Steve Brodner: The War on Minneapolis ... and People So Not Having It

 Via Steve Brodner's The Greater Quiet Substack: 

The attack on American city continues with ratcheting violence and propaganda laid on by the Trump-ICE gestapo and the brave people of Minnesota not backing down. They will be Trump’s undoing. That is the sound of America not having it.

 

 

There is a very good Plan to Fight Back laid out in a number of places now. Check one out HERE at Save America Movement.

It essentially is this:

In his publication of The Warning with Steve Schmidt this morning, SAM co-founder Steve Schmidt laid out our proposed 10-point action plan. See our recommendation below:

1. The Governors Must Lead: Governor Andy Beshear must immediately convene an emergency summit of the Democratic Governors Association. They must invite any Republican governor who still possesses a shred of loyalty to the Constitution over their party. This is the new front line.

2. A United Front: These governors must enter into interstate compacts to increase their collective power. They must issue a joint Declaration of Principles—a firewall against federal tyranny—outlining specific commitments to protect their citizens from MAGA aggression.

3. Emergency Sessions: Governors must call their legislatures into special emergency sessions immediately. The goal: Pass binding resolutions that affirm loyalty to the U.S. Constitution and reject unlawful federal directives.

4. Assert Sovereignty: States must weaponize every tool in their arsenal. This means hearings, subpoenas, investigations, and the strategic use of state pension funds to pressure corporate collaborators. They must assert their sovereignty to defend liberty.

5. Change Leadership Now: The Senate Democratic caucus must replace Chuck Schumer. This is a moral imperative. His leadership is indistinguishable from collaboration. We need a wartime general, not a terrified politician.

6. Topple the Speaker: The House is nearly tied. Democrats must ruthlessly exploit the slim MAGA majority. They should cut a deal to elect a dissident Republican—someone like Thomas Massie or Adam Kinzinger—as Speaker until the November election. This is the “Titanic Strategy”: help a few Republicans into the lifeboats to sink the captain.

7. Constitutional Hardball: Once the Speakership is broken, Congress must use its inherent contempt powers and the power of the purse to strangle this administration’s illegal activities. The madness stops when the money stops.

8. Boycott Collaborators: Hilton Hotels punished a franchisee for refusing to serve ICE agents. We must punish Hilton. A coordinated, massive boycott must force them to understand that collaboration with fascism carries a fatal price tag.

9. Olympic Boycott: No moral athlete should march past Donald Trump at the upcoming opening ceremonies. It will be a visual echo of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. We are calling for an athlete boycott of the parade. Do not dip the flag to a fascist.

10. Global Isolation: We must organize boycotts of the World Cup in the U.S. and urge foreign tourists to stay away. The message to the world is simple: Do not normalize this regime with your presence or your money.

The time for polite disagreement is over. The time for “giving them a chance” is dead and buried.

They have chosen to stand for violence. They have chosen lies. They have chosen to tear down the American idea.

We will not submit. We will not be intimidated. And neither should you.

Join us.

Thank you for subscribing. Sunday Challenge coming in a bit.

In solidarity,

Steve

 

 

"Dilbert" Creator Scott Adams Dies At the Age of 68

 

 

A 2014 photo of Scott Adams by Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle 

 

Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip and a racist right-wing podcaster, died at the age of 68 of metastatic prostate cancer. His comic strip was dropped from syndication in 2023 after Mr. Adams made racist remarks.

Associated Press:

"His first ex-wife, Shelly Miles, announced the death Tuesday on a livestream posted on Adams’ social media accounts. “He’s not with us right anymore,” she said. Adams revealed in 2025 that he had prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. Miles had said he was in hospice care in his Northern California home on Monday.

"'I had an amazing life,' the statement said in part. 'I gave it everything I had.'

"At its height, 'Dilbert,' with its mouthless, bespectacled hero in a white short-sleeved shirt and a perpetually curled red tie, appeared in 2,000 newspapers worldwide in at least 70 countries and 25 languages."

Derf Backderf on Scott Adams' legacy:

"As a cancer survivor, I would never gloat when bad people die of cancer. Plenty are, which is troubling.

"Scott Adams was a bad person, who said vile things. Relentlessly, over many years. It's perfectly ok to discuss that, as we do with the loathsome Al Capp, whose infamous self-destruction outmatched that of Adams. 

"Adams could have been remembered fondly as a guy who made a silly, very successful comic strip in the final era of newspaper comics. All he he had to do was just keep his mouth shut and his vile thoughts to himself. He, and he alone, chose not to do that. He leaned into far-right racist politics. He reveled in it. He gloated about it.

"In the end, most of the damage he did was to his place in comics history. And that's fitting.

"We look back collectively at the beloved cartoonists we've lost. Their work is still revered, and they're personally worshiped by us comics folk, and many of you civilians. Charles Schulz, Jack Kirby, Al Jaffee, Bill Mauldin, Kliban, Richard Thompson, on and on. Their work lives on. Their legacies grow and grow.

"A week from now, Scott Adams and Dilbert, on the other hand, will be forgotten and seldom mentioned again. That's his legacy, and he alone wrote it."

Laugh Parade

 

 

Here are some gag cartoons from LAUGH PARADE, a 1945 hardcover book, copyright that same year by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Ward Greene edited the collection and it was published in New York by Grosset and Dunlap. 

 

From the Introduction, titled "About This Book:"

"There are fixed standards in this world for intelligence, moral and prowess in the pole vault; there are authorities on every subject under the sun from plumbing to art. But there is no sure answer, except the individual's, to the question, 'What is funny?' In this matter every man must be his own barometer." 

Here are some groaners, some sexist, some silly, some politically incorrect cartoons of their time. 

Mischa Richter:

Jaro Fabry:

Graham Hunter:

Gardner Rea:

George Wolfe:

Virgil Partch:

George Wolfe:

George Price:

Ali:

Gardner Rea:

George Reckas:

Gardner Rea:

Mischa Richter:

Ali:

Gardner Rea:

Jaro Fabry:

Leo Salkin:

George Shellhouse:

Garrett Price:

Patrick McDonnell on Charles Schulz

 

Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell talks about Charles Schulz on the Unpacking Peanuts podcast.

"To me, what I love about cartooning is the magic how these little abstracts, pen and ink drawings come alive on the page and you really connect with the characters. And I guess as a kid to try to, attempt to do that magic to make these little doodles come alive, that's what it was for me. And no one was better at it than, Sparky. Those characters are so alive on the page." — Patrick McDonnell of MUTTS fame.

Happy Birthday, Peter Arno

 It would be his 122nd birthday today.

Michael Maslin, who wrote the great bio of Arno (Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist), weighs in and quotes many New Yorker cartoonists on the man.

Here's one of my favorite stories about Peter Arno (1904 - 1968):


Some cartoonists like the beginning bit (the coming up with the idea, honing the gag bit I mean) and some like the process (the sketching and layout) and others prefer the end (the sale). My favorite part is coming up with the gag and drawing the doodle in my sketchbook. Not so with Mr. Peter Arno.

Arno would draw and redraw his cartoons sometimes dozens of times. There is a true story that cartoonist Mel Casson would tell, about visiting Mr. Arno in his penthouse apartment. I'll do my best to relate it here, from memory of him telling it some 20 years ago as part of a National Cartoonists Society Connecticut Chapter speech he gave.

So, a few decades back, Mel Casson and a friend went to visit the one and only famous New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno. He had invited them to his apartment. And it really was a penthouse apartment. The lobby elevator went up, and the doors opened onto the interior Arno landing, from which one could see the Arno living room and -- there he was -- Peter Arno himself, mixing drinks.

It was a pleasant visit and Arno was a wonderful host. After sitting down, having a drink and talking shop, Arno asked the younger cartoonists, "Do you want to see my studio?"

Well, of course! Who wouldn't want to see Arno's studio?!

So, Arno walked over to a door, and opened it. They walked in. Arno switched on a light. The room had curtains all around, from floor to ceiling, covering the wall, the windows. "I can't have any distractions," explained Arno. The only furniture: a large drawing board, lamp and chair. And on the drawing board, laid out in two rows, were twenty original drawings.

These were 20 originals of the same cartoon, drawn over and over. But, coming closer, the cartoons were not exactly the same. Each one was had a slight difference: an arm bent a different way, a head turned, one character was upstage of the other, to the right in another, etc. Each one was a fully inked Arno piece of original comic art, ready for publication.

I remember Casson telling Arno how surprised he was that he (Arno) did all of this work, painstakingly laboring over the cartoon, drawing and redrawing it in so many different, subtle ways -- all in finished ink and wash. Casson suggested drawing a series of thumbnails or pencil sketches instead of going to all this time and effort to create twenty finishes.

Arno explained that this was always the way he worked: drawing many different variations of the cartoon until he was satisfied. Casson repeated that it was so much work, drawing a large size finished piece over and over and over again.

"But you don't understand," explained Arno, motioning to the 20 cartoons, "This is my favorite part."



Related:

Harry Lee Green brings a lovely sampler of Peter Arno's amazing layout and masterful wash style from the collections SIZZLING PLATTER and HELL OF A WAY TO RUN A RAILROAD.

Interview with Mike Lynch by Eerie Rotica

 

Eerie Rotica has been a burlesque performer for about a decade, and she also cartoons. She asked me if she could interview me for her substack. She posted the interview up over the holidays.

We talked about what I do and what it's like being creative for a living. I enjoyed meeting Eerie and thought this was a good interview. 

Here's a portion that I (for some reason) snipped out of the interview. It's all about the journey and how it is not linear. Being creative for a living is not a straight line to success.

 

"I was a college administrator until I was in my 30s. It was only then, realizing I was personally unhappy with that profession, that I went full time freelance. It was another artist, George Rhoads, who said to me, 'You'll never be any good unless you do this full-time.' He was right. When I quit and drew all day, I DID get better. But it still took six months before selling anything for actual money. For me, selling gag cartoons seemed to work best. I always thought that the garbage-to-good-stuff ratio would change. I would stop wasting my time with writing things that did not work and wasted time -- but I found out it's just part of the process. That wandering around with ideas and going down dark metaphorical alleys that don't yield a working result is just built into this. At least it is for me. And it doesn't bother me to toss ideas away and think of new ones. You shouldn't fall in love with an idea. Now it's tough since a lot of the old markets are gone, but people still love cartoons."

Animation Screencaps

 

A lot of you guys may already know about places like Animation Screencaps; sites where they show hundreds of animated movies that are broken down, frame by frame, so you can study the camera angle, color, angles, etc. Anyway, it was news to me. A fun place to browse. 

Related:

Cap-that.com

Fancaps.net