Rita Hayworth

I’m tired, so you’re going to get a short blog.

I’ve been in the habit over the past several months of only having to draw for CNN on Fridays. My newspaper clients get seven cartoons each week from me. I will draw two cartoons on either Wednesday or Thursday. This week, I drew two on Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, the Fredericksburg Advance informed me that they now want a weekly cartoon from me, increasing our workload from one cartoon a month. My editor at the Advance sent me a subject and since I’m traveling this week, offered me the week off and to start the weekly thing next week. But I work. So after drawing two cartoons on Wednesday, I drew about six roughs for the Advance and they accepted one. I told them I’d probably draw it Thursday night when I arrived at my destination.

I also wrote my Friday cartoon on Wednesday night and drew it on Thursday morning. Are you confused? I am too. So I drew my Friday cartoon on the train to Baltimore on Thursday, worked on it some more in the airport, a little more on the plane, and finished it in Atlanta during a layover.

While sitting in an airport bar in Atlanta enjoying a cold one, the news came in that the jury in the Trump hush money case had reached a verdict. Before I left the bar to board my plane, I thought of a couple of ideas. I thought of more on the plane and would have sketched them out, but I was sitting next to a fat guy whose elbow was in my space, but he seemed nice enough.

As soon as I got to my hotel room, before eating or doing anything else, I drew up 10 ideas and couldn’t settle on any of them…until I drew this, which was the 11th. And then I went out and got me some Whataburger for the first time ever.

I’m wondering if I picked the right cartoon. This is a play on the Shawshank Redemption and some readers don’t seem to get it while others do. It may be too subtle. One of my copy editors thought it was an OK cartoon and some of the other ideas were better, and then I asked if she knew this was off of Shawshank. She did not know that.

Last night, two people offered me ideas. One was an idea I’d seen other cartoonists already drawn, and the other was an idea I had already drawn a few weeks ago.

CNN may pick one of the other ideas and they already told me they like one. I hope they stick with it so I’m brutalized by the writing process today.

I’m tired.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Tales From The Trumpster Fire: I have five copies and you can order yours, signed by me, for $45.00. You can pay through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Knee-Deep In Mississippi: There are only 16 copies left of my first book, published in 1997. These can be purchased for $40.00

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