Meep

Posted on September 5, 2019 by Mandolin

Fluffy white cartoon kitten with large blue eyes and bushy tail. Text reads “Meep”.Meep is a character I drew for a role-playing game I was sketching out called Cats and Dogs Living Together.

Strangers rarely glimpse Meep, a shy, four-pound, six-month-old kitten with a fluffy mass of white fur, enormous blue eyes, and a perpetually perplexed expression. Though quick to startle and flee from anything new or surprising, once Meep has a chance to get comfortable, he’s boisterous and bold. When he’s not sure what to do, he compensates for youthful naivete by copying older animals.

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A Haiku For Wednesday, September 4th

Posted on September 4, 2019 by Mandolin

Returning, the cold

breaks against the bedroom glass.

Wild-eyed, the cats watch.

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Cartoon: What I Wish I Said / What I Said

Posted on September 2, 2019 by Ampersand

If you like these cartoons, help me make more by supporting my patreon! I make a living because lots of people support me with $1 pledges.

Although I draw this strip from the perspective of a fat man, I think everyone who is in any marginalized group has experienced moments like these. Moments where someone says something that stabs you a bit, and then you have the choice. One option is to be the party pooper: To speak up and bring down everyone’s mood and make people uncomfortable.

And it’s hard! For me, it goes against my strongest social instincts, to get along, to make things easy for people, to try and be liked. I think a lot of people share those instincts.

The other choice is to just swallow what I might say, and withdraw from the situation, either in my head or (like the character in this strip) by walking away. And I do this a lot – not (just) out of cowardice, but also out of self-preservation, conserving energy, picking my battles.

The art for this was fun to do. To draw three characters in full-figure in four panels is actually significantly more work than, say, if I had made panel 2 a close-up of the fat character’s head with no background. But I’m happy with how it looks. I’m especially pleased with panels 1 and 3, because both of them have foregrounds, middle grounds, and backgrounds, and I really enjoy that feeling of a world with depth.

The bad part of that is that the more extraneous stuff that’s in a panel, the more likely readers are to find it a mess visually. I just have to hope that I’m skilled enough to keep that from happening!

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, plus a small panel underneath the strip. The first and last panels are colored in shades of purple; panels 2 and 3 are colored in shades of blue-green. All four panels show three people walking through a hilly park. There’s a thin short man in a striped shirt; a thin woman with glasses and black hair in a ponytail; and a bald fat man wearing a button-down shirt.

Panel 1

Stripes and Glasses are cheerfully chatting, and Baldy looks back at them, looking concerned.

STRIPES: I ate too much on vacation and now I’m so fat and gross!

GLASSES: I know just what you mean! Let me describe my new diet in mind-numbing detail!

Panel 2

A large caption at the top of the panel says “WHAT I WISH i SAID:”. The three of them have stopped walking; Baldy has turned around and is talking to Stripes and Glasses, who are listening.

BALDY: Hold on a sec. Neither of you are fat. But I am. When thin people call themselves fat and gross, what does that imply about me?

Panel 3

The three have resumed walking as they talk. Glasses is thinking as she speaks, a hand on her chin; Baldy has his hands spread in front of him as he talks, Stripes, looking perhaps a bit nettled, is raising a finger to make a point.

GLASSES: I hear you, but isn’t this just how an anti-fat and misogynistic society has conditioned us all?

BALDY: But it still feels like you’re co-signing anti-fat bigotry. And I’m sure I’m not your only fat friend you’re making uncomfortable.

STRIPES: That’s not what I meant to do….

Panel 4

This panel has a large panel at the top, which says “WHAT I SAID:”. In the background, stripes and glasses are happily chatting with each other. In the foreground, Baldy is walking away, with a hand on his stomach as if he’s got an upset tummy.

STRIPES: Diet talk calories lifestyle change blah blah

GLASSES: Carbs keto diet talk blah blah blah

BALDY: Gotta go. Bye.

Small “kicker” panel under the bottom of the strip

Barry the cartoonist speaks directly to the reader.

BARRY: The funny thing is, at one time or another, I’ve been all three of these characters.

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Fat, fat and more fat | Comments Off on Cartoon: What I Wish I Said / What I Said

Open Thread and Link Farm, Man On The Inside Edition

Posted on September 1, 2019 by Ampersand

  1. Meta-analysis of field experiments shows no change in racial discrimination in hiring over time | PNAS
    “We find no change in the levels of discrimination against African Americans since 1989, although we do find some indication of declining discrimination against Latinos.”
  2. The TSA is a waste of money that doesn’t save lives and might actually cost them – Vox
    The cost in lives is an indirect effect; it comes about because driving is more dangerous than flying, and making flying slower and less convenient substantially increases the number of people who drive (for example, from NYC to DC).
  3. On eating watermelon in front of white people – Vox
    “It is a sobering thing to face your interior white supremacist nag.”
  4. What I Learned From Playing A Brutal Fat-Shamer On TV | HuffPost
    An actress from “Shrill” on the stress of playing a bigot, and what it taught her about her own internalized fatphobia. I thought the bit about how she made sure to always have donuts near her at a table reading was an ironic opposite of how some fat people are careful to never be seen with fattening junk food in a professional setting.
  5. Experiment: audio from the Cats trailer over the Star Wars Mandalorian trailer – YouTube
    It works freakishly well.
  6. (141) How Star Wars was saved in the edit – YouTube
    “A video essay exploring how Star Wars’ editors recut and rearranged Star Wars: A New Hope to create the cinematic classic it became.” I find this sort of thing – particularly how footage shot for other scenes was repurposed to serve the new story structure – just fascinating.
  7. Who’s Considered Thin Enough for Eating Disorder Treatment?
    How stereotypes and bias leads to maltreatment of fat people with eating disorders. “Doctors will say, ‘Well, whatever you’re doing is working!’ if a heavy patient does lose some weight, without asking to see what they’re eating or how much they’re exercising. Or they give blanket advice like, ‘Try to cut whatever you’re eating in half,’ when someone may already be dangerously restricting.”
  8. Study: many of the “oldest” people in the world may not be as old as we think – Vox
    A new study suggests that the majority of 110+ year olds are exaggerating or in some cases frauds, which puts a bunch of research into question.
    “The paper still needs to undergo peer review, but if its findings hold, it does illustrate an interesting statistical phenomenon: When you’re looking for something exceptionally rare, your data set will be dominated by errors and false positives.”
  9. Biden: As President, I’ll Let McConnell Block Everything
  10. Men Who Send Unsolicited Dick Pics Are Bigger Narcissists, Study Finds – VICE
  11. And, relatedly: I Confronted the Men Who Sent Me Unsolicited Dick Pics – VICE
  12. A Statue in the U.K. Had to Be Moved Because It Was Too Popular | Smart News | Smithsonian
    The idea of a statue in an isolated area on the moors sounds really cool to me. But it proved so popular that visitors were eroding the site.
  13. Song: 50/50 by Garfunkel and Oates – YouTube
    “It probably didn’t cross your mind / That your mom had goals too / That had nothing to do with getting married / And nothing to do with having you.”
  14. Opinion | Harry Reid: The Filibuster Is Suffocating the Will of the American People – The New York Times (Alternative link.)
    So glad to see Reid finally acknowledging reality. Think of what a different world it would be if he had realized this at the start of the Obama administration. It’s odd – Reid was largely against getting rid of the filibuster (although he did reduce it’s scope a little) when the Dems had the Senate, and is now in favor of it now that the Republicans hold the Senate.
  15. Here Are 7 ‘Radical’ Left Ideas (Almost) All Americans Support“(Almost) All is an exaggeration – when I hear “almost all,” I think of numbers like 95%, not 75% – but still interesting.
  16. 15 Charts That Perfectly Illustrate How To Properly Pet Animals
    Thanks Mandolin for the link!
  17. A Maryland teenager who shared a video of her own sex act was punished as a child pornographer.
  18. Thousands of Jews protest ICE raids across U.S., 44 arrested in NYC | +972 Magazine
  19. Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” copyright case: the $2.8 million verdict is alarming – Vox
    This is alarming. This is going to chill the hell out of artistic freedom, if it’s not overturned on appeal. A good example of how copyright law can undercut free speech.
  20. The Good Samaritan | Radiolab | WNYC Studios
    Fascinating podcast. Man, that prosecutor is a scumbag. Also of interest (spoiler alert): It seems very likely that the “drug reaction” experienced by the EMT was a form of panic attack. His symptoms were real – but putting drug users in prison for people’s panic attacks is a terrible miscarriage of justice.
  21. Ohio State University wants to trademark the word “The” – CNN.
    The article does say the trademark application is likely to be rejected. One hopes.
  22. I’m Latino. I’m Hispanic. And they’re different, so I drew a comic to explain. – Vox
  23. Preschoolers’ perceptions of gender appropriate toys and their parents’ beliefs about genderized behaviors – Early Childhood Educational Journal (pdf link).
    Study: Parents with gender-neutral ideologies are perceived by their kids as not being gender neutral. “Responses indicated that, in spite of evidence that many of these parents reject common gender stereotypes, their children predicted parents would consistently apply these stereotypes as reflected by their approval or disapproval of children’s choices to play with gender stereotyped or cross-gender toys.”
  24. Richard Linklater, Ben Platt, Beanie Feldstein Team for Sondheim Musical | Collider
    Linklater, whose movie “Boyhood” was filmed gradually across many years, is planning to do the same thing with his film adaptation of “Merrily We Roll Along,” taking twenty years to film the movie so he can film the actors at different ages. I’m as excited by this as I can be by anything I won’t get to see until I’m in my 70s.
  25. Circumcision is harmful and wrong and should not be outlawed – The Unit of Caring
  26. What the cancellation of The Hunt says about the power of right-wing outrage culture | Media Matters for America
  27. Should voting be required by law?
  28. The Case for a Fareless TriMet – News – Portland Mercury
    It’s a great idea in theory – as usual, the question is how to fund it.
  29. The Difference Between Happiness & Joy — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER
    An interesting story about a free (or, rather, a pay-what-you-like-but-free-is-fine) restaurant.
  30. How Elizabeth Warren Works the Political System
    This, I think, is the pitch for Warren – she not only has progressive values, but a track record of grubbing out small victories in a gridlocked system.
  31. Shakesville: The End of This Road
    After fifteen years, Melissa is retiring Shakesville.
  32. When the Mind’s Eye Is Blind – Scientific American
    I’m not sure who gave me this link – it may have been someone in comments? If so, thank you. Anyhow, this is one of those interesting articles I read going “yes, yes, this is me, this is me, this is exactly like me.” For example, I’ve sometimes found it odd that I have aphantasia, face blindness, and a memory so bad it’s a joke among my friends. But: “… some individuals with aphantasia report weakness in autobiographical memory, remembrance of events in their lives. In addition, many with aphantasia also suffer from prosopagnosia, impaired face recognition.”
  33. Is It Illegal to Share Your Netflix Password? – OneZero
    No, it’s not. (And Netflix quietly encourages some sharing). But Disney is branding password-sharing “piracy” in advance of it’s new streaming service.
  34. Bang Bros Bought a Huge Porn Doxing Forum and Set Fire to It – VICE
    They literally made a big pile of all the hard drives, squirted some flammable liquid on the drives, and set them on fire.
  35. Some info about the artist who did the paintings illustrating this post, who goes by the name “Nemo.”
    I love the street art photos I’ve been finding to go with these link farm posts, but I’ve found that it’s often hard to find out who to credit. Which makes sense.

Posted in Link farms | 36 Comments

Remembering the World

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Mandolin

The king is dying,

memory fading.

Now honor is gone

now yesterday’s dinner

now mother’s hand stroking

the ermine collar

of her deathbed gown.

 

(For now, the world

flat and finite

like his mind. The ocean’s

crisp boundaries

spill over four corners

like memory, disappearing.)

 

The king orders

a fleet of glass galleons

set out to explore

the edge of the world.

They launch, crystal sails

aloft in the sun,

casting rainbows

through ocean spray.

 

(A century hence,

the world will be round

like a fruit:

one endless circumference.

Minds, too, become

deeper thoughts hidden

like icebergs

submerged in men’s souls.)

 

Sailing toward

the periphery

translucence deepens.

Ships pale, disappear,

til but one is left.

Atop the survivor’s mast

the king’s sole

remaining lieutenant

peers at knife’s edge horizon.

The world tapers

stretched thin. Sky bleeds 

navy, royal, azure

fainter  

to absence’s hue.

 

(World and man

exchange simplicity

for paradox,

linearity curving

swallows its tail.

The traveler’s straight path

leads home again,

in the end. His marriage

disintegrates

in childhood’s castles.)

 

Beyond, nothing

save slow cascade 

of water pouring nowhere.

King’s faded schooner

balances on edge

one moment neither

within nor without.

Heavy, stern dips

mast creaks and shatters.

Tipping over

she falls

following oceans

over precipice

to comprehension,

lost.

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Fran!

Posted on August 28, 2019 by Mandolin

image description: white dog with wagging tail on green background. Text reads: “Fran!”

 

Fran is a character I drew for a role-playing game I was sketching out called Cats and Dogs Living Together.

Fran is a medium-sized, white American French bulldog with an incessantly cheerful personality. She’s two years old, and a bit smaller than she should be at thirty pounds, due to puppyhood illness. She loves people and has broken her tail multiple times from overzealous wagging. She is always up for playing games with other animals, even if the other animals aren’t. She’s not very bright; if you put her under a blanket, she could probably find her way back out.

Posted in dog, Dogs, Drawing | Comments Off on Fran!

Cartoon: Thought Congestion

Posted on August 27, 2019 by Ampersand

If you like these cartoons, help me make more by supporting my Patreon! Each $1 pledge really helps.

Another collaboration with Becky Hawkins! This one was written by me, and drawn by Becky.

In hindsight, “the way cities are addicted to widening roads, even though it never helps in the long term” is sort of an odd topic to do in a comic strip. But it’s nice to do an out-of-the-box subject now and then.

And this is a serious issue – traffic engineers are pretty convinced that widening roads doesn’t work. And widening roads is really, REALLY expensive (“half a billion” is actually a realistic price tag for some road-widening projects).

But it’s also very intuitive. “There are too many traffic jams, so let’s widen the roads” might be a wrong narrative, but it’s also a very clear narrative that voters tend to agree with. Not unlike “let’s lock more criminals in prison.” It’s a clear narrative and sounds like an active solution, all things politicians like.

In contrast, congestion pricing – that is, charging cars for driving during peak hours – actually does work to reduce traffic jams. And it’s much less expensive to implement than either new roads, or widening old roads.

But it’s also unpopular with voters – no one likes a brand-new form of tax. And it does raise some fairness issues, too – what about working-class workers who don’t have any control over what time they’re required to be at work?

TRANSCRIPT OF COMIC

The comic has four panels.

PANEL 1

The panel shows backed-up traffic on an overpass in the foreground. In the background, we can see more backed-up highways, and behind that the buildings of a small city, including a white building with a big dome on top and a US flag – i.e., a government building. Two word balloons come from that building. The balloons belong to characters I will call MAYOR and NERD.

MAYOR: The city just spent half a billion widening roads. But we still have traffic congestion!

NERD: Well, Mr. Mayor, studies show that adding lanes doesn’t fix traffic.

PANEL 2

Inside the mayor’s office. There is a big curtained window and a fancy executive desk with a big leather chair. In front of the desk is the Mayor – a man in a suit with gray hair – and a woman who is a nerd, by which I mean she’s wearing glasses, has her hair in a bun, and is carrying a stack of three-ring binders.

The Mayor is making a “stop talking” gesture, holding up a hand flat in front of the nerd’s face. The mayor looks angry, and his eyes are bloodshot.

NERD: People’s capacity to drive is greater than our capacity to build roads, so-

MAYOR: Blah blah blah! We’ve got to do something!

PANEL 3

The mayor, now looking happy, makes a big sweeping gesture with his hand, causing the surprised nerd to drop her binders.

NERD: Um…

MAYOR: I’ve got it!

PANEL 4

The mayor and the nerd are now on stage, the mayor behind the podium and the nerd to one side and behind him. There is a cheering crowd watching the mayor speak.

The Mayor is waving a hand grandly as he speaks. The nerd is face-palming.

MAYOR: Good news, citizens! We’re widening the roads again!

Posted in Cartooning & comics | 34 Comments

A Haiku For Monday, August 26th

Posted on August 26, 2019 by Mandolin

Waiting in the cold,

trying not to let my mind

rush when all is calm.

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Pia

Posted on August 24, 2019 by Mandolin

white cat with black and orange spots, unevenly sized eyes, and very crooked whiskers. Text reads: “Pia”Pia is a character I drew for a role-playing game I was sketching out called Cats and Dogs Living Together.

Pierrot (“Pia”) – The black spots around Pierrot’s eyes make her look like her namesake, a French clown–but everyone calls her Pia. The plump, thirteen pound, four-year-old does everything with gusto. She wants to be everyone’s friend. She’s energetic, risk-taking, and impulsive–smart enough to think through the consequences of her actions, but far too impatient. She’s always a mess; she has more interesting things to do than worry about her crooked whiskers and matted fur.

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A Haiku For Thursday, August 22nd

Posted on August 22, 2019 by Mandolin

In early dimness,

a quiet, unmoving sky 

chills, waiting for dusk.

Posted in Poetry, Rachel Swirsky's poetry | Comments Off on A Haiku For Thursday, August 22nd