(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 | 20 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

Cartoon: Left Handitude Is On The Rise!

Posted on May 2, 2025 by Ampersand

The guest artist for this strip is Naomi Rubin! Naomi is a longtime friend of mine and a wonderful cartoonist. Her work is much more influenced by Japanese comics than mine or Becky’s, which provides a neat visual change of pace.

This graph from The Washington Post (which I swiped for the newspaper in panel 2) shows the story of the explosion in left handedness:

Julia Serano, whose writing is essential, commented:

During the twentieth century, in many Western countries, there was a precipitous rise in left-handedness. For instance, in Australia, the prevalence of left-handed people increased from 2.0 percent to a whopping 13.2 percent! Apparently, a social contagion swept through these nations, and children suddenly began feeling peer pressure to experiment with handedness and to adopt left-handed identities. Then, the left-handed deviants began pushing their “left-hander agenda” in order to recruit . . . oh, wait, sorry, that’s not what happened at all.

In actuality, left-handedness (like being transgender) is a part of human variation — both are pan-cultural trans-historical phenomena. In the case of left-handedness, roughly 10 to 12 percent of children inexplicably express this tendency from as early as infancy. In the beginning of the twentieth century, there was intense stigma targeting left-handedness, which led parents and schools to force all children to be right-handed, often against their intrinsic preferences (this still happens in many places). But eventually, there was a realization that this stigma was unnecessary and unfair, and people started letting children decide for themselves which hands to use. In other words, there wasn’t really a rise in left-handedness so much as there was a rise in left-handed acceptance.

The increasing numbers of people identifying as trans is, to a great extent, a result growing acceptance of trans identities. (Although that’s probably not the entire story). The moral panic we’re seeing over this is just as foolish as panicking over the existence of lefties would be.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. All the panels show a 1950s or 1960s married couple at breakfast at their kitchen table; the husband is reading a newspaper.

PANEL 1

A big caption at the top says “1955.”

HUSBAND: Oh no!

WIFE: What’s wrong?

HUSBAND: Left Handitude is on the rise!

PANEL 2

The husband holds up the newspaper, which has a graph showing rapidly increasing left-handedness.

HUSBAND: Look at this! When I was a kid in the twenties, you hardly ever met a left hander! Now five times as many self-identify as (choke! gasp!) leftwardsly!

PANEL 3

A close-up of the husband, looking disturbed and suspicous.

HUSBAND: What could be causing this unnatural increase? It must be a social contagion! Or sinistrous adults grooming naive youth with their sick southpaw ideology!

PANEL 4

The wife has a hand on her chin, looking thoughtful; the husband makes a dismissive gesture.

WIFE: Maybe it’s because we stopped whipping kids who write with their left hand?

HUSBAND: Don’t be ridiculous.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

PANEL 1 – The character Link from Legend of Zelda is sitting on a shelf. Link is known to be left-handed.

There’s a phrenology head sculpture on a lower shelf.

The back of the newspaper says “IKE IN LEFTY SCANDAL!”

PANEL 2 – The newspaper is called “Right-Washed Tribune,” with the tag line “Right News Writing For Rightly Right-Thinking Righties.” The main story is “Leftism Epidemic! President Calls for Widespread Panic.” Another story is “Has Leftism Gone Too Far? Six Normal-Handed Writers Opine.” Another story: “Study: Left Handed Scissors More Stabby.” And finally, in the smallest print: “Cartoonist blames text too tiny to read on left handed typesetters.”

PANEL 3 – There’s a pattern of left hands holding pencils in the background.

PANEL 4 – A Scottish Fold (which Naomi informs me is a breed of cat) is lying on the table, reading a copy of “Cat Fancy,” with the story “My human was a left hander! Fuzzle Winkles explains her secret pain.”

A picture on the wall is the “Flamel” symbol from Full Metal Alchemist.

Another picture is Ned Flanders from The Simpsons (famously left handed). His left hand is mysteriously moving in front of the picture frame.

A self-portrait of Naomi as a jack ‘o lantern is peering in the window.

The newspaper the husband is reading now says “Readers go blind straining to read tiny upside down text. Might it be a lefty plot?”

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues | 5 Comments

Cartoon: The Myth of Plastic Recycling

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Ampersand

This cartoon was written by me and drawn by Becky Hawkins.

Becky’s drawing soundtrack for this cartoon was the audiobook of Woodworking by Emily St. James. The audiobook is a three-for-one enjoyable experience of trans artistry since there are two voice actors, L Morgan Lee and Saoirse Ní Shúilleabháin, performing the hell out of Emily’s novel.

I have no reason to think that Big Plastic Inc employs goons whose job is to murder inconvenient researchers and make sure the bodies are never found. (And if I did know anything about that, I’d claim I didn’t, because I’d hate for the goons to come after me).

(Any plastic industry murderous goons reading this: This cartoon was Becky’s idea, not mine! Honest! I didn’t want to do it but she threatened me!)

But although I made that part up (and also the part about this cartoon being Becky’s idea), otherwise this cartoon is pretty much straight reporting.

From a CBS news story:

Davis Allen, an investigative researcher with the Center for Climate Integrity, said the industry didn’t need for recycling to work: “They needed people to believe that it was working,” he said.

A new report, called “The Fraud of Plastic Recycling,” accuses the plastics industry of a decades-long campaign “…to mislead the public about the viability of plastic recycling,” despite knowing the “technical and economic limitations that make plastics unrecyclable” at a large scale.

“They couldn’t ever lie about the existence of plastic waste,” said Allen. “But they created a lie about how we could solve it, and that was recycling.” […]

“The plastics industry understands that selling recycling sells plastic, and they’ll say pretty much whatever they need to say to continue doing that.”

As Popular Science points out, this is about plastic specifically, not about all recycling.

This may be a tough pill to swallow for those who grew up hearing about the virtues of plastic in ad campaigns (see: “plastics make it possible”). However, statistically, most plastic is either landfilled or burned—just about 9 percent is ever recycled, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an intergovernmental group.

Crucially, the Center for Climate Integrity’s report is about plastic recycling—not all recycling. Other materials, such as paper and glass, statistically fare better when you toss them in the recycling bin. More than 68 percent of paper and paperboard was recycled in the U.S., according to 2018 EPA data, while glass has a recycling rate of about 31.3 percent. *

The same article has some advice on steps we can take as individuals:

Recycle your bottles and jugs: Overall, the EPA found in 2018 that just 8.7 percent of plastics were recycled in the U.S. Yet, certain types of plastic containers—soda and water bottles (PET 1) and milk jugs (HDPE 2) in particular—have a higher likelihood of being recycled. As for the other stuff, the “vast, vast majority of plastic packaging that we use has no chance of being recycled,” said Allen.  …

Try to use less plastic: You could also try your best to avoid single-use plastics. Allen said in a call with PopSci that he avoids them as much as possible, and carries around a reusable water bottle with him. Still, the researcher argues that consumers should resist the urge to shift the blame onto themselves. “None of us have the option of avoiding plastic, and that’s by design,” he said. “That was the industry’s goal when they began pushing disposable plastics in the 1950s and 1960s, and it’s remained their goal ever since,” Allen added.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. There’s also a tiny “kicker” panel under the strip.

PANEL 1

A researcher wearing a white lab coat and carrying a thick bound report walks into an executive’s office. The executive is sitting with his feet on a big desk.

RESEARCHER: Here’s my report on plastic recycling… I’m afraid it’s bad news. Recycling plastic just won’t work.

PANEL 2

A close up of the researcher, who looks very nervous.

RESEARCHER: Recycling plastic costs so much that recycled plastic will never compete with new plastic. The only thing it might do is deceive the public into thinking there’s no problem.

PANEL 3

The executive is now holding the report. Behind the researcher, two toughs are creeping up, one raising a bludgeoning tool up to hit the researcher, the other holding out a sack big enough to hide a body.

RESEARCHER: To avoid an ecological crisis, we have to stop making so much plastic.

EXECUTIVE: I see. By the way, is this the only copy of the report?

RESEARCHER: Yes, why?

PANEL 4

CAPTION: And so, for the next fifty years…

A spokesmodel woman stands in front of cameras, next to a table overflowing with plastic products.

SPOKESMODEL: Use all the plastic you want! We’ll recycle!

TINY KICKER PANEL

The spokesmodel yells at Barry.

SPOKESMODEL: Use somewhat less plastic? You want us to live like cavemen?

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obsolete cartoonists’ jargon for unimportant but fun details.

PANEL 1 – A framed graph on the wall seems to show profits moving up. The caption under the graph says “Sales of profit/loss charts up 47%”

PANEL 2 – One of the pens in the researcher’s breast pocket is actually a little test tube containing bubbling green liquid.

PANEL 4 – The backdrop says “Plastic: It’s what’s for dinner.” A little toy plastic car is being driven by a plastic kitten and unicorn. A label of a large bottle says “5 GAL background details.”

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Environmental issues | 3 Comments

Cartoon: Moving Out

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Ampersand

There’s a timelapse drawing video for this cartoon – check it out!

For my entire life – and much longer than that – conservatives have been anti-Russia. In the 1980s, if a conservative talked about “the evil empire,” you didn’t need to ask which country they meant. (Unless they were a big Star Wars fan, I guess).

Conservatives have never been big fans of import taxes (aka tariffs), let alone demanding high tariffs – that high taxes harm the economy was practically a foundational belief. And the idea of annexing Canada was simply not on the radar.

How things have changed. It appears that Republicans are happy to jettison any of their prior beliefs, if it’s for a strongman who is demonizing the other – whether that other be immigrants, trans people, pro-Palestinian protestors, feminists, diversity, or whoever else is today’s target of choice.

So that was the impetus behind this cartoon. Well, that, and also it’s fun for me to draw cartoony anthropomorphic brains.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has six panels. Each panel shows a conversation between two men, one a young guy wearing a t-shirt, the other a middle-aged executive-looking man wearing a suit.

PANEL 1

Younger guy looks thoughtful as the older guy cheerfully makes a sales pitch.

OLDER: We’re cutting Medicaid, raising import taxes, huge tax cuts for billionaires, and Russia’s now our bestie. Also, we want to annex Canada.

PANEL 2

Younger holds up his palms, rejecting Older guy’s ideas. Older guy is smiling.

YOUNGER: But I don’t want any of that!

OLDER: We’ll also give you a couple of minorities to blame everything on and we’ll treat them like shit!

PANEL 3

A close shot of the Younger guy shows him looking thoughtful and a little blank. A panel on the side of his head opens.

PANEL 4

The panel opens further; we can now see it’s being opened by the Younger guy’s brain, which has eyes and limbs, and is squeezing out the opening.

PANEL 5

The brain jumps away, leaving an empty head behind.

PANEL 6

The Younger guy, an open panel still showing his empty head, is standing robotically and speaking too loudly. The Older guy smiles smugly.

YOUNGER: YOU HAVE MY SUPPORT!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obsolete cartoonists’ slang for little details that are unimportant but fun.

Panel 1 – Younger guy’s t-shirt shows a big capital “T,” with hands coming out the “sleeves” and a collar drawn on top. In small print below the T it says “(get it?)”. A booklet lying on the sidewalk is entitled “How To Litter” with burst lettering saying “easy!” “fun” and “low cal!”

Panel 2 – The t-shirt now shows a chicken, with a thought balloon saying “Don’t call me fat.”

Panel 3 – The t-shirt now says “Lincoln Faked His Death.”

Panel 6 – The t-shirt now says “Down with Eastasia,” but “Eastasia” is crossed out and “Eurasia” written in.

Moving Out | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc. | 5 Comments

Cartoon: Respecting the Decision

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Ampersand

 

This cartoon was co-written by me and Grace, drawn by me, and colored by Frank Young.

Check out the timelapse drawing video for this cartoon! This one is fun because it includes Frank Young’s coloring process.

In 2019, Elisa Shupe, who at the time was detransitioning, was courted by the right-wing Christian group Family Policy Alliance. Spencer MacNaughton and Hope Pisoni report:

With an all-expenses-paid visit that included lodging at the five-star Ritz Carlton hotel, Shupe says she and her spouse received “rock star treatment” from Family Policy Alliance (FPA), the conservative Christian lobbying group hosting the event, who invited her to speak about her detransition.

Shupe, “attributes her decision to detransition… to a lack of family acceptance and her struggle with borderline personality disorder” – became a mouthpiece for the FPA’s anti-trans views and a witness they’d trot out to support anti-trans legislation. She became, in effect, an anti-trans activist – and her hands were held at every stage by anti-trans professionals who told her where to go and what to say.

Multiple of Shupe’s op-eds were written in collaboration with ADF. In one email, Roger Brooks, a senior counsel with the group, asked her to write an op-ed in support of the group’s lawsuit to overturn New York City’s ban on conversion therapy for gay and trans people. In the email, he offered points to raise in the proposed story, including that she was “horribly lied to and cheated” by doctors facilitating her transition. He also offered her writing support from ADF employees “familiar with the length and style that appeals to op-ed page editors.” Alliance Defending Freedom did not respond to a request for comment.

Shupe says that Bob Sullivan, an attorney who frequently liaised with ADF and planned to represent her in a medical malpractice lawsuit, helped craft her persona as a victim. In one email advising her on a potential autobiography, he said her story “could be modified to make it a quick-hitting intro into [her] nightmare of gender dysphoria.” He also discussed how they should strategically time the possible autobiography’s release “according to any litigation we pursue.”

(Sullivan says this was taken out of context.)

Unsurprisingly, Shupe was no longer welcome when she decided to transition after all.

Shupe faced a difficult journey after leaving this right-wing ecosystem. She says she has been harassed by her former right-wing allies and has had difficulty receiving medical care because of doctors’ fear of a media storm. …

MacKinnon says the weaponization of detransitioner stories by the far-right not only hurts trans people, but also detransitioners, making it harder for both groups to find the care that they need.

It is inevitable that people will detransition – no medical treatment has a 100% satisfaction rate. But 94% of trans people report being more satisfied with their life after transitioning.

People who detransition should have the help they need, and be treated with compassion. But they should not be taken as a reason to deny trans people medical and other help.

It’s also important to know that detransitioners aren’t a group mass-mind with a single story and motivation. People can detransition for a wide variety of reasons, including a lack of support and resources. From Transvitae:

Detransitioning is a nuanced and deeply personal process. While some individuals detransition because they were misdiagnosed or because they realize they are not transgender, many others do so due to external factors—social rejection, lack of access to proper medical care, family pressure, or discrimination. And, crucially, many who detransition do not regret transitioning but rather regret the circumstances that forced them to stop.

However, as I have witnessed in my work within the community, the Republicans and right-wing organizations hosting these events are not interested in this complexity. They have cherry-picked a small group of detransitioners—many of whom are professional activists funded by anti-LGBTQ+ groups—to push a narrative that gender-affirming care is dangerous, unnecessary, and should be banned for everyone.

People who transition – including the small minority who go on to detransition – need support and access to care. But what conservatives offer detransitioners is extremely conditional support that’s entirely dependent on willingness to be used as tools against trans people.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, all showing two people standing on a mini stage in a public park. A small crowd is watching them. The first speaker is a grinning woman in a business suit. The second speaker, “John,” is bald with short hair on the sides, wearing a t-shirt and slacks. John looks nervous and unhappy.

PANEL 1

WOMAN: This is John. John used to be “trans” and called himself “Joan,” but he knows better now.

JOHN: It’s just been really difficult for me…

PANEL 2

WOMAN: The trans cult puts so much pressure on people to transition these days! But John knows his own mind!

JOHN: I got so much blowback when I transitioned… It’s hard not to let that pressure get to me.

PANEL 3

The woman keeps talking with a pious expression. “John” – now Joan – is suddenly very happy, spreading her arms wide in a gesture of acceptance.

WOMAN: What matters is that all of us respect John’s choice.

JOAN: I can’t do this anymore… I am Joan! I am!

PANEL 4

The woman, looking angry, kicks a surprised Joan off the platform.

WOMAN: No, you’re not.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is what an earlier generation of cartoonists called extras we’d now call “Easter eggs.”

PANEL 1 – Woodstock from “Peanuts” is perched on a tree.

People watching in the audience include Little Orphan Annie, Mr. Spock, and Spider-Man. A bald person has the planet sticking its tongue out from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” tattooed on their head. Someone else is wearing a cap for the Portland Pickles (a real minor league baseball team with a pickle for a mascot). A woman has “this space for rent” tattooed on her shoulder.

PANEL 3 – An evil bunny, smoking a cig, is in the background. Way in the background, a gigantic squirrel is climbing the side of a skyscraper.

PANEL 4 – Someone in the audience is missing the top of their head, and we can see their brain (a call-out to an earlier cartoon by Grace and I).

A flyer taped to the stage says “LOST!” in big letters. Below that, in lettering that’s almost too small to be read, it says “innocence, generation, hope, the battle, my way, paradise, boys, steam, cause, virginity, my religion, and found, time, it, touch, in translation, tv show, no big, at sea, in space, for words, loved and, sleep, and my dog.”

T SHIRT IN ALL FOUR PANELS: In panel one, Joan’s t-shirt shows a snowman. In panel 2, the snowman has turned to look at the sun. In panel 3, the snowman is melting. In panel 4, the shirt just shows the sun and some puddles.

Respecting The Decision | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | 3 Comments