger kept saying “Nuh-uh.” This person confidently explained that someone of [coincidentally my exact height and weight] could permanently drop one-quarter of their weight by making some simple lifestyle changes, like exercising a few days a week and not eating meat every day. Both of which I already do. I’m not saying this to get a Virtuous Fattie Award. Just pointing out that people’s assumptions can be SO OBJECTIVELY WRONG and they use those assumptions to justify being jerks.

Barry writes:

My experience is that when someone plays “let’s interrogate the fatty” – discovering what it is we’re doing so wrong that explains the fat – there is no possible right answer.

How often do you eat fast food? Maybe once every two weeks. Well, what’s your most frequent meal? A spinach salad. Do you put dressing on that salad? Yes? Ah-HAH!

How often do you exercise? Daily, usually six days a week. What kind of exercise? A walk around the block? HIIT and shadowboxing, enough to be sweating and panting, and lifting dumbbells every other day. How many hours a day? Thirty to forty minutes a day. Ah-HAH!

No matter how allegedly “virtuous”* one’s exercise and food habits, it won’t matter to this type of person. They already know you’re doing something sinful and wrong – just look at your fat! The only purpose of the discussion, for them, is ferreting out exactly what our sin is.

*It’s worth repeating that no one is obligated to exercise, to eat “healthy,” or to make being healthy a goal. It’s fine if you want to, but it’s also fine to have other priorities, and screw anyone who says otherwise.

Interestingly, their sudden strict standards when they find out a fat person does exercise and doesn’t eat at McDonalds every day shows that they don’t genuinely believe the pro-diet ideology that says that all fat people have to do is make a few tiny, easy lifestyle changes and soon we’ll be skipping through the gates of Holy Thin Land.

Not even losing weight satisfies these people. You could lose fifty percent of body weight – an incredible amount – but if you’re still fat, then they still consider you weak and assume you eat nothing but ice cream and bon bons.

For the people interrogating fat people, nothing will ever be good enough. Therefore, the only solution is to not give a fuck what they think or say.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has five panels. All feature the same woman, a fat woman with neck-length blonde hair.

PANEL 1

A fat woman has just exited a grocery store carrying a bag of groceries. A thin couple, walking out behind her, looks at her scornfully. The fat woman doesn’t turn to face them, but we can see in her expression that she’s overhearing their conversation.

THIN MAN: Oh my god, just look at her! Does she ever exercise?

THIN WOMAN: She must have zero willpower.

FAT WOMAN (thought): I’ll show them!

PANEL 2

The fat woman is seated in a diner, looking at a little book entitled “My Daily Food Journal.” In the foreground we can see a juicy burger and a slice of chocolate cream pie, both delicious looking. A waitress is taking the fat woman’s order.

CAPTION: NEXT…

FAT WOMAN: Could I get a half cup of oatmeal instead of a full cup? No butter.

PANEL 3

The fat woman, cross-eyed with exhaustion, is in a gym, using a stationary bicycle.

CAPTION: She does this for an entire year

FAT WOMAN: Puff… puff…

PANEL 4

The fat woman, wrapped in a towel in a locker room, is standing on a scale and looking very pleased.

CAPTION: Until at last…

FAT WOMAN (thought): Wow! I’ve lost thirty pounds! “Zero willpower.” I’ve certainly shown them!

PANEL 5

The fat woman is walking out of the grocery store and the same couple walks out behind her. The fat woman facepalms.

CAPTION: VINDICATION!

THIN MAN: Oh my god, just look at her! Does she ever exercise?

THIN WOMAN: She must have zero willpower.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

Panel 1: The posters in the supermarket window say “seasonal meat” and (with a picture of an apple) “Doctors HATE this one weird trick.” The beer the thin guy is carrying is named “bière.”

Panel 2: The posters in the background are all about how great the food at this diner is. A first-place ribbon is framed next to an article with the headline “Local Restaurant Named Best In US” and a photo of an adorable chef captioned “Proud Chef Grandpa.”

Panel 3: The brand on the bike is “Belleville,” a reference to the movie The Triplets of Belleville.

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Fat, fat and more fat | 2 Comments

Cartoon: The End of PEPFAR

Posted on July 14, 2025 by Ampersand

Check out the timelapse drawing video (including video of Frank Young’s coloring process).

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. All of them show three people – a casually dressed woman, a politician type in a suit, and a doctor type in a white lab coat – on a city sidewalk.

PANEL 1

POLITICIAN: Lefties say conservatives are racist monsters who don’t value human life – but what about PEPFAR here?

DOCTOR TYPE: Hi! I’m Pepfar!

PANEL 2

A close up of the politician, with a hand held over his heart.

POLITICIAN: PEPFAR was founded by the Bush administration to help people with AIDS. And it’s saved over 25 million lives, mostly in Africa!

PANEL 3

The woman smiles. Everyone’s smiling. The politician reaches for something inside his jacket.

WOMAN: I do have some issues with PEPFAR… but overall, you’re right. PEPFAR does a huge amount of good and saves tons of lives.

POLITICIAN: See? We’re not such monsters.

PANEL 4

The politician, still smiling, has drawn a gun and shoots the PEPFAR dude over and over – he’s clearly dead. The woman is horrified.

POLITICIAN: But I’ve got tax cuts to offset, so…

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken Fat” is a long-dormant cartoonists’ expression for little unimportant details in the art.

PANEL 1. Woodstock and Opus are sitting together high on a building. A “wanted” poster on the building shows someone named “A. C. Ute” with a triangle-shaped head. A grumpy mouse is running away, with a bag on a stick over a shoulder. A piece of litter shows a cartoon bug and the words “get it?” A snake is coming out of a sneaker. The woman has a tattoo of a bundle of TNT. Travel stickers on the doctor’s roller bag say “Alderaan: It’s a Blast!” “Iowa: 75% Vowels!” “Sodom: Try Our Salt” “Gotham: Nana nana nana Batman,” “Place,” and one that’s cut off by the corner of the bag that says “Cut off Tr-”

PANEL 2. A poster in the background says “CHEESE is kinda gross if you think about it but so is most food.”

PANEL 3. The woman’s tattoo, instead of TNT, now shows an explosion sound effect.

PANEL 4. A spy is hiding behind a pillar in the background. Travel stickers on the suitcase say “Tiny Text that no one reads except U,” “Avoid Florida,” and “Hi Frank! Thanks for the colors!”

Posted in Africa, Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc. | 4 Comments

(comic) Standing Aside Athwart History

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Ampersand

This cartoon is drawn by the wonderful cartoonist Jenn Lee. (And doesn’t that carpeting in panel four look amazing?)

“Athwart” is such a great word. I should look for chances to drop it into everyday conversation. (“I’m athwart live-action versions of Disney movies.”)

Hey, remember when J.D. Vance was a self-identified “Never Trumper,” who called Trump reprehensible and compared him to Hitler? Funny how things change while remaining exactly the same.

Although Vance is an extreme case, he’s representative of the way a lot of “Never Trumpers” have done complete turnarounds. Few if any conservative principles have survived the age of MAGA.

Thibault Muzergues wrote:

Today, being pro-free trade or pro-immigration is almost unthinkable for a Republican candidate in any primary. In the same way, the foreign-policy outlook of the party has drastically changed: dominated by hawks and neo-conservatives in the past, it is now much more influenced by isolationist and inward-looking imperialist elements (those have always existed within the party, but had been marginal in the past, in particular during the George W. Bush years in the early 2000s).

Ronald A. Lindsay snarked:

Pete Hegseth, the nominee for Defense Secretary, is a serial adulterer and stands accused of sexual assault. Matt Gaetz, the nominee for Attorney General, is alleged to have had sex with an underage girl, paid for sex, and ingested copious amounts of illegal drugs—and then to have lied about this. Disqualifying conduct? Not as far as Trump’s religious Right supporters are concerned. Meanwhile, these same supporters have been pushing for the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Apparently, some of the commandments are optional.

Marin Thielen, in Baptist News, asks: “Why aren’t evangelicals offended by Donald Trump?”

By his numerous adulterous affairs? By his porn star payoffs? By his bragging about “grabbing women by the pussy”? By a jury of his peers finding him liable for sexual assault? By his rampant sexism? By his lack of character? By his lack of decency? By his endless lies? By his criminality? By his threats to democracy? By his admiration of dictators? By his mocking of disabled persons, POWs and victims of violent assault?

Last week me and some friends recently saw a terrific local production of Assassins, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s wonderfully cutting 1990 musical about people who have murdered (or tried to murder) U.S. Presidents.

Afterwards, my friend Charles made an interesting point, which is that Assassins plays differently in the age of Trump and MAGA. In the play’s telling, what the various assassins have in common is that they’re outsiders driven by spitefulness and nihilism, in opposition to the traditional American dream. But that same spitefulness and nihilism is now entirely mainstream; it rules the U.S. and runs the government.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. Each panel shows the same two characters, wealthy men, as they relax inside an exclusive country club. Servants wearing butler tuxes wait on them.

PANEL 1

One of them – let’s call him RACQUET – is waving a racquetball racquet and ranting, while his friend – let’s call him FRIEND – listens patiently.

RACQUET: William F. Buckley wrote “A conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling Stop!”

PANEL 2

The two are now playing darts.

RACQUET: “Prudence” is the conservative watchword! But today’s republican party is the opposite of prudential. January sixth, reinterpreting the constitution, destroying old alliances… and the tariffs! Dear God!

PANEL 3

They’ve moved to the club’s fancy dining area. Racquet pounds his fist on the table while Friend is looking at his phone.

RACQUET: it’s obscene! it’s what conservatives have always opposed! What’s become of our principles?!

PANEL 4

Now in what appears to be a demonic sacrifice room, they talk while Racquet prepares to plunge a dagger into one of the butler-like guys.

FRIEND: So you’ve stopped voting for Republicans?

RACQUET: I would, but I want the tax cuts.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is a long-obscure cartoonists’ term for unimportant but hopefully fun details in the art.

Panel 2: The mounted heads of Rocky and Bullwinkle are on the wall. The dartboard is being held up by one of the butler dudes; there is a dart sticking out of his head.

Panel 3: Both the silverware and the pheasants they’re eating are sparkling as if they’ve been plated with gold.

Panel 4: The two of them are now wearing red and black robes and are preparing to sacrifice a butler, who is tied to a stone table. The butler seems surprisingly calm about this. Displayed on a shelf in the background are the decapitated heads of George Washington, Batman, Underdog, Sherlock Holmes, Dick Tracy, Garfield the cat, and the Monopoly Man.

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc. | 1 Comment

(comic) He’s Back – Get ‘Im!

Posted on June 17, 2025 by Ampersand

Check out the video of me drawing this cartoon!

Two-thirds through drawing this cartoon I had the thought “surely some other cartoonist has already done ICE arresting Jesus.” And of course, they had. For instance, Andy Marlette in 2017; Claytoonz in 2018 (featuring Jeff Sessions – remember him?); and Ellen at Pizzacake just two months ago. (I’m a big fan of Pizzacake, by the way – it has a lovely sense of whimsy). I’m sure there are many others, as well.

I considered abandoning the cartoon. But then I thought of this exchange between George (an artist) and Dot (a muse) in one of my favorite musicals, Sunday In The Park With George.

[GEORGE]
I’ve nothing to say

[DOT, spoken]
You have many things.

[GEORGE]
Well, nothing that’s not been said

[DOT]
Said by you, though, George

That passage is one of the best pieces of advice for artists I’ve ever heard, and I think of it often. My cartoon shares a premise with those other cartoons, but I don’t think anyone could mistake our cartoons for each other.

This is the second anti-ICE cartoon I’ve done this month, the previous one being this collab with Kevin Moore. So rather than go over the reasons to hate ICE in this post, I’ll just link to that previous post.

For panel four, I thought it would be a good idea to show famous immigrants, real and fictional, among the prisoners. My hope is that it makes the group look more like a collection of individuals, rather than being simply a mass of generic people.

I’m not the best at caricature, but – as a result of my recent turn to drawing lots of chicken fat in my cartoons – I’ve gotten a bit more confident, so I decided to try it.

When it came time to actually draw the panel, it turned out to be much more challenging than I’d anticipated. The panel is inspired by homeland security secretary Kristi Noem’s repulsive photo op in front of a cell full of prisoners in El Salvador. The prisoners were all male, had their heads shaved, and were shirtless.

Being all male wasn’t a problem – since beauty standards are much more stringent for female celebrities, male celebrities tend to have easier-to-caricature faces.

But all the other elements made it harder. They had to all be shirtless – so there went using costume to identify characters. (Although I cheated a bit on this by including a hat). They all had to have shaved heads, so there went using hair. And I didn’t think it would work to show anyone smiling, so there went a whole lot of characteristic expressions.

So a lot of folks that could have been in that panel – Mork from Ork, Angel from Buffy, Alfred from Batman, Raj from Big Bang Theory, Keanu Reeves, etc – ended up not being there because I just didn’t think I could successfully draw them under these restrictions.

The characters that ended up going in were Chico Marx (American, but the character he played was an Italian immigrant), Mr. Spock (not an immigrant, but he spent a lot of his life being an outsider among smugly superior Earthlings), Superman (the ultimate immigrant), Albert Einstein, Bob Hope (born in the UK), Beldar Conehead, and Mr. Miyagi.I don’t think all of them are great likenesses, but one of the pleasures of chicken fat is that it doesn’t matter if it’s perfect.

For me, the most iconic Superman cartoonist will always be the late Curt Swan. Kings Highway Elementary School, when I was a kid, had an original Swan Superman sketch framed on a wall, and I studied it often. Very helpfully, it turns out that Swan made a “How To Draw Superman” tutorial.

Although I didn’t look at them while I was drawing, as preparation I did check out Al Hirschfeld drawings of both Chico Marx and Bob Hope. As far as I’m concerned, Hirschfeld is the best caricaturist to ever wield a pen, and if Hirschfeld chose to emphasize a particular feature, then it’s an important feature. Mainly, though, I relied on photos.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. The first three take place on a city sidwalk.

PANEL 1

Jesus Christ, a smile on his face and a glowing halo over his head, is talking to a man wearing an ICE jacket. The ICE agent is talking into his phone.

JESUS: Yes, it’s me, Jesus Christ! I’ve come back to–

ICE AGENT (thought balloon): ✓ Foreign accent. ✓ Brown skin. ✓ Doesn’t look rich.

ICE AGENT (aloud): Guys, I think I got one!

PANEL 2

Two more ICE agents, big men wearing black masks that cover their whole faces other than their eyes, have rushed in and are shoving Jesus (now wearing handcuffs) to the sidewalk.

MASK DUDE: He looks mid-eastern to me.

JESUS: But I– OW!

ICE AGENT: No talking back, terrorist!

PANEL 3

A cartoon dust cloud, from which raised fists and clubs emerge, indicates a beat down going on.

JESUS: I’m only here to–

MASK DUDE: He’s resisting!

ICE AGENT: Get him!

PANEL 4

The Ice Agent, hands on hips, is grinning as he chats with Kristi Noem (Trump’s Homeland Security secretary). In the background is a cell full of prisoners, shirtless and with their heads shaved. One of the prisoners is Jesus, covered with bruises, looking very irritated.

NOEM: We really are doing God’s work here.

ICE AGENT: Heck yeah!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is a long-obsolete cartoonists’ term for unimportant details drawn in a cartoon.

PANEL 1 – The building directory in the background:

Accountant
Accountspider
Spider-Man
Copyright Suit
Tailored Suit
Taylor Hebert
Hebert ‘n Ernie
Ernied Interest
Interest Ing Inc
Dentist

A newspaper lying on the sidewalk says “Background Detail News. Headline Leaves No Room for Story Text. Lazy Cartoonist To Blame, Says Bob. Bob? Who’s Bob?” (Some of that last line is literally impossible to read, because panel borders. Honestly, the entire newspaper might be impossible to read, partly because I distorted the lettering to put it in perspective.)

A poster on the wall says “WORDS. They’re all over! Where do they come from? What do they want? Do they have plans? No one knows.”

Oscar the Grouch is peeking out of a trash can in the foreground.

PANEL 2 – The Tin Man, The Scarecrow, and the Lion are watching from a window in the background. In another window, the three-eyed alien from “Toy Story” watches. A bumper sticker on the ICE van says “My other car is unmarked.” One of the ICE agents has actually stuck his hand through the middle of Jesus’ halo.

PANEL 3 – One of the Ice Agent’s arms has a “Care Bears” tattoo. Micky Mouse’s fist is sticking out of the dust cloud.

PANEL 4 – The people in the jail cell include Chico Marx, Mr. Spock, Superman, Albert Einstein, Bob Hope, Beldar Conehead, and Mr. Miyagi.

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Immigration, Migrant Rights, etc | 51 Comments

Cartoon: MALES Do That!

Posted on June 16, 2025 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins, with an assist from Naomi Rubin, who suggested the kicker panel.

—

Becky writes:

This is what I call the “making fun of jerks” genre of Barry-cartoon, which I enjoy drawing. This comic spoke to me in particular because I’m grumpy about gender. As a former cruise ship musician, I felt like my job was a balancing act of “being one of the guys” while performing femininity as “the girl in the band.” As an Elder Gay Millennial™, I also remember acquaintances asking me “Which one of you is the guy in the relationship?” and dissecting my wardrobe, actions and mannerisms to figure out the answer. So I was ready to lampoon the labeling of human activities as “man” things.

When I’m drawing a cartoon in the present day, sometimes I have an immediate mental image of who the characters are, and translating that to the page feels easy. However, I usually spend a little time flailing, scrolling social media for visual inspiration, and generally feeling like I forgot how to draw before I get going.

I wanted a slightly snappy counterculture look for the trans woman, so I “borrowed” an outfit from my former housemate and comics friend Mergo Petrichor. (Hi Mergo!) I looked up some group photos of JK Rowling with prominent TERFs for a cis woman to draw. To be honest, though, I’m one Dansko gift card away from owning that outfit.

I set this comic on a street corner so the women could switch positions between panel 1 and panel 2. Because English-language comics are read left-to-right, cartoonists usually place the character who speaks first on the left for maximum clarity. The cis woman is speaking first in panel 1 and second in panel 2.

Buildings like this one are popping up all over my city. I’ve heard that they’re relatively cheap to build, and that the combo of commercial/residential uses is capital-G Good for urban density/climate/affordability reasons. But I don’t find them exciting to look at. I did enjoy drawing the ambiguous window decals. Maybe it’s a Portland thing, but I’ve mistaken a pet food store for a butcher, a weed dispensary for a cafe, and a supplement shop for a weed dispensary in this city.

Lastly: Sometimes I take reference selfies to figure out what a pose should look like. Good thing I have a sense of humor.

Barry writes:

I really like the perspective drawing Becky did of the second story of the building, and felt a little bad about covering it up with word balloons.

But, you know, eggs and omelets.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels (plus a fifth “kicker” panel), all of them showing two women talking on a city street corner. The first woman has reddish-brown hair in a pixie cut, and is wearing a green shirt with blue capris. The second woman has dark hair in a bob cut, and is wearing a blue leather crop jacket over a maroon dress and combat boots.

PANEL 1

Capris points accusingly at Jacket. Jacket, annoyed, gives Capris the finger.

CAPRIS: You’re a male! All you trans women are male!

JACKET: You know what? Screw you.

PANEL 2

JACKET: Let’s be logical. Everyone gets angry sometimes.

CAPRIS: Taking refuge in “logic!” Implying that because i’m a woman I’m being irrational! That’s so male!

PANEL 3

Jacket crosses her arms and looks away, clearly annoyed. Capris is gloating.

CAPRIS: Look, now you’re sulking! Just like males do!

PANEL 4

Jacket has walked away. Capris jumps up and down, yelling at Jacket’s back.

CAPRIS: Walking away! Males do that! Wearing clothes! Breathing! Male male MALE!

KICKER PANEL BELOW BOTTOM OF THE COMIC

Jacket makes finger-quotes while Capris, looking very smug, shrugs.

JACKET: What about you? Isn’t that a “man’s haircut”?

CAPRIS: When I do it, it’s disrupting the patriarchy.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

In the background is a store with a window display, slowly revealed as the comic progresses. From right to left: Close-ups of enormous fruit (berries, a banana, a kiwi) sitting or floating over a bed of ice, with water and juice splashing dynamically upwards.

A closely-cropped image of a woman’s face, so we just see one eye and the corner of her mouth. One hand is on her cheek. Her lips and nails are icy pink. The transom above the door has an exotic flower decal.

On the front door, in an artsy font treatment, it says: “Are we a smoothie shoppe? A NAIL salon? A DISPENSARY? YOU DON’T KNOW!”

MALES Do That! | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | 2 Comments

Cartoon: Next Best Thing

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Ampersand

This cartoon is a collaboration with Kevin Moore. Kevin writes:

I really enjoyed putting in the chicken fat for this cartoon, something that in my previous work with Barry we had not explored much and that I think is a great innovation to Barry’s style. I’m an old MAD fan who at some point wanted to be Will Elder, Mort Drucker, or Sergio Aragones when he grew up, so this definitely scratched the itch. I try to add some to my own cartoons, but my weekly time crunch sometimes forbids it.

Also, having been a tween when Raiders came out, I naturally enjoyed the chance to draw Indy killing a Nazi. I wonder how he would handle ICE agents. Melt their faces off? Make them drink from the wrong goblet? I’d settle for public humiliation and ostracism.

It’s fun working with Kevin because he’s not afraid of adding things that aren’t in the script – like the use of the mirror in panel four, which does a wonderful job of making things visual.

An ICE agent pushed back against Nazi comparisons:

Hitting out at criticisms that have, for years, compared ICE agents to Nazis, the agent said: “To be called a Nazi, you know, a racist, you know, it’s just ignorant. It’s ignorant.”

“We don’t pick and choose groups of people based on race, color, religion.”

Meanwhile:

ICE Arrested And Detained A US Citizen For Hours Because He Looked Mexican | Techdirt

That’s one of many cases where ICE has clearly harassed and even arrested people for being Hispanic near ICE agents.

An article in The Stranger sums up some recent ICE headlines:

“ICE is out of control,” goes the headline at Slate. “Donald Trump’s ICE is tearing families apart,” goes the headline at the New Yorker. “ICE wants to deport the caregiver of a 6-year-old paraplegic boy,” goes the headline at Daily Kos. “ICE targets sanctuary cities, arrests 33 in Northwest,” goes the headline at NPR.

Reading these stories, we learn that ICE just arrested a 55-year-old chemistry professor in Lawrence, Kansas, who’s lived in this country for 31 years and has three children, all of whom are American citizens; according to the Washington Post, he was arrested on his front lawn in front of his children, and his wife was threatened with arrest if she tried to hug her husband goodbye. We learn that after ICE moved to deport a married man in Arizona who now has five children, one of whom has leukemia, the father was forced to take refuge in a church with his ailing son. We learn that ICE denied an appeal from an Ohio man who is a specially trained caregiver for a 6-year-old paraplegic boy who depends on his care. We learn that ICE ordered an HIV-positive gay man in Miami deported to Venezuela, a country in a state of economic collapse; since the man won’t be able to get the medications he needs to keep him alive, his deportation amounts to a death sentence.

And that was in 2018! In Trump’s second term, ICE has become even more brazenly lawless. We’ve all seen videos of ICE agents, sometimes in masks and plainclothes, abducting people off the streets – an image of fascism that would be an embarrassing cliche if it weren’t really happening.

The truth is, there is no past history of ICE being honorable; from it’s founding in the wake of 9/11, ICE has been an abusive agency that hates civil liberties and makes the country a worse place. Trump has merely given ICE the freedom to stop pretending to be anything else.

As for good people who happen to be ICE agents? By now, they all should have resigned.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels.

PANEL 1

A cheerful white man is driving while he talks on his cell phone.

MAN: I watched “Raisers of the Lost Ark” yesterday.

VOICE ON PHONE: Again?

PANEL 2

As the man talks, we see his giant thought balloon, which shows a Nazi looking in confusion upwards towards the giant bullet hole in his forehead, while in the background Indiana Jones is holding a smoking pistol.

MAN: I’m just fascinated by World War II movies… I wonder what I would have done if I’d been around back then.

PANEL 3

The man has parked in a parking lot, and is getting out of his car.

MAN: Anyway, gotta go. Just reached work.

VOICE ON PHONE: Have a good one!

PANEL 4

The man in in a locker room, straightening his collar in front of a mirror. The back of his jacket says ICE. In the mirror, his reflection is wearing a WW2 Nazi uniform.

MAN (thought): If I’d had the chance, I could’ve been a great Nazi.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is a anachronistic term for little unimportant but fun details cartoonists slip into the art.

PANEL 1 – A cardboard cut-out of Charlie Brown’s head is hanging from the rear view mirror. The man’s t-shirt has a design of a happy flower with a smiling face holding a smaller flower, which has a face with two little “x”s for eyes.

PANEL 2 – The cell phone’s screen says “TODD.” When I asked Kevin about that, he replied: “Yeah I thought it would be kinda funny. Todd is a funny name to me. Also if you have seen Breaking Bad, the name Todd has distinct creepy Nazi associations.”

PANEL 3 – The man’s t-shirt now shows Bob The Angry Flower. The two little stick-figures sticker on the back of the car shows a three-headed alien. A hand is sticking out of the trunk of the car next over. On the other side, a camel has been parked, and is eating hay from a feed bag. The license plate says “NOS4A2,” a reference to a novel Kevin’s currently reading.

PANEL 4- A poster on the wall shows two stick-figures lifting a third stick figure, which has obviously broken legs. The caption says “Safety First – Life With Your Legs.” Near the floor, someone in the wall is digging a hole in the wall with a small knife, while a second person in there watches.

The belt buckle on the Nazi uniform is an abstract caricature of Hitler.

I think that’s all of them – although Kevin may have snuck one in I missed.

Next Best Thing | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Immigration, Migrant Rights, etc | 2 Comments

Cartoon: Top Ten Reasons Americans Want Enormous Cars

Posted on May 14, 2025 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins. (The final panel, which I love, was all Becky’s idea.)

(I want it on the record that I did not, as a writer, request that Becky draw eight characters into the final panel! Becky chose to do that to herself.)

This cartoon doesn’t get at all into the policy reasons that cars in the U.S. have gotten so big. But our individual preferences have been shaped by the way federal policy shapes our car norms.

Legally, car companies can avoid stricter emission standards – and make higher profits – by selling bigger SUVs and trucks. As a result of this loophole, auto makers have spent decades on a nonstop campaign to convince us that huge cars are a necessity.

There are also tax reasons. Tariffs – which have been in the news a lot lately – are the reason we don’t have more smaller cars to buy.

In the early 1960s, Europe raised the ire of American officials by slapping a 50 percent tariff on chicken exported from the United States. In retaliation, the US enacted a 25 percent tax on pickup trucks imported from abroad. The dispute is long forgotten, but the “Chicken Tax” lives on.

Although the tariff was initially aimed at Germany’s immense auto industry (Volkswagen in particular), it also applies to pickups imported from newer automaking powers such as Japan and South Korea, where carmakers are often adept at building vehicles much smaller than those available to Americans.

The Chicken Tax (a name that is sure to confuse) makes it impossible to make a profit selling small foreign cars in America. So they don’t.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has eleven panels. The central panel says, in large friendly letters, “Top Ten Reasons Americans Want Enormous Cars.”

Panel 1

An angry woman gestures at a computer screen.

Woman: “Emissions” were made up by China to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive!

Panel 2

A cheerful man wearing a big, sparkling watch smiles as he explains.

Man: How else will strangers know I’ve got money to burn?

Panel 3

A woman lies on a sofa as if she’s getting therapy.

Woman on couch: My big car gives me a sense of security, power, and control, which I know is pathetic, which makes me feel weak, which makes me want an even bigger car.

Panel 4

A person is looking a bit up into space, crying with joy.

Person: Someday someone will ask me to move a piano and on that day I will be ready! It’s coming! Any day now…

Panel 5

Man smiling wryly: Because shooting bikers and pedestrians is illegal. … For now.

Panel 6

This is the center panel, and is dominated by the title: Top Ten Reasons Americans Want Enormous Cars.

Below that, a small girl flees in terror from a huge SUV.

SUV Driver: The higher the car, the closer to Heaven!

Panel 7

A man wearing a red baseball cap backwards pumps his fist in the air.

Man: If we don’t burn as many fossil fuels as fast as possible the woke DEI liberals win! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Panel 8

A cheerful guitarist on stage speaks to the audience.

Guitarist: If Jesus had a big truck the Romans would never have caught him!

Panel 9

A thin man is smiling and saluting at us. A U.S. flag, but with a swole arm instead of stars, is being projected onto him.

Man: It makes me a real man and a real American.

Panel 10

A woman in a business suit looks at us derisively.

Woman: A compact? What am I, five?

Panel 11

A harried looking woman driving seven women in an SUV.

Woman: Gotta keep my kids safe from all the giant cars people drive!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is a neglected cartoonists’ term for fun little details the cartoonist puts into the art.

Panel 1: A sticking-tongue-out emoji is on the coffee cup.

Panel 2: The man’s t-shirt says “Thorsteid Veblen was RIGHT.”

Panel 4: The person’s shirt says “I ❤️ Band.” They’ve got a full tattoo sleeve, showing a lighthouse, a bear, a sneaker, a bat, and piano keys. Becky explains:

I started with piano keys because this person wants to move a piano, so they probably like music (hence the I ❤️ band shirt). The other tattoos are a product of free association. I don’t have any tattoos, but I’d hypothetically get a Pittsburgh skyline on one calf and a Portland skyline on the other, since they’re both bridges-on-a-river cities that are important to me. My initial attempts to draw a legible skyline on a small cartoon character’s arm while on a deadline were unsuccessful. I tried drawing a bridge, but soon decided a lighthouse would be easier and just as effective. Bears are fun and great, so I drew a baby bear. Apparently bear bodies are easier to draw than bear faces, so after a few tries, I placed the tattoo where the face would be out of sight. I had a coworker who was known for wearing Converse All Stars, so much so that on his 60th birthday, the hostess gave away little sneaker keychains as party favors. A former housemate of mine had a vampire teeth tattoo, but I think I’ve drawn someone with that on a different cartoon, so I drew a bat instead.

Panel 5: Although the girl is getting away from the SUV, she’s lost a flip-flop, which is flying into the SUV’s grill.

Panel 11: So much detail here! This is one of those SUVs with three rows of seats. In the back-back, a toddler drawing hashmarks on the window with a red marker. A girl is shouting to be heard by another girl, who has headphones on.

In the middle row, a baby is playing with its foot, as babies do. Another girl with headphones is staring at an iPad. And a boy in the middle is shouting for the boy in the front passenger seat to pass him a bag of snacks, which the boy is doing.

Top Ten Reasons Americans Want Enormous Cars | Patreon

Posted in Capitalism, Cartooning & comics, Environmental issues | 13 Comments

Cartoon: Trump Voter

Posted on May 7, 2025 by Ampersand

Check out the timelapse drawing video for this cartoon!

This cartoon combines two things I don’t do often: A one-panel strip, and caricatures of real famous people.

Doing a one-panel strip just feels lazy to me, although rationally I know that’s not the case. So I tried to make up for it by putting a lot of details into the drawing.

The caricatures were what was really worrying me when I drew this strip. I’ve very rarely drawn Trump, and I’ve never drawn Musk or Vance before.

(You may be thinking that I’ve drawn caricatures of celebrities in little background gags before – and, in fact, in this cartoon. But background gags are different, because the strip won’t hinge on readers being able to recognize who they are. And if I’m having too much trouble drawing a celeb in chicken fat, I can just leave out that gag.)

I was pleasantly surprised by how easily Trump and Musk came. I don’t think J.D. Vance came out as well, but people recognizing him isn’t as important to the gag – plus hopefully the context of him being near Trump will help people work it out.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

The cartoon shows a giant Donald Trump stomping through a ruined landscape, holding a giant axe. Elon Musk grows from Trump’s side, doing a Nazi salute. A monstrously huge snake, with J.D. Vance’s head, slithers alongside Trump. A smoking ruin of a city is in the background; there are giant insects; the ground is littered with skulls, decapitated heads, burning or buried books.

Two people sit on the ground against a wall, hiding from Trump’s view. They are wearing ragged clothing. One of them says:

“You must admit, things would have been worse under Harris.”

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obscure cartoonists’ lingo for little unimportant details in a cartoon.

The chicken fat in this cartoon includes:

An airplane is about to crash into the city.

A person has just jumped off a skyscraper in the background.

There is a giant spider and a giant cockroach in the background.

There are three gravestones, with “Free Press,” “Free Speech,” and “Free Bird” written on them.

A spy wearing sunglasses is watching from near the giant spider.

Mickey Mouse, smiling, is marching alongside Trump. But he doesn’t look well; his smile is desperate and nervous, one shoe is torn (as is one ear), a button is missing, and he has a bandaged stump in place of his right hand.

A broken mug on the wall says “life is good.”

A poster taped to the wall says: “NOTICE: FAILURE to report your woke friends and relatives for deportation makes YOU a woke traitor and you WILL be deported.”

Near the poster, a lone sock lies on the ground. I just find it neat when I see single shoes or socks lying on the ground.

An open can on the ground is labeled “Can of Suck. All Purpose.”

There’s a hole with three books buried in it. The books are entitled “Bury My Book At Wounded Knee” and “Title of Book.” On the spines, one says “Hi There!” and another says “Goodbye.”

A giant, content-looking rat sits on the wall drinking a cup of tea.

A newspaper lying nearby, “The Non Fake Times,” says “Science Says: Enormous Tea-Drinking Rats a Myth.” A subheadline says “Everything under Trump is perfect please don’t deport my children.”

There are three beheaded heads lying on the ground, in a little tribute to great facial hair: Groucho Mar, Abe Lincoln (oddly happy looking), and Ron Swanson. There’s also Iron Man’s hand lying on the ground nearby, because in the movies he has a great beard, too.

There’s a hole in the ground with a bare foot sticking out of it, and a sign that says “No Vacancy.”

The Trump Voter | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Elections and politics | 9 Comments

Cartoon: One Big Family

Posted on May 5, 2025 by Ampersand

Check out the timelapse drawing video for this cartoon!

No matter how nice an employer seems, or even how progressive a workplace is, you never really know what they think until their workers try to start a union.

In 2024, the ACLU was embroiled in a labor lawsuit – and ended up trying to destroy worker’s right across the country and all the gains labor made under the Biden administration. Matt Bruenig explains:

…the ACLU has decided to pay a fortune to management-side lawyer Kenneth Margolis to advance boutique legal theories arguing, not that the ACLU’s conduct respected Ms. Oh’s Section 7 rights, but rather that the NLRB, either because of the constitution or the ACLU’s arbitration policy, has no authority to enforce Ms. Oh’s rights. In the unlikely scenario where these theories succeed, the ACLU will strike a blow, not just against Ms. Oh, but every worker across the country and the labor movement more generally…. If this argument prevails, then it could potentially invalidate everything the Biden Board has done.

After an outcry, the ACLU backed off, and now says “The ACLU wholeheartedly supports labor unions, the right to organize and the National Labor Relations Board.” I’m glad they changed their mind – but why did they even consider embracing radical anti-labor legal theories in the first place?

And the answer is: Because for all the good it does, the ACLU is still a large employer, and the knee-jerk reaction of large employers is to try and stifle worker’s rights. Hamilton Nolan writes:

Even if we give the ACLU—an organization full of lawyers!—the full benefit of the doubt, it is quite revealing that its choice when faced with an employee labor rights complaint was to hire an attorney who himself felt comfortable advancing a legal argument with such sweeping possible consequences—and that the ACLU’s leadership was comfortable taking that argument to court, at least initially. The point here is that it is taken for granted that worker power is a force that must be opposed, and that eroding the structures that strengthen it would naturally be good for any employer.

The ACLU doesn’t stand alone; a lot of progressive businesses and nonprofits, such as Starbucks (which is faux-progressive) and Planned Parenthood (actually progressive) have engaged in union-busting.

The hypocrisy is galling. But it also makes a good cartoon! (I’m just trying to find a silver lining here).

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, plus a tiny “kicker” panel under the bottom of the fourth panel.

PANEL 1

An executive type leans against his desk as he smiles and talks to us.

EXEC: At our company, nothing matters more than our employees!

PANEL 2

The same executive is now outdoors, holding a shovel next to a hole for a tree that’s to be planted.

EXEC: Treating every worker as a partner in the company isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s good business!

PANEL 3

The executive, still grinning and talking to us, is now in a corporate mailroom. A worker with a nametag stands next to him, smiling, and he has an avuncular hand on her shoulder.

EXEC: From board members like me to the folks in the mailroom, we’re all one big family.

PANEL 4

The worker, still smiling, has turned to talk to the exec. He smiles at her, but it’s sadistic looking.

WORKER: That’s great to hear! Because we’ve decided to start a union!

EXEC: Go jump in a meat grinder.

TINY KICKER PANEL AT THE BOTTOM

The exec talks to Barry the cartoonist.

EXEC: What I meant was, nothing matters more than our employees… knowing their place.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is yea olde cartoonists’ term for unimportant details hidden in a cartoon.

PANEL 1 – There are framed portraits of Daddy Warbucks and The Monopoly Man on the wall. There’s a corpse hidden behind the desk. The mug on the desk says “I ♥ $.” The front of the desk has two panels with fancy embedded art, the left panel showing a dog with a halo, and the right panel showing a cat with devil horns.

PANEL 2 – While the Exec’s shovel is perfectly clean, there’s a sweaty worker in the background with a dirt-covered shover. Albert Einstein is inside the hole in the tree. There’s a realistic duck near the hole, but it’s wearing Uncle Scrooge’s glasses and top hat. An evil bunny is on the right of the panel, smoking a cig and carrying a knife.

PANEL 3 – The shelves on the left contain a live rat, a human hand (or maybe it’s Thing from the Addams Family), a mug with a picture of a cracking egg, an eyeball, and a book with the title “Background.” The shelves on the right contain a decapitated head (who looks unhappy) and a box with a “this way up” arrow pointed down.

There are two posters on the wall. The first says “DIVERSITY is against company policy. Report any seen to management. All hail Trump.” The second has an illustration of a Kiwi, and the words “NOTICE. Do not accidently mail yourself to New Zealand. They’re on to that trick.”

PANEL 4 – The shelves on the left now contain a goldfish in a bowl, who is smoking a cig. A little birthday cupcake with a lit candle. And the mug’s picture now shows a hatched egg with a baby bird. The shelf on the left now has a human skull where the decapitated head was, and the arrow on the box is labeled “down” but is pointing up.

The first poster says “NOTICE. Hey you! The person bothering to read the tiny background text. You are awesome! You’re smart and swell and everyone agrees you smell good.” The second poster has an illustration of a smiling, friendly looking sun. The words say “I WORK AT THE INSPIRATIONAL POSTER FACTORY,” then in smaller print “where every day we pray today will be the day the sun explodes.”

One Big Family | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Union Issues | 1 Comment