{"id":26175,"date":"2021-07-30T12:02:30","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T19:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=26175"},"modified":"2021-07-30T12:06:23","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T19:06:23","slug":"cartoon-message-in-a-bottle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=26175","title":{"rendered":"Cartoon: Message in a Bottle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Supporting my patreon<\/a> helps me make more swell cartoons!<\/p>\n

\n

This one was so much fun to draw. Drawing water is always a challenge. This time I tried to ape one of the ways Walt Kelly used to draw water in “Pogo,” and although of course I didn’t fully succeed, I’m still pleased with how the water looks. And I’m pleased with how the figures look. And I’m pleased with Frank Young’s colors.<\/p>\n

(Of course, it’s easy for me to be pleased with a cartoon’s art when it’s new. The real question is, will I still like it in a year?)<\/p>\n

Some of you may remember seeing a stickfigure version of this cartoon, which I posted in the Discord (join us!<\/a>) seven months ago. A couple of people didn’t think the cartoon made sense, while a couple of other people liked it and said they were cracked up by the “Hold on, there’s another bottle” line. I love that line, so I (eventually) decided to draw this anyway. They can’t all be beloved by everyone!<\/p>\n

\n

It’s unsurprising, I think, that this cartoon was first written during the Trump presidency. At the time, a lot of people (understandably) thought of Trump as the chief evil in the country. This cartoon is saying “wait, no, there are levels and levels; Trump is a symptom, but the real problems go much deeper.”<\/p>\n

Or at least, that’s what I<\/em> think it says. You may see something else in it, and that’s fine.<\/p>\n

\n

Many years ago, I noticed that my cartoons tended to include Black characters 1) mainly in cartoons about racism, and 2) always as the person expressing the “correct” side of whatever issue the cartoon is about. It’s like I was typecasting Black characters, and I began consciously trying to improve.<\/p>\n

To some extent I can’t do anything about that – in cartoons where a character is representing the Republican party or patriarchy or white supremacism, it would be ridiculous and confusing to have that character be Black.<\/p>\n

But in a cartoon like this – not about racism, and where nether character represents the GOP – I can have both characters be (in this case) Black women, and it works.<\/p>\n

\n

Also in the Discord, Marn (hi Marn!<\/em>) posted a 1956 Peanuts <\/em>strip that my strip reminded her of. As you can imagine, that comparison pleased me a lot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

I was having trouble with the first figure in panel one, so I searched for a reference photo to help me out, and found one, from a photographer<\/a> who creates many reference photos. They also generously gave me permission to reproduce their photo in a process image. I always enjoy seeing process images, so I imagine some of you enjoy them, as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Apropos nothing (except the mention of Peanuts<\/em>), on Twitter I did a “I’ll post one comic I love for every like this tweet gets” meme thing. The tweet ended up getting 171 likes, but I decided it would be okay for me to quit after listing just 100 comics I love. So here’s the list, <\/a>if you’re curious. It touches on a lot <\/em>of different genres.<\/p>\n

\n

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON<\/strong><\/p>\n

This cartoon has four panels. All of the panels show two women talking in some sort of park or meadow (green and hilly with some trees in the background), with a gentle river or large stream in the foreground. The first woman has long curly-with-spirals hair, and is wearing a hairband. She’s wearing black pants, torn on one knee, and a hoodie. The second woman has short hair and glasses, and is wearing a short-sleeved shirt with a “!” logo on it and purple pants.<\/p>\n

PANEL 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

HAIRBAND is crouching down and reaching for a bottle floating in the stream. The bottle, if you look closely, has a rolled-up piece of paper in it. GLASSES looks a little surprised but also amused.<\/p>\n

HAIRBAND: Look, a message in a bottle!<\/p>\n

GLASSES: What’s it say?<\/p>\n

PANEL 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hairband has removed the paper from the bottle and is reading from it; the bottle is held in her other hand. Glasses is holding up a forefinger as she makes a point.<\/p>\n

HAIRBAND: It says “Help! We’re trapped in a country where an absurdly awful minority party is attacking elections and democracy!”<\/p>\n

GLASSES: So if the problem is a bad political party, all they have to do-<\/p>\n

PANEL 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

A close-up of Hairband shows her continuing to read from the paper, with a concerned expression. Glasses speaks from off panel.<\/p>\n

HAIRBAND: It goes on… “That party stays viable because bad constitutional design and partisan judges have made it possible for them to remain viable while most voters oppose them.”<\/p>\n

GLASSES: I see! In that case, they can-<\/p>\n

HAIRBAND: “And even that is a symptom of how entrenched interests of race and wealth have controlled the country from the start.”<\/p>\n

PANEL 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scowling a bit with concentration, Glasses speaks, looking less certain now than in the previous panels. Hairband is kneeling down and reaching for a second bottle that has floated along the river.<\/p>\n

GLASSES: So the root of all the problems are entrenched interests? So can they-<\/p>\n

HAIRBAND: Hold on, there’s another bottle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supporting my patreon helps me make more swell cartoons! This one was so much fun to draw. Drawing water is always a challenge. This time I tried to ape one of the ways Walt Kelly used to draw water in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26175"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26181,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26175\/revisions\/26181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}