Blad Cartog

political cartoon 19

2006-08-09T08:19:00.000-04:00

Kofi, Kofi, Kofi...
i spent WAY too much time drawing this one
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

political cartoon 18

2006-07-24T08:20:00.000-04:00

there's just no pleasing people
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

political cartoon 17

2006-03-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

i should probably have used this as a rough sketch and made a nicer looking version for here, but i got lazy
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

political cartoon 16

2006-03-10T08:39:00.000-05:00

why did i draw shoes like that? i have no idea...
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

political cartoon 15

2006-03-10T08:36:00.000-05:00

the fat kid turned into a pregnant woman somewhere between my brain and my pen
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

political cartoon 14

2006-03-10T08:33:00.000-05:00

awww, those little companies are so cute! and in case you were wondering, All antitrust gremlins have curly hair
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

men's rights - the new roe v. wade

2006-03-09T08:48:00.000-05:00

women can opt out of a pregnancy if they decide that a baby isn't what they want right then (although this is coming under fire in several states), but what about the man involved? if the woman decides to have an abortion he's in the clear, but if she decides that she wants a baby (even if at the time of 'making the baby' she didn't, the man didn't, AND they had taken precautions against it), he must pay child support for the result. i've always had a problem with that (the idea of fair still hasn't been washed from me yet), and now the National Center for Men is trying to fight it. their timing is, of course, awful considering south dakota just passed a law banning almost all abortions and other states are making moves in that direction. Another aspect of problems finding support comes from party lines. i may agree with it, but i'm not exactly in tune with the majority opinion. liberals, as a friend pointed out, can't afford to support it for fear of losing the vote of women. conservatives, with concern for personal responsibility and dislike of abortion, aren't likely to support it either. so hopefully the courts will not be swayed by public opinion and rely on the very simple logic of -if women can opt out of a pregnancy, shouldn't men be able to opt out of financial responsibility for one (especially if his choice was previously known)-.
(fun with parentheses time is now over)

layout

2006-02-21T10:47:00.000-05:00

hooray!
i took the time to fix the layout so everything should display properly now for both ie and firefox (and hopefully anything else all you people who aren't viewing this blog might be using)

political cartoon 13

2006-02-20T10:41:00.000-05:00

first of all, it was WAY too hard to find out who the current NRA president is... second, it seems when i draw people in bed they end up even more like black blobs than when i draw them normally...
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

political cartoon 12

2006-02-17T18:11:00.000-05:00

i feel like i probably should have put 'artist' in quotes
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

political cartoon 11

2006-02-09T11:40:00.000-05:00

thanks to steve doocy from 'FOX and Friends' for the fantastic pun
other than that, i can't believe i actually drew in all the hair...
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

political cartoon 10

2006-02-02T19:01:00.000-05:00

yeah, you wanna know who the guy on the left represents, you have to look at his crotch
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

political cartoon 9

2006-02-01T16:42:00.000-05:00

this makes me think of people on their hands and knees cleaning a floor with toothbrushes
and i suppose i should admit that the thought 'boy george' made me chuckle a little
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

google and politics

2006-01-27T11:12:00.000-05:00

i have been accused of worshiping at the altar of google. i don't agree with that, but i do like it a lot. bias specified, i would like to have a one-sided discussion about their current moves that have made a lot of fuss.
first, defying the justice department. what a great advertisement! they get lots of publicity, people who are upset that everyone else of note turned over the information are turning to google as their last stand of hope for privacy, and they get to appear noble in some circles (most importantly, the circle that includes their users). they DON'T WANT the gov. to restrict their searches any more, they make a lot of money from the porn industry, more restrictions mean less money. kids can get access to porn without the internet, they certainly don't need a search engine to get it. hey, guess what!, it's the parent's responsibility to regulate what their children view online, not the gov's. this is not china...
oh what a fabulous segue to topic two, google voluntarily filtering content in china. china is a HUGE market, if google wants to survive against the other search engine/media companies, they need to be in there now. the chinese gov. wouldn't let google grant access willy nilly even if they tried. when the gov. filters results you don't find out that you were being restricted, nothing shows up. when google filters results, you get a note saying 'hey, we filtered this'. that subtle difference can have a huge impact. when people know exactly what is being restricted it creates unrest and google coming to china could be a major step in capitalism taking hold in that country.
so basically, google - keep on keepin on, your service is fantastic and while i really think my idea related to your news service would put you ahead of everyone else, i still like you just the way you are.

political cartoon 8

2006-01-24T20:16:00.000-05:00

dang... them is some nice shoes
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

well that's pretty hilarious

2006-01-24T09:07:00.000-05:00

so i make a post saying that i was pretty heartless when it came to hurricane victims (since erased because i have transferred that sort of stuff to a different blog)
well i signed up for adsense, and the first ad that appeared on my site, was one asking for donations for hurricane victims
that's pretty funny
and sadly enough, this post probably isn't going to help things
i think i might have to keep an eye out and veto ads like that

previous political cartoons

2006-01-23T20:18:00.000-05:00

below are the comics that started my occasional habit of drawing political cartoons
they all take place in early 2004 and as such are comments on the time (imagine that)
it started with an ad in the student newspaper at Purdue U. asking for political cartoon artists to apply
knowing full well that i couldn't draw near well enough to actually get printed in a paper, even with content as fantastic as mine, i went ahead and drew the three required to apply (it's not like i was going to do my hw)
well seeing as i was the only one to apply... they decided to give me a try
being paid for them didn't last long, but i still had fun (not doing hw) and will probably continue to make bad cartoons for a long time

2006-01-23T20:17:00.000-05:00

this one was actually drawn for the paper but before i was told not to submit any more, i thought the website doing the talking was stupid so i refrained from giving them any advertising by actually putting their name on the comic
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

2006-01-23T20:14:00.001-05:00

this is the last one that i drew for the paper, the editor was still upset that i had too much white space and had also decided that my drawing wasn't magically improving, i had to resubmit it 5 times before they said not to bother any more, by the time the last one came around the drawing was so black with shading you couldn't tell what it was a picture of (if you could before)
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

2006-01-23T20:09:00.000-05:00

this is the last one that i drew in pencil because the paper decided pen is the way to go (the editor also decided that i needed to use ALOT less white space so even the pages are shaded a little) i was just annoyed at how pathetic and predictable watching the news was
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

2006-01-23T20:07:00.000-05:00

this is the first one that appeared in the paper (The Exponent, W. Lafayette IN), it was my least popular one at the time (but not for a lack of beautiful solar panel detail) one of my friends thought that the probe looking for possible origins for life on earth on mars was a shopping cart....
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

2006-01-23T20:01:00.000-05:00

i might have projected a bit of myself into kerry by having his hands in his pockets, but i tell everyone it's because it makes it look like a casual stroll into the state, i was especially cracked up by the roadrunner reference
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

2006-01-23T20:00:00.000-05:00

ahhh france.... i modeled the expression on the country's face after a girl i knew in grade school
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

2006-01-23T19:59:00.000-05:00

i think this is the first one i drew, as you can see i made sure all my lines were straight and i made good use of contrast, this dedication to detail persisted in all the comics i have drawn since
(c) Mark Scherschel, II

the new improved and much posted blog

2006-01-20T21:15:00.000-05:00

as everyone who reads this (me) knows, i havn't updated regularly, and we aren't surprised....
so, the new plan is to try to post a political cartoon every week, some sort of a political/philisophical commentary every other week, and whatever i come across when i come across it
the chances of this happening are slim, but it's a nice thought

school

2005-08-31T10:15:00.000-05:00

interesting timing....
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Business/story?id=1049526&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

education

2005-08-30T00:01:00.000-05:00

the education system sucks
schooling is targeted to the least common denominator, so the great students with great potential get shafted, how do we expect to remain great if we stifle and suffocate our heros before they even get a chance to show what they can do?
i'm not saying that we need to isolate the high potential students and instruct them at a greater level, social interaction with people your age but all ability levels is important, classes are only a small part of the education that goes on in schools
students need to be able to individually go at their own pace, and be able to further pursue things that interest them, instead of being subjected to the homogenization that is happening now
if each student had a computer and a program did the instruction, specific to the student, in that students learning style, while the teacher was available for individual assistance, it would allow for the greatest learning for ALL students
now there would have to be some sort of standard to determine the minimum education requirements, but beyond that the student should be able to explore anything of interest, and even specialize in things they have special skills or interest in
some of the standards and how to work in social time and other things like that need to be worked out, but the idea is solid

intro

2005-08-23T14:48:00.000-05:00

i'm creating this to chat about my ideas on everything, post some interesting links/info, and maybe put some really badly drawn political cartoons up too