Uncle Toms of Today

Political Cartoon of the Week

This Other Irish Deaf Cartoonist pokes fun at Mike McConnell's post "Deafhood? No Thanks."
(Click on the picture to enlarge.)

 For those of you who aren't familiar with the work by hearing cartoonist Tom Tomorrow, see his website, This Modern World.

I'm Just A Bill Named AB2072

Political Cartoon of the Week

New Schoolhouse Rock Song:

A Broadway Play Starring Mike McConnell and Cast

I'M JUST A BILL NAMED AB2072

I'm just a bill
Named AB2072
People still
Argue about me all day
Yes, I'm only a bill
And I'm sitting here in the California State Senate
Well, its a long, long journey
To the hill
It's a long, long wait
While I'm sitting in committee,
But I know I'll be a law someday
At least I hope and pray that I will,
But today I am still just a bill.

I'm just a bill
People still
Argue about me all day
But when I'm a law someday
I will
Make big changes in people's lives
Such as drilling holes in babies' heads
And sending deaf children off to oral schools
Where they will learn to keep down their hands,
Not to sign,
Not to wave like those ASL fools,
But to speak and sit still
It'll be just like in the old days

I'm just a bill
Yes, I'm only a bill
Named AB 2072
Waiting for the Governor to sign
Me, just me
So I can make big changes in people's lives
You'll thank me one day
People still
Argue about me all day
But I know I'll be a law someday
It'll be back to the old days
At least I hope and pray I will,
But today I am still just a bill. 

The World's Dumbest Deafies I Know: Part 2

Ever watch that Undateable show on VH1? Doesn't every guy make a dumb mistake at least once in his life in trying to impress women? I know, I've made plenty of dumb mistakes myself, too! But this guy takes the cake. Ladies, using the ratings system that Ellen Rakieten and Anne Coyle set in their book, how would you rate this guy? (Click on the picture to enlarge.)

The World's Dumbest Deafies I Know: Part 1

I created this comic strip last year and left it laying around. I found it while rummaging through my boxes and decided to post it just now. If you have any story about any deafie you know who did a very dumb thing, you are welcome to submit it to me. Just please keep the person's name anonymous. Thank you! (Click on the picture to enlarge.)

Letter from Chris Browne

Hi fans! I thought I'd share with you this following email I received from Chris Browne, creator of Hagar the Horrible. Surprisingly, he happens to know Matt Daigle, "that deaf cartoonist." He and his wife lives in Sioux Falls. Matt, I envy you...but what the heck, I've met a lot of famous cartoonists here in California anyway! LOL
(I've already just replied by telling Chris that I know Matt from RIT.)

D
----------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Dan!

I love your note! I'm running out the door now but I will follow the link later and check it out.

There is a large culture of deaf people here in Sioux Falls and I intend to learn ASL in lessons or on DVD (trying to learn it from books has not worked for me.  I am wondering if you know or have met deaf cartoonist Matt Daigle?  I like his work a lot and he has a charming actress wife Kay and beautiful baby.  They lived here in Sioux Falls but I believe they moved to California as soon as I moved to town (nothing personal I hope!)

Here is my most recent email address for Matt-  he's talented and you guys might hit it off!  email@mattdaigle.com

Very best wishes,

Chris Browne

- Show quoted text -

On May 11, 2010, at 1:54 AM, D. McClintock wrote:

Dear Mr. Browne,

I thought I'd write you a note and just say hi. I would like to
introduce my blog, www.deafcartoon.com. I had just posted a political
cartoon on the issue of VRS (video relay service), and I had used your
character Hagar the Horrible as well as Matt Groening's character
Homer Simpson, the Dagwood character and Lucy from Peanuts in this
cartoon. In the deaf world there was a rumor swirling around about how
FCC was supposedly cutting rates and how that would cause video relay
services to go bankrupt (see www.deafread.com). So I created this
cartoon to make a joke about what would happen if VRS was to be cut
today. Hope you don't mind...I happen to love Hagar the Horrible, ever
since I was a little child. I am sure many deaf people similarly love
your comic strip, too, that your father created (God bless his soul).
Just so you know (and so your friend Hagar won't go chasing after me
with his sword!). Keep up the great work that you're doing. Thank you
and have a pleasant day,

Dan McClintock
deaf cartoonist,
member of Southern California Cartoonists Society, San Diego branch
www.deafcartoon.com

http://www.chrisbrowne2.blogspot.com/

http://www.thehistorylesson.blogspot.com/

The Great Deaf Dictator: Part 2

The Night of the Riots - La Noche de los Disturbios 
(English and Spanish subtitles - los subtítulos ingleses y españoles)

 THE SCHOOL OF INTERPRETERS

In those days in Sordia there were no captions or sign language interpreters on television.

En esos días en Sordia no había los subtítulos o los intérpretes de la lenguaje de señas en la televisión.

If VRS were to be cut today...

Political cartoon of the week

AB2072 Cartoon

Political Cartoon of the Week

MORE GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN OUR LIVES

The Great Deaf Dictator

A new comic strip debut
(English subtitles for the Español-impaired)

YOUR NEW LEADER FOR SORDIA

A POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE IN SOUTH AMERICA

Wednesday, May 5, (censored)

LA CIUDAD DE CLERC, Sordia - Three days of coup d'etats in a series sweeped over a small country of Sordia in South America, which population is 80% hearing-impaired. When political unrest followed after the tumbling economy, riots, widespread looting, and a crime surge that sent fear and worry into the hearts of Sordian citizens, the first coup d'etat was achieved by Benito Oralini and the Oralists, who immediately instituted a fascist order. Oralini's government was quickly, however, overthrown the following next day by Fido Audio and the extreme-left Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Audist Socialist Society. Yet Audi's rule lasted only until the next sunrise, when El Sordo and the Sordian Independent Party seized control of the government. Right away upon the first day in his office, El Sordo declared emergency martial law and ordered his troops to squash the riots, arrest all the looters, and establish stability in the poverty-stricken country of 5 million people. The people of Sordia cheered and welcomed in what would eventually became the world's longest rule by El Sordo, whom they call the "Great Leader." 

Un terremoto político en Sur América

Tres días de golpes de estado en una serie barrida en un pequeño país de Sordia en Sur América, que es del 80% de la población con impedimentos auditivos. Cuando la agitación política seguida después de caer la economía, disturbios, saqueos y un aumento de la delincuencia que envió miedo y preocupación en los corazones de los ciudadanos Sordian, el primer golpe de estado fue alcanzado por Benito Oralini y  los Oralistas, quienes inmediatamente estableció un fascista solicitud. El gobierno de Oralini fue rápidamente, sin embargo, derrocado al día siguiente de Fido Audio por la extrema izquierda marxista-leninista-maoísta  la Sociedad Socialista Audista. Sin embargo, la regla de Audi sólo duró hasta el amanecer siguiente, cuando El Sordo y el Partido Independiente Sordian tomó el control del gobierno. De inmediato el primer día en su oficina, El Sordo declaró la ley marcial de emergencia y ordenó a sus tropas para aplastar los disturbios, arrestar a todos los saqueadores y la estabilidad en el país asolado por la pobreza de 5 millones de personas. El pueblo de Sordia animó y dio la bienvenida en lo que eventualmente se convirtió en la regla más largo del mundo por El Sordo, a quien llaman el "Gran Caudillo".

Hand Alphabet Charts

Kendra recently informed me today that Howard Koblenz reprinted our hand alphabet designs without our permission on his Facebook page, Hand Alphabet Charts. But rather than confronting him about it, she decided to post her comments there letting the readers know where our hand alphabet designs can be found, as well as to give credit where it is due. So I will do the same thing here: you can find my and her designs in form of rubber stamps by going to her website, ASLstamp.com. Scroll down and click on Alphabets. There you'll find mine, titled cartoon fingerspelling set (3101-J). You can also find many of my other designs that I did for Kendra during the years she and I were together. I encourage you to buy many stamps from her as her business is faltering a little and she could use your support. Thank you!

We artists do not appreciate being ripped off. We would greatly appreciate being asked for our permission for using our artworks. This time, however, we are letting Howard Koblenz go with a warning: don't ever do this again - if you reprint any one of my artworks without my permission, you risk incurring my Irish-Chilean wrath! (Shaking my fist!)

Asides from this news, I would like to announce that I have agreed to do business with three companies in designing T-shirts for them. Some of the T-shirt designs may incorporate the same hand alphabet designs that I did for ASLstamp.com. When the T-shirts come out, I will post a release here. Keep your eyes peeled open for coming announcements!

DawnSignPress presents A to Z: ABC Stories in ASL

This announcement that I received from DawnSignPress is not related to cartoons but is nonetheless related to arts so I decided to post their release here. DawnSignPress publishes educational books with wonderful illustrations by various deaf artists and cartoonists. You can find information on this new product by going to this link, http://www.dawnsign.com/shopping/Detail.cfm?ProductID=265.

----------------------------------------

DAWNSIGNPRESS IS PROUD TO PRESENT


A TO Z: ABC STORIES IN ASL

A Beautiful Collection of Stories

26 amazing stories told in ASL by 6 gifted performers:
•Ben Bahan

•Ben Jarashow

•Linsay Darnall, Jr.

•Stefanie Ellis-Gonzales

•CJ Jones

•Brian J. Morrison

Ben Bahan, Professor of ASL and Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University provides a detailed explanation of the basic principles for creating an ABC story. This DVD is a valuable resource for storytellers, teachers, and students.

Visit us at http://www.dawnsign.com/ to see our complete line of quality products!

Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day was last Saturday, May 1. Every year on May 1 is Free Comic Book Day, which honors cartoonists and comic book artists all around the United States. You can find some of my old comic strips, which are re-printed with my permission by Adrean Clark in a pdf format and can be downloaded from her website, http://www.adreanaline.com/. Funny, Adrean is the only cartoonist whom I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting in person...the other cartoonists who are featured in that booklet - Maureen Klusza, Matt Daigle, Kendra Harness - I know them well. Maureen (nicknamed Moe) and I attended the same art classes for 5 years at NTID and RIT. Matt, I know him from RIT plus we are from the same state where I was born, Massachusetts. Kendra...she was my first girlfriend whom I knew way back from MSSD. (She and I remain friends to this day.) Nevertheless, I hope to meet Adrean one day in person. Asides from this, I send my congratulations to all those featured cartoonist, Moe, Matt, Kendra and Adrean! I hope we'll see more deaf cartoonists featured on next year's Free Comic Book Day! To view more of their artworks, you are invited to visit their websites or blogs by clicking on the links that I provided in the list on the right. Cheers!

Atlas Signs - New Blog

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I have decided to separate my prose from my cartoon posts. From now on I will be posting articles, essays and commentaries in my other blog, Atlas Signs. The focus of Atlas Signs will be deaf news around the world, travel stories, philosophy, politics and more. I am going to build DeafCartoon.com into more of an online deaf cartoons magazine. In the near future you'll see not only my new comic strips but interviews with other deaf cartoonists, announcements and news relating to Deaf Arts. For those of you who would like to share links to new deaf cartoon pages, you are welcome to do so here. I will be posting my new email address soon. My previous, deafcartoon@gmail.com, will be closed due to phishing attacks that stubbornly persist despite my attempts to stop them. You'll see more changes and improvements on this blog as time progresses. Thank you all for your patronage!

Two Pierced Ears: Todd Silvestri and I

A Short Memoir

Greetings, folks! I just got back from the weekend in Los Angeles, where I went to attend DeafNation Expo in Pomona. I was shocked and saddened to learn that my old friend and MSSD classmate Todd Silvestri had passed away. As I had mentioned in my comment there, he and I were on the same wrestling team way back in '78-'79. He was one of the coolest guys I knew at MSSD. If you happened to be a 90-pounds weakling wearing nerd clothes, guaranteed you'll get picked on at MSSD. MSSD in my old days wasn't for the faint-hearted...there were always arrogant alpha-male jocks you'd run into who'd take sadistic pleasures in picking on little people. Todd was indeed an alpha-male jock allright, but he was never in my memory ever arrogant or mean towards anyone. He was always polite and respectful to everyone. Of course, with his good looks he'd get many girls. He got along well with everybody and he was well liked. I had the pleasure of getting to know him when we were in algebra class (one of my worst classes with teacher Jeff Dieter...I was one of his biggest F students, believe it or not!).  

When I learned about his tragic death, I was brought back to my memory of one incident that involved he and I. It was '80 or '81 and he was sporting an earring on his left ear. We were in class one day and I noticed his earring. I asked him how he got the earring and he explained to me how he pierced it himself. Back then very few boys wore earrings. There was only one punk student at MSSD and that was one girl named Nancy. (Remember her? Her Mohawk haircut and leather outfit?) The punk fad hadn't yet caught on at MSSD, where most students wore preppie clothes. The only exception was when several football players shaved their heads and sported Mohawks to show how macho they were. (Funny, wasn't it?) I was so impressed by the gutsy thing Todd did so a few years later when I enrolled at CSUN, I pierced my own left ear. It didn't hurt much and I wore earrings often during the early '80s when I was into punk/new wave fashion. Now I don't wear an earring anymore because I kept losing them, but believe it nor not, the hole in my earlobe is still open. Nowadays you see teenagers wearing more rings and pins on their ears, noses, chins, nipples and belly buttons. Ah, as the famous folk singer Bob Dylan said, time's a-changing! I'm now in forties and I wear normal fashion like everybody else my age...but next time I put on an earring, I'll do it in honor of my old friend and classmate, Todd Silvestri. I am proud to have been on the same wrestling team with him and I am also proud as well of his great achievements and what he did for MSSD and Gallaudet. God bless him, wherever his soul is. Once again...my dearest and deepest condolences to his younger brother Toselli and family!