Trick Or Treat?

Click above to view larger image. Largest.

Cowpoke Ichthys

Click above to view larger image. Largest.

Cartoon drawn in pencil on the back of a postcard with a little color thrown in via photoshop. This was a preliminary sketch for an upcoming toon on the South Dakota abortion vote, but I think it works just fine as an image on its own. The actual South Dakota toon will feature an appearance by Alan Keyes.

Revised the first Michael J. Fox / Backwards To The Future toon, which can be seen below. A Neverborn Halloween cartoon is also in progress; hopefully I'll have that online by Tuesday morning.

Stop The ACLU / Protecting Your Right To Shut The #@* Up!

Click above to view larger image. Largest.

For the Sunday Funnies at Stop The ACLU.

Thanks to las47032 for including the recent Stop The ACLU / Holes In The Argument toon in a thread at Fighting The Left.com Ben Hollingsworth posts our current regularly updating Jesus.jpg toon within a post regarding Christian Ubuntu (http://www.whatwouldjesusdownload.com/) on his Ben's Blogs. Pabloalphons posts a Faithmouse / Neverborn cartoon as his definition of soul. Ray at our own Stella Borealis: Northland Catholic Roundtable has included faithmouse in his list of Regional Bloggers who post frequently: Oct 27. Thanks to BiTTeR_IvY for adding our cartoon to her BiTTeR_IvY LiveJournal page. Somewhere in this Polish Fonda forum is a post of http://faithmouse.com/daily813.jpg. Thanks to Miguel Vaz for posting the Neverborn / Delivery Refused, Return To Sender cartoon on his Portugese Anti Aborto. Rachel Weaselbooger on LiveJournal posts Bat*** insane right-wing cartoonist Dan Lacey weighs in on the MJF stem cell controversy and links back to the faithmouse forum at Portal Of Evil. Derek Michael Lenz has the Vote Christ 2006 toon posted on his Ruckmanite777av.livejournal. Thanks to PUNKTUAXION superr in Luxembourg for using the Neverborn / Ave Domini 2006 toon as the background image on her PUNKTUAXION superr Friendster page.

Michael J. Fox Goes Backwards To The Future II

Cartoon in progress.

Creamed Corn

First panel of a cartoon regarding Timothy A. Bear's internet corn addiction.

Michael J. Fox Goes Backwards To The Future

Click above to view larger image. Largest.

Updated version of the cartoon posted on Thursday.
The Unconscionable Claims of Michael J. Fox - Real Clear Politics


Thanks to conservative67 for showing the Vote Christ 2006 toon on his V.R.W.C. Agent Network / LiveJournal page. A thread regarding the Michael J. Fox toon above can be found at the faithmouse forum at Portal Of Evil.

Flying Faithmouse

Thanks to Brass at Portal Of Evil (adult content) for creating the flying Faithmouse gif from the previous North To Korea toon.

Thanks to Alan Keyes' Renew America for posting two recent cartoons; Stop The ACLU / Holes In The Argument and Vote Christ 2006. The Vote Christ 2006 has also turned up on a number of LiveJournal sites, including this post by Sleeptodream170 at his I would like to hold your little hand / LiveJournal page (adult content) which otherwise features a collection of Get Fuzzy toons. Fallout at this Penny Arcade (adult content) forum has posted the Mark Foley / Big Gay Bother toon.

North To Korea

Click above to view larger image. Largest.
Citizen's Alliance For North Korean Human RightsGulag The Bear courtesy www.gulagthebear.com

A Kim Jong-il (김정일) Faithmouse cartoon. Posted this on Billie's A Few of FR's Finest / Warm Fuzzy Wednesday thread at Free Republic.

Hillary Chipmunk

I'd like to work Hillary Clinton into a number of future cartoons, and rather than just produce a Mort Drucker/Dick Wright type likeness I'd like to do something a little different.

Still developing the final likeness. The above sketch has more of Hillary's current hairstyle. Once I get close to what I'm looking for I'll develop the above drawings into some sort of situational 'Hillary Chipmunk' cartoon.

130 South Dakota Doctors Endorse Abortion Ban

130 South Dakota Doctors Endorse Abortion Ban - LifeSite

Related Free Republic thread.

Vote Christ 2006

Click above to view larger image. Largest.

Pookie18 has posted a few recent cartoons in Monday's Today's Toons thread on Free Republic. Thanks as well to Timothy J. Frohlick for posting a link to faithmouse in a thread on Talk Chess.com. Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit has posted a page of mainly faithmouse cartoons at his My Vaccuum Sucks LiveJournal page. The I Did Not Have Sex With That Bin Laden cartoon comes up at the top of page two following an image search of 'Bill Clinton' in Baidu. Thanks to Believe Mail for adding our regularly updating feed to their homepage.

Outing The NEA

Click above to view larger image. Largest.

Cartoon in progress.

The NEA and God: A Partnership in Denial - Men's News Daily

Related Free Republic thread

Featuring an appearance by Gaybear.

Free Republic / Sunday faithmouse

A collection of last week's toons, posted as a Free Republic thread.

Stop The ACLU / Holes In The Argument

Click above to view larger image. Largest.
A Sunday Funnies toon for Stop The ACLU.
ACLU Sue Over Efforts To Discourage Illegal Immigrants - Stop The ACLU

Nothing

Click above to view larger image. Largest.

Another pencil sketch cartoon, drawn on the back of a postcard.

A few months ago I posted that I was returning to the time period before Faith married Blackbear and started a family. These current cartoons cover more ground regarding Faith and Timothy's relationship, Augustine the Cat before he became Father Augustine, Gaybear before he became Francis, Ms. StarMole before she joined Saint Joan of Snark's Catholic Church.

These sketches aren't finished cartoons, but I think they can help me to produce more work.

The toon above was drawn whole on a 4x6" card, without any Photoshop manipulation. In the previous Thomas Sowell / John Cleese toon, I drew the lettering separately on graph paper and pasted it on top of the drawing.

The problem I've had with drawing this small is that when cheap automatic pencil leads wiggle, it matters. Therefore, I'm using a very hard wiggleproof HB graphite pencil. Also, it's difficult to erase very tiny lines without destroying the detail you'd like to keep. If a faint line isn't in the way, I just leave it.

Can We Talk?

Click above to view larger image. Largest.

A Thomas Sowell / Ms. StarMole cartoon, in progress.

Can We Talk? by Thomas Sowell - Human Events Online

Big Gay Bother Is IMing You

Click above to view larger image. Largest.

Timothy A. Bear and Former Florida Republican Representative Mark Foley.

Thanks to Nissa Annakindt for posting the Ms.'d cartoon with accompanying Esperanto translation at her Moreover The Dog Went With Them.

Since When?

Click above to view larger image. Largest.

Her Cross To Bear - Daily Politics

Thanks for a poster at Blackboard Academic Suite (bulletin board of Everett Community College distance learning program) for posting the Ms.'d toon. Carina Obara has posted the small Hurricane Katrina/Gumbo Kitchen toon in a comment on Critosaurus' MySpace page.


Click above to view larger image.
The What Would Jesus Download image for today. Revision from an earlier toon.

Buddy Democrat

Click above for larger image. Largest.
Democrats Confusing Socialism and Christianity - Mens News Daily

Pushed back the Mark Foley cartoon to finish Buddy Democrat above. The 'Buddy Christ' image (a secular joke from the movie Dogma, and which also made an odd appearance recently in Sadr City, Iraq) triggered the Che Ernesto Guevara reference when I rediscovered it on a related Free Republic thread.

Thanks to Hans Jørgen Lysglimt from Oslo, Norway for adding our regularly updating feed to the large toon collection at the Norwegian Farmann Business Newsletter (Norsk Forretningsblad er et uavhengig norsk forretningsblad og forum for debatt om nyheter, økonomi, politik, kultur, børs og finans i aviser og media fra Norge og utlandet). The Neverborn/Delivery Refused, Return To Sender toon can be found on Megan LaRusso's Facebook page. Just came across this post of the Four Canadian Mounties Memorial toon on rebaccarulz's MySpace page. Thanks to markeyd-2 for posting the Stop The ACLU/Enemy Combatant toon to this Rotten Tomatos thread regarding President Bush signing the Military Commissions Act.

Stop The ACLU / ACLU Express

Click for larger image. Largest. In Progress.
ACLU Calls for Shutdown of Aviation Watch List - Revealing The ACLU

Sketch drawn on the back of a postcard for this week's Sunday Funnies post at Stop The ACLU. I'll have the completed cartoon online by 11 A.M. Sunday morning.

Thanks to Kate in Wisconsin at An Ol' Broad's Ramblings for the advance post. Because the image will automatically update once it's completed, Kate receives two toons on her site for the price of one!

Just noticed that Dr. Dennis Callahan at his Bravenet Irish Reflections Blog and Coffee Bar has posted a few toons; God's 50 Most Beautiful People and Hater's Magazine. Thanks, and blessings! Thanks as well to Alexa at her Birth Story for posting three recent toons; Ms.'d, Pro-Life Memorial Day and Wash For Life.

Thanks to sunnyday in the Philippines for the post of the Ms.'d cartoon at her Not Just For Superheroes. Truthseeker24 has posted the Ms.'d cartoon at his TruthSeeker24's Anti-N.W.O. Corner as well as in a thread at the Yahoo Phantom Truth group. Gratis to Amy at Another Catholic Mom for adding the hotlink for the regularly updating image. Sapphiresmiler has posted the Neverborn/Delivery Refused, Return To Sender cartoon on her Charming Xanga page. Thanks! Danny had included a link to faithmouse on his Samson Blinded (A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict). You can find this recent Neverborn/Cartoon In Progress image posted somewhere on the Japanese PC Online site. Bleed My Heart Dry has posted the Neverborn/Bad-Ass cartoon on SiNgLe OnCe AgAiN!!!!!!'s MySpace page (warning: pro-drug and adult content). Neverborn certainly does get around.

Variation of the recent Care Net toon for the international feed at What Would Jesus Download.com. Still need to finish and post the version for the clinic in Knox County, Ohio.

Lines Of Duty / Detective James Zadroga

Click to view larger image. Largest.

Detective James Zadroga - Officer Down

Heroic Decision, Tragic Consequences - Asbury Park Press

Abortion Clinic Cockroaches Now Have Their Own Website

Abortion Clinic Cockroach.com

Flora faces battery charge after 'cockroach' incident -The Hutchinson News

Didn't know anything about the 'Operation Rescue cockroach costume incident' until reading about it at Moreover The Dog Went With Them . Thanks to Nissa for the link and the laugh.

Neverborn / Care Net Pregnancy Services of Knox County, Ohio

Click for larger image. Largest. Request, in progress.
Care Net


The Detective Zadroga memorial illustration, in progress on my kitchen counter.

Signs I made last month for the Wash For Life carwash in Rochester, Minnesota. You can see the original Neverborn design here.

I'm afraid I've fallen behind on my thank-you's...

Thanks to prolythic poster Ray at our own local Stella Borealis-Northland Catholic Roundtable for posting a few recent cartoons, including the Neverborn/Mama Lisa toon. Alan Keyes' Renew America has posted three recent toons; Ms'd, Marian Fisher, and Mama Lisa. Thanks to Stop the ACLU as well for their regular Sunday Funnies posts. Cactus Alliance (we deal with prickly issues the right way!) has add the Pro-Life Blogs feed to their aggregator and therefore displays the Ms.d' toon. Amergina's LiveJournal is also displaying the Ms'd toon. Proud to have the Neverborn/Life toon on Freeper CGK's 'about' page.

Thanks to low-boy for posting the older John Kerry/Nail In Christ's Wrist cartoon on his page of Christian images at his low-boy Asiantown page. Kudos to Kids On A Mission For God for adding an older Terri Schiavo/Third World toon as a graphic link to faithmouse on their site entrance. Pookie18 has posted a number of toons on his popular Today's Toons forum at Free Republic.

Thanks to I Love Volchat for his post of the Bill Clinton/Mr. Bunny toon on this Inside Tennessee Scout.com board. Faith has included a graphic link at Faithcross. Mr. Magoo has posted the Neverborn/Delivery Refused toon at this thread at Bigfooty. MSN ***Sweet_friendzz has added one of the older series toons to their 'Have fun met deze cartoons' page. Thanks to EthicalGop for the post and link at this Discussion Forums thread on Marian Fisher. Snakebytexx included one of the Christmas Series-Michael Newdow Magic Erase Pens toons in this New Hampshire Craigslist forum. Thanks to the German Sleepwalker Blog for including the hotlink for the regularly updating 'Jesus' toon in a post regarding Linux Ubuntu Christian Edition, which can be downloaded from What Would Jesus Download.com; WWJD.com also displays a special, dialogueless faithmouse feed on their homepage for their many international visitors.

Mary Meets Dolly Interview at Genetics And Health

Rebecca Taylor of Mary Meets Dolly writes-

The Genetics and Health blog is a great online resource for all things genetics. It is written by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei, a Ph.D. in epidemiology and genetics and has been honored with a Forbes "Best of the Web" award.

Dr. Lei has a series called the Genetics Interview where she interviews a professional in the genetics field, usually with an M.D. or Ph.D. A few weeks ago she contacted me to do an interview for her site. It is up today. Here is the link:

Genetics Interview #20: Rebecca Taylor of Mary Meets Dolly - Genetics And Health

The science community on the Internet can very very anti-religious and hostile to the pro-life point of view. Dr. Lei is very courageous to offer Rebecca a forum to present some of the Catholic teaching on current issues in genetics and biotechnology to a largely secular audience.

I encourage faithmouse visitors to take a moment to leave a supportive comment on the Genetics And Health blog after Rebecca Taylor's interview. Here's mine-

Thanks Dr. Lei for the excellent interview.
Professing a 'neutral' or 'ethics free' posture on the destruction of human life is an ethical decision in itself. Secularists would like to think that their decisions are 'above' morality, but such a posture is impossible to defend. Dr. Lei asks whether preimplantation genetic diagnosis would be out of bounds at a Catholic hospital, but to argue the opposite would be to also profess a moral opinion.
Rebecca Taylor's standards are sane and reasonable, a reflection of both her Catholic faith and that of the original Hippocratic Oath, which include these precepts-

'I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone. To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art.'

Lines Of Duty / Detective James Zadroga, First Draft

Click to view larger image. Largest.

First draft of a portrait in progress of New York Police Detective James Zadroga, who passed away earlier this year of a respiratory disease contracted at the site of the World Trade Center rescue and recovery. This is the basic layout of the portrait; the final version should look quite a bit different. The theme is that Detective Zadroga was caught between both the toxic dust and smoke from the World Trade Center on one side, and a failed bureaucracy on the other.

I'm using as reference a few photographs taken by the Zadroga family, and also from photographs in the book Here Is New York. You can see the page numbers I noted in the bottom right hand side of the drawing.

Talked on the phone today with someone at a major news network regarding placing Lines Of Duty as a continuing opinion piece on their site. Could happen. The main question was how I choose who to memorialize. The answer is, I don't really have any sort of plan. I search the Internet for subjects which have the most promising artistic possibilities, and try to alternate the service branches represented. Usually I just go with whatever strikes me emotionally. If I don't have some personal interest in a portrait, why should the viewer?

Detective James Zadroga - Officer Down

Heroic Decision, Tragic Consequences - Asbury Park Press

Minnesota Positive Alternatives

Minnesota Positive Alternatives Program Helping Women Avoid Abortions - LifeNews

Ms.'d

Click to view larger image. Largest.

Ms. Magazine Ignored Petitions From Women Who Regret Abortions - LifeSite

Lines Of Duty Page

I'm building a page dedicated just to Lines Of Duty memorial illustrations.

Still in progress, but here's the link-

Lines Of Duty

Project Jason

Scroll down for Wednesday revision-

Click to view larger image. Largest.

In progress.

Project Jason - Assistance For The Families Of The Missing

Cartoon I started a few weeks ago to help promote Project Jason. Had a little problem getting the right 'sky' effect; if you click on the above image, you'll see what I'm trying to accomplish.

Five years ago, 19 year old Jason Jolkowski was last seen by his younger brother taking out the trash from his parent's driveway while waiting for a carpool ride to his part-time job. No one has seen him since, no one believes he was a runaway, and there are no clues. I can only imagine how heartwrenching this must be, and it's an experience shared by families and friends of the missing all over the world.

Wednesday Revision-

Thought about this a bit more, and decided it's not helpful to draw a cartoon PSA for a missing person when you can't tell who the missing person is supposed to be. I think this gets my original artistic idea across without sacrificing the actual purpose of the cartoon. Still need to add stars and perhaps a few other details to the above revision before I can say it's done.

I've decided to at least temporarily drop comments from the blog. I appreciate the commenters who have left encouraging messages, including those who have civily disagreed, but for now I'm on opinion vacation.

Profit Before Pews

Cities opt for economics instead of religion to boost downtown areas - USA Today

Stop The ACLU / The Enforcers

Click to view larger image. Largest.

A Sundays Funnies toon for
Stop The ACLU.

Lines Of Duty / Marian Fisher

Click to view larger image. Largest.

Laid To Rest - Lancaster Online

Pro Life Mamma Lisa

Click to view larger image. Largest.

Scan Hints Mona Lisa Pregnant for Pose

Received a nice email from a relative of John Klang.

4D Baby Images

Check out these super-cool animated sonograms.

4D Baby Images

Lines Of Duty / Principal John Klang

Click to view larger image. Largest.

Klang Called Hero, Dedicated Educator - Madison.com

John A. Klang Obituary- Madison.com

Received this email Thursday evening-

Thank you for the nice graphic tribute to John Klang.

I have been a regular reader of Freerepublic.com since it's start, and was pleased and touched to see your post after returning from the funeral for John Klang.

I thought you might be interested in some information about the area, since you made such a nice tribute.

John is my first cousin; his father and my mother were sister and brother. All of the Klang ancestors back to Johan Klang the original immigrant are buried in the Germantown cemetery. A lot of the stone inscriptions are in German.

John's father and mother are still living and I visit them often. I was born and raised in Cazenovia, and was in the first graduating class of Weston High School. Several school districts were combined to build a new school, and rather than put it in any of the small towns and ignite rivalries, they built it out in the middle of farm land with nothing around it but farms. The name was made from the Westford and Ironton Townships.

The way the people in this rural area have pulled together and supported each other is truly what America should be. These are good people.

There are many Amish families living in the area and they attended the funeral as well. There were at least 1500 in attendance.

The press and photographers were kept away and they could be seen far from the center of the events with telescopic lenses.

A luncheon was served in the elementary gym, and all the food prepared and brought in by the people in the area. This is the way it always was when I was growing up.

Thanks again.
Carolyn Kinney
Aurora, IL

Spent much of Tuesday cutting grass and removing leaves. The lawn looked great for about a half hour before the wind kicked in. Following a late night hailstorm it looks like I didn't do a darn thing.

The leaf images are scans from samples collected from my lawn. Additional samples are free to collectors. Bring a truck.

In response to a comment by Panda Rose, Asshat posts the following-

'We need crazy Christians in a grim world, need them on both sides of the Tiber.' No, we should deport them. We need thinkers, not believers. I'm glad this offensive experiment will die a quiet death. Good luck to you in your future endevours.(sic)

Actually, I've increased both my output and returned to political subject matter during the past month. A hat tip to the folks at Democratic Underground; there's something about being kicked while you're down to inspire you to get off of the floor....

Projects In Progress

Scan Hints Mona Lisa Pregnant for Pose

Sketch showing the original drawing for a new toon (inspired by the Mona Lisa story from a few days ago) with some lettering thrown over the top and colorized. As you can see I'm not adverse to working on different cartoons on the same sheet of paper. I try not to be too precious with whatever it is I'm doing; re the lines from folding the paper and carrying it around in my pocket during the day. The creases I can always erase later in Photoshop when I scan the drawing for both print and web.

The John Klang memorial portrait in progress. This is drawn on a 4x6" sheet of paper which I carried around on Monday inside of a Sweetist Day card my wife gave me a few years ago and which I've had sitting atop a pile of neglected projects near my computer. It was handy, and, it kept me from ruining the drawing as I carried it around in my pocket. I did some of the shading at the Culver's Restaurant in Lakeville, Minnesota. Not finished, of course. I have an extended section I'll blend with this drawing for the finished portrait.

I draw these portraits from photographs completely by eye. I've discovered that when working from photographs it's helpful to turn them upsidedown, a technique which makes live subjects suspicious of your motives. The benefit of copying photographs from unusual angles is that it forces you to see only spatial relationships. It's much more productive to draw irregular shapes versus what you assume a nose should look like, which is by definition representative and therefore wrong. I call that 'cartooning' (see nose below).

A second version of yesterday's Pro-Life Memorial Day cartoon, which is standing in for today's toon until I first cut grass and then complete one of the above projects.

I've received a request from someone associated with Care Net for a Neverborn cartoon. Also, a relative of one of the subjects in the unfinished Heroes Of Sadr City memorial portrait has contacted me wondering if I plan to complete the portrait, which I should. My apologies. I love starting projects, but hate finishing them.