It took me a few tries to write this strip.

It’s the most vexing question of the Trump era, for me: How can so many people support Trump?

I’ve known a bunch of Trump supporters. Many of them, in face to face interactions, are kind and relatable. They love their kids. They like some of the same TV shows I do. Some of them love musicals. They like puppies and cupcakes and many other good things.

And they support Trump.

Because every source they trust tells them that Trump, even if he has flaws, is a heroic figure who is helping the country recover from the depravations of the evil liberal order controlling DC. And the same sources tell them that leading Democrats not only hate freedom, they want to take their children away and perform surgery on them, and if they ever win an election it’s because of millions of illegal votes.

If I believed all that, I’d support Trump too.

Back in 2018, David Walsh wrote:

If you spend any time consuming right-wing media in America, you quickly learn the following: Liberals are responsible for racism, slavery, and the Ku Klux Klan. They admire Mussolini and Hitler, and modern liberalism is little different from fascism or, even worse, communism. The mainstream media and academia cannot be trusted because of the pervasive, totalitarian nature of liberal culture.

I use VR goggles most days – it’s my favorite way to exercise. (Cheaper than a gym, more fun, and most of all convenient.) So in hindsight, it’s strange I took so long to think of VR goggles as a way of showing the right-wing information bubble in a cartoon.

Even after I thought of “Fox goggles,” it still took me a few tries to write this strip. In an earlier draft, the last panel wasn’t so dire – the character merely tripped and fell on his face (and his goggles), while the other character stayed standing. But eventually I realized I didn’t like that script, because it implied that conservative delusions mainly harm conservatives. When actually, they’re taking the entire country down with them.

Once I had that insight, the strip wrote itself.

Frank Young colored this one. I really like the fade he did in the sky colors in panel four; I don’t know why, but somehow it really adds to the feeling that these two characters are falling a great distance to their doom.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

PANEL 1

Two people are walking along a cliff’s edge and chatting. The first is wearing jeans and an orange t-shirt; the second is wearing black pants, a white polo shirt, and a VR headset that completely covers his eyes.

Tshirt looks irritated, Polo is cheery.

TSHIRT: How can you say the economy’s good? Everything’s awful! Oil prices, drug prices, yo-yo tariffs, the rampant corruption…!

POLO: I don’t see any of that!

PANEL 2

A closer shot of Polo shows that his VR goggles are covered with stickers for right-wing news outlets – NewsMax, Fox News, Truth Social, X, and others.

TSHIRT: Of course you don’t see it — you’ve got your Fox goggles on.

POLO: Hey, my goggles are the only thing that shows me the truth! Which is that—

PANEL 3

Polo trips over a stone, falling directly into Tshirt.

POLO: Whoops!

PANEL 4

Tshirt and Polo fall off the cliff and are falling an enormous distance.

POLO: We’re in a golden age!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is ancient cartooning slang for unimportant details in the art.

PANEL 1: A notice posted on a tree says “WANTED: Actualization, Self-Esteem, Belonging, Safety, physiological.” (This is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.) Groucho Marx is lying on the grass in the background. A tiny bike-rider is riding down the other tree.

PANEL 3: There’s a cloud person fishing sitting on the upper-left cloud. There’s a cool snake (cool because it’s wearing sunglasses) wrapped around the tree trunk, and an evil bunny (evil because smoking a cig) at the base of the tree.

PANEL 4: The middle cloud on the left side of the panel has a big face in it. (Rotate 90 degrees clockwise if you have trouble seeing it).

THE T-SHIRT: Every instance of the T-Shirt shows a different character or thing shaped like a tube with a puff on top: Burt from Sesame Street, Beaker from The Muppet Show, Road Runner from Looney Tunes, and a carrot.

Fox Goggles | Patreon

ICE agents are the worst people in the world. If you’re a good person and you’re working for ICE, you don’t really exist, because all the good people have resigned by now.

In Maine, an ICE agent told a woman filming him in public – which is entirely legal to do – “we have a nice little database, and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”

In Minneapolis, days after an ICE agent publicly murdered Renee Good, agents were referring to Good’s death to threaten civilians. “Listen, have y’all not learned from the past couple of days? Have you not learned?”

Garret Grass reports that “Overall, CBP’s arrest and misconduct rate is FIVE TIMES higher than other federal law enforcement agencies — and, in fact, if you look over the last decade, the arrest rate of CBP officers and Border Patrol agents (.5%) has been HIGHER than the arrest rate of undocumented immigrants in the United States (.4%).”

Brookings wrote about “reports of ICE using excessive force, such as in the case of Julio Sosa-Celis, and of U.S. citizens being arrested or detained based on their accent or appearance, including Native Americans.”

On January 20, a 5-year-old with a pending asylum case was apprehended by ICE as he arrived home from preschool. School officials say he was used “as bait” to attempt to arrest other family members and members of his community.

ICE agents are some of the worst people, and that’s not an accident.

ICE is deliberately trying to attract the worst people in the country, by using white nationalist dog whistles in recruitment ads. For instance, they’ve posted ads using the slogan “We’ll Have Our Home Again,” a quote from a white nationalist anthem.

Since 2020, the song has been circulated on the messaging app Telegram almost exclusively by accounts linked to far-right extremists, according to analysis by Open Measures, a research firm that specializes in online extremism.

With lyrics about replacement by foreigners, Beirich says the song is only popular in white nationalist spaces. “This is the kind of thing that I can’t find to be a mistake,” she said.

ICE has also famously lowered “the bar for recruits, including reduced training, slower background checks, and lower physical abilities… Some ICE recruits reached the training academy before fingerprinting, drug tests or background checks were completed.”

Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell commented on ICE recruitment:

With this kind of campaign, they feel like they’re going on the internet and basically just saying, “Hey, if you want to pick up a gun and start shoving people around, you want to join us.”

No wonder ICE has been killing people – thirty two people in 2025, and they’re on track to kill many more than that in 2026.

Most of the drawing in this one is basic – mostly just a guy talking straight to the camera – although I hope it’s good. The last panel was the most fun to draw, just because there’s so much more going on there. And – as far as chicken fat goes – I’m very pleased with my little “summary of everything popular on YouTube” at the bottom of panel three. Frank Young did a terrific job with the colors, despite my giving him zero guidance. (It’s so handy to work with a colorist who gets my cultural references).

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels.

PANEL 1

A middle-aged man in a button-up shirt points directly at us, contempt on his face. He’s standing in a park.

MAN: You! Yeah, you! Face it – you’re a loser.

PANEL 2

The man continues berating us.

MAN: You’ve never accomplished much of anything, and you never will, because you’ve got nothing to contribute.

PANEL 3

We’re looking at a hand holding a smartphone; on the phone’s screen, the man continues his rant.

MAN: But you still think you’re better than most people. Especially the dark skinned ones. You’re basically a piece of shit and you want to hurt people.

PANEL 4

We switch scenes to a cluttered living room. Two women are relaxing on the sofa, one with her feet up on the other’s lap. The second woman is looking at her smartphone.

WOMAN 1: What on earth are you watching?

WOMAN 2: New ICE recruitment ad.

PHONE: Well, have I got a job for YOU!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is long-dead cartoonists’ slang for what the kids now call “Easter eggs.”

Panel two: In the hollow of a tree is a human skull. Through the eyeholes, we can see a bird sitting inside the skull.

And on the ground, an evil bunny glares and smokes a cig.

Panel three: Thumbnails of other videos are below the main image. The other videos are named “CATS,” “puppies,” “BOOBS,” “SPORTS!,” and “RAGE.”

Panel four: There are two framed pictures of the wall, one of a giant worm wearing a polo shirt, the other of the title character from the 1990s cartoon “Daria.”

The cat snoozing on the sofa is wearing glasses.

The first woman has a tattoo of an octopus with a mohawk, and also a snake winding around her arm.

The book on her lap says “BOOK TITLE, by Author Name.”

The second woman has a tattoo of Harold from Harold and the Purple Crayon. She’s wearing a t-shirt with the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” planet logo.

One coffee mug on the table has a picture of an apple with a worm hole. The other mug has a picture of a worm looking puzzled (I think it’s looking for its apple).

A book on the coffee table is entitled “GREG: Like God, but taller” by “A Horne,” a reference to the UK TV show “Taskmaster.”

Wanted | Patreon

In the wake of the 2024 election, a poll from Blueprint found that a lot of swing voters believed that “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class.”

Predictably, many centrist Democrats started arguing that Democrats had to talk less about “cultural” issues. The centrist Democratic group Third Way, for instance, released a list of 47 words for Democrats to stop using – words like “cisgender,” “birthing person” and “chest feeder.” Elissa Slotkin said “There are a lot of issues out there. But you’ve got to start with what keeps people awake, and that is kitchen-table issues, economics.”

(Tim Onion mocked the Third Way argument on Bluesky: “Dems need to stop policing language… and we should start by banning these 47 words.”)

I remember hearing the same arguments after Hilary Clinton lost. I suspect they were also made after Al Gore lost.

The problem with this analysis is that Democrats already talk more about kitchen table issues than virtually anything else – certainly more than they ever talk about trans rights. As Charlie Markbreiter pointed out, “Kamala Harris has been virtually silent on trans rights.”

In November of 2024, responding to Matthew Yglesias saying, essentially, that Democrats had to stop using wokespeak, Political Science professor Mark Copelovitch wrote:

Quite literally, three months ago, the Democrats nominated TIM WALZ, the most Minnesota Regular Guy ever, to join Harris on the ticket, and they spent weeks going around the country talking about all the things Pundits say they want them to talk about. It’s like this never happened. It’s maddening.

Wallad Shahid wrote that people who say that Democrats just need to moderate their message are dodging a harder truth:

The 2024 record is straightforward: frontline Democrats campaigned largely as moderates. Border and police funding, fentanyl crackdowns, oil drilling permits, law-enforcement endorsements, bipartisan validators. The ads show badges and sheriffs. And yet the coalitions barely moved. It feels like talking into a headwind.

We reach for easy fixes because the alternative is a kind of vertigo. It is simpler to believe that swapping positions here and there unlocks the electorate than to sit with the possibility that the crisis is larger than message—that the map is unkind, that political identities have devoured localism, that the emotional weather is set somewhere offstage and rarely shifts on command.

Remember Third Way’s 47 words? As many people pointed out, a bunch of those words are virtually never used by elected Democrats. Almost the only officials using those words are Republicans making fun of how they imagine Democrats talk.

The reason many swing voters thought “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class” has nothing to do with what Harris said. It has to do with what Republicans say Harris said. And no amount of nagging progressives to care less about trans issues is going to change that.

Another cycle cartoon! I just find these cartoons fun to draw.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has three panels, arranged in a circle, with arrows pointing clockwise leading from one panel to the next. In the center of the circle is a large caption, saying “The Kitchen Table Cycle.”

UPPER LEFT PANEL

This panel shows a smartphone. On the smartphone screen, an angry man wearing a suit and tie is talking.

MAN: The only thing the Democratic candidate ever talks about is trans issues! Trans trans trans!

An arrow leads from this to the

LOWER RIGHT PANEL

Three Democrats sit in a treehouse; a sign on the treehouse says “Democrat Strategy Meeting (No progressives allowed). One of them is speaking.

SPEAKER: The pundits say we lost by talking too much about “identity politics.” Next time, our candidate has to be a centrist who only talks about kitchen table issues!

An arrow leads from this to the

LOWER LEFT PANEL

A politician stands behind a podium giving a speech.

CANDIDATE: As your Democratic candidate, let me just say: Kitchen table! Kitchen Table! Kitchen Table!

An arrow leads from this back to the upper left panel with the cellphone.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is old-fashioned cartoonist speak for little extras in the cartoon.

UPPER LEFT PANEL: The Fox News logo says “Cur Fews. Go to bed.” The chyron says “Democrats hate all puppies” and the second chyron says “New science proves: everything is still Biden’s fault.” Below the Fox News screen, there are six thumbnails leading to suggested videos. The thumbnail captions read: Owned! Crushed! Cooked! Demolished! Murderized! And then, in smaller letters, “I attempted to refute their position with persuasive arguments.”

LOWER RIGHT PANEL: The treehouse is modeled after the treehouse in my favorite comic strip of all time, “Calvin and Hobbes.” There’s a hole in the tree trunk; in the hole is a giant rat wearing a top hat and bow tie.

LOWER LEFT PANEL: The seal on the front of the podium has a picture of Sam the Eagle from the Muppets (it’s a little hard to make out because of the foreshortening, alas). The paper lying on the podium says “Tiny print no one reads.”

The Kitchen Table Cycle | Patreon

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.

I’m not like this character – serenely unaware of mean comments. But I aspire to be like him.

(Maybe I am like this character, but since I’m unaware of the comments I don’t appreciate how serenely unaware I really am? It’s a conundrum.)

I like wearing clothes that please me, and I enjoy getting compliments from strangers. (Yesterday someone called out a car window “your sweater brings me joy,” which brought me joy in turn, except that a hoodie isn’t a sweater but the light turned green and she drove away so there was no opportune moment to pedant at her.) At the same time, as I’m getting older I’m fortunate to be caring less and less what other people think.

Here’s the “sweater” in question:

(Those lovely roses were planted by my housemates Sarah and Charles, by the way).

(Quick story: The other day I walked into a room where my niece Sydney was sitting and reading. She looked at me and gasped “Barry, your beard! It’s so white!” I thought it was funny that she was so surprised, since Sydney sees me and my beard virtually every day. “It’s making me realize that you’re mortal and you’re going to die someday,” she added solemnly, and I agreed that was so. I told her “It’s neat that you’ve had this revelation without even being stoned,” and she replied “oh I’m incredibly stoned right now.”)

I’ve gotten a little off topic, haven’t I?

Sexism is bad for everybody. Women are the primary victims, but the constant pressure on men to be masculine – which, in practice, often means “avoid anything that could be taken as feminine” – causes a lot of men to limit ourselves, often without conscious awareness. And of course, the responses can be especially harsh on men and boys who, for whatever reason, aren’t performing masculinity in the expected fashion.

The character in our cartoon is lucky to be unbothered by it – but not everyone’s in the mental space to pull that off. It can be especially hard on teen boys, who – if they don’t fit in – can be taught a lot of self-loathing, which can take years to get over.

But with luck, we can get over it, and be happier for it.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, all featuring a red-haired man wearing a red shirt walking on a downtown sidewalk. He’s carrying a bright yellow shoulder bag which has a pink and purple floral pattern.

PANEL 1

Two men are walking in opposite directions on a sidewalk. The first, wearing a blue jacket and dark gray pants, makes a mocking comment. The second character, who I’ll call Redhead, is pleased.

BLUE JACKET MAN: Nice purse.

REDHEAD: Thanks! It’s new!

PANEL 2

A closer shot of Redhead, looking very pleased indeed. In the background, a bluebird, a squirrel, and the sun (with a face and wearing sunglasses) all smile at Redhead.

PANEL 3

In a thought balloon, we see Redhead’s daydream. He’s skipping on a catwalk, carrying his new bag, sparkling pink flowers floating in his wake, as the sun and a couple of squirrels cheer him on. Blue Jacket Man, in the daydream, has a friendly grin and is taking photos of Redhead with a professional-looking camera.

PANEL 4

Redhead’s daydream bursts and he has a startled expression.

REDHEAD (thought): Wait. Was that supposed to be an insult?

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obsolete cartoonist verbiage for fun but unnecessary details in the art.

PANEL 1: The first newspaper box has a newspaper which says “Background NEWS. Stick figure elected! “Best news ever,” say lazy cartoonists.” Smaller print says “Is this text too small to be read? Scientists say yes!”

The second newspaper box is mostly hidden behind Blue Jacket Man, but what we can read says “Don’t even try reading this text it’s too hidden.”

The third newspaper box has a paper called “Overly Local Bulletin.” Headlines say: “Yup, those odd noises you keep hearing are rats.” “Your son says he did homework – but he lies.” “Favorite shirt is too ratty to wear in public anymore.” and “Weather: You don’t go outside anyway.” The sign on front of the machine says “Exciting words! I’m talking about words like bang! Zoom! Zowie! Cheetah!”

PANEL 2: The newspaper in the box is mostly hidden behind Redhead, but it says “Obscured NEWS. That no one can read.”

PANEL 3: One of the squirrels is waving a pen at Redhead and holding out an autograph book. The other squirrel is taking a selfie with Redhead in the background.

PANEL 4: The paper in the newspaper box says “Don’t Even Bother DAILY.” Headlines: “Why even read this? The cartoon’s over. You can go about your life now.” “New study: If you never try, you can never lose.” The sign on the front of the box says “KANGAROOS are weird aliens who will totally drown you if they can and one’s sneaking up on you now.”

Nice Purse | Patreon

This strip is drawn by the awesome Mike Lawrence, who really went wild with the chicken fat!

I wrote this strip two months ago, after coming across this story:

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing an unusual wave of internal backlash after employees began publicly accusing the agency of failing to pay salaries and activate health insurance weeks after recruitment. […]

In raw, unfiltered Reddit posts now spreading beyond law-enforcement circles, ICE officers describe going a month or more without a paycheque, struggling to secure medical cover for sick children, and watching promised bonuses quietly stall.

I feel bad for the children, of course, but other than that this story is a prime opportunity to enjoy some schadenfreude.

(If you’ve seen “Avenue Q,” then that graphic may make some sense to you. I saw it live for the first time last month, so it’s been in my head lately – often in the form of earworms).

Even more schadenfreude-inducing: The acting director of ICE has been suffering from extreme anxiety over his job stress.

Acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons has been hospitalized at least twice for stress-related issues as he has carried out President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda… During these episodes, the current and former officials said they saw Lyons break out into a full sweat, with his face turning deep red.

The extent of my loathing for the people running ICE (and even more, the people who ran DOGE) honestly worries me. They are among the worst people in the world, and if the world were better they’d all be working in an abusive Amazon warehouse, desperately holding their pee in for hours.

(Well, actually, if the world were better then Amazon’s warehouses wouldn’t be so abusive, but you know what I mean).

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. Each panel shows two women hanging out in a living room, on a sofa. The first wears a bright yellow t-shirt, so I’ll call her YELLOW; the second is in white t-shirt with blue jeans, so I’ll call her JEANS.

PANEL 1

Yellow is reading something on her phone, while Jeans turns and begins rooting through her backpack.

YELLOW: This article says that ICE agents are really unhappy… The job is stressful and they’re not getting the bonuses and bennies they were promised.

JEANS: Hold on.

PANEL 2

Jeans has pulled a huge electric microscope out of her backpack.

YELLOW: Er… What’s that?

JEANS: It’s my portable microscope. It has 300 times magnification but with digital zoom it’s more like 1000 times.

PANEL 3

Jeans enthusiastically describes her microscope.

JEANS: It has a built in stabilizer and eight levels of LCD lighting! With this, I can see even the smallest objects.

PANEL 4

Yellow is puzzled. A snarl on her face, Jeans turns to the microscope’s screen.

YELLOW: Okay, but why?

JEANS: I’m looking for a violin tiny enough.

CHICKEN FAT

“Chicken fat” is long-dead terminology for odd little details cartoonists slip in art.

PANEL 1: The lamp is a “leg lamp,” like in A Christmas Story, except that it’s a hairy leg in a sneaker and gym sock.

There’s a cat napping on the sofa. There’s a framed picture of Dr. Teeth (from The Muppets) on the wall. There’s a little doll with a green face hanging by the neck from the lamp pull. Jeans has a tattoo that says “tattoo.” The magazines on the coffee table are “US” and “THEM”; the person on the cover of “THEM” is pointing a finger at “US.” The side table drawer is open, and in the drawer a couple of mice are sitting on a tiny sofa and watching a TV with mice news hosts on it.

PANEL 2: The cat is reading a book entitled 43 Places To Hide a Hairball. The backpack’s brand name is “Manspürt.” Jeans has a tattoo that says “Advertise Here.”

PANEL 3: There’s a framed picture of “Bleeding Gums” Murphy (from The Simpsons) on the wall. The cat is playing with a paddle ball, but instead of a ball there’s a panicked mouse. A magazine on the coffee table is “THINGS,” with a coffee mug and a rubik’s cube on the cover. Jeans’ tattoo now says “Eat At Joe’s!” Jeans is wearing one of those t-shirts with a list of people in Helvetica font, which says “Hel & Vet & Ica.”

PANEL 4: The cat is looking over their shoulders at the screen. The apple logo on the back of the microscope has now turned into an apple core logo.

TATTOO PROGRESSIONS: The leg lamp has a tattoo that says “Debbie.” In panel two, “Debbie” is crossed out, with “Donna” written beneath it. In panel three, “Donna” has also been crossed out, replaced with “Donny.”

Jeans has a tattoo of a baseball bat in panel one, which is a bat (the mammal) in panel two, and Batman in panel three.

The Search | Patreon

From a report in Fortune:

AI is actually increasing strain for most employees, as the tools add more time to menial tasks, and actually takes away from deep-focus work. Since adopting AI into their workflows, time spent across every job responsibility shot up anywhere from 27% to 346%, according to a recent ActivTrak report that analyzed 10,584 users 180 days before and after their AI adoption.

The time spent toiling on grunt work like emails increased by 104%, while chatting and messaging climbed by 145%, and using business management tools rose 94%.

There wasn’t a single activity category where using AI actually saved users time, with the report reaffirming that: “The data is unambiguous: AI does not reduce workloads.” Instead, professionals are now multitasking at a greater rate, and spending less of their days concentrating on complex problems.

So that’s not the greatest. The headline in Harvard Business Review summed it up: “AI Doesn’t Reduce Work — It Intensifies It.”

—

I don’t draw robots often, but cartoonists like Mattias Adolfsson make it look like so much fun that I was eager to give it a try. Here’s the first batch of robot drawings I did for this cartoon:

I had a lot of fun drawing those, but I decided the robots just look too old-fashioned and broken to represent AI, so I started over.

The second draft of robots aren’t quite as wrecked looking, but they’re not exactly slick and shiny looking, either.

Thinking about it now, I could have represented all the AI characters as text on smartphones, with a different smartphone (and hand holding the phone) in every panel. That might have been a better representation of AI than robots. But hopefully the way I did it is more fun for you folks to look at.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has six panels, each of which shows a different scene. The first five panels all feature cheerful robots in office environments.

PANEL 1

A shiny golden robot talks to the viewer.

GOLDIE: Good news! Here are just some of the ways AI saves you time and makes your job better!

PANEL 2

A robot – which seems to be a suit and tie with a smartphone sticking up out of the collar – talks to us. He’s carrying a huge stack of papers.

PHONE: Good news! Because your new AI agent is expected to save you so much time, the company is providing you with extra work!

PANEL 3

A tiny robot that looks like a ball with hands is bouncing on a desk.

BOUNCY: Good news! The AI agent makes lots of mistakes, so you get to do proofreading and debugging! Yay!

PANEL 4

A robot with a head shaped like a Telsa Cybertruck talks to us. A bunch of other robots are in the background.

TELSA: Good news! The company has determined you’ll get more work done with more AI agents doing more bad work for you to check and correct!

PANEL 5

A coffee machine with a screen with a happy face on it talks to us.

COFFEE: Good news! More of your colleagues are letting AI do their jobs, so now you get to fix that work, too!

PANEL 6

A human with a shellshocked look is walking on a sidewalk, carrying a cardboard box full of desk stuff in classic I’ve-just-been-fired iconography. A caption is shaped like a memo on paper.

CAPTION: Good news! We’ve determined that bad work done by A.I. is more cost-effective than better work done by humans.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obsolete jargon for what we now call “Easter eggs.”

PANEL 1: A poster on the wall says LESSER EVIL INCORPORATED. “If it’s not lethal, it’s a lesser evil.” A rat sits reading a book, Charlotte’s Web.

PANEL 2: A gigantic ant is climbing a skyscraper in the background.

PANEL 3: A picture of an adorable toddler is inscribed “I heart you Mommy! Always remember if u quit ur job I’ll starve.” A “to do” list says: “-Work -Work -Work -Labor -Toil -Lunch -Drudge -Slog -die.” A coffee mug, decorated with Charlie Brown’s zig-zag shirt line, has a mouse wearing glasses peering out of it.

PANEL 4: One of the robots is a toaster. The robot puppy has left poo (a steaming pile of nuts and bolts) on the ground. The cybertruck robot’s head is on fire, and if you peer closely at the passenger window you can see a screaming person trapped inside.

PANEL 5: The coffee cup has a picture of Bender from Futurama on it. There’s an electric outlet with two “faces”; one of the faces is the standard, the other one is smiling and winking at us. A poster says “NOTICE: Cups must be cleaned after death.” A cannister is labeled “82% real Sugar,” with an adorable granny mascot saying “What you don’t now won’t kill you, probably.”

PANEL 6: The box of stuff from the fired employee’s desk includes a coffee mug; the mouse from panel 3 is still in the mug. A jar on the sidewalk says “Background Juice” on the label.

And there’s graffiti! “BG” (for background) is written in a few places. Someone has written a list of jobs: “Priest Poet Lawyer Marine Squire Grocer Vicar.” (Let me know in comments if you know where that list comes from.) A game of “hangman” is in progress: “A_S_ER.” (You see the answer, right?) More things written on the wall: “Filler.” “Who reads this?” “PP + Marcie 4EV.” “E=M.C. Hammer.” “Mary + Charlie + Frank.” Finally, a poster on the wall is partly blocked by the caption, but I can tell you it says “Secret Hidden Text! Because you can’t read this text: At last, I’m free to say it: Basketball is BORING! Bite me, b-ball fans!”

Good News About AI and Work! | Patreon

This comic is by me and Becky Hawkins.

Becky writes:

What’s a better challenge than drawing a period piece? Drawing a period piece where the reader is supposed to think it’s present-day until panel 4! Luckily for me, men’s fashion doesn’t change as wildly as women’s fashion, and that one haircut (long on top, short on the sides) is still around. The guy on the left–suit, glasses, and hair–was modeled after someone I saw while I was out and about. Granted, sartorial choices in Portland don’t seem to be bound by time or geography… I hope it works!

Surprising no-one, I spent most of my time laying out panel 4. Barry’s script says: The camera pulls back a little. We now see that the speaker is wearing a swastika armband just above his left elbow. Maybe we can see one or two characters in the background wearing them too. Women are wearing circa 1930s hats; there’s a horse and carriage in the background, maybe; in general, we can now see we’re looking at Berlin in the 1930s.

I did a few sketches from different angles. When I pictured this cartoon in my head, the “camera” was pointing toward the cafe, with the characters sitting by the wall. That way, all you could see in panels 1-3 were two guys, a big window, and a bit of wall. It would be easier to hide the 1930s-ness that way. But when I sketched it out, I couldn’t make it work.

Barry kindly collected several photos of 1930s Berlin cafes before sending me the script. But I still spent way too much time looking at old photos to find some buildings that would plausibly be on a modern American street. Berlin’s public plazas, broad streets with tree-lined medians, and ornate building facades would scream Ye Olde World, in my opinion.

I searched for “1930s Berlin street photography” and found some commercial-residential buildings that wouldn’t look out of place in an old-for-the-US downtown area. I then committed the newbie cartoonist mistake of putting a lot of detail into an area that was destined to sit behind a word balloon. At least I copy-pasted the windows.

I hope you enjoyed this cartoon!

Barry writes:

A story from 2019:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., ignited the latest semantic scuffle when she recently charged that the Trump administration “has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying.” Her use of this term to describe the mass detention facilities in which thousands of asylum-seeking migrants, many of them children forcibly separated from parents and family members, are being held in deplorable conditions, provoked an immediate and fierce backlash. … Sami Steigmann, a Holocaust survivor voiced his indignation: “What you are doing is insulting every victim of the Holocaust. Shame on you!” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, charged that Ocasio-Cortez “is insulting victims of genocide” with her comments.

But concentration camps – both actual camps, and the term – existed before World War Two. As far back as 1899, during the Boer War, some British people argued against calling the British concentration camps in Africa what they were.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines the term concentration camp as: “A camp where persons are confined, usually without hearings and typically under harsh conditions, often as a result of their membership in a group which the government has identified as dangerous or undesirable.”

People tend to conflate “concentration camps” with “death camps,” but the two terms aren’t interchangeable, and it’s important to be able to discuss concentration camps without euphemisms. Refusing to call them what they are just helps them get worse.

Andrea Pitzer writes:

If you were swept off the streets in vans by secret police wearing masks; if your initiation into detention involved transit camps meant to hide your departure and effectively disappear you from legal help, temporarily or forever; if you are held with others who are denied due process; and if you are detained with people who have predominantly been rounded up more on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion or political affiliation than for any criminal charge you have in common, you are in a concentration camp. It is only a question of what stage concentration camp you are in, and whether you will be stuck there until the camp is allowed to transform into its next nightmare form.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. All of them show two men in suit and tie, talking at an outdoor cafe. One man is a redhead with a mustache; the other is a clean-shaven blonde.

PANEL 1

REDHEAD: And the conditions in the concentration camps we’ve built are appalling! I’m ashamed for my country!

BLONDE: Whoa! “Concentration camps”? Really?

PANEL 2

A shot of the blonde man, lecturing.

BLONDE: The camps can be criticized but calling them “concentration camps” is inflammatory. It’s something people say for the shock value.

PANEL 3

The blonde man looks angry.

BLONDE: Frankly, calling them “concentration camps” demeans the memory of the victims of the real historic concentration camps!

PANEL 4

The “camera” pulls back, and we see that this is a scene from 1930s Germany. (Storefront signs are in German, there’s a horse and carriage going past, women in 1930s fashions and hats.) The blonde man has angrily stood up, and we can see he wears a swastika on his sleeve (as does another man in the foreground).

BLONDE: And finally – never say you’re ashamed to be German. It’s like our new chancellor Hitler says – we’re making Germany great again!

(No chicken fat in this one!)

Don’t Call Them Concentration Camps | Patreon

Yes, this comic was inspired by evil non-genius Elon Musk. No one better epitomizes money cosplaying as competence.

As Richard Carrier wrote:

He fell ass-backwards into big money, and our system protects big money. …Literally everything he touches gets fucked up, from self-driving cars to Twitter to the government, or almost anything at all; even PayPal—that’s why they fired him. He was so bad at it that his own staff revolted and insisted he be canned. Indeed, nearly everyone who has ever worked for him says he is a shitty leader who has no business running companies. But alas, like other rich people who fail upwards, Musk’s contracted severance package for being axed from (what was then) PayPal for incompetence launched his entire career as a moneybagged gunknozzle.

Musk hardly stands alone. Private Equity’s business model is for people who know nothing about an industry to buy out existing companies and often destroy them. Although with private equity, it’s often more like piracy than actual incompetence.

Why did Sears tank? Everyone knows that the 19th century business was an antique, incapable of mounting a challenge in the age of e-commerce. That was a great smokescreen for an old-fashioned bust out that saw corporate looters make off with hundreds of millions, leaving behind empty storefronts and emptier pension accounts for the workers who built the wealth the looters stole.

And of course, Donald “six bankruptcies” Trump is a tragic example of how inherited wealth (to the tune of $413 million) and a staggering ego can give an utter incompetent a rep as a business genius. Trump’s actual talents in are self-promotion and dodging taxes, not in creating value.

The challenge of drawing this cartoon was the factory setting, which is a zillion miles outside my comfort zone. I doubt I’ve ever drawn the interior of a factory before, and I wasn’t sure how to begin. I looked at photos of factories online and they seemed impossibly complex, and my attempts to streamline them just didn’t look good.

What finally got me over the “factories are too hard to draw! Waaaah!” wall was looking at the graphic novel Factory Summers by the brilliant cartoonist Guy Delisle. I didn’t directly copy Delisle’s drawings, but I took a lot of instruction from how he simplified factory interiors to make them work in comics.

Once I got started, it was fun. A factory setting in two-point perspective provides so many ways to fit in little visual gags.

I was worried about panel four. For the gag to work, readers definitely had to notice the burning factory disaster in the background, but a lot of readers kind of skip noticing the backgrounds. I asked Frank Young, who colored this cartoon, to make the conflagration in the distance impossible to miss, and I think Frank really delivered.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, plus a tiny “kicker” panel.

PANEL 1

Two workers in reflective vests and hard hats are on a factory floor when a man wearing a blazer over a t-shirt walks in, arms spread wide.

BLAZER: Greetings, workers! I just bought this weezotski factory.

WORKER: Oh, uh… Welcome! So you must have lots of experience with weezotskis?

PANEL 2

Grinning, Blazer keeps talking, looking very smug.

BLAZER: None! But success in an unrelated industry has made me freakishly wealthy! And that makes me a business genius who can run anything!

PANEL 3

Blazer puts his arm around the worker and makes a grand “envision the future!” gesture.

BLAZER: I’m gonna disrupt this company so hard! It’ll be amazing! You’ll see! (Not you personally. I’m firing you.)

PANEL 4

CAPTION: SIX MONTHS LATER

Blazer, still grinning, flees from a burning factory building.

BLAZER: Another business brilliantly saved!

KICKER PANEL

Blazer, looking smug, is talking to Barry the cartoonist.

BLAZER: Maybe I should run the government!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is long-obscure cartoonist talk for fun but unimportant details in the art.

Panel 1: A limp hand is sticking out a hole in the huge factory machine. A panel of the floor is missing, and a corpse in a funeral suit lies within. The box the worker is carrying is labeled “Caution: Irrelevant Prop.”

Panel 2: In the background, in supervisors windows, are Homer Simpson and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.

Panel 3: An opening in the side of a big factory machine contains Brain, of “Pinky and the Brain.” A vent hose has a distressed face on it. In a window in a machine in the background, a grinning stoned person hands upside-down. The paper on the clipboard says “this text is way too small to be read, sorry”.

A sign says “URGENT: Always complete your shift and clean your area before fighting demonic forces.” Another says “WARNING: Studies show that most people’s largest deathbed regret is time not spent working.” A sign on a large red button says “NO. Do not press button. Nope.”

Panel 4: The dark cloud in the sky, if you rotate it 90 degrees to the right, is an enormous face in profile.

The tattoo storyline: In panel one, the worker has a tattoo of a snake on his right arm, and a tattoo of an apple on his left arm. In panel two, the snake tattoo has crossed to his left arm and is examining the apple. In panel 3, the apple has been eaten, and the snake – no longer merely a tattoo – is crawling out of a hole in a big factory machine.

The Business Genius | Patreon

When Kamala Harris lost the election, a lot of centrist Democrats blamed progressives (as they did when Hillary Clinton lost in 2016), and it’s been a constant drumbeat of recrimination ever since. I’m talking about folks like Quentin Fulks, who blamed Harris’ loss on activists forcing politicians to apologize and “men don’t like people who apologize.”

Personally, I blame Trump’s election first and foremost on Trump voters. Wacky of me, I know.

A lot of people (including me) have blamed 2024 for being a terrible year for incumbent parties worldwide – but I just read an argument that the popular wisdom is wrong about that one.

A lot of people blame stay at home voters – but the problem with that is, stay at home voters would probably have voted for Trump.

(I’d definitely blame the press’ determination to sanewash Donald Trump, but that’s a subject for another cartoon).

But if I had to blame Democrats, I would blame the people who actually ran the Harris campaign. People like Quentin “men don’t like people who apologize” Fulks, who was Harris’s deputy campaign manager.

Progressives didn’t select Clinton, Biden, or Harris (all of them centrists). Progressives didn’t decide to have Biden run for a second term – or for Biden to drop out less than four months before the election. Progressives didn’t select the very centrist Harris, didn’t decide on her campaign strategy, didn’t write her speeches or choose her issues.

I don’t really blame the centrists for Harris’ loss. Maybe there was no way for Harris to win. She had less than four months to go, and swing voters seemed really down on the Biden administration.

But the self-serving pretense by centrists that progressives are to blame – when they themselves made every decision in the Harris campaign – is ridiculous.

Man, the dude’s office in panel three was a pain to draw. But it gave me a lot of opportunity to put in chicken fat.

The most fun bit? Probably the woman’s tattoos. Frank Young did a bang-up job coloring them, too. (One reason I enjoy drawing fat characters: More room for tattoos.)

What’s the origin of the idiom “bang up job”? I wasn’t able to find it. But it’s been in use since the early 1800s.

I don’t have a cartoon syndicate and I’m not in newspapers. But I get to do this for a living because lots of readers support my Patreon with mostly small pledges! I also have prints and books for sale.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four regular panels, plus a tiny “kicker” panel under the bottom.

PANEL 1

A large caption says “PRE-ELECTION.”

Two people, a casually dressed woman and a more business-dressed man, are talking in an office. The man makes a dismissive gesture.

WOMAN: Progressives have some ideas for this election…

MAN: Here’s my idea. Step one: donate to our campaign. Step two: you get lost.

PANEL 2

The man pushes the woman out of the office.

WOMAN: Hey!

MAN: No insult, but you woke special interest social justice freaks repel normie voters. Leave us in charge of this election so we can win!

PANEL 3

The man sits behind his desk, looking very pleased.

MAN: Good riddance! Now we can run a winning campaign – a centrist campaign with a centrist candidate and centrist strategies!

PANEL 4

A large caption says “POST-ELECTION”.

The same man and woman are in a hallway. She glares at him, while he yells at her, jumping with fury.

MAN: WE LOST AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!

KICKER PANEL

The man smiles as he talks to Barry the cartoonist.

MAN: Centrist Democrats can’t fail! We can only be failed.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is archaic cartoonist-speak for fun little details that don’t matter.

PANEL 1: On the shelves in the background: A book called “Really Big Book.” A framed picture of Tintin. There’s a framed picture of Amy from “Futurama” on the wall. The woman’s shirt says “Woop Woop.”

Her arms are covered with, well, random doodles, including a Rubik’s cube flying on angel wings, a cloud that says “meh,” a sake, and a explosion with a “BOOM” sound effect.

PANEL 2: The snake tattoo has moved to her other arm, which also features a hand hatching from an egg and a paper saying “8675309.” Her shirt now ways “Hi Mom!” There’s a framed picture of Groucho Marx on the wall.

PANEL 3: There are framed photos on the wall of Kermit the Frong, Marcie, Peppermint Patty, the Mayor from “Nightmare Before Christmas,” and Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons.

On the shelves are: A globe with a goldfish-shaped continent; a stack of three books: Really Big Book, RBB Strikes Back, and Return of the RBB. The photo of Tintin has been replaced with Tintin’s dead, decapitated head. A photo of a seagull with a fish in its beak. A mouse with a bow and arrow, taking aim at an apple on the head of another mouse. A mouse painting a picture of cheese. A napping cat.

On the desk: The book says “Scary” on the spine and “Boo” on the front cover. The icon on the back of the laptop is a cracking egg.

Finally, a mouse or rat is clinging to the arm of the chair in the foreground.

PANEL 4: The snake tattoo is back! Now looking at a tattoo of a mug of steaming liquid. There are framed pictures of Popeye and Olive Oil.

Taking Responsibility | Patreon

This cartoon is by me and frequent collaborator Nadine Scholtes.

In December 2025, Representative Sarah McBride – who is herself trans – commented about her Republican colleagues:

They are obsessed with trans people. I actually think they think more about trans people than trans people think about trans people.

Responding to McBride’s comment, Vera Eikon wrote:

This is true. My transition is long since over and rarely figures much in my life any more. I really only think about being trans because obsessed creepy Republicans can’t help themselves.

Reading those comments inspired this cartoon, but I’ve heard sentiments like this from many trans people for years.

At least ninety percent of trans-related controversies are created by right-wingers’ refusal to just mind their own business and let other people be. The sheer irrationality of it boggles my mind.

Other issues are real issues. Even if Republicans didn’t deny the existence of climate change, how to address climate change would remain a real issue that needed to be debated in Congress. Even if Republicans didn’t have an abiding and vicious hatred of immigrants, we’d still need to figure out immigration policy and there’d be good-faith policy questions to work out.

But most trans issues would never be discussed at high levels of government if conservatives would just live and let live. There’s no need, at all, for the White House to decide what specific health care a fifteen year old trans kid needs. Why not leave that for the fifteen year old to decide with her doctor and her parents?

Part of it is just the grift. Republicans need hate to fundraise and be elected. Blaming problems on marginalized groups like immigrants and trans people is extremely practical for a party whose top priority is making rich people richer, but which also needs to pretend to be addressing ordinary people’s problems.

But it’s not just a grift. There’s sincere spite and bigotry – and, as Representative McBride said, obsession – behind the deluge of anti-trans legislation and activism we’ve seen.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, each showing the same central character, a fortyish redheaded woman, in a different setting.

PANEL 1

A woman wearing a red cardigan over a white t-shirt, and a cross necklace, is handing a brown paper lunch bag to her daughter. The daughter is rolling her eyes.

WOMAN: Schools are hotbeds for trans groomers! Don’t let any of them talk to you.

PANEL 2

Four women, including our main character (who is currently speaking), are having a meeting on Zoom.

WOMAN: I found a petition supporting this week’s new bills banning trans heath care. I’m sending the link so we can all sign.

PANEL 3

A woman with short brown hair is washing her hands in a public restroom. Nearby, our main character watches the woman suspiciously.

WOMAN (thought): Short hair… Might be trans? I better call the manager!

PANEL 4

The woman lies in bed. It’s nighttime, but she’s wide awake.

WOMAN (thought): Why is the left obsessed with trans?

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is ancient, mostly forgotten cartoonist-ese for fun but needless details in the art.

PANEL 1 – The dog is rolling its eyes, just like the daughter. The daughter’s t-shirt says “Plants are gooood!” with a picture of a lit joint.

PANEL 2 – One person on Zoom is drinking with a mug with a picture of Jesus grinning and with his thumb up, a reference to the Kevin Smith movie Dogma. Another zoom person has dozed off, and the cat in her lap is anxiously taking notes. And a third zoom person is knitting a sweater with three sleeves, a reference to a famous Charles Addams cartoon.

PANEL 3 – The short-haired woman has a tattoo of Mr. Cupcake from Five Nights At Freddy’s.

PANEL 4 – The dog is wearing a sleep mask and pajamas with little hearts. Also, there are four books lying on the bed, which are:

1. TRANS PEOPLE HATE YOU. They’re Probably Hiding Under Your Bed Right Now, by Matt Waltz & Dave Chappelle.
2. HARRY POTTER AND THE INFINITE WELL OF ANTI-TRANS FUNDING by J.K. Rowling.
3. TRANSGENDERS ATE MY DOG and other things that definitely really happened, by Abigail Crier. “This is the best and probably only book I’ve ever read” – D. Trump
4. HOW THE TRANS DESTROYED MY LIFE. It’s Definitely Their Fault And Not Just That I’m An Insufferable Asshole And Everyone Who Has Ever Met Me Hates Me, by Graham Lineham.
   

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The Obsession | Patreon

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.

This is a sort of sequel to a previous cartoon I did about time travel.

Rags really was one of my childhood dogs (and the most important one to me). Although Siggy, the big German Shepherd (I think) who would lie under my crib growling at anyone he didn’t know who dared to approach, was also great.

I’m glad Becky drew this one – if I’d drawn it myself, I would have wasted hours trying to recall and recreate my 1983 bedroom layout. As it was, I made poor Becky do revision after revision on Rags. (“He was bigger than that… He had long hair that often covered his eyes…” and so on.)

Unfortunately, we didn’t have any photos of Rags to work from, and I have a famously bad memory, so – despite Becky’s excellent drawings – I’m sure Rags looked different from this. But that doesn’t hurt the cartoon. The process forced me to think a lot more about Rags than I usually do, though, and I enjoyed that. He really was such a sweet dog.

I did draw a tiny piece of this cartoon myself; the Reagan caricature in panel two is my attempt to recreate how I drew Reagan back then. I would draw a peanut, added Reagan’s famously high hair, then add facial features and wrinkles. That was, technically, the first political cartoon I ever drew.

The little kicker panel is my favorite part of this cartoon. If I had a time travel machine, after I’d done all the usual time travel stuff (seeing Sarah Bernhardt in a play, stopping 9/11, going to Palm Beach in 1999 and getting on the ballot design committee, etc), I genuinely would love getting to see Rags again.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, plus a “kicker” panel at the bottom.

PANEL 1

Little Barry is reading in bed when he’s startled by Big Barry coming in through a glowing time portal in the air. Rags, a dog, looks around.

BIG BARRY: Hi, Barry of 1983! I’m you from decades in the future! Ask me anything!

LITTLE BARRY: ACK!

PANEL 2

Little Barry thinks about what to ask. Big Barry smiles but looks very nervous. Rags sniffs Big Barry, tail wagging.

LITTLE BARRY: Okay, um… So is Reagan still the worst President ever?

BIG BARRY: Hah haha ha ha ha! Hoo boy, you think Reagan’s bad! HA! Ha ha aaah oh God.

PANEL 3

Big Barry, weeping, rushes out through the portal.

BIG BARRY: SOB! I’m sorry, I can’t – I – it’s – I gotta go!

PANEL 4

The time portal flicks out, and Big Barry is gone. Little Barry addresses the dog.

LITTLE BARRY: Well, that bodes ill.

KICKER PANEL

Big Barry is petting Rags; Rags is happy for the attention.

BIG BARRY: I didn’t really come back to see my younger self. I came back to see Rags. Who’s a good boy?

RAGS (thought): Is it me? It’s ME!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

Chicken fat is archaic cartoonistese for fun little details in the art.

Panel 1: A poster for the “Annie” musical above Barry’s bed says: “Annie. A New Musical and Barry’s First Celebrity Crush. Remember when tickets were affordable… Must be nice.”

Panel 2: The poster has changed to a crudely drawn caricature of Ronald Reagan, with the caption “Let’s Retire Ron.”

Panel 3: The poster has changed to a shirtless, ridiculously muscled man flexing, little mini-muscle bumps sticking up from his huge biceps. The caption says “MUSCLES MAN… His Muscles Have Muscles!” He has a word balloon, which says “Please get me to a doctor.”

Panel 4: The poster has changed to a photo of Reggie Jackson swinging a baseball bat. The caption says: REGGIE… because being good at hitting a ball with a stick makes you a HERO.”

Time Travel 2: Ask Me Anything | Patreon