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.”
I like it. Trump and evil chimeric growth Musk look properly creepy and snake Vance is so perfect that I’ll never be able to think of Vance as anything other than a monster snake again. Only one complaint: Where is evil bunny?