Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Process Revealed: the Weekly Cartoon

Whoah! It's been a long time since I've posted... so much going on... undergoing a kitchen reno while preparing for the imminent arrival of our baby daughter!

Every Tuesday, I've got to submit my editorial cartoon to the Ottawa X Press by 4:30pm. I'm a moderate news and politics junkie, but I pay extra close attention to the news on Mondays and Tuesdays, scanning for topics that I hope will still be relevant when the newspaper hits the newsstand on Thursday morning.

This week, Jack Layton is allegedly going to prop up the Conservatives in exchange for this new social security thingy, under threat of an election call from the Iggy. This is juicy grist for the cartoon mill!

First thought comes to mind is that the NDP and Conservatives make strange bedfellows, which naturally leads to the classic metaphorical image of the two leaders in bed together. It's been done before billions of times, but it still tickles me. So I proceed with the artwork - still unsure of what the exact dialogue exchange will be. I ponder this while I draw...

Here's my initial caption:


Obviously this presumes the deed has already been done. But I stew on this a little, and then wonder if I've left out a little too much information. Revising it to:



But something about this strikes me as awkward. Then I arrive at a statement that implies the deed is yet to occur, and I figure I can get away with the possibility that Jack is undoing his tie, instead of doing it back up!