Face Bigelow #63 - Food For Fuel

This is another one I found on my desk that I wrote up a few weeks ago but never drew. I think I finally got the "combine Big head" right and don't have any more of these to draw. I'm liking the digital tablet and after three of these it is starting to look a little better and is quicker to draw than the old way, back of the daily calendar (non-sequitur this year), digital camera and a lot of massaging to get the drawings right and text redone.

Even though I wrote this a few weeks ago I chose to go with it because of a few blogs blaming (Lake Minnetonka Liberty, Now At The Podium) environmentalists on this food/ethanol crisis and I don't think any environmentalist ever thought this was a good idea. The only people who thought this was a good idea were a few policy makers in Washington who gave it a green spin and the farm lobby. Not the family farmer, the Monsanto type farmers.

Face Bigelow #62 - Economics Of Ethanol

I actually did this one weeks ago when I started hearing that the costs of wheat and corn were doubling. I didn't do the drawing, just the text which I do on the front of the calendar pages, then turn them over and draw them. This one I drew directly to digital using the Wacom Tablet. I think I can do better with the drawing, but I do try to get these done quick as I've got a ton going on. I also think it is more about the commentary than the drawings anyway, but I welcome your comments on the topic.

Transcript:
Big: Hey Victor, check this out.
Big: The government is paying me an incentive to make 100 gallons of ethanol with 110 gallons of oil.
Big: The nice thing is that the price of wheat and corn have skyrocketed.
Victor: To bad we can no longer afford to eat.

Face Bigelow #61 - Food Shortages

Welcome to my first completely digital piece. I used a Wacom Tablet and Paint Shop Pro to produce this first ever, all digital Face Bigelow. Just trying to find ways to speed the process. I have also been using this same tablet on my Art projects and have done two recent drawings.

This food shortage news really worries me and I do believe the fluctuations in the market are caused mostly be the governments ethanol programs. I'm not a big fan and have covered this before in #21.

Some other blogs comment on this as well. The Absurd Report. Earthside. Raising Kaine.

Transcript:
Voice (Big) from familiar white building: Hey Victor. What is all this stuff I'm hearing about food shortages?
Victor: Well, food prices have gone up drastically and the poor can no longer afford to eat.
Big: What in the world could have caused this to happen?
Victor: Someone diverted a large percentage of the food supply to produce fuel so the rich could drive less expensively.

Face Bigelow #60 - Big Blogger

I'm probably going to annoy a lot of people, but at the same time they get a link back to their blogs which increases their authority. Sense of humor people, sense of humor.

This comes from my last few days of trying to show other bloggers that my news related webcomics are related to their own news postings and thereby increase traffic. Hey, everyone wants to be heard... I've done some searches for topics similar to my last few webcomics, then added comments to those other blogs. In the process I've come across a lot of blogs that are simply cut and pasting of articles and video and don't seem to have any added value. It's nice that they extract out the news that interests them, but I think they can add a little value and type three works or grunt like a caveman or something. Not to also insult cave men...

Here are a half dozen blogs like the ones in my webcomic:
Blue Collar Republican
Fergie's Tech Blog
All Points Blog
Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check
eHome Upgrade
Conglomerate
Swimming Free Style
Fun With My Ira

I purposefully chose ones with low authority (and miscounted to keep you guessing) on technorati so this should help your ratings and maybe give a little reason to add some value. At least Peter O'Kelly added a single word and Conglomerate actually had an entire sentence and a half.

Transcript:
Big: I'm a blogger.
Big: I create an entry by simply copying articles into my blog.
Big: I don't even add a comment. It makes my blogging so easy I barely have to lift a finger.
Big: In fact, I don't even have to think!
Victor: My thoughts exactly.

Face Bigelow #59 - The God Particle

Just having some more fun with the news. This one on The God Particle which will (hopefully) soon to be discovered just seems like a bad name to me. Even the physicists, Peter Higgs, who theorized its existence doesn't like the term. His term for it is Higgs Boson which seems a little more scientific to me. Chalk one up for bad marketing.

Transcript:
Big: Hey Victor! I just found God!
Victor: Finally. Isn't it amazing how much He really loves us?
Big: I'm not sure. He's in this test tube.
Victor: Test tube?
Big: You know. The God Particle.
Victor: Well, let him out I have some questions for him!
Victor: Or start rubbing it and maybe he'll grant us three wishes.

Face Bigelow #58 - Free Credit Cards

This sort of thing just baffles my mind.
News Inspired: GAO Millions wasted on gov't credit cards.

I've now posted three days in a row, there is a lot to be confused at in this world...

Transcript:
Big: Hey Victor, check out this government credit card I just received. I can buy all kinds of cool stuff!!!
Victor: Don't you have to pay for the things you buy?
Big: No. Everyone does it.
Victor: Aren't you afraid you'll get caught or that this is just wrong?
Big: No! The guy at the top just spent over $500 billion. No one will ever notice a few trips to Vegas.
Victor: Something like this could only start at the top...

Face Bigelow #57 - Face Time On Iraq

News inspired: Patraeus testimony on Iraq. Two days in a row, something must be wrong with me. I also changed the font back to Comic Sans against the wishes of the comic artist community at Half Pixel. They say it is overused and too amateurish, but I am an amateur and my drawing stinks so why not use a bad font too?

I really like Patraeus. When they were playing this live on NPR this morning I was listening to the questioning and wondering if these congressmen could ever get anything done. The questions were so long a drawn out I was ready for a nap by the time they asked a question that had already been answered. Things like this require satire.

Transcript:
Big: General Petraeus, I'm a congressman in Washington and I have the microphone, so I'm going to talk and maybe come up with a question...
Big: I like to talk really really slooow so I can make less decisions each day since most of them are bad decisions and run on sentences tend to slow the process even more...
Big: I would of course like to thank the men and women of the military, but let me get back to myself and maybe a question...
Big: Since I think I voted on this isue many many years ago, please tell me how it's going...
Petraeus: I answered that in my opening statement, but let me waste my time and repeat...

I don't know how Patraeus does it. He said he's been on duty away from home for four and a half years since this started. An extra two hours of senseless questions during this testimony would have to be the straw that breaks the camel's back!

Face Bigelow #56 - Cease Fire

News inspired by two events: The cease fire, The rocket fire.

Transcript:
Title: Islamist insurgent (I used this because it seemed to fit both al-sadr and hammas)
Big: We declare cease fire.
Rocket: Whoosh... Kaboom!
Victor: Was that a rocket?
Big: Why yes. Fired at infidel invaders.
Victor: Let me guess, it's a shaky cease fire, especially when the rocket lands...?

Face Bigelow #55 - ms. secretary

I found this Turkey, Rice news inspired strip on my desk last week. I guess I missed the boat as this is now old news and irrelevant, but don't think I'm not desperate enough to keep up with the blog that I won't resort to posting the irrelevant? You should have noticed that I am parodied in #50. Obviously I'm not all that gifted as an oracle since this event just sort of passed through the news and Turkey continues to attack the PKK in Iraq and no one seems to notice. So much for WWIII. Shows how little I really know and how irrelevant this comic really is! Obviously I think Rice is one of the main architects of the invasion and did it back climbing on one of my favorite leaders, Powell who resigned probably because of the decisions that were made, so I feel inclined to fit her in the comic even if it is irrelevant.

Transcript
Title: Secretary Of State
Media: Ms. Secretary. Turkey is launching attacks on Iraq and threatening WWIII. What is the status?
Big: Obviously this is a concern to the administration and we hope this is a short term incursion.
Media: Concern about WWIII or the term of the incursion?
Big: The term of the incursion. We don't want them to disrupt our record long occupation of Iraq. We're trying to get Guinness to verify our record.

Face Bigelow #54 - great orator

Font change. Comments appreciated. I think I liked the font better in the samples I took it from. Disappointed there is no lower case in it, but I could use some feedback.

News inspired by Clinton saying Obama is a great orator, but not a great leader.

Transcript:
Big: We don't want to choose a president based on oratory skill.
Big: We need a great business or military leader with proven experience.
Victor: Are you saying they will not make any mistakes because of their experience?
Big: Umm. No, but why does that matter?
Victor: At least if a good orator makes a bad decision it still sounds good.
Unknown voice from a familiar white building: Ya All. We're goin' ta war against terrorists in Irak to get rid of some evil dooers.

I mean no disrespect to the southern accent. That is not my intention. Just the wording alone is enough to drive me nuts, but the accent in the comic above is used more as a vocal identifier.

Face Bigelow #53 - vp speak 2.0

Transcript:
Big: Do mean to say that you don't think this was a successful endeavor?
Victor: No!
Big: What about the $500 billion that has been spent so far?
Victor: !!??!!
Victor: You mean the $500 billion that is causing growing inflation, the dollar to collapse and leading to economic uncertainty?
Big: A large portion of that went into my friend's pockets. I would call that a successful endeavor!

Discussion.
I almost didn't post this because it is just too far out of my normal thought mode. I don't believe this war was started to line pockets, but I find it hard to believe there is still some justification in calling it successful. Trust has been lost over the past three administrations and it's time to start admitting mistakes and moving on to fix them, not playing double speak and calling a complete failure a success. If we can't trust our leaders the system will not work.

Face Bigelow #52 - vp speak

Another news inspired comic.

Transcript:
Big: Millions of people have been displaced.
Big: Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed.
Big: Over 100,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded and nearly 4000 killed.
Big: Violence continues, but I'm calling this a "successful endeavor".
Victor: What planet do you live on?

This is totally unfair on my part and I know the vp has his hands tied and trying to keep up morale on the ground. But since I have been in such disagreement with this administration I think it would be good to express my views so people don't think I'm just some ranting weirdo. I have disagreed with this war since the beginning. I wrote letters to my congress women and the president stating that going to war in Iraq would be a mistake and distract from the real mission in Afghanistan. Now my views have completely shifted and I don't think we should leave Iraq. We have caused so much distress to the people of the region that I don't think it we can leave any time soon without making it much much worse for these people.

I would like nothing more than to see all our soldiers out of Iraq, but not at the expense of a people who we have caused much suffering. When the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam, millions of people were slaughtered throughout the region. Iraq has this same potential and pulling out quickly would be a huge mistake and an immoral decision. We disbanded their entire security infrastructure, then fortified ourselves into large bases and allowed the citizens to fend for themselves. The recent tactics which have put us back on the streets is the real change that has lessened the violence, more soldiers on the streets, not just more soldiers.

So, what would I like the vp to say? "This has been a long road and a road that does lead our troops out of Iraq. We have a duty to support the Iraqi people and help them bring peace and security to their streets. The only winner can be the Iraqi people when they have a stable government and peaceful streets." At some point you need to move beyond defending a bad decision and move on to fixing the problems caused by that decision. Years have been spent defending the decision and only the past 8 months have shown any acknowledgment of changes required to move forward. The sound bites taken from this speech seem to be a complete reversal of recent progress.

So, those are my are my views in a nutshell.