We’d All Miss Private Health Insurance

Posted on January 12, 2026 by Ampersand

Another collab with the terrific R.E. Ryan.

“I Can’t Afford My Spleen” might be a good title for the eventual book collection.

I love the way R.E. drew this, especially the suit-and-tie guy in the last panel, with his quietly sour expression and disappointed slump.

This cartoon feels a bit Doonesbury-ish to me, particularly in the way the fourth panel works, with a extra piece of dialog following the punchline.

I have a shelf full of Doonesbury collections that I used to reread pretty often. (As I’ve gotten older I’m rereading much less than I once did; I blame the internet. Who has time to read with the torrential flood of new content available every minute on our screens?)

Nonetheless, I think Doonesbury – which has now been running an incredible fifty-five years (although it’s now Sundays only, the other six days are reruns) is a singular achievement in cartooning. Very few daily strips have found success with such a distinctive voice and dry sense of humor. And it’s certainly been a big influence on my writing.

I admit, Medicare For All is not going to pass through Congress this year, or the next, or the year after that. But I refuse to give up – someday we could have a better Congress. And we will, almost unavoidably, have a better President. Things have changed; they can change again. (I’d kind of like that on a t-shirt.)

And when that happens… then this cartoon will feel more of the moment. Whooo!

(There may be other advantages as well.)

Happily, Bernie Sanders hasn’t given up on Medicare For All, either – as of this writing, his most recent MFA bill was put forward in April 2025, and gathered sixteen cosponsors.

Sanders, on this issue, is aligned with most Americans. A new survey from Data For Progress found that:

65% of voters support a Medicare for All system — described as a “national health insurance program…that would cover all Americans and replace most private health insurance plans.” This includes majorities of Democrats (78%) and Independents (71%), and a plurality of Republicans (49%).

Even after being exposed to arguments that MFA “would raise taxes and give the government too much control over health care,” 58% of voters still supported it.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, all showing a protest in front of a state government capital building, with marchers holding placards. We’re focused on two people talking, on a thin blonde man in a suit, the other a fatter guy in a pink shirt, carrying a sign that says “MEDICARE FOR ALL.”

PANEL 1

Suit, with an annoyed expression, is talking at Pinkshirt.

SUIT: Medicare For All? Ridiculous! Did you know that most Medicare For All proposals ban private health insurance?

PANEL 2

Pinkshirt slaps a palm over his face and looks horrified. Suit is startled.

PINKSHIRT: No private insurance? Oh no! The horror! How could I stand not paying more than my rent for insurance that doesn’t even kick in until I’ve spent $5000?

PANEL 3

A close up of Pinkshirt, wide-eyed and sweating.

PINKSHIRT: How terrible if I could pick any doctor! Imagine the trauma of not losing health insurance if I lose my job! Sob!

PANEL 4

Pinkshirt had fallen dramatically to his knees. Suit scowls at Pinkshirt.

SUIT: I can tell you’re being sarcastic, you know.

PINKSHIRT: The poor insurance company executives! Why didn’t I think of the harm to them!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obsolete cartoonist lingo for fun but irrelevant details in the art.

In panel 1, an inflatable frog costume has a frown on its face. In panel 2, the frog has started to blow up a balloon with zebra stripes. In panel 4, the inflatable zebra has joined the inflatable frog, and both are smiling.

The tattoo on Pinkshirt’s arm at first shows an egg in the nest. Then, in the next panel, cracks have appeared in the egg. In the final panel, an adorable chick has hatched.

Protest signs:

“generic background PROTEST sign, which isn’t important and you didn’t need to read this, but now you have.”

“Down with this sort of thing.”

“Proofreaders need health insurence,” with the “e” in the last word crossed out and replaced with an “a.”

“No!”

“Bad Doggie”

“Careful Now”

“I Can’t Afford My Spleen”

We’d All Miss Private Health Insurance | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics | 5 Comments

ICE’s Get Out of Jail Free Card

Posted on January 9, 2026 by Ampersand

This was not a fun cartoon to write or draw.

On January 7, 2026, Renee Nicole Good was shot to death in her car by Jonathan Ross, an ICE agent who has been with the agency a decade.

(Wait, January 7? Has it really only been two days? It feels like so much longer).

The same day, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement falsely accusing Good of attempting to murder ICE agents by running them down, adding:

An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers.

With his characteristic muddle of malice, stupidity, and delusion, President Trump twice claimed that Good actually had run over Ross: “She didn’t try to run him over, she ran him over.”

Several news agencies (such as this well-made New York Times video) did thorough frame-by-frame analysis of several videos that were taken, showing that the administration was lying about the shooting.

Of course, all police departments – not just ICE – will justify shooting people by claiming they were in deadly peril, or reasonably thought they were. It’s the get out of jail free card for law enforcement, even in cases like an unarmed Black man being shot in the back. And although there are so many infuriating things about the murder of Renee Good, somehow that really got under my craw.

Eventually, I wrote this cartoon, and over several drafts kept whittling it down and simplifying it until there were only two words of dialog. I hope it’s effective.

I went back and forth on how malicious and evil to make the ICE agent in the final panel. Then I read about the ICE shooting of Marimar Martinez, just two months before Good’s death. Martinez, like Good, was accused by an ICE agent of trying to kill him with her car. Martinez, despite being shot five times, survived, and the case against her was so weak the government quietly dropped all charges.

The agent who shot Martinez, Charles Exum, sent texts to his fellow ICE agents gloating about the shooting. His texts included: “I fired 5 rounds, and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys,” “I’m up for another round of ‘fuck around and find out’” and “Sweet. My fifteen mins of fame. Lmao.”

Exum, by the way, is a supervisory agent and a shooting instructor for ICE. He’s teaching new agents how to behave. There’s no reason to think that his disgusting attitudes aren’t the norm within ICE.

ICE is a toxic agency, and deserves to be shuttered.

There is always sad and enraging news going on somewhere in the world. I don’t think that should stop us from saying: Happy New Year! Let’s fervently hope it’s a better one.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. Each panel shows two people on a sidewalk: One is a masked ICE agent, the other a woman carrying a protest sign which says “abolish ICE.”

PANEL 1

The ICE agent glares at the woman. The woman’s back is to him.

PANEL 2

The woman turns her head, spotting the ICE agent, who has angry body language.

PANEL 3

The ICE agent has drawn his gun and fires three times. The woman falls.

PANEL 4

The ICE agent speaks directly to us, pulling down his mask so we can see his gleeful expression. The woman’s corpse lies in the background.

ICE AGENT: Self-defense!

ICE’s Get Out of Jail Free Card | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, In the news, police brutality, Prisons and Justice and Police | 12 Comments

BEWARE the NARCO TERRORISTS!

Posted on December 19, 2025 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Nadine Scholtes.

Like a lot of people, I’ve been reading the news about Trump’s attacks on so-called “narco terrorists” with horror.

From an ACLU press release:

Not only does the administration claim to have sweeping power to target and kill U.S. citizens anywhere in the world, but it makes the extraordinary claim that the court has no role in reviewing that power or the legal standards that apply… If the Constitution means anything, it surely means that the president does not have unreviewable authority to summarily execute any American whom he concludes is an enemy of the state.

Quoting that press release is a bit sneaky of me, because it’s from 2010, about the Obama administration’s drone strikes outside of combat zones. Those drone strikes killed hundreds or thousands of civilians; it’s hard to know precisely how many civilians were killed, since the official Obama administration numbers simply counted all adult men, without regard for who they were or what they did, as fighters and legitimate targets.

I do see some distinction between Obama’s drone strikes and Trump’s. At one level, I simply trust Obama more than I do Trump (a bar so low you’d need a shovel). I find it easier to imagine Trump calling for his peaceful political enemies to be killed. (Oh, wait, I don’t have to imagine it.)

Another difference: Obama’s strikes were aimed, at least in theory, at the Taliban and Al Qaeda, two groups that actually exist and had committed serious terrorist attacks on Americans. In contrast, Trump’s strikes are against the Cartel de lose Soles, a group that “is probably not a terrorist organisation as most people understand them. Whether it is even an organisation in a formal sense is also up for debate.”

But I’m also disturbed at the similarities. Both campaigns killed innocent civilians (a definite fact for Obama, and highly likely for Trump).

Both Obama and Trump claimed a legally murky right to pick targets for extrajudicial killing without any review from courts or Congress. That’s more power than I wanted Obama to have, and it’s certainly more power than I want Trump to have.

Even if you think that Obama’s drone strikes were justifiable, it’s hard to deny that the way they were done – without oversight, and with claims of being unanswerable to other branches of government – set a terrible precedent.

The U.S. shouldn’t be ruled by an emperor who can arbitrarily choose to kill people with a thumb’s down.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has five panels. They show two people, a Black woman wearing a white turtleneck, and a white woman wearing a red MAGA cap, talking in a park.

PANEL 1

Turtleneck is holding a smartphone and speaking angrily. Red Cap is taken a bit aback.

TURTLENECK: Look at this! Trump had the Navy shoot another boat of “narco-terrorists” in international waters! No evidence, no trial, just an execution!

PANEL 2

Turtleneck points at Red Cap accusingly; Red Cap raises her palms placatingly.

TURTLENECK: How can you condone this? What’s wrong with you?

RED CAP: Calm down! There’s no need to be uncivil! We can disagree and still be reasonable.

PANEL 3

Turtleneck, still angry, walks away muttering; Red Cap smiles and waves bye.

TURTLENECK: Mumble grumble stupidnazi fascists

RED CAP: Go touch some grass. Bye!

PANEL 4

Red Cap continues smiling and waving bye.

PANEL 5

Still smiling and waving, Red Cap is making a call on her cell phone.

RED CAP: Hello, U.S. Navy? I’m calling to report a narco-terrorist.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken Fat” is obsolete cartoonists’ lingo for Eater Eggs.

PANEL 1 – A happy little mouse is holding a pink balloon. Far in the background, a bird soars.

PANEL 2 – The mouse, now sad, has lost its balloon, which floats into the sky. The bird flies to the balloon.

PANEL 3 – The bird returns the balloon to the again-happy mouse.

PANEL 4 – The MAGA hat reads “Make America Spell Agian”

PANEL 5 – The MAGA hat reads “Mash America’s Grapes Again”

Beware The Narco Terrorists | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics | 25 Comments

Bankruptcy Lane

Posted on December 10, 2025 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.

Becky writes:

This comic was inspired by current events. Some background: 82nd Ave is a 4-lane road that cuts through East Portland. It’s flanked on both sides by shopping centers and grocery stores, car dealerships and auto repairs. It services the busiest bus line in Oregon, which is often delayed by traffic. It’s also one of the most dangerous streets in the city for drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. The city is thinking about turning the outer lanes of 82nd into bus lanes that double as right turn lanes for accessing the businesses. This has several perks, in my opinion. If you want to hear me testify about it, you can watch the public meeting on YouTube. (The link goes right to my 2-minute talk. I value your time as well as your money.)

Some business owners on 82nd are up in arms, threatening to sue, convinced that bus lanes will drive their customers away and destroy their businesses. I’d be more sympathetic, but we just went through this about a mile away. In 2019, SE Foster Rd was transformed from a 4-lane street into a 2-lane street with bike lanes. Local business leaders made their objections known.

I hope I did it justice in the comic.

Barry and I saw this store regularly. It was quite the neighborhood fixture. After the bike lanes went in, the posters slowly came down. Here’s a more recent photo of the store, apparently thriving:

You’ll notice I drew a lot more people on the sidewalk in panel 4, as well as bicyclists in the bike lane. Study after study shows that bike lanes and walkable streets are good for businesses. When there’s a buffer between the sidewalk and the cars and trucks zooming by, sidewalks feel safer and more pleasant to walk on. Anyone can get hit by a car, but old people, young people, and disabled people are especially vulnerable to traffic violence. I made sure to include them on the sidewalk. Similarly, the bike lane will attract those “lycra guys” that people love to hate, but it will also allow a safety-conscious woman to do her grocery shopping by bike.

Barry’s stage directions for panel 4 were “Same dude and same store, obviously. Maybe the season has changed, though?”  I went back and forth on what kind of weather to draw in panel 4. Will critics claim that bike lanes are only for summertime, or that Becky the cartoonist thinks bike lanes magically make the weather nicer? Maybe. In the end, I wanted panel 4 to look much more vibrant than panels 1-3, so I went with it.

I decided to draw the bike lane supporter walking into the store, having biked there. Readers needed to recognize them from panels 1-3, despite being fairly small and facing away from the reader. That’s why I gave them red hair. I also decided they needed a really bold design on the back of their jacket. This is what inspired the general look of the jacket. I loved those lapels. The jacket seemed like something you’d find in a thrift store, so I thought about what organization the jacket might have come from. A bowling team! I’m so happy with the result.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, all showing the sidewalk and part of the street in front of a store called “The Furniture KING.”

PANEL 1

A guy in a green jacket is taking a bag out the back of his hatchback. In the background, The Furniture King’s huge display windows are completely covered with signs such as “Call You Mayor We Need All 4 Lanes” and “How Will YOU Get Home?” There’s a tree with pretty autumn leaves.

GREEN JACKET: I can’t wait for the new bike lanes.

STORE OWNER: Noooo!

PANEL 2

The store owner has grabbed the Green Jacket’s shirt and is yelling at him.

STORE OWNER: The new bike lane is supposed to pass right in front of my store! How are my customers supposed to get in? How?

PANEL 3

Green Jacket tries to reassure the store owner, who has fallen to his knees and is weeping.

GREEN JACKET: Er, I don’t think it’ll be-

STORE OWNER: Six months from now my poor store will be out of business! BANKRUPT!

PANEL 4

The same scene, but now the tree leaves are green, and a green bike lane has been installed in front of the store. There are pedestrians and bikers. Store Owner stands on the sidewalk, talking into a bullhorn and shaking a fist in the air.

CAPTION: Two Years Later

STORE OWNER: If they build that new bus lane, it will definitely destroy my store!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken Fat” is old fashioned cartoonist parlance for what we now call “Easter Eggs.”

PANEL 1 – The back of the man’s jacket shows a bowling ball lovingly hugging a bowling pin. The rear view mirror of a car is completely filled with a green monster eye, a reference to the famous “Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear” Far Side cartoon.

PANEL 4 – The customer walking into the store in the background, is Green Jacket guy from the first three panels.

Bankruptcy Lane | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics | 11 Comments

Reasons To Support Trump

Posted on December 4, 2025 by Ampersand

I’m generally against “bothsidesism,” but one thing I believe conservatives and liberals have in common in the U.S.: We both find the other side’s choices completely, utterly incomprehensible.

And nothing is harder to comprehend, in the lefty (a.k.a. my) mindset, then why so many Americans support goddamn fucking Donald Trump. He’s lost some supporters, to be sure, but he seems to have a solid core of followers who will not be shaken off, no matter what he says or does. Even Trump has sometimes seemed impressed by his followers’ loyalty, famously joking, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.”

Nearly all of the reasons given in this cartoon – although I’ve written them in an exaggerated and mocking way – are real reasons I’ve seen Trump supporters give. The exception is the white supremacy panel – I’ve never seen someone outright admit that white identity politics is why they support Trump. But research shows it’s a major factor.

It’s not the deepest cartoon I’ve ever done, but it’s always fun to draw one of my “Nine Jerks” cartoons (as Becky calls them). Not needing to keep characters or settings consistent from panel to panel is so relaxing and frankly makes it faster, making it practical to do nine panels instead of my usual four. And drawing over-the-top angry expressions never fails to be fun.

Also, lots of room for chicken fat, even though it slows me down. Doing the chicken fat has added a lot to my enjoyment of my work.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has nine panels.

PANEL 1

A grinning man stands in his living room.

MAN: That TV Star billionaire son of a billionaire is an underdog like me!

PANEL 2

A woman standing behind a fence gestures at her phone.

WOMAN: Trump kills random Venezuelans on boats with no trial or evidence… But Democrats seem smug, which is much worse.

PANEL 3

A man in a suit is overcome with fury and shouting.

MAN: Because filthy pet-eating invaders are poisoning America with their dirty blood! (But I’ve got nothing against immigrants).

PANEL 4

A man in a compound surrounded by barbed wire hugs a gigantic gun and yells.

MAN: Because Democrats wanna take our guns!

PANEL 5

This central panel contains the title, “Reasons To Support Trump.” Below that, a nice looking smiling woman talks, and in the background a Klansman adds something.

WOMAN: Not because I’m a closet white supremacist! Heck no!

KLANSMAN: Same!

PANEL 6

A housewife in an apron, surrounded by children, happily talks.

HOUSEWIFE: I like that the President has traditional family values! Like Donald with Ivana Marla Melania.

PANEL 7

A man looks up from reading a newspaper.

MAN: Because Trump is fighting “cancel culture” by getting people we don’t like fired or deported!

PANEL 8

A man in a suit gestures towards a teacher in the background, who looks indignant.

MAN: Because woke “teachers” indoctrinate our kids into being trans!

TEACHER (thought): Yeah, right. I can’t even get them to use deodorant.

PANEL 9

An woman in her living room talks to us angrily.

WOMAN: Liberals are evil terrorist loving pathetic loser cucks who hate freedom! And they say such mean things about Trump!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken Fat” is long-dormant cartoonist speak for irrelevant details we stick in because it amuses us.

Panel 1: Igor, Marty Feldman’s Young Frankenstein character, is peering in the window. (He’s drawn in black and white, like the film). There’s a framed picture of Montgomery Burns on the wall. The man’s sports shirt says “42,” a reference to the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy novels.

Panel 2: A flyer taped to the tree says “WANTED: A poem as lovely as this tree. Contact Joyce.” A groundhog wearing a top hat and a scarf has popped out from the ground.

Panel 4: A poster taped to the wall shows an adorable mom holding a gun; the caption says “My other mom is the NRA.” One of the gun crates has a sign on it saying “Caution: Bang! Bang!”

Panel 6: A surprised looking infant hangs from one of the hooks on the wall. One of the children is smoking a cigarette. One is Little Orphan Annie, as she looked early in that comic strip. One has a t-shirt with a superhero named “I.P. Man.”

Panel 7: The newspaper, entitled “The Right News,” has a giant headline saying “Is Zohran Secretly Hamas?” A smaller subhead says “We imply yes!”

Panel 8: On the blackboard, below a complex looking algebra equation, it says “You’re right. You’ll never use this math in real life. Ha ha suckers!” Elsewhere, it says “E=M.C. Hammer” and, in a list format, “1. Fee 2. Fie 3. Foe 4. Fum”.

Panel 9: The cat is a pirate, with a big loop earring in one ear, an eyepatch, and a wooden leg. The vase has Charlie Brown’s shirt’s stripe on it.

Reasons To Support Trump | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc., Elections and politics | 14 Comments

The Benefit of Colorblindness

Posted on December 3, 2025 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Nadine Scholtes.

This cartoon was inspired by an exchange I read on Twitter (as it was called back then) and saved. Unfortunately, the account no longer exists, so I can’t link to it. But “Rebecca53109068” wrote:

Stop saying “defined by.” My race/culture is a part of who I am. It’s a part of my identity and I’m proud of it. Native Americans feel the same, and so do many other folks. Just because it means nothing to you doesn’t mean it should be dismissed or ignored.

Question: why must you pretend I’m not Black in order to treat me fairly and judge me by the content of my character?

This is not at all a new debate. Back in 2003, in Jennifer Richeson and Richard Nussbaum conducted a study, comparing white people’s reactions to being exposed to messages “advocating either a color-blind or a multicultural” view.

Relative to the multicultural perspective, exposure to the color-blind perspective generated greater automatic racial bias… , the present findings echo the vast majority of non-experimental research in education finding that multiculturalism yields more positive outcomes for intergroup relations than color-blindness.

More to the point of this cartoon, Adia Harvey Wingfield wrote:

Many Americans purport not to see color. However, their color blindness comes at a cost. By claiming that they do not see race, they also can avert their eyes from the ways in which well-meaning people engage in practices that reproduce neighborhood and school segregation, rely on “soft skills” in ways that disadvantage racial minorities in the job market, and hoard opportunities in ways that reserve access to better jobs for white peers.

Colorblindness, in a society with racism, perpetuates racism. And if there was a society with no racism, then that society wouldn’t need colorblindness. There is no context in which colorblindness makes sense.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. They all so two people – BOB, a white guy with glasses, and JOE, a Black guy wearing a tan zip jacket – talking as they walk on a suburban sidewalk.

PANEL 1

BOB: I’ve got the solution to racism: Colorblindness!

JOE: Where we all pretend not to see race? That won’t fix things like police brutality or the racial wealth gap.

PANEL 2

Bob raises a finger to make a point.

BOB: But is the problem really nonwhites being treated badly by police and employers and banks and landlords and so on?

PANEL 3

A close up on a pleased-looking Bob.

BOB: Or is the real problem that when whites like me hear about racism we feel implicated and we resent that?

PANEL 4

Joe folds his arms, annoyed, while Bob looks very smug.

JOE: I’m guessing you’re gonna say the second one is the problem.

BOB: Not out loud.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obsolete cartoonists’ lingo for fun but unimportant details in the art. I’m determined to bring it back. (“Gretchen, stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen, it’s NOT going to happen!”)

Panel 1: A flyer stapled to a tree shows a dog wearing a yellow bowtie, with the caption “LOST DOG.” The same dog, with a sneaky expression, peeks out from behind the tree.

Panel 2: A sun-headed and a moon-headed person are sitting at a bus stop in the background, both just reading their phones.

Panel 4: The dog from panel 1 flees as a butterfly net reaches for it.

The Benefit of Colorblindness | Patreon

 

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Race, racism and related issues | 1 Comment

Crap You Hear In A Wheelchair

Posted on November 21, 2025 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.

Becky writes:

As a cartoonist in the internet age, I’m really lucky to have access to drawing tutorials as well as reference photos! I found wheelchairs really hard to draw from photos (what are all those bars for? WHAT’S HAPPENING UNDER THERE?!). But I knew there were some tips and drawing tutorials out there. I saw them on timeline every once in a while, when a cartoonist hadn’t done their due diligence before a comic went to print.  So I wanted to thank Art Resources & Tutorials on Tumblr, and Aurelia Ceitinn, who created this image.

Barry writes:

(Makes a mental note to review all the stuff Becky linked the next time I need to draw someone in a wheelchair.)

Speaking of research: I’m not a wheelchair user. When I write strips like this, research is essential. Because my imagination just is no match for the real shit ablebodied people say to disabled people in real life. (In the case of panel seven, it’s combining lots of similar experiences into a single panel).

For instance, one of the better strips I’ve made (in my opinion, anyway) is You’re So Brave, I’d Rather Be Dead. Once, I wouldn’t have believed that this was a common experience. It’s still hard to believe. But I’ve read dozens of responses from disabled people to that cartoon, saying “this is spot on” or chiming in with their similar experiences.

A user on Reddit wryly replied:

My favorite is when someone suddenly feels the need to pontificate in my general direction and how the medical community keeps people alive when they have no quality of life and it’s just tragic. That people should just be allowed to die.

My go to is always “you first.”

Every panel in this cartoon is based on real things people have said, as reported by disabled people on social media.

When I first began doing strips like this one, years ago, I was worried that people wouldn’t like me putting their experiences of discrimination into cartoons – that they might find it appropriative. And of course, I remain concerned that I’ll screw up and say something stupid. But what I’ve found over the years is that most people, far from being mad, really enjoy seeing things that reflect their experiences in a comic.

(And writing that out, it seems very much like saying ‘I’ve discovered that the floor will keep me from falling through to the basement.” Obviously many people enjoy seeing their own experiences reflect in media. But it took me a while to absorb that, as applied to my own work.)

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has nine panels. In the center of the cartoon is the title: CRAP YOU HEAR IN A WHEELCHAIR

PANEL 1

A woman in a cardigan spreads her hands beatifically.

WOMAN: Open your heart and Jesus will heal your legs!

PANEL 2

A passenger sitting on a plane grouses to the person next to him.

MAN: I saw this guy get pushed onto the plane in a wheelchair and then he stood up! This whole “disability” thing is a scam!

PANEL 3

A man rushes through an airport, rolling a suitcase:

MAN: You’re so lucky you don’t have to walk places like normal people!

PANEL 4

A man points and laughs.

MAN: You got a license for that thing? Haw haw!

PANEL 5

Below the title of the strip, a smiling woman clasps her hands.

WOMAN: You’re so brave!

PANEL 6

A woman in a wheelchair angrily speaks to a cheery woman pushing the chair.

WOMAN: Let go of me!

PUSHER: But I’m helping you!

PANEL 7

A man rubs his chin as he rambles. He’s drawn in front of his words, so we can’t see every word.

MAN: Have you really tried to walk? Have you tried seeing a doctor? Have you tried yoga? Have you tried going gluten free? Have you tried exercise? Or this thing I saw on YouTube? Have you tried positivity? Have you tried healing crystals? Have you… alkaline water? Maybe… diet? Have you tried… more water? …for Munchausens? …essential oils? …superfoods can… have you…

PANEL 8

A woman smiles eagerly and leans in.

WOMAN: So can you have sex?

PANEL 9

Two men walk away from a store carrying a bunch of grocery bags, and looking at a disabled parking sign. Nearby, a wheelchair user overhears and looks annoyed.

MAN: Man, I wish I was disabled!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is an obsolete but beloved (by me) term for fun but unimportant details in a cartoon.

In panel 3, the sign shows a flying saucer next to the bus and rental car icons.

In panel 6, the sign to the bus has an arrow that, instead of pointing in one direction, shows a circuitous and zigzagging route, because public space is not designed with the convenience of transit riders in mind!

Crap You Hear In A Wheelchair | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Disability Issues, Disabled Rights & Issues | 10 Comments

Blame Immigrants!

Posted on November 15, 2025 by Ampersand

As many people have written, one way powerful people and institutions stay in power is by scapegoating immigrants. Dick Dowdell sums it up well:

When wages stagnate, when health premiums rise faster than paychecks, when rent eats a third of take‑home income, people look for a reason. The top 0.01% — and the political entrepreneurs who orbit them — are more than happy to supply one.

Immigrants become the universal scapegoat: they are easy to see, easy to caricature, and, critically, politically voiceless. If you can convince the public that migrants, not monopolies; refugees, not stock buybacks; asylum seekers, not tax arbitrage, are the cause of their shrinking slice, you can keep the real machinery running without interruption.

This general strategy is nothing new – in the U.S., it’s at least as old as slavery. Cristina Jiménez, herself an immigrant, writes:

This is exactly what the president and his administration are doing. They are blaming immigrants for the costs of eggs, housing, a failing healthcare system and an economy that benefits only the rich. They are scapegoating immigrants to distract us from this administration’s cruelty and fealty to rich men like Elon Musk, who are stealing our resources, our data and our money while the majority of Americans are struggling to make ends meet.

“Bad” immigrants being the nation’s scapegoat is not new, but the faces and cultures of who we define as such have. In the 1920s, during the Prohibition Era, German, Italian and Irish immigrants were also labeled as immoral, un-American drunks and blamed for threatening public welfare and deteriorating American values. Ironically, many of those same immigrants have now become “white” in America’s story, and some of their descendants are now saying the same things about people like me, and calling for the mass deportation of immigrants.

The only thing startling about the current round of scapegoating is how overt and gross it is. Alarming and obviously ridiculous stories about immigrants – like the claim that they are stealing and eating our housepets – are made, not by anonymous nobodies on the internet, but by the leeches bleeding the country from the White House.

It’s infuriating. And it harms America – bad morally, bad culturally, and bad economically. We will all be worse off for it. I’m just hoping that eventually the damage Republicans are doing can be undone or at least mitigated.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, all set in an industrial-looking urban area.

PANEL 1

Two characters – a wealthy businessman, and a worker – are speaking. The businessman is dropping a couple of coins into the worker’s palm, and the worker is angry.

BOSS: Here’s this week’s pay.

WORKER: I can’t live on this, you greedy-

PANEL 2

The Bossman puts his arm around the worker’s shoulders and points to another man standing a little distance off. That man, who has brown skin, is facing another way and reading his phone.

BOSS: Whoa! Listen, friend, I’m on your side! It’s not me keeping your pay low! It’s immigrants like that guy!

PANEL 3

The Bossman gets right in the worker’s face as he rattles off things he’s blaming the immigrant for. The Worker looks panicked.

BOSS: He’s stealing the good jobs! Taking all the housing! He’s lazy! Doesn’t even work! Living off welfare! Eating your pets! Doing all the crime!

PANEL 4

The worker is now lying prone on the pavement, with the Bossman’s foot on his back. The worker angrily shakes his fist at the immigrant, and yells.

WORKER: HEY YOU! YEAH, YOU! GET OUT!

BOSS: Good boy.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is an archaic cartoonists’ term for unimportant and often silly things drawn into comics.

The signs in the background are filled with references to the classic children’s novel Charlotte’s Web: “Some Pig,” “Terrific,” “Radiant,” and “Humble” are things Charlotte writes about Wilber the pig with her webbing. The names of three characters from Charlotte’s Web – Wilbur, Templeton Rat, and Fern – are also on signage.

In panel one, a rat examines a beer bottle on the sidewalk. In panel two, the rat guzzles from the bottle. In panel four, the rat has passed out with a big stupid grin.

In panel one, a scrap of paper on the sidewalk has a picture of Matt Feazell’s character Cynicalman. A newspaper lying on the sidewalk, entitled “The Daily Weekly,” has a headline that says “Study: 91% of Headlines on Litter Not Germane.” A subheadline says “Subheadlines also found meaningless.”

Blame The Immigrants! | Patreon

 

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Immigration, Migrant Rights, etc | 30 Comments

What Freedom Looks Like

Posted on November 10, 2025 by Ampersand

Another collab between me and Nadine Scholtes.

I have a big and overwhelming project with a deadline in just a bit over a month; I don’t expect to be participating much in Alas comments until it’s turned in, or  at least until I’m close enough to the end that I’m confident I’ll make it on time. I’ll still be reading comments, of course.

Think I’m exaggerating? Well, sure, I am – but not as much as you think.

The Cato Institute’s David Kopel once wrote that “the gun prohibition movement is ultimately based on an authoritarian wish.” According to Kopel, the real question of gun control is “whether the American people are the sovereigns in their own country.” J.D. Tuccille in Reason Magazine wrote “Obamacare is fascism.” Anti-trans bigot Meghan Murphy wrote that “preferred pronouns” are a way “of grooming people to accept totalitarianism.”

These are prominent people – but thoughts like theirs are echoed all over MAGAworld, on Xitter and Reddit and whatever the Hell Trump’s social media site is called. For the most part, they are considerably more sanguine about Trump’s masked ICE troops grabbing people off the street.

It’s hard to express how disappointed I am in the right wing of America. I’ve been furious at them for decades, but for most of my life I believed there was some limit to what they’d support, some basic common denominator that we could all agree on. An unaccountable police force going around masked and disappearing people off the streets – surely that’s something we’d all oppose, right?

Guess not.

I wonder why they’re not bothered by the massive expansion of the President’s powers under Trump – after all, Trump will not be President forever (although it kind of feels like he already has been). Are they confident that a Democrat would never use these powers against them? Or are they just confident that no Democrat will ever be allowed to win the White House again?

 

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, all showing the same two people talking in a park.

PANEL 1

A bearded man wearing a red MAGA cap is talking to a earnest young woman. The MAGA man is angry, waving his hands in the air.

WOMAN: If guns are legal at all, they need to be regulated.

MAGA: GUN REGULATION IS AUTHORITARIAN!

PANEL 2

An older man with a cane is handing out fliers; the same MAGA guy, furious, slaps a flier to the ground.

CANE MAN: We’re holding a rally for universal health care.

MAGA: UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE IS FASCISM.

PANEL 3

A nonbinary person wearing a pinback that says “THEY / THEM” is a bit bewildered as the MAGA guy points at the pinback, hiding his face like he’s frightened.

MAGA: PREFERRED PRONOUNS ARE TOTALITARIAN!

PANEL 4

All three of the characters from the previous panels, looking panicked, are yelling in unison. The MAGA guy calmly laughs it off.

THREE CHARACTERS: MASKED GOVERNMENT AGENTS ARE DISAPPEARING PEOPLE!

MAGA: That’s what freedom looks like.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken Fat” is a long-dormant cartoonists’ term for unimportant but perhaps amusing details.

Panel 1 – In the background, a pigeon paints an owl’s portrait.

Panel 2 – The pigeon, painting tucked under one wing, runs away from a cat. The MAGA cap now says “Make ‘Merica Mate Mermen.” The flier the MAGA guy slapped says “Reading this tiny print makes you special & smart!”

Panel 3 – The pigeon has stopped to show the painting to the cat, who is surprised and impressed. The MAGA cap says “Make America Grout Again.”

Panel 4 – The cat poses as the pigeon paints its portrait. In the tree above, the owl sits next to where it’s hung the pigeon’s painting of the owl. The MAGA cap says “Erica’s A Hen.”

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc. | 2 Comments

Why Are You Singling Out Israel?

Posted on October 27, 2025 by Ampersand

If you publicly criticize Israel, you’ll sooner or later be confronted with the “why are you singling out Israel” critique. “There are so many nations in the world – so picking on the world’s one and only Jewish state must be motivated by antisemitism, right?”

Sometimes the “motivated by antisemitism” part is implied rather than said, as in this essay by Professor Jeroen Bruggeman.

First, why were there far more demonstrations than against other wars with far more casualties, such as Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Congo, Myanmar and Ukraine? Are Israelis and Palestinians more special than everyone else who uses and/or endures violence?

At less rarified levels, it’s often stated more baldly, as in this question on Quora.

On hypocrisy, why are we not protesting as hard for Yemen and Syria which is utterly far worse compared to Gaza/Palestine because villainizing Jews seems to be more politically correct than villainizing Muslims?

The IHRA definition of antisemitism, which has been taken up by many states and cities, the Trump administration and (under pressure from Trump) universities including Harvard and Columbia, includes “Applying double standards by requiring of Israel behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”

The Nexus Task Force, an academic group focused on opposing antisemitism, replied:

Paying disproportionate attention to Israel and treating Israel differently than other countries is not prima facie proof of antisemitism. (There are numerous reasons for devoting special attention to Israel and treating Israel differently, e.g., some people care about Israel more; others may pay more attention because Israel has a special relationship with the United States and receives $4 billion in American aid).

Few if any of Israel’s apologists who raise the “why single out Israel?” argument could honestly say they personally give equal attention to all the worlds’ crises; they typically pay far more attention to Israel than any other country.

Which is fine! People are allowed to care more about one issue than another. Even critics of Israel.

I’m pleased with (if you’re less charitable, you might even say “smug about”) the five-panel bunny narrative in the big guy’s tattoos in this strip.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has six panels.

PANEL 1

An outdoor park environment. In the background, a bearded man with a blue shirt holds a “Save Gaza” sign. In the foreground, a man in a polo shirt and a woman in a red skirt and black vest are talking about the bearded man.

POLO: Why does that guy single out Israel for criticism? Lots of countries do bad things!

VEST: I’ll ask him.

PANEL 2

The woman in the vest has approached the bearded man. From this angle, we can see that under the vest, she’s wearing a shirt with the Israeli flag on it.

VEST: There are so many evil governments, and yet you’ve decided to protest the only Jewish state. Do you have something against Jews?

PANEL 3

The bearded man earnestly replies.

BEARD: Huh. I guess I was raised to care about Israel. We talked about Israel a lot in Hebrew school. When other kids fundraised for UNICEF we donated our allowances for growing trees in Israel.

PANEL 4

The bearded man looks angrier.

BEARD: Also, I’m American. We give tons of weapons to Israel. So when Israel commits genocide, my tax dollars enable it.

PANEL 5

The bearded man smiles; the vest woman looks unconvinced.

BEARD: Besides, no one can focus equally on everything. I bet you pay more attention to Israel. If it’s okay for you to prioritize some issues, why isn’t it okay for me?

PANEL 6

The vest woman has returned to talking with the guy in the polo shirt.

POLO: So what did he say?

VEST: It’s like we thought, he just hates Jews.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is antiquated cartoonists’ slang for amusing but unimportant details in the art.

SHIRT: The bearded guy’s t-shirt has an image of a lit candle, then an image of a light bulb, then an image of the sun.

TATTOOS: The tattoos on bearded guy’s arms tell a little five panel story, showing a baby bunny growing up, falling in love, having oodles of babies, and finally dying.

PANEL 2: Charlie Brown is in the background.

PANEL 3: A flyer tapes to the tree says “LOST: Bad Dog,” in in smaller print, “Bad bad doggie! No! If found, do not give treats.” The photo shows a dog smoking a cigarette.

PANEL 6: The plant on the windowsill is Audrey II from “Little Shop of Horrors.”

Graffiti on the wall says “Why are you reading this?” and “BG is here.” (BG stands for “background”). It’s impossible to read, but the graffiti behind the woman says “Bilbo Lives.”

Why Are You Singling Out Israel? | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Palestine & Israel | 22 Comments