Since this cartoon ran. Widely excoriated in the right-wing blogosphere as anti-military, ludicrously enough.

Seems like a very long time ago.

Health care reform and abortion. (Mobile version at link above.)

A limited number of signed copies of The Very Silly Mayor are available at the publisher’s website. Or you can pick up a copy of the regular edition. Either way, if you have children, or know of any human beings who do, I do encourage you to pick up a copy. It really is the best way to support this little website/cartoon conglomerate of mine this holiday season.

… speaking of the Mayor, feedback from a reader fresh from the inbox:

I just wanted to thank you for “The Very Silly Mayor.” My boys, 3 and 5
years old, love it. They like to read it together, and then try to come up
with silly ideas. Afterwards, we talk about how we can tell if an idea is
silly. And it doesn’t hurt that they love penguins!

I apologize to regular readers for the repetition, but for anyone who might have missed the other eleventy-million times I’ve said this: I wrote this genuinely as a children’s book, not as a wink-wink-nudge-nudge “children’s” book actually aimed at adults, so it is the highest compliment I can receive to hear of it being enjoyed by its actual intended audience.

Last night Hannity had to apologize after Jon Stewart caught him splicing together video from different teabag rallies to make the crowds at the recent one seem larger than they were — he called the mistake “inadvertent.” Fox seems to have a recurring problem with these little “inadvertent” mistakes. From last March:

Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that Fox News spliced a six-month old clip of Vice President Biden to misleadingly imply that he recently said the “fundamentals of the economy are strong.” Today, Fox News’s Martha MacCallum apologized to viewers and said it was an “inadvertent” error.”

As indicated in the announcements box above, I’ve finally figured out (with the help of kind reader Todd T.) how to set up a browser-based version of the cartoon optimized for mobile devices. I’m keeping it very simple — it’ll just be the most recent cartoon each week, with nothing archived. Bookmark the link if you want to give it a try; I’ll update it every Tuesday for awhile, and maybe make it a permanent feature, depending on the response I get.

… a tip for iPhone users: in Safari, click “Add Bookmark” then click “Add to Home Screen” — this puts a fake “app” button on your phone screen which will lead you straight to TMW. (You can even sort of choose the image — it takes a screen grab of whatever’s showing on your phone at that moment.)

… how to view on Blackberry (via reader Stuart):

1. once the initial link has loaded, push the options button and choose “select mode”.
2. scroll down until the cartoon panel is outlined (selected).
3. again hit the options button and choose “full image”.
4. the entire cartoon will load and is perfectly optimized to view and read on the Blackberry screen.

I’m starting to gather material for my annual Year in Review cartoons, and as always, your suggestions for memorable, and memorably stupid, highlights of the year are eagerly solicited. (Last year’s installments are here and here, to give you a sense of the sort of thing I’m after.) If I use your contribution, I’ll send you a signed print of the cartoon; in the event of multiple submissions of the same item, first one in gets it. Email to tom-dot-tomorrow-at-gmail-dot-com, and use the subject line “Year in Review”.

You can see a larger version here (watermarks not on actual posters, of course).

No promises, but I’ll probably be selling a signed and numbered edition of these sometime early next year, around February or so. They’ll be available as complete sets of four only, and I haven’t figured out the exact price yet. In hopes of keeping this sale a bit more manageable than the last one, I’m going to take names for a waiting list – if you’re interested in a set, send an email to tom-dot-tomorrow-atsymbol-gmail-dot-com, with “Philly waiting list” in the subject line. Please note, you are not placing an actual order, and I’m not taking any money at this time — but when I do the sale, priority will be given to those on the list.

UPDATE: Waiting list is now full, but I’m sure there will be some attrition through cancellations and whatnot, so you can still send your name if you want, and I’ll keep you on the standby list.

Update 2: Okay, at this point, a lot of people would have to cancel out for everybody on the list to get a set of these, so I’m going to stop taking names for now.

Also via Bors:

MAD Magazine artist Tom Richmond has been working on an iPhone app with movie director/entrepreneur Ray Griggs that allows users to search a database for contact information of every congressman. Tom did 540 caricatures – one for every representative in union and territories – for the app. Unfortunately, they have learned that Apple has rejected the app based due to “content that ridicules public figures.”

Full story here. I’ve looked into the possibility of a TMW iPhone app, but this is one stumbling block I didn’t anticipate: that the gatekeepers in Cupertino would be sent to their fainting couches by — heavens! — the very thought of political satire. And this wasn’t exactly hard-hitting content, as the artist himself acknowledges:

These caricatures aren’t mean or very exaggerated. They are simple, fun cartoon likenesses of the politicians and the purpose of the app is a informational database. There is no editorial commentary involved at all.

Doesn’t bode well for the likes of me or Bors or Rall, which is unfortunate, given the iPhone’s market dominance.

Via Bors:

KURTZ: Did one of the founders — did I get this right — of Google ask you why you didn’t just publish your book online?

AULETTA: Yes. In my second interview with co-founder Sergey Brin, he came in on his rollerblades and he threw his knapsack down on the table and he said, “Ken, let me ask you a question.” He said, “Why don’t you just publish a book for free online and get a much larger audience for it?”

And I said, “Well, I might get a larger audience, but who’s going to pay me an advance so I have money to live on since I’m on leave from “The New Yorker” to do this? And by the way, Sergey, who’s going to edit my book and who’s going to do an index? And who’s going to market it? And who’s going to pay for my expenses to come out here as many times I’m coming out here?”

And, of course, at that point, Sergey Brin changed the subject.