Not Arguing For What He Thinks He Is

John R. Rose, 11/20/13:

It's true: Obama should have picked a national health-care system proven to work well for millions of citizens at lower cost than the current U.S. system.

...such as any one of the various forms of single-payer already extensively tested and proved by countries as different as Switzerland, Denmark, Australia, Canada, and the UK.

Everybody's Learning How

John R. Rose, 10/30/13:

Oh, look! It's the rare Mid-90s Whitewater Joke in its native habitat -- a lazy editorial cartoon!

Shouldn't Rose be spending his time doing another dozen cartoons about how swell the local college is?

Healthcare Is Healthcare, Right? It's all EXACTLY THE SAME, Isn't It?

John R. Rose, 10/5/13:

"...and I absolutely need to talk to a doctor right away about signing up for a healthcare plan that starts in January. Sure, I know most Americans get healthcare through their employers, and typically have enrollment periods in early November, but I'm acting irrationally in a dumb way, because my creator has no idea how any of this works!"

Let's All Be Sad But Not Do Anything Until the Next Mass Shooting, When We Can Be Sad Again

John R. Rose, 9/18/13:

The U.S. Navy was saddened into existence recently, which came a shock to those of us who thought it had been around since 1775.

Beep You, You Beepin' Beep!

John R. Rose, 6/21/13:

That poor, poor man is being forced to watch reality TV, by shadowy forces just off-panel. He has no free will to choose his own entertainment -- so we must pity him.

Anthropomorphization Gone Wild

John R. Rose, 5/22/13:

Yes, the tornado is sad at the devastation it caused. But it just can't help itself!

Fly Me!

John R. Rose, 4/26/13:

Air travel has never been politicized, not even when Reagan broke the air traffic controller's union, or when tight federal regulation was ended by Carter, or during the thousand battles over numbers of landing slots that saw local and national politicians taking airline money to help out their "constituents."

Nope -- never political at all. Just like everything else in the USA.

Why Not a Poll Tax, Too?

John R. Rose, 3/29/13:

Sure, it's only common sense -- everyone who matters has a photo ID. The only people who don't are the ones too poor to own a car, maybe too young or too old, who live too far away from government offices -- things like that.

If those people had more gumption, they'd have done better with their lives, had more assets, and voted Republican, like honest people do.

Yesterday's Laziest Cartoon

John R. Rose, 1/24/13:

The true job of the President is to refuse to spend any money whatsoever, like your skinflint uncle.

Dead White Men Are All Stodgy Bores, Right?

John R. Rose, 9/29/12:

Thomas Jefferson, who was notably fond of wine and fathered six or seven children on the slave half-sister of his dead wife, was opposed to "partying".

Taxes -- Your Way!

John R. Rose, 4/28/12:

In most jurisdictions of these United States, local merchants are allowed to decide for themselves what levels of tax will be charged to their customers, which explains why this restaurant owner looks so dumbfounded.

Cold Spaghetti?

John R. Rose, 3/28/12:

The Supreme Court is reluctant to rule on controversial subjects, such as Obamacare, which is why they denied certiorari and aren't hearing the....

What? Three days of arguments this week and a ruling expected well before the election? Um, well, then perhaps Rose has a different definition of "hot potato" than I do.

With Luck, The Very Last "Super Tuesday" Cartoon

John R. Rose, 3/9/12:

That is the absolutely worst caricature of Santorum that I've ever seen -- it doesn't look like him at all.

Would it have killed Rose to at least put him in a sweater vest?

The Map Is the Territory

John R. Rose, 1/26/12:

Boehner is perfectly happy to go along with Obama's "road map" -- which presumably has particular goals in mind -- but quibbles about the means.

Or perhaps Rose was looking for a nice, parallel turn of phrase that doesn't really work.

The Great Shroud of the Sea Rolled On

John R. Rose, 1/20/12:

The US economy, as we can all see, was destroyed with all hands recently, and only Obama lived to tell the tale.

Remember, cartoonists: just because you can compare two things, that doesn't mean they make any sense.

Worth AT LEAST a Bucket of Warm Spit

John R. Rose, 1/19/12:

Yay!

Some random people, probably not including the eventual candidate, have said that some local politician might possibly be in consideration for the Vice Presidential slot on the ticket!

Yippie!

Please try to contain your overflowing enthusiasm!

You Can Have My Cellphone When You Pry It From My Cold Dead Hands

John R. Rose, 12/16/11:

It is every American's god-given right to do whatever the hell he wants while in his own personal automobile, and don't you forget it!

Horrible Steve Jobs Cartoons Roundup, Day Two

It's always sad when a famous person dies. It's even sadder when the rest of us have to look at drivel like this!

MStreeter, 10/7/11:

Grammar matters, folks! "iCon" is not the same thing as "Icon," and calling attention to "Con" is probably not what you mean to do right now.

Ed Stein, 10/7/11:

There's a difference between a legacy and a tombstone...for most of us, that is.


Randy Bish, 10/7/11:

Jobs made products under the name of Apple, but he wasn't himself an Apple -- Bish seems to have missed that part.

Adam Zyglis, 10/7/11:

Plus one point for trying to incorporate Jobs's other major success, Pixar. Minus several dozen for the image of Buzz Jobs-year.

John R. Rose, 10/7/11:

Rose got the short straw this time, and was obliged to do the Single Tear cartoon.

Scott Stantis, 10/7/11:

There's a special genius-only sub-heaven, and Jobs, being an adopted bastard, probably won't get in.

Or perhaps the message here is that even dead people use smartphones?

Or that their end table is levitating?

Or that "there's an app for that" has now joined "where's the beef" and other phrases in completely losing all meaningful content?

Jeff Koterba, 10/7/11:

When in doubt, illustrate the kind of rambling, meaningless conversation that the cartoonist himself might have had that morning.

Update!

Dana Summers,  10/7/11:

Summers also goes with the crying Apple logo,  though his is both shinier and more off-model than Rose's.

Gary Varvel, 10/6/11:

And Varvel goes totally on-model, adding only a subtle Single Tear. Must have had an early tee-time that day.

Oh So Sad, So Very Very Sad, So So Sad It Was

John R. Rose, 9/10/11:

After a week of increasingly more maudlin, silly, and dull 9/11 cartoons, we have finally hit the absolute nadir.

Let us never forget that there once was a sad thing that made us all very sad, and that it's sad to remember how very sad it was.

Red Cars Are Dangerous

Cartoons by Garry Markstein, John R. Rose, and John Cole:

Plus five points for not doing a Grim Reaper "can you hear me now" cartoon, like four or five other cartoonists I could name.

Minus fifteen, though, for doing the same cartoon as each other, down to the color of the car.