BorgBlog

Speaking Truth to Power

2008-05-30T08:47:00.002-05:00

OK, so speaking truth to power is part of my job description as an editorial cartoonist. It ain't always fun (sometimes it is). Here's an open letter to Mr. Pluck and whoever else calls the shots on these blogs:

This new blog is a total letdown. We were told "this blog isn't changing, but it will have a lot of new improvements," and we were asked to tell this to our readers. BorgBlog's readers are responding with one giant, monolithic voice, "Who do you think you're fooling?"

The new Pluck blog is anything but an improvement in the case of BorgBlog. My readers used to be able to come to my blog and find an aesthetically pleasing column of drawings and essays, easy to navigate and post comments on, and enlarge the images with a single click for the many who chose to visit to scratch their graphic itch. Now it is a column of post titles, clicking over and back, over and back, over and back to miserly image files. What a disappointment.

There's no shortage of blame, some of which goes to Blogger, whose attention was increasingly difficult to capture when posting. A bigger share goes to the jerks whose inappropriate comments made it necessary to seek a more accountable format. I can hardly blame corporate for seeking a better system to police those whose fundamental incivility constantly threatened to sink the old blogs, as well as my faith in humanity.

Maybe Pluck is working well for those writers whose style fits it naturally. And Lord knows, I don't miss moderating comments. But for a graphics-oriented blog like this one, Pluck is no improvement. BorgBlog readers and I are all losing interest fast.

A Movable Blog

2008-05-23T08:04:00.000-05:00

This blog has moved! The new blog can be found at
http://news.cincinnati.com/borgblog, so be sure to update your bookmarks.

If you subscribe to this blog via an RSS reader, the new RSS feed is
http://sitelife.cincinnati.com/ver1.0/PersonaBlog/BlogRss?plckBlogId=Blog:e1
b6bfc0d9a24509a05e442a57e55e40

Blogged Down

2008-05-21T08:53:00.001-05:00

Blogger must be one busy little site, because once again I've been unable to upload my cartoons for a couple of days. Sorry for the delay.

Kentucky Primary

2008-05-19T16:54:00.002-05:00

Public Service Announcement

2008-05-19T09:13:00.006-05:00

So here's the scoop on the switch over to Pluck, in the words of our Enquirer guru of blogs Mandy Jenkins.

"Starting later this week, this blog will be published in a new blog tool
on a brand-new Cincinnati.Com website.

- This blog isn’t changing, but it will have a lot of new improvements.

- When we move to the new blog, this one won’t go away just yet, but it will
have a link to the home of the new blog. Eventually, any bookmarks and links
to this blog will take you to the new one.

- Once I start posting to the new blog, you’ll be able to get in and get a
sneak peek at the new website before anyone else."

I'm not entirely sure about the "this blog isn’t changing, but it will have a lot of new improvements" part. The Pluck blogs I've seen require the reader to click on each blog post in order to see the cartoon, and I'm not sure that's an improvement for a graphics blog, but I'm trying to keep an open mind. Generally, Pluck blogs are spoken of highly among those who've adopted them.

I do look forward to moving to the new post-moderation era, in which readers will apparently be able to shoot tranquilizer darts into the necks of inappropriate commenters. That should make for livelier repartee, don't you think?

The World According to Bush

2008-05-16T14:05:00.002-05:00

Thanks For Your Patience

2008-05-16T08:04:00.004-05:00

Blogger finally ended its Borgman boycott and here's the work from the last several days.

The bubble in the cartoon about frat boy Marc Dann originally read "'Bout Time" as he was being dragged away, but Dann held on another day and at the last minute I changed the caption to something a bit more equivocal. Late-breaking humor, don't you know.

Hillary's Rust Belt is a rare case of one of my cartoons that might have benefitted from color, but it ran on a Thursday. I tried to make the belt look rusty using tones and body english, but it was really her caricature that I enjoyed.

"Oh, the ...places you'll go!" earns a big thanks to my buddy Jerry Scott who talked me down from the ledge as deadline approached and got me brainstorming aloud long enough to trip across an idea despite myself. Jerry does that for me more than anyone will ever know. A tip of the Hatlo hat, old pal!

Talk Among Yourselves

2008-05-14T18:42:00.001-05:00

I've been unable to upload my last three cartoons to Blogger for reasons known only to God. You can go here to look at them until Blogger deals with its issues..

Hanging It Up

2008-05-12T20:34:00.003-05:00

The Bubba Gap

2008-05-09T16:59:00.001-05:00

Junior

2008-05-07T17:07:00.000-05:00

Myanmar

2008-05-07T15:19:00.002-05:00

Herblock Exhibit

2008-05-07T08:52:00.004-05:00

I just visited the Herblock Exhibit online.

The work, of course, is as seminal to our profession as kneaded erasers. And the online tour is fantastic. You can see all the battle scars on the originals and zoom in for a closer look as easily as if you were standing in front of the drawing in the gallery. This is the new standard for an online art exhibition, and no one's work deserves it more richly.

Disposable Income

2008-05-06T14:24:00.000-05:00

Shout Outs

2008-05-06T08:11:00.003-05:00

Oliphant is smokin'.

We were talking about Mike Lester's work in the comments section the other day. If you haven't discovered his work, here's an archive.

For those of you complaining that you're not getting your money's worth of Obama bashing on my blog (oops, sorry, forgot this was free), you'll find plenty in Glenn McCoy's archive. The guy cracks me up. Even better is his strip The Duplex.

Got a great email from Jeremy Nell who draws both editorial cartoons and a comic strip in Capetown, South Africa. Check out his stuff here.

Marc Dann's Last Stand

2008-05-05T16:02:00.000-05:00

Pandering

2008-05-02T14:17:00.001-05:00

Shout Outs

2008-05-02T09:50:00.003-05:00

Some cartoons I've seen lately that I liked.

Check out Pat Oliphant's great cartoon on the blather of TV's talking heads. Great image and cuts through the crap.

Matt Davies did a beauty on the relative insignificance of recent proposals to address the energy crisis. (Flies on Windshield)

Check out Richard Thompson's More Old Stuff post (about halfway down) on the Otterloops' visit to Open House. Have you ever seen a more charming moment than panel one?

I like Mike Luckovich's take on the Jeremiah Wright distraction. (May 1)

Tony Auth did a nice one on the gas tax holiday proposal.

Priorities

2008-04-30T16:16:00.002-05:00

An interesting story in today's paper -- Scientists are recommending the suspension of the production of biofuels in light of the growing global food crisis. We're fueling our cars ahead of our brothers. The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again. Not so long ago we were looking to biofuels as a significant part of an alternative fuels program.

Well, learn and adjust. We'll be doing a lot of that as we stumble our way into a post-petroleum future.

Ocho Stuck-o

2008-04-30T11:46:00.002-05:00

Globe of Death

2008-04-29T16:23:00.000-05:00

Control Tower

2008-04-28T16:26:00.002-05:00

Last week the Enquirer editorial board took a tour of CVG, our local hub. We visited the control tower where I did this sketch. Frankly, I've been itching for an opportunity to play with it.

Hard-Hitting Allergy Cartoon

2008-04-28T08:03:00.000-05:00

Remembering Matt Maupin

2008-04-25T16:48:00.000-05:00

Now What?

2008-04-23T16:44:00.000-05:00