If This Had Been A Real Emergency: August 2009

This is where I put my political cartoons after they've run in the paper. I never planned to be a political cartoonist. It just happened. I was showing some art to a reporter from a local newspaper and he saw a drawing I had done about a then current county supervisor who had recently "shot herself in the foot", so-to- speak, over an issue of a flag salute at a government advisory meeting. She wasn't going to allow the flag salute to happen. That was a dumb mistake on her part. The gentleman who wanted the flag salute went around her, borrowed a flag from the Sheriff and went ahead with the Salute. The Supervisor was at the meeting and publicly berated the gentleman for going against her and having the salute. The TV news covered this and she ended up looking like a fool. I did a drawing of her shooting herself in the foot, with the flag on the bottom on her shoe. So after seeing my drawing the editor asked if I would like to be their political cartoonist. That was in 2001 and at this writing it's 2023 and I'm still at it. So, I guess I've done alright at this after winning 1st and 2nd place in the National Newspaper Association Awards several times (the first time I won both 1st and 2nd). Plus smoe awards in the California Newspaper Association. I guess I do o.k. at this. It doesn't really pay anything. You couldn't earn a living at it. But I get to say that I am a regularly published, National Award winning Political Cartoonist. Take a look if you feel like it.

S L O W D O W N

Santa Barbara County has decided that when large vessels are traversing the waters of the Pacific Ocean about 12 miles from land along the coastline, they need to slow down to reduce emissions that might drift onshore and add to the pollution of the county air. The next item on their agenda just might be to place underwater signage for whales that transit the same waters, requesting that they 'hold it' until they are well past the county borders, as any methane gas they might release could also spoil the pristine county air.

The Unobstructed View From The Bridge

Cold Springs Arch Bridge is many times the bridge of choice for those who wish to make their final plunge. Caltrans is in the stages of trying to add a suicide barrier to stop these death dives, but there are some folks in the county who want to preserve the "unobstructed view" from the bridge, and are so passionate about it that they have succeeded in putting the barrier on hold for the time being. Part of the "unobstructed view" they don't see is sometimes on the pavement below the bridge.

PATROLLED BY AIRCRAFT

This one is from long ago and you may have seen it somewhere before. Drawn in 1985, to be exact. This was long before I had any inkling that I would be drawing political cartoons for a newspaper. (As you read this you will discover that this is partly a 'tale of woe' regarding copyright protection of artwork. I created the image above and own all rights that go with it. It is copyrighted and registered with the Library Of Congress. All art on this site is created, copyright protected, and owned by me. NOTHING can be used without my permission. I will persue to the best of my ability any infringing parties) I had the above image displayed here in a larger size, but as I wrote the accompanying text, I realized that a smaller image would be less usable to someone if pirated from this blog. Actually, this image popped into my head in about 1978 and I didn't make the drawing until '85. When I finished it, I took a photo-copy to show to a lifelong family friend who, at the time, was a CHP motor officer. He wasn't home that day, so I left the copy in his mailbox. That was possibly a mistake. He told me later that he took the copy to work and after a shift briefing he held it up and said "hey guys look at this..." it was grabbed out of his hands before he had fully raised it up and put into every copy and fax machine available. That's where I learned to NEVER let stuff get out of your site. Unbeknownst to me, this drawing was spreading like wildfire via office fax machines. The internet hadn't really hit yet. About 2 weeks had passed and I received a telephone call from the California Highway Patrol in Sacramento. Now, remember, that I am oblivious to the fact that this has spread far-and-wide through the CHP / law enforcement community. In a VERY SERIOUS tone, the voice on the phone identifies himself as officer so-and-so "with The California Highway Patrol in Sacramento. We've been trying to track you down." I thought "OH CRAP! WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

"Did you draw that picture of the F-4 Highway Patrol Plane?" "Yes, I did." Now, in a more friendly, enthusiastic and pleasant voice he says "We love it and we'd like to know if there's any way possible that we could get a larger copy for our office here." I said sure, and this exchange led me to the gift shop at the CHP academy. Pat Frye from the the gift shop was interested in possibly having the design on a t-shirt to sell. The only hang up was that she only wanted to pay me a whopping $25.00 for the rights. Most of their items were created by artists working for the state and so the state already had the rights to those works and they didn't have to pay a royalty or license for their use. I told her 'no thank you.' $25 dollars was rediculously low. (Almost an insult)
The very next week, an officer from Salinas called her offering to sell her a t-shirt with a 'patrolled by aircraft' jet on it. I was being ripped off by a CHP officer. I gathered the info on who he was, and sent for one of his shirts. It turned out that he had used his own drawing (well one he most likely pirated) but he had used my idea. (It turns out that you can't copyright an idea. You can copyright the drawing you've made expressing an idea, but another person can create their own interpretation of that idea, and that is their work, copyrighted to them.) It turned out that Pat agreed to sell shirts provided by me to the CHP gift shop, as long as she was the exclusive point-of-sale for the shirts. This worked out fairly well. The only problem was with the person printing them for me. They were excellent in quality and craftsmanship, but slow on delivery, so I would get complaints from Pat at the giftshop.
As things were progressing I had my drawing registered for copyright with The Library of Congress to have some official documentation of protection that might help keep me from being ripped off. If you have this documentation you can collect legal fees and all profits and inventory from the infringing party.
I began to see photocopies of my drawing showing up everywhere. I went on a tour of Southern California Marine Corps Air Facilities and while in the hangar of the Tustin Helicopter Base, getting hearing protection to go out on the flightline, here was a copy of my drawing hanging on the door. I'd heard from folks who said they'd seen it in Japan. A buddy and I went to Santa Paula airport on a Sunday afternoon. In a hangar was a copy of my drawing. I snuck over and signed it when nobody was looking.
From this drawing I was able to meet Dan O'bar, a CHP pilot and his observer Sam Rice. They came by our shop to get copies and offered to take me along with them on one of their aerial speed enforcement patrols. That was fun!
Their air unit moved from Paso Robles to Fresno. A Fresno Air National Guard pilot told them while on a training mission in Germany he had seen the drawing over there.
My Uncle had recently moved to the Santa Cruz area and called to inform us that there were t-shirts with my drawing being sold in a local Thrifty drug store. I had him buy one for my collection of infringers works.
About this time, a friend of mine who worked as an FAA Air Traffic Controller at the tower here, showed me a flyer for a t-shirt being sold at the gun show at the L.A. County Fair.
This one was an exact copy of my drawing but with some changes that I'm sure they thought would keep them from violating the copyright. They'd made the jet a Sherrif's plane instead of a CHP plane and had used solid colors instead of the linework and stipple I had used.
I bought one of their shirts to compare it with what I had created. They were ripping me off. The company was run by a Los Angeles City Fireman.
A friend here, Doug Coleman, who happens to be the local police Scientific Investigator (CSI if you like) helped me gather information on these guys. I called them and asked where they got the design. Were they aware that they were violating copyright laws? They stated that they had gotten permission from 'the artists sister." I decided to see if I could stop them. I talked with a local lawyer here, showed him my work and documentation of copyright, and their product. He thought I had a case but referred me to a firm in San Francisco specializing in copyright law.
This firm also believed I had a case, and at the start of the conversaton, told me that for a thousand dollars they would write a cease and desist letter. Now I had already done ALL the legwork. I had purchased the infringing work as evidence. I had gotten the names and addresses. I had spoken to them and warned them they were in violation of copyright laws. And now, this firm wants to charge me $1,000 to send a cease and desist letter. By the end of the phone conversation that fee had jumped to $1500. At most I would have gotten $1500 to $2000 dollars from these guys and their illegally gained profits and unsold merchandise. I do all the work, hand it to the lawywers along with $1500 and they write a letter. why can't I have a business like that? I didn't proceed. I would have spent more in lawyers fees than I would have gained from stopping them.
I'm learning that copyright protection is only as good as the amount of money you have to enforce it. Unscrupulous people are always going to steal your good idea and sell it for their own gain and you have to be able to outspend them trying to protect your idea. You actually also have to outspend the system so-to-speak.
If you have enough money to persue and stop infringers, you win. If you don't, then they win. Actually as soon as they start ripping you off they are winning and they don't have to do anything until you come at them from the legal side of the fence.

. . . . .

Santa Maria Airport is a designated aerial fire fighting base where planes are loaded with retardent to drop on the fires. A story in the issue that this cartoon appeared questioned the cost of such operations. A few days after this was published a story ran on a similar subject in the L.A. Times in which they interviewed personnel and found that sometimes these aerial drops are done just for 'show' and are referred to by the crews as 'CNN DROPS' done mainly to give the public the idea that something is being done.

DON'T THROW STONES

When a gentleman complained about code violations on his street, an enforcement officer was sent out to check the situation. Unfortunately his complaint backfired. He is partially paralyzed and uses a truck with a 'work' body on it because it's easier to store and access things in the side cabinets on the truck bed. It seems that it is not legal to park a 'work' truck on the street or in a driveway visible from the street. So this gentleman can no longer park his own truck in his driveway, even though he does not use it in a commercal venture. But it is o.k. to park your lifted 4x4 pickup in your driveway, because that's not a commercial vehicle.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST ..... 2002

This cartoon ran sometime in 2002. It seems several cows got loose in the general vicinity of Guadalupe and Highway One. The Sheriff was there and the Highway Patrol also arrived on the scene. Late in the day, the cows had wandered to a field and were basically laying down in that field. Discussions went on about what to do. A local farmer said he believed the cows, having grazed a bit and layed down, would stay put for the evening. He even volunteered to watch them. In a display of superior judgement. a CHP officer on scene thought they might become a hazard and decided the animals should be put down. The Sheriff left the scene, preferring not to be involved. The cows were put down by the CHP.
Eventually the farmer who owned the animals was compensated fair market value.

My Political Cartoon for the SUN - 3-20-08

This one ran on 3-20-08. Drivers in this neck of the woods have an aversion to traffic circles. They just cant seem to figure them out. The city didn't help matters when they put these traffic circles in, because their EXPERT planning and foresight came up with the design to have TWO lanes of traffic coming up to a single lane traffic circle. The 'me first 'attitude of 90% of today's drivers causes near collisions when they attempt to enter the traffic circle at the same time as the guy in the lane beside them. Instead of merging from 2 lanes into 1 lane prior to arriving at the circle, and thus avoiding these problems, the people who decide these things, decided to make the right lane a 'right turn only' lane, in hopes of solving this problem. Of course most drivers today are MORONS and don't pay attention to the markings and signs on the roadway they are driving on, so we end up with the same mess we had in the first place.

BEN'S HARRIER

This was drawn for my very good friend Lt.Col. Benjamin L. Williams, USMC Fighter Pilot flying the AV-8A Harrier, Helicopter pilot flying the CH-46D Seaknight a.k.a. Phrog in Viet Nam, Poet and Author of an EXCELLENT book - THE PURPLE FOX - well worth reading if you can find a copy for under $500.00. Ben received 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Meritorious Service Medal, Single Mission Air Medal, 43 Strike Flight Air Medals, 2 Navy Commendation Medals, the Navy Achievement Medal, and more, for his time flying 863 combat missions in Viet Nam. Ben was allowed to wear both the U.S. Army and U.S.Marine Corps flight wings. Ben flew for American Airlines after retiring from the Marine Corps. Unfortunately we recently lost Ben to cancer. He passed away June 16th 2020 and his unique vision of the world and lifelong friendship will be sorely missed.

SCRUBJAY

Below is my friend, a wild scrubjay. This bird started coming around to visit in 2001. We became friends. It's very smart, very bold and very curious, and we have come to an understanding with one another. If I have peanuts in the shell, crackers, and occasional bits of apple and banana it will come to visit. Sometimes it just comes to hang out, lands on a counter or shelf, puffs up it's feathers and watches us as we go about our day. It used to visit me on a near-daily basis for about 7 years. It's free flying and comes and goes as it pleases. It will land on my head, sometimes my shoulder. If I am not doing what it wants (which is usually getting it a bunch of peanuts to sort through) it will peck me on the head with it's beak as if to say 'come on let's get with the program here and give me a peanut!' I can't tell if it's a male or female. It knows how to communicate to me if it wants some water to drink, or if it wants a cracker from the office. It talks to me, squawking loudly if it wants my attention or it will walk back and forth on the counter and talk in a very soft chirping voice as if it's telling me a story about the kind of day it's been having. Then it's time for a few peanuts and back outside. One day it brought what appeared to be 2 offspring with it as if to show them where to come for a treat. The next day there was a scuffle between the birds and it appeared that one of the younger birds decided to take over. We didn't see the first bird again for months. The other 2 weren't as bold and wouldn't come as close at first but over time I got one of them to land on my hand. The original bird would come back for a visit every few months. The last time I saw it - in late 2012 - it hadn't come around for almost a year. I think that might have been it's last visit...we'll see.

If This Had Been A Real Emergency

UNCLE JOE

UNCLE JOE'S CRAZY TRAIN

BIG GUY'S STORAGE

WRECKING BALL ONE

BIDENOPOLY

DUNCECAP ONE

UNDERWATER JOE

BUILDBACK BETTER

INFLATION JOE

POTUS IS DOWN

WRONG WAY JOE

GET OFF MY LAWN

DEMOCRAT EXPRESS

OUT TO PASTURE

THE TWO -HEADED MONSTER OF THE DNC

OOOOOOH!! SCARY !!

LET'S GET SOME TAKE-OUT

WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?

TALKING HEADS

SCHIFFTY SCHIFF BALLOONS

LAURA CAPPS JUNIOR SUPERVISOR

THE WARM GLOW

THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS

TARRIF SALE

SUPERVISOR STICK-UP

JUST LET IT BURN

THE 4TH LARGEST

GASLIGHTING

HAL? NO!

THE SUPERVISOR'S SLICE

AMBULANCE INJUNCTION

CABALLERO BeSS

NAPTIME

FOREIGN IMPORTS

NO DEFECATION ZONE

DEEP STATE JUSTICE

MORNING CUP

OVER THE CLIFF

SMOOTH ROADS

TEXAS OR BUST

SHORTLINE R.R.

HANGAR RENT INCREASE

MINIMUM WAGE

RUNAWAY

TURNING UP THE HEAT

MARS OR BUST

LAURA CAPPS

SUPERVISOR STEAMROLLER

$999.99 CENTS STORE

PILE OF DEBT

RUN AWAY

PLANNED PARENTHOOD

CHIEF PINNOCHIO

REAP WHAT YOU SOW

PANTS ON FIRE

DON'T POOP ON ME

REMEMBER THE ALAMO

CROCK-A-DOODLE-DO

WATCH ME PULL A RABBIT OUTTA MY HAT

RACE car

MEDIC WARS

WATER

CALIFORNIA STYLE WOKE

CALIFORNIA MELTDOWN

OMNIBUS

THE ALL ELECTRIC STATE

Inflatoburger

Yellowstone

Staycation 2022

OUTTA GAS

They won't work without oil

Phillip de Tanque

Traffic Mitigation

Happy masked year

MAKE CRIME ILLEGAL AGAIN

Ho Ho Joe

Debt Ceiling

THE LAND OF THE FREE

RECALL CLOWNS