Au Revoir, Lame Canard

I have been rooting for regime change, or anyone who could keep Bush out of office, since before George W. was "elected" the first time. But despite the many calumnies and criminal charges that deserve to be heaped upon the mass of tissue he uses for a head, there is one point of acclaim that cannot be denied to our current Decider: he's the only American President yet to appear on the cover of an issue of Satisfactory Comics. Why, here he is, in Mike's version of my doodle of him, in the two o'clock position on the cover of our fifth issue.



Despite the brief presence of an abominable cretin, the book is kid-friendly.

You see, we asked a dozen people to provide "a frightening character" to use in this comic, and from our pal Adam Rosenblatt we received, as a submission, George W. Bush attaining a second term. (We made this comic back in April of 2004, you see. We had no way of knowing then how bad things would get.) Most of the other characters became figures in the story's actual plot, but Bush was brushed off quickly in a sort of a cameo appearance.



(You'd better click and enlarge.)

I put Bush and Paris Hilton (another submission) into an exhibit in the Museum of the Horrible, a corridor dedicated to the Most Horrible American Presidents, including Grant and H. M. Singeberry (who apparently gets elected some time after 2020). I had meant that guy's name to be "Singleberry," but I had a lettering lapse at the last minute...

Anyway, I've always been pretty happy with that cartoon of Bush. I think I managed to translate him recognizably into my clumsy cartooning idiom without caricaturing him too much. In honor of Mike's post from yesterday (and using just a little bit of it), I have colored that old cartoon.



And so I say sayonara to the monster. Here's hoping that the next time he's in the news, it's in the context of his trial and conviction.

I Hate W Deeply

(click to enlarge)

You may have heard that after eight years, George W. Bush will surrender the presidency of the United States of America. He recently held his last White House news conference, an event that earned a front-page series of nine close-up photographs in yesterday's Washington Post. The layout reminded me of so many of my favorite talking-head comics: Dan Clowes's real-dialogue comics for David Greenberger; Seth's chatty comics critic in the first Comics Journal Special from a few years back; our own "I Fucked Thomas Edison."

In the spirit of that last-named, deeply respectful item, I offer the preceding mash-up as a sort of valedictory valentine to 43. I used the nine photos by Chip Somodevilla as printed in the Post and simply pasted down a few balloons and captions from another favorite piece by Dan Clowes, "I Hate You Deeply." The Post's pictures were titled "A Final Face-Off With the Press"; I guess this is "A Final Kiss-Off to the Pres." Just remember: I didn't write a word of it.