Don’t Call Them Concentration Camps!

Posted on April 4, 2026 by Ampersand

This comic is by me and Becky Hawkins.

Becky writes:

What’s a better challenge than drawing a period piece? Drawing a period piece where the reader is supposed to think it’s present-day until panel 4! Luckily for me, men’s fashion doesn’t change as wildly as women’s fashion, and that one haircut (long on top, short on the sides) is still around. The guy on the left–suit, glasses, and hair–was modeled after someone I saw while I was out and about. Granted, sartorial choices in Portland don’t seem to be bound by time or geography… I hope it works!

Surprising no-one, I spent most of my time laying out panel 4. Barry’s script says: The camera pulls back a little. We now see that the speaker is wearing a swastika armband just above his left elbow. Maybe we can see one or two characters in the background wearing them too. Women are wearing circa 1930s hats; there’s a horse and carriage in the background, maybe; in general, we can now see we’re looking at Berlin in the 1930s.

I did a few sketches from different angles. When I pictured this cartoon in my head, the “camera” was pointing toward the cafe, with the characters sitting by the wall. That way, all you could see in panels 1-3 were two guys, a big window, and a bit of wall. It would be easier to hide the 1930s-ness that way. But when I sketched it out, I couldn’t make it work.

Barry kindly collected several photos of 1930s Berlin cafes before sending me the script. But I still spent way too much time looking at old photos to find some buildings that would plausibly be on a modern American street. Berlin’s public plazas, broad streets with tree-lined medians, and ornate building facades would scream Ye Olde World, in my opinion.

I searched for “1930s Berlin street photography” and found some commercial-residential buildings that wouldn’t look out of place in an old-for-the-US downtown area. I then committed the newbie cartoonist mistake of putting a lot of detail into an area that was destined to sit behind a word balloon. At least I copy-pasted the windows.

I hope you enjoyed this cartoon!

Barry writes:

A story from 2019:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., ignited the latest semantic scuffle when she recently charged that the Trump administration “has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying.” Her use of this term to describe the mass detention facilities in which thousands of asylum-seeking migrants, many of them children forcibly separated from parents and family members, are being held in deplorable conditions, provoked an immediate and fierce backlash. … Sami Steigmann, a Holocaust survivor voiced his indignation: “What you are doing is insulting every victim of the Holocaust. Shame on you!” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, charged that Ocasio-Cortez “is insulting victims of genocide” with her comments.

But concentration camps – both actual camps, and the term – existed before World War Two. As far back as 1899, during the Boer War, some British people argued against calling the British concentration camps in Africa what they were.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines the term concentration camp as: “A camp where persons are confined, usually without hearings and typically under harsh conditions, often as a result of their membership in a group which the government has identified as dangerous or undesirable.”

People tend to conflate “concentration camps” with “death camps,” but the two terms aren’t interchangeable, and it’s important to be able to discuss concentration camps without euphemisms. Refusing to call them what they are just helps them get worse.

Andrea Pitzer writes:

If you were swept off the streets in vans by secret police wearing masks; if your initiation into detention involved transit camps meant to hide your departure and effectively disappear you from legal help, temporarily or forever; if you are held with others who are denied due process; and if you are detained with people who have predominantly been rounded up more on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion or political affiliation than for any criminal charge you have in common, you are in a concentration camp. It is only a question of what stage concentration camp you are in, and whether you will be stuck there until the camp is allowed to transform into its next nightmare form.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. All of them show two men in suit and tie, talking at an outdoor cafe. One man is a redhead with a mustache; the other is a clean-shaven blonde.

PANEL 1

REDHEAD: And the conditions in the concentration camps we’ve built are appalling! I’m ashamed for my country!

BLONDE: Whoa! “Concentration camps”? Really?

PANEL 2

A shot of the blonde man, lecturing.

BLONDE: The camps can be criticized but calling them “concentration camps” is inflammatory. It’s something people say for the shock value.

PANEL 3

The blonde man looks angry.

BLONDE: Frankly, calling them “concentration camps” demeans the memory of the victims of the real historic concentration camps!

PANEL 4

The “camera” pulls back, and we see that this is a scene from 1930s Germany. (Storefront signs are in German, there’s a horse and carriage going past, women in 1930s fashions and hats.) The blonde man has angrily stood up, and we can see he wears a swastika on his sleeve (as does another man in the foreground).

BLONDE: And finally – never say you’re ashamed to be German. It’s like our new chancellor Hitler says – we’re making Germany great again!

(No chicken fat in this one!)

Don’t Call Them Concentration Camps | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Immigration, Migrant Rights, etc | 4 Comments

Parents’ Rights

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Ampersand

The right-wing (plus some alleged liberals cough Singal cough) assault on trans kids is genuinely horrifying. Literally hundreds of anti-trans bills – most focused on trans people under 19 years old – are proposed every year, and some succeed in becoming law.

Unfortunately, it’s obvious which side the conservative majority of the Supreme Court is on. Earlier this month, regarding California’s policy of not outing trans students to their parents, the Court ruled:

Gender dysphoria is a condition that has an important bearing on a child’s mental health, but when a child exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria at school, California’s policies conceal that information from parents and facilitate a degree of gender transitioning during school hours. These policies likely violate parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children.

In her dissent, Judge Kagen noted that the conservative majority’s concern for parents’ rights has been inconsistent.

Another contrast—this time, between this case and United States v. Skrmetti (2025)—is also striking. In Skrmetti, several parents challenged Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The suit raised claims grounded in both equal protection and substantive due process. As to the latter, the parents in Skrmetti, similarly to the parents here, asserted a right “to make decisions concerning medical care for their minor children.” …And in support of that right, the Skrmetti parents relied on the same precedents the Court does today. But the Court, when deciding to grant certiorari in Skrmetti, limited its review to the equal protection issue: It would not even hear the parents out on their substantive due process claim.

This is typical of Republican hypocrisy – in the courts, but also in the way everyday Republicans talk about parental rights. As journalist Chris Quinn put it, “Republicans always say the parents know best, except when the Republicans know better.”

Some Republicans square this circle by saying that gender affirmative care for minors is child abuse (a claim they support with lies about what the research shows), and child abuse is the exception to parental rights.

But necessary medical treatments, supported by the overwhelming majority of experts and legitimate medical organizations, aren’t child abuse because Republicans arbitrarily declare it so.

Even if you, dear reader, happen to be a centrist weenie who can “see both sides” of this issue, that in and of itself is an argument for keeping gender affirmative care for minors legal. If this issue is complex and multifaceted, that’s even more reason that a minor’s medical care needs should not be decided by random Republican legislators.

Republican legislators don’t know Sam Examplekid; they don’t love Sam Examplekid; they have no familiarity with Sam’s needs or background or condition or individual circumstances. The decision should lie with people who know Sam and are committed to Sam Examplekid’s well-being – Sam, Sam’s parents, and Sam’s doctors.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has for panels, showing two women talking as they walk through a hilly park. The woman in front has dark hair and is wearing a red t-shirt; the person in the rear has light brown hair and is wearing floral pants. I’ll call them TSHIRT and FLORAL.

PANEL 1

Tshirt is listening as Floral lectures.

FLORAL: Of course teachers should be legally required to “out” trans kids to their parents. Because of parents’ rights.

PANEL 2

FLORAL: It doesn’t matter if it’s outing trans kids, or vaccinations, or what books teachers are allowed to assign. It should always be up to the parents!

PANEL 3

Close-up on Flora, who is pounding a fist into her palm, very intense.

FLORAL: Parents’ rights are sacrosanct! Period!

PANEL 4

Tshirt turns to ask Floral a question; Floral replies cheerily.

TSHIRT: What if parents want their trans kid to have gender affirming care?

FLORAL: Fuck parents’ rights.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is a long-obscure cartoonists’ term for unimportant but amusing details slipped into the art, which I want to bring back. (“Stop trying to make fetch happen!”)

PANEL 1: A grinning kid is hanging upside-down high in a tree. A notice nailed to the tree shows a sad-looking robot and says “NOTICE: Background gags weren’t made by A.I.” On the ground, Steamboat Willie (the earliest form of Mickey Mouse, now copyright-free) is fleeing from a vicious cat.

PANEL 2: An evil-looking bunny is behind the bush, smoking a cig. High in a tree, a rat has disguised itself as a squirrel by taping a big leaf to its real end, and is trying to pass itself off to a real squirrel. A notice nailed to the tree has a picture of an evilly grinning robot and says “NOTICE: Then again isn’t that what an A.I. would say.”

PANEL 3: On top of a cloud, a cloud-colored person with a mohawk is lying on their back and reading their phone.

PANEL 4: A basset hound is in the hole in the tree. A sign below the hole says “Home Sweet Hole.” The robot from the notices in panels 1 and 2 is hiding behind the tree. Steamboat Willie’s lifeless corpse lies in the grass. A notice nailed to another tree shows a picture of a vague shadow shape, and says “MISSING: Small robot which functions as a visual representation of A.I. in background gags. Extremely hackneyed, but functional.”

T-SHIRT: In panel 1, the t-shirt has a logo of a piece of cake. Panel 2, it’s a peace sign. And in panel 4, it’s a chess piece.

Parents’ Rights | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues, Supreme Court Issues, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | 7 Comments

Time Travel 2: Ask Me Anything

Posted on March 20, 2026 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.

This is a sort of sequel to a previous cartoon I did about time travel.

Rags really was one of my childhood dogs (and the most important one to me). Although Siggy, the big German Shepherd (I think) who would lie under my crib growling at anyone he didn’t know who dared to approach, was also great.

I’m glad Becky drew this one – if I’d drawn it myself, I would have wasted hours trying to recall and recreate my 1983 bedroom layout. As it was, I made poor Becky do revision after revision on Rags. (“He was bigger than that… He had long hair that often covered his eyes…” and so on.)

Unfortunately, we didn’t have any photos of Rags to work from, and I have a famously bad memory, so – despite Becky’s excellent drawings – I’m sure Rags looked different from this. But that doesn’t hurt the cartoon. The process forced me to think a lot more about Rags than I usually do, though, and I enjoyed that. He really was such a sweet dog.

I did draw a tiny piece of this cartoon myself; the Reagan caricature in panel two is my attempt to recreate how I drew Reagan back then. I would draw a peanut, added Reagan’s famously high hair, then add facial features and wrinkles. That was, technically, the first political cartoon I ever drew.

The little kicker panel is my favorite part of this cartoon. If I had a time travel machine, after I’d done all the usual time travel stuff (seeing Sarah Bernhardt in a play, stopping 9/11, going to Palm Beach in 1999 and getting on the ballot design committee, etc), I genuinely would love getting to see Rags again.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, plus a “kicker” panel at the bottom.

PANEL 1

Little Barry is reading in bed when he’s startled by Big Barry coming in through a glowing time portal in the air. Rags, a dog, looks around.

BIG BARRY: Hi, Barry of 1983! I’m you from decades in the future! Ask me anything!

LITTLE BARRY: ACK!

PANEL 2

Little Barry thinks about what to ask. Big Barry smiles but looks very nervous. Rags sniffs Big Barry, tail wagging.

LITTLE BARRY: Okay, um… So is Reagan still the worst President ever?

BIG BARRY: Hah haha ha ha ha! Hoo boy, you think Reagan’s bad! HA! Ha ha aaah oh God.

PANEL 3

Big Barry, weeping, rushes out through the portal.

BIG BARRY: SOB! I’m sorry, I can’t – I – it’s – I gotta go!

PANEL 4

The time portal flicks out, and Big Barry is gone. Little Barry addresses the dog.

LITTLE BARRY: Well, that bodes ill.

KICKER PANEL

Big Barry is petting Rags; Rags is happy for the attention.

BIG BARRY: I didn’t really come back to see my younger self. I came back to see Rags. Who’s a good boy?

RAGS (thought): Is it me? It’s ME!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

Chicken fat is archaic cartoonistese for fun little details in the art.

Panel 1: A poster for the “Annie” musical above Barry’s bed says: “Annie. A New Musical and Barry’s First Celebrity Crush. Remember when tickets were affordable… Must be nice.”

Panel 2: The poster has changed to a crudely drawn caricature of Ronald Reagan, with the caption “Let’s Retire Ron.”

Panel 3: The poster has changed to a shirtless, ridiculously muscled man flexing, little mini-muscle bumps sticking up from his huge biceps. The caption says “MUSCLES MAN… His Muscles Have Muscles!” He has a word balloon, which says “Please get me to a doctor.”

Panel 4: The poster has changed to a photo of Reggie Jackson swinging a baseball bat. The caption says: REGGIE… because being good at hitting a ball with a stick makes you a HERO.”

Time Travel 2: Ask Me Anything | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Elections and politics | 7 Comments

The Business Genius

Posted on March 16, 2026 by Ampersand

Yes, this comic was inspired by evil non-genius Elon Musk. No one better epitomizes money cosplaying as competence.

As Richard Carrier wrote:

He fell ass-backwards into big money, and our system protects big money. …Literally everything he touches gets fucked up, from self-driving cars to Twitter to the government, or almost anything at all; even PayPal—that’s why they fired him. He was so bad at it that his own staff revolted and insisted he be canned. Indeed, nearly everyone who has ever worked for him says he is a shitty leader who has no business running companies. But alas, like other rich people who fail upwards, Musk’s contracted severance package for being axed from (what was then) PayPal for incompetence launched his entire career as a moneybagged gunknozzle.

Musk hardly stands alone. Private Equity’s business model is for people who know nothing about an industry to buy out existing companies and often destroy them. Although with private equity, it’s often more like piracy than actual incompetence.

Why did Sears tank? Everyone knows that the 19th century business was an antique, incapable of mounting a challenge in the age of e-commerce. That was a great smokescreen for an old-fashioned bust out that saw corporate looters make off with hundreds of millions, leaving behind empty storefronts and emptier pension accounts for the workers who built the wealth the looters stole.

And of course, Donald “six bankruptcies” Trump is a tragic example of how inherited wealth (to the tune of $413 million) and a staggering ego can give an utter incompetent a rep as a business genius. Trump’s actual talents in are self-promotion and dodging taxes, not in creating value.

The challenge of drawing this cartoon was the factory setting, which is a zillion miles outside my comfort zone. I doubt I’ve ever drawn the interior of a factory before, and I wasn’t sure how to begin. I looked at photos of factories online and they seemed impossibly complex, and my attempts to streamline them just didn’t look good.

What finally got me over the “factories are too hard to draw! Waaaah!” wall was looking at the graphic novel Factory Summers by the brilliant cartoonist Guy Delisle. I didn’t directly copy Delisle’s drawings, but I took a lot of instruction from how he simplified factory interiors to make them work in comics.

Once I got started, it was fun. A factory setting in two-point perspective provides so many ways to fit in little visual gags.

I was worried about panel four. For the gag to work, readers definitely had to notice the burning factory disaster in the background, but a lot of readers kind of skip noticing the backgrounds. I asked Frank Young, who colored this cartoon, to make the conflagration in the distance impossible to miss, and I think Frank really delivered.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, plus a tiny “kicker” panel.

PANEL 1

Two workers in reflective vests and hard hats are on a factory floor when a man wearing a blazer over a t-shirt walks in, arms spread wide.

BLAZER: Greetings, workers! I just bought this weezotski factory.

WORKER: Oh, uh… Welcome! So you must have lots of experience with weezotskis?

PANEL 2

Grinning, Blazer keeps talking, looking very smug.

BLAZER: None! But success in an unrelated industry has made me freakishly wealthy! And that makes me a business genius who can run anything!

PANEL 3

Blazer puts his arm around the worker and makes a grand “envision the future!” gesture.

BLAZER: I’m gonna disrupt this company so hard! It’ll be amazing! You’ll see! (Not you personally. I’m firing you.)

PANEL 4

CAPTION: SIX MONTHS LATER

Blazer, still grinning, flees from a burning factory building.

BLAZER: Another business brilliantly saved!

KICKER PANEL

Blazer, looking smug, is talking to Barry the cartoonist.

BLAZER: Maybe I should run the government!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is long-obscure cartoonist talk for fun but unimportant details in the art.

Panel 1: A limp hand is sticking out a hole in the huge factory machine. A panel of the floor is missing, and a corpse in a funeral suit lies within. The box the worker is carrying is labeled “Caution: Irrelevant Prop.”

Panel 2: In the background, in supervisors windows, are Homer Simpson and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.

Panel 3: An opening in the side of a big factory machine contains Brain, of “Pinky and the Brain.” A vent hose has a distressed face on it. In a window in a machine in the background, a grinning stoned person hands upside-down. The paper on the clipboard says “this text is way too small to be read, sorry”.

A sign says “URGENT: Always complete your shift and clean your area before fighting demonic forces.” Another says “WARNING: Studies show that most people’s largest deathbed regret is time not spent working.” A sign on a large red button says “NO. Do not press button. Nope.”

Panel 4: The dark cloud in the sky, if you rotate it 90 degrees to the right, is an enormous face in profile.

The tattoo storyline: In panel one, the worker has a tattoo of a snake on his right arm, and a tattoo of an apple on his left arm. In panel two, the snake tattoo has crossed to his left arm and is examining the apple. In panel 3, the apple has been eaten, and the snake – no longer merely a tattoo – is crawling out of a hole in a big factory machine.

The Business Genius | Patreon

Posted in Capitalism, Cartooning & comics, Economics and the like | 2 Comments

Tehran

Posted on March 12, 2026 by Ampersand

All dialog in this strip is quoted from “Dark Like Our Future” by Deepa Parent in The Guardian. From the article:

Thick black smoke was still rising in the sky, soot covered the streets and cars, balconies filled with black gunk, and the toxic air had filled the lungs as Tehran woke up after a night of airstrikes on the city’s oil depots on Sunday.

In messages and voice notes sent to the Guardian, people described the situation in their homes and on the streets, some calling it “apocalyptic”. With the sun blotted out, disoriented people in Iran’s capital had to turn on their lights to see through the gloom.

Four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran were hit.

People in Tehran will be sick from this, and dying earlier from this, for years to come.

Any response to the war on Iran I could make seems so inadequate next to the enormity of the damage we’re doing – and the enormity of our leadership’s delusions.

But I still felt I should say something. “Theresa’s Daughter” wrote:

It’s easy to feel like our voices don’t matter. That without thousands or millions of followers, without a blue checkmark next to our names, what we say won’t change anything. But that’s exactly what people in power want us to believe. They want us to think we’re too small to make a difference. They want us to forget that history isn’t just something in books — it’s being written right now. And if we stay silent, they get to write it however they choose.

Our leadership seems completely indifferent to the suffering they cause. Talking about the sinking of an unarmed Iranian military ship, in which over a hundred people died, President Trump said that no effort was made to capture the ship because “It’s more fun to sink them.”

I read Daniel Larison’s post “The Poisoning of Tehran,” in which he quoted “Nagin” extensively. (The Guardian described Negin as “an activist and former political prisoner.”) I decided I should do a cartoon amplifying Negin’s voice. Obviously, the amplification I can provide is trivial, compared to a huge outlet like The Guardian or a well-known writer like Larison – but we all do what we can with the tools we have, right?

This obviously isn’t the usual sort of strip I do, so I’m interested in what people think. Was this good? Or a misstep?

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, all showing a woman in her thirties in a modest but nice apartment.

PANEL 1

The woman pulls back a curtain, looking at the darkness outside.

CAPTION: “Negin” – not her real name – lives in Tehran.

NEGIN: The situation is so frightening it’s hard to describe. Smoke has covered the city. I have severe shortness of breath and burning in my eyes and throat, and many others feel the same.

PANEL 2

Negin turns away from the window and speaks directly to us.

NEGIN: I ask those who have the ability, especially foreign media, to reflect on this situation. What are people supposed to do under these conditions?

PANEL 3

Negin speaks angrily.

NEGIN: If someone has a problem with the Islamic Republic government, that’s one thing – But not with us, the people! This is no longer just a human rights violation.

PANEL 4

Negin sits on the sofa, slumping and looking down.

NEGIN: It is truly anti-human behavior.

A footnote below the cartoon says “Dialog quoted from “Dark Like Our Future,” The Guardian, march 8 2026.”

Tehran | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, In the news, International, Iran | 46 Comments

The Alpha Wolf

Posted on February 27, 2026 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Nadine Scholtes. And just look at how adorable the wolf pups she drew are!

The term “alpha wolf” was coined in 1947 by biologist Rudolph Schenkel.

At that time, science knew very little about wolves. About all science knew–and that means that’s all Schenkel would have known–is that they live in a pack. He knew they howled and all that. But as far as their social structure was concerned, they live in a group of animals. And he wanted to study the behavior of animals in a group–in this case, the wolves–and so he wanted to do that in captivity.

To do that, he had to make a pack. And so he just got a bunch of wolves– one or two from some zoo somewhere, another couple from another place– threw them all together, and that was his wolf pack.

Schenkel then observed the wolves fighting for dominance – but a wolf “pack” formed in captivity, with unrelated wolves thrown together willy-nilly, won’t act like wolves in nature do. But Schenkel didn’t know that.

When keeping wolves in captivity, humans typically throw together adult animals with no shared kinship. In these cases, a dominance hierarchy arises, Mech adds, but it’s the animal equivalent of what might happen in a human prison, not the way wolves behave when they are left to their own devices.

In contrast, wild wolf packs are usually made up of a breeding male, a breeding female and their offspring from the past two or three years that have not yet set out on their own—perhaps six to 10 individuals. …Infighting for dominance is basically unheard of in a typical pack.

Wildlife biologists have known the “alpha wolf” is a myth for decades. But the term persists, mainly because some people really like the myth. They’re really excited by the image of a strong, dominant man dominating others through sheer physical strength.

To be fair, a lot of people are excited by that image – which is why we see it over and over in action movies, and of course, in superhero stories.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having fun watching a Jason Statham movie. But for some people, the alpha wolf myth is compelling not just because it’s fun to watch a hero kick a heel, but because they use it to legitimize their sexist beliefs as natural. I don’t say men should dominate because I’m a misogynist – I’m just reporting what nature says! Don’t shoot the messenger!

And even people who aren’t that extreme might still be influenced by a watered-down version of the alpha male myth. Men – to be properly male – are expected to be confident, strong, take-charge, and emotionally muted. That stereotype long precedes the term “alpha wolf,” of course; but I think that pre-existing cultural belief is one reason the alpha wolf myth took off.

This is an aside, but do you ever wonder why Superman is so muscular? It’s not like he exercises to be able to juggle trucks; there’s no in-story reason he can’t be a scrawny dude with a bit of a potbelly juggling trucks. The answer, obviously, is that comics artists and readers – and also, filmmakers and film audiences – want to be able to see Superman’s power and dominance at a glance.

I offered this cartoon to Nadine to draw because I thought she’d have fun drawing the wolves in panel four. As expected, she did a terrific job with the whole cartoon. For some reason the blatant way the “alpha” and the maid are eying each other in panel two really cracks me up.

Hey, while we’re doing animal myths:

1) Ostriches don’t bury their heads in the sand when frightened. (They do bury their nests and stick their heads in the hole now and then to turn their eggs).

2) Bats aren’t blind.

3) Elephants, like humans, can be startled by unexpected scurrying near the ground, but no, they’re not terrified of mice.

You may have already known all that. But did you know that every time you debunk an animal myth, you’re harming cartoonists? We depend on those myths to earn our livelihoods! Why do you hate us so much, wildlife biologists?

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels.

PANEL 1

A man in a yellow shirt is at a bus stop, cheerfully lecturing the other two people at the stop.

MAN: “Feminization” has warped society. If we lived as nature intended I’d be the alpha wolf!

PANEL 2

The man with a huge thought balloon, showing him imagining walking with one hand holding a bloody axe and the other around a woman’s waist. A second woman, in a maid outfit, is carrying a tray of cake and steak. A third woman looks at him adoringly.

MAN: And the alpha wolf gets the first pick of everything! The best food, the best mates!

PANEL 3

MAN: That’s how men should live. I wish I was a wolf in the wild!

PANEL 4

Inside a wolf den, two adult wolves are talking. There are four kids (three small puppies, one medium sized) and a dead rabbit.

CAPTION: Wolves in the Wild

DAD WOLF: First the little ones eat, then the rest of us will.

MOM WOLF: And then — cuddle pile!

PUPPY: Yay!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is an archaic cartoonists’ term for unimportant little details in the art.

PANEL 1 – The tattoo is of a German cartoon mouse named Diddl, holding a heart.

A poster says “HEY YOU! READ THIS! Wow, I can’t believe you’re reading this just because I said to.”

Another poster shows a cool woman in sunglasses holding a guitar. Text says “YET ANOTHER BAND… you’re not cool enough to know.”

A pigeon standing on the sidewalk is wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette.

PANEL 3 – A poster has a picture of the panel 1 pigeon, with the caption “BEWARE Bad Pigeon.”

The guy waiting at the bus stop is miming shooting himself in the head so he doesn’t have to listen to this alpha wolf prattle any more.

The woman’s tattoo now shows the character Superjhemp (a parody of Superman and other superheroes). He’s very popular in Luxembourg – “he has appeared in over 29 graphic novels that have the highest sales rate for Luxembourgish publications.”

The Alpha Wolf | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Feminism, sexism, etc, Men and masculinity | 12 Comments

Two Quick Thoughts On AI Art and Artists

Posted on February 26, 2026 by Ampersand

I’m not as anti-AI as a lot of my cohort (lefty artists). I’ve never been morally against art made by remixing other artists’ work, so it’s hard for me to be angry at the “stealing” AI does to make images. If AI images were only a toy, something people play with but don’t sell, I wouldn’t be bothered by AI images remixing other images at all.

But it’s not just a toy, and I am worried by the economics of it.

AI image generation makes images close to instantly, but it makes those images by remixing work by human artists who took hours, days, weeks to make those images. The styles AI imagery apes might have taken someone decades to develop.

Those instantly-generated AI-generated images then compete in a marketplace against human artists.

That’s not sustainable for the humans.

I have no problem at all with human artists training themselves on art other humans have made. In comics, that’s a primary way most of us learn.

But after I’ve learned from other cartoonists, I can’t instantly produce images. So when I compete with them, it’s on even ground.

When artists are competing with other artists, that can be tough, but the result isn’t that there’s less work for artists overall.

But the more AI enters the art market, the less work is left for human artists. AI simultaneously depends on our work existing to be remixed, and makes paying us  for our work obsolete.

Second thought: I personally don’t feel threatened by AI (although I’m some combination of amused by and tired of people mistaking my work for AI).

But I really worry about the younger generation of illustrators. I think a lot of “entrance level” illustration work that used to exist is increasingly being done with AI.

Posted in art, Economics and the like | 8 Comments

History, Rhyming

Posted on February 22, 2026 by Ampersand

The title is a reference to an aphorism that’s often mistakenly attributed to Mark Twain: “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.”

Like many people, I found myself reading a lot of analysis, and squinting at blurry videos, after the murders of Renee Good and, just eighteen days later, Alex Pretti. Both were shot to death by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents while multiple people recorded it on video. In both cases, the Federal government baldly lied about what had happened, vilifying both victims as attempted murderers who were stopped just in time by heroic agents acting in self-defense.

The brazenness of the lying was, in the way, the most shocking part. If this is how much they lie when they know there are multiple videos, how much do they lie when there are no recordings to contradict them? (Renee Good and Alex Pretti aren’t the only people killed by DHS agents this year, but as far as I know none of the other deaths were so thoroughly filmed.)

I don’t remember why I started reading about Jonathan Daniels. But I began fixating on the similarities between his murder and Pretti’s. I wouldn’t say nothing’s changed since 1965, but too much remains tragically the same.

The end of this strip troubles me a bit. I believe that when we die, we cease to exist, except in the memories and thoughts of people still living. So I went back and forth a bit on the final panel, which can be easily read as implying I believe in an afterlife.

But I do take comfort imagining Alex Pretti and Jonathan Daniels meeting, as impossible as that is, and finding a lot to talk about. I know that’s just my imagination, but if others take comfort from believing these two heroes are in Heaven, that’s fine with me.

I couldn’t find any good photographs of Arthur Gamble as he would have appeared in 1965, so his face is almost entirely made up. And I didn’t bother looking up the faces of Pretti’s murderers, since I’d decided to draw them masked. The other four caricatures here – Bovino, Coleman, Daniels and Pretti – are my best attempts, as limited as they are. I hope I did them justice.

This is obviously a motivated judgement on my part, but I searched out photos I found that both Pretti and Daniels had great smiles – not toothpaste commercial smiles, but welcoming smiles that made me wish I’d been friends with them.

Bovino’s face wasn’t as beloved by me, but I did find him fascinating to draw.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has six panels. A caption at the top says “History, Rhyming.”

PANEL 1

A close up of someone’s hand lying limply on the ground, in sepia tones.

CAPTION: August 20, 1965: Civil rights activist Jonathan Daniels put himself between a deputy sheriff and the black teen the deputy was attacking. The deputy shot Daniels to death.

PANEL 2

A close up of a gloved hand lying limply on snowy pavement, a cell phone lying nearby. Drawn in blue tones.

CAPTION: January 24 2026: Anti-fascist activist Alex Pretti put himself between border protection agents and the woman the agents were attacking. The agents shot Pretti to death.

PANEL 3

This panel is divided in two, sepia on the left and blues on the right. On the sepia side, a man inn a suit sneers. On the right side, a man in a border patrol uniform sneers.

BOTH (in unison): He was intended to commit a massacre!

CAPTION (sepia side): Arthur Gamble: Corrupt prosecutor who threw the case.

CAPTION (blue side): Gregory Bovino: Border Patrol Commander.

PANEL 4

Another panel divided into sepia and blue sides. On the sepia side is a cheerful middle-aged man in a suit. On the right side are two masked Border Patrol agents.

ALL THREE (unison): I was in fear for my life!

CAPTION (sepia side): Tom Coleman, Daniels’ murderer.

CAPTION (blue side): Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez, Pretti’s murderers.

PANEL 5

On the sepia side, three people with 1960s haircuts are angrily yelling. On the blue side, same thing except with current-day hair and clothes.

ALL (unison): If he hadn’t put himself where he didn’t belong he’d still be alive! Cops have to make split-second judgements! Law! Order! Bark bark bark bark woof!

CAPTION: Boot-licking stooges.

PANEL 6

In a clearing, surrounded by grass, trees, and shrubs, two men talk to each other. The men are distant from us. One, dressed in black and wearing a clerical collar, is identified as “Jonathan Daniels, 1939-1965.” The other, wearing a comfy looking winter jacket and baggy jeans, is identified as “Alex Pretti, 1989-2026.”

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obscure cartoonists’ lingo for little details hidden in the art. I drew almost no chicken fat here – the tone of the strip felt wrong for it – but in panel five, two of the modern day people are wearing MAGA hats that say “Make America Dicks Again.” One man’s t-shirt shows a teddy bear saying “FU.”

History, Rhyming | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, police brutality, Race, racism and related issues | 20 Comments

The Obsession

Posted on February 9, 2026 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and frequent collaborator Nadine Scholtes.

In December 2025, Representative Sarah McBride – who is herself trans – commented about her Republican colleagues:

They are obsessed with trans people. I actually think they think more about trans people than trans people think about trans people.

Responding to McBride’s comment, Vera Eikon wrote:

This is true. My transition is long since over and rarely figures much in my life any more. I really only think about being trans because obsessed creepy Republicans can’t help themselves.

Reading those comments inspired this cartoon, but I’ve heard sentiments like this from many trans people for years.

At least ninety percent of trans-related controversies are created by right-wingers’ refusal to just mind their own business and let other people be. The sheer irrationality of it boggles my mind.

Other issues are real issues. Even if Republicans didn’t deny the existence of climate change, how to address climate change would remain a real issue that needed to be debated in Congress. Even if Republicans didn’t have an abiding and vicious hatred of immigrants, we’d still need to figure out immigration policy and there’d be good-faith policy questions to work out.

But most trans issues would never be discussed at high levels of government if conservatives would just live and let live. There’s no need, at all, for the White House to decide what specific health care a fifteen year old trans kid needs. Why not leave that for the fifteen year old to decide with her doctor and her parents?

Part of it is just the grift. Republicans need hate to fundraise and be elected. Blaming problems on marginalized groups like immigrants and trans people is extremely practical for a party whose top priority is making rich people richer, but which also needs to pretend to be addressing ordinary people’s problems.

But it’s not just a grift. There’s sincere spite and bigotry – and, as Representative McBride said, obsession – behind the deluge of anti-trans legislation and activism we’ve seen.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, each showing the same central character, a fortyish redheaded woman, in a different setting.

PANEL 1

A woman wearing a red cardigan over a white t-shirt, and a cross necklace, is handing a brown paper lunch bag to her daughter. The daughter is rolling her eyes.

WOMAN: Schools are hotbeds for trans groomers! Don’t let any of them talk to you.

PANEL 2

Four women, including our main character (who is currently speaking), are having a meeting on Zoom.

WOMAN: I found a petition supporting this week’s new bills banning trans heath care. I’m sending the link so we can all sign.

PANEL 3

A woman with short brown hair is washing her hands in a public restroom. Nearby, our main character watches the woman suspiciously.

WOMAN (thought): Short hair… Might be trans? I better call the manager!

PANEL 4

The woman lies in bed. It’s nighttime, but she’s wide awake.

WOMAN (thought): Why is the left obsessed with trans?

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is ancient, mostly forgotten cartoonist-ese for fun but needless details in the art.

PANEL 1 – The dog is rolling its eyes, just like the daughter. The daughter’s t-shirt says “Plants are gooood!” with a picture of a lit joint.

PANEL 2 – One person on Zoom is drinking with a mug with a picture of Jesus grinning and with his thumb up, a reference to the Kevin Smith movie Dogma. Another zoom person has dozed off, and the cat in her lap is anxiously taking notes. And a third zoom person is knitting a sweater with three sleeves, a reference to a famous Charles Addams cartoon.

PANEL 3 – The short-haired woman has a tattoo of Mr. Cupcake from Five Nights At Freddy’s.

PANEL 4 – The dog is wearing a sleep mask and pajamas with little hearts. Also, there are four books lying on the bed, which are:

  1. TRANS PEOPLE HATE YOU. They’re Probably Hiding Under Your Bed Right Now, by Matt Waltz & Dave Chappelle.
  2. HARRY POTTER AND THE INFINITE WELL OF ANTI-TRANS FUNDING by J.K. Rowling.
  3. TRANSGENDERS ATE MY DOG and other things that definitely really happened, by Abigail Crier. “This is the best and probably only book I’ve ever read” – D. Trump
  4. HOW THE TRANS DESTROYED MY LIFE. It’s Definitely Their Fault And Not Just That I’m An Insufferable Asshole And Everyone Who Has Ever Met Me Hates Me, by Graham Lineham.

The Obsession | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues | 6 Comments

Helpful Advice For New Moms

Posted on February 6, 2026 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.

Becky commented, “It’s always fun and challenging to come up with enough unique character designs for these cartoons. All resemblance to acquaintances living or dead is entirely coincidental. Maybe not coincidental, but not at all a reflection on their character.” So please don’t sue us!

Neither Becky or I are parents, and when I showed Becky the script she eagerly said something like “time to get my secondhand anger on!” (Except what she said was funnier, and I didn’t think to write down the exact wording at the time, and now I’m annoyed with my past self for not being considerate enough of my future cartoon-introduction-writing needs.)

The research for a comic like this is always fun. I dive into online discussion boards and I’m guaranteed to learn something new – or many something news.

For instance, I would never have guessed that strangers actually come up to new parents to criticize them – sometimes quite harshly – if their baby isn’t wearing socks or a hat. But I read multiple people complaining about just that! (Becky here! Panel 6 is dedicated to Jackie, who learned about this phenomenon mere weeks into parenthood.)

And while of course I knew that sleep schedules are a major issue, the full extent of it – and the extent to which many parents feel overwhelmed by all the contrary advice they’re given, including from medical professionals – was eye-opening to me. I didn’t even know what “wake windows” were before I wrote this cartoon (ah, those innocent days of youth).

The title of one Reddit thread really says it all: “I was not prepared for society making you feel like a bad parent NO MATTER WHAT you do.”

The pressure on new parents to do everything perfectly – even though perfect parenting isn’t something that ever has or ever can exist – is ridiculous. And, predictably, that pressure is even greater on mothers.

Becky originally put Big Bird as one of the crowd in the final panel, just as a joke. But – as much as it kills me to remove chicken fat – I was worried that people would read that, not just as a fun cameo, but as a pointed criticism of Sesame Street. So Big Bird was out, alas.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has nine panels, plus a tiny “kicker” panel at the bottom.

PANEL 1

A mother in the middle seat of an airplane is holding her crying baby, while the annoyed women on either side of her offer their advice.

AISLE SEAT LADY: If you let your baby cry in public you’re a bad mother.

WINDOW SEAT LADY: If you quiet them with screen time you’re a bad mother.

PANEL 2

A smiling woman wearing a mint green gi sits crosslegged next to a potted plant, holding a mug of tea. A large picture window faces a natural scene.

WOMAN: Formula is poison! Quit your job and breastfeed at least every two hours or you don’t love your baby.

PANEL 3

A woman in business wear and red glasses speaks directly to us.

WOMAN: If you really love your baby, spend more time at work and start their college fund.

PANEL 4

A middle-aged man is carrying a tall stack of books and pamphlets, so heavy that he’s bent backwards.

MAN: I brought you some light reading about “wake windows” and optimal nap schedules.

PANEL 5

Most of this center panel is taken up by the title: HELPFUL ADVICE FOR NEW MOMS. Below that, a blonde woman in a green jacket smiles.

WOMAN: Trust your instincts! Which are terrible and wrong.

PANEL 6

A mom has her baby in a stroller in a park, and is just kneeling down to put on some socks. A woman behind her turns red and curves over the mom in an impossible arc to get in her face and yell.

WOMAN: Why isn’t your baby wearing SOCKS?!?

PANEL 7

A couple relaxes on a sofa, her head resting on his shoulder. They talk to us, his expression genial, hers angry.

HIM: Co-sleeping is the natural way to teach your baby to sleep!

HER: Until you roll over and smother them, you murderer!

PANEL 8

An older woman leans close to us and holds up a finger as she gives advice.

WOMAN: Wean too soon and he’ll grow up sickly. Wean too late and he’ll grow up weird!

PANEL 9

A large crowd of people, of various ages and ethnicities and fashion choices, speak in unison. Some are angry, some friendly. One is a mother with a baby in a sling.

EVERYBODY: And remember: Whatever happens, it’s your fault!

“KICKER” PANEL AT THE BOTTOM

Barry is talking to a woman who looks absolutely exhausted.

BARRY: Do you know what “catch 22” means?

TIRED WOMAN: Is it minutes of sleep I caught last night?

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

Chicken fat is ancient cartoonist lingo for fun but unimportant little details in the art.

In panel six, the sockless baby is kicking their feet so much that Becky drew the baby with six adorable little feet.

In panel nine, one woman is wearing a T-Shirt design that’s a mix of an anarchy symbol and a cat’s head. That same design showed up as a poster on the wall in a previous Becky cartoon.

Also in panel nine, one man in the crowd carries a “World’s Best Dad” mug, and the baby’s eyes are hilariously wide and shocked-looking.

Helpful Advice For New Moms | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Feminism, sexism, etc | 5 Comments