It’s time for roughs. I think all of these were drawn last week on May 12 and 13. Yes, some of these were drawn on Friday the 13th.

I didn’t go with this one because I think other cartoonists have done something close to it, but I’m pretty sure none of them did it this well. OK, I’ll get over myself.

Laura, one of my proofreaders, really liked this one so I held onto it by placing it into the Maybe folder. I pulled it out this week and changed it around to the baby formula shortage which you saw a few days ago.

I thought this was OK.

I don’t know what I was going for here.

I don’t like this one.

This is OK.

This is the one I turned “not my problem” into. AFTER I did this cartoon, congressional Republicans voted against a plan to solve the baby formula crisis and I thought, “I need to draw a cartoon on that.” And then I remembered, I already did before they voted against it.

I kinda liked this one but pushed it aside for two reasons. One, Sweden got in on the act and I shouldn’t leave them out. Two, would anyone remember Trump’s Finland/rake thing? Also, I kinda like the way my Putin caricature turned out in this one.

This was just throwing shit at the wall to get started for the week. I even told my editor when I sent it that I didn’t like it. Why did I send it?

This one turned into an official completed cartoon and it did really well on social media.

This one did not go anywhere.

This one became the cartoon for the CNN Opinion newsletter and it got some big shares on social media. I’ve seen a few like it since it’s been published. I’m a trendsetter.

I didn’t draw that many roughs for the newsletter this week (five, and two of those were after the selection was made) so I’ll throw in a few cartoons from the Maybe folder that I’ve given up on when I blog roughs next week.

Which of these are your favorites?

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.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

This week’s batch of roughs is a large one, but enjoy it as next week’s will be very small. I’m probably not going to a do a posting next week and add those roughs to the batch the week after.

I didn’t know if anyone would get Thomas the Tank being hit by Putin. But now that I’ve posted it, another cartoonist will draw it.

This was one of my options for Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation. I really like drawing some of these people.

I never did do a cartoon on Russia being kicked of the Human Rights Council.

Another option for KBJ’s confirmation. Maybe I should have done this one.

I liked this one then thought I could write it better.

I went with this version but made it narrower with the only states represented being Texas and Oklahoma. Florida jumped on the women-hating wagon since I published this toon. This made Politico which I’m very honored by.

I liked the point of this one but didn’t love the idea. I really want to make all uses of KKK and Nazi imagery good shots.

Another for the KBJ issue. I probably should have done this one.

I thought this was amusing but knew someone else would use the same concept. I mentioned Politico earlier and that publication’s cartoonist, Matt Wuerker, did use this concept. I think I saw another cartoon on it and then heard jokes about from late-night TV hosts. SNL may have used the concept too. I emailed Matt showing him my rough and told him he did it better than I would have. He didn’t reply.

I didn’t think anyone would get this, or that only old people with good memories would, like me.

After I sent this to my editor at CNN, I thought to myself, “If he chooses this I’m going to reject it. I figured other cartoonists would do it and then they did. I saw three with this concept. It didn’t excite me anyway.

Another option for a KBJ cartoon.

Senate Republicans walked off the floor when it was announced KBJ was confirmed. I drew this up for my editor’s consideration.

CNN used this one but I had to put clothes on Mitch. I think just about every editor would. My editor asked to see an idea on Mitch and future Democratic SCOTUS nominations.

And I went with this one for KBJ’s confirmation…and the Michigan kidnaps goons escaping justice. I did another for KBJ’s confirmation that I never drew a rough for.

I posted this and the next rough on social media last week after I knew I wouldn’t be able to use either one. Elon Musk rejected Twitter’s invitation to join its board. Since then, he’s tried to take it over. I had some readers like this one but…

…I think I preferred this one.

Which ones are your faves?

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.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

I drew more roughs last week than what you’re seeing here, but I’m saving a couple that may have potential for future cartoons. You’ll see them eventually.

I didn’t go with this one as there were already a few cartoons with Mickey Mouse out there on the “Don’t Say Gay” issue in Florida. There’s been even more since I sketched this out over a week ago. Actually, now that I’m looking at it again, I’m kinda liking it.

I liked this but put it aside for other cartoons. Oil companies are making huge profits off the war in Ukraine. It’s easier to blame Biden than to explain why you’re making buttloads of profit while not making any sacrifices at all. It works because people are stupid animals. I may come back to the issue.

I drew this rough several weeks ago and put it aside because it had potential. I finally used the idea this week. See? You see the roughs eventually. I brought this back after the Bucha genocide.

I made an official cartoon out of this one and it got a lot of social media and print love. People love toilet humor. I do too. Poop. Ha. Ha.

I didn’t go with this idea because I liked the next one better.

I made an official cartoon from this and it too got a lot of social media love. I know one cartoonist who’ll have two ideas on the same subject and instead of picking the strongest one, he’ll go with both…on the same day. He traces and inserts clipart he steals off the internet to save time. I’m not that guy. The bad thing is, you don’t know who I’m talking about because there’s more than one cartoonist who uses stolen clipart in his cartoons.

I made an official cartoon from this one and I think it was my weakest from last week. But, I still like it and think it’s a good cartoon. I just think all my other stuff was better. I didn’t know if this was going to work and I decided against using it. Laura, who is one of my proofers, wasn’t sure she got it but convinced me to go with it. Hilary, my other proofer, didn’t get it. I took a leap of faith with it. I didn’t see any comments from confused readers after it was published.

I wasn’t sure I was going to use this one as I had another idea I’m not letting you see yet. I chose this one over the other as it’s not as wordy and one of my friends said she literally “laughed out loud” when she read it. I slept on it and whipped this out last Sunday. It also got a lot of shares, likes, and comments on social media which happens anytime you use the word “phallic.” Right after I published this one, I got an idea of a better way it could have been done. I’m still slapping my forehead saying, “I could have had a V8.”

This is last week’s CNN cartoon. There was just one slight change to it.

Which of these are your favorites?

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.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

I drew a lot of roughs last week, plus…I’m tossing in three more from over a month ago.

This is from last week after Vladimir Putin announced sanctions on several American politicians. Hillary Clinton was one of them and she was honored. I would be too if he sanctioned me.

One of the people he did NOT sanction was Donald Trump. Gosh, I wonder why. Funny thing is, he might be the one politician Russian sanctions might actually hurt. I might return and draw this cartoon later if sanctions become a big item in the news again.

This rough is from January when Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement and President Joe Biden reiterated his campaign promise of nominating a black woman. This cartoon was in the maybe folder and officially dead after President Biden made his pick, and I probably could have posted it here then, but I forgot this was in the maybe folder.

This was drawn in late February when President Biden nominated Judge Jackson to fill Breyer’s seat. I saved it for the hearings and placed it in the maybe folder, though I knew it wasn’t a maybe and I was definitely going to do it. I showed this to my friend Karen when I first roughed it out and she loved the “touch your hair” line. Karen is of mixed race and is so unlike a “Karen.” I added a few more text bubbles to the cartoon but the “touch your hair” line was the most popular with readers. Some famous people tweeted it out where it got tens of thousands of retweets, shares, and it got me a lot of new followers. Oddly enough, it didn’t get any major reprints. It wasn’t touched by The Washington Post, Politico, or The Week.

This was also drawn in late February and saved for the hearings. It got a lot of online love and The Week did publish this one. I changed it from elephants to several of the actual senators. Today, a friend shared with me a post on Facebook where someone had drawn poop stains around the mouths of the Republicans. That angered me, not because they were disrespecting the Republicans but because they had altered my artwork. Cartoonists hate that. Now, there are thousands of the manipulated version being shared and reshared without people even knowing it was doctored. You might think something about my cartoons needs to be improved, but they’re not yours to improve. Leave them alone.
I complained to a person who shared the manipulated version, which got over 100 reshares, and then she blocked me. Steal my work then block me when I complain about it. Nice.

Excuse me while I get on a soapbox: This is why I care so much about ethics in the business because, without them, we’re telling readers and editors not to respect us. From American cartoonists working for Russian state media to Daryl Cagle syndicating an “anonymous” cartoonist, to cartoonists placing clipart into their work hoping to trick people into thinking they drew it, to cartoonists who trace photos instead of caricaturing, we ourselves are saying we shouldn’t be held to any standards. Fuck that.

I think I did the official cartoon from this rough last weekend.

I have to warn you that the rest of these roughs are not very good. This is from last week. This one is OK.

I liked this one too but my editor didn’t want us to focus on Trump with this issue. I agreed.

OK, maybe they’re not all bad as I kinda like this one too. What stopped me from doing it was that there have been so many Putin Reaper cartoons since the war began. I’ve drawn one as well.

Ugh, I forgot this Reaper one was in here. I think I was the first cartoonist to put a “Z” into a cartoon about the war, and now everyone’s doing it. Also, sunflowers. There have been so many sunflower cartoons.

Now, they’re all going to suck from here. this one isn’t good because these two topics aren’t that closely related.

I don’t know what I was going for here. Did you know back in my performing days, I used to host open mics. And, they usually got worse than the Putin stand-up comedy in the cartoon.

Bleah. Me no likey.

Ugh. I don’t like this either. I did see a lot of no-fly zone cartoons featuring flies this week.

I did do a Putin/Kanye cartoon last week, but it wasn’t this one.

Then, I was going for a comparison of how large Zelensky is in stature to Putin. To be honest with you, I had a hard time feeling it. So, this is where the roughs really start to suck. This concept was requested.

No.

No.

Another no.

I think this was the best from the stature ideas, but it wasn’t chosen.

This just flat-out sucks.

This idea led to the next one.

This last one is the cartoon CNN chose for last week’s newsletter. Honestly, I don’t love it but it did OK in getting some online love from readers. So what do I know?

Which of these are your faves? I know…it’s “touch your hair,” isn’t it?

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.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Hoo boy, I drew a lot of roughs last week. I drew even more this week which you’ll see next week. I’m tired. Here are 16 from the previous week.

I just find it very convenient for Republicans to be standing up for Ukraine and its president now when in 2019, they were fine with Donald Trump commiting the crime of extorting the guy with (what?) U.S. weapons authorized for the defense of Ukraine (against who?) Russia. The cynic in me believes Republicans don’t really care and this is more about politics.
I didn’t draw this cartoon because of time and I had covered the baby hospital a good bit.

Big oil is profiting off this war. When oil prices go up, the prices at gas stations go up, and big oil makes profits. And, last week when oil prices came down, and gas prices, gues what they did, they went up. Everyone sacrifices during a war except big oil and the defense industry. They’re almost as bad as the GOP.

I wasn’t sure if I liked this one or not.

This is one where I knew I’d lose half my audience as only people who have seen the movie Tommy Boy would get it. When I go into a cartoon knowing that, I’m OK with it. And it’s not a reader’s fault if they don’t get it. I was also accused of body shaming but I don’t feel as if I’m calling him out for being fat because we already know he’s fat. He knows he’s fat. Hell, I know I’m pudgier than I used to be. When Chris Farley did the joke, he was making fun of himself for being fat. The joke here is not the fat guy but the little coat. But, if I’m wrong and I did body shame William Barr, a liar and a very vile person who used his position as United States Attorney General to be Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, I’m ok with that too. He’s fat.

This is just something I threw against the wall to see if it’d stick. This is the kind of idea I’ll shoot down and let other cartoonists draw. Unless of course, if my CNN editor had picked it, then I would have drawn it.

This is the rough I sent to several friends to see if I should go with it. I went back and forth on it several times. I even slept on it and woke up against drawing it, then changed my mind again. But, I didn’t get any backlash from the LGBTQ community for this which is the only thing I was afraid of.

I posted this on social media last week and someone actually replied, “Wait…this isn’t a political cartoon.” That was some fine sleuthing, but yes. This is NOT a political cartoon. I was in the middle of drawing these roughs, getting kinda frustrated, and popped this out to release some steam.
I thought of this while messaging with my friend, Quannah. We were talking about war crimes and I made a typo and wrote “warm crimes.” Then I joked about “worm crimes.” And then this cartoon came out of that. Yes, this cartoon came from a typo. This cartoon was drawn for me to amuse myself. Worm crimes. HAHAHAHA! I like worms.

Again, I throwing something against the wall to see if it would stick. It did not. Honestly, I don’t even know what this means.

I liked this but I combined it with the idea below…

…and I turned it into Tucker making excuses for Putin with the Hitler baby photo. It was funny. Trust me. How many times in one week can I draw a Tucker cartoon? Three. I drew three Tucker cartoons this week and each one of them was well deserved.

This is a subject my editor threw at me which I was pretty sure we weren’t going to do. I wrote this from that just to get something out of it. We do this occasionally. In a way, it’s another venting to release steam. By the way, Donald Trump is a moron and literally suggested we engage in war crimes, and no…not worm crimes.

I did an official version of this cartoon.

I don’t like this one. It didn’t stick either.

Another that wasn’t sticky. I’ve been making a lot of spaghetti lately because I’m really good with sauce. A lot of people throw a noodle against the wall because if it sticks, your noodles are done. I don’t do that because I can tell when noodles are done and don’t like noodles on my walls…but I’ve been using the analogy.

This is the rough from which last week’s CNN cartoon was picked from. The editor and the page designer both snickered a lot over “SS Harumph.” I did too. Did I get “harumph” from Blazing Saddles? Probably. Would I even know of “harumph” if not for Blazing Saddles?

My editor laughed about this one too and it was the last rough sent to him for the week because I told him that if he didn’t pick one of these now, I was going to throw some hot noodles at him. Another way to see if noodles are done is to throw them at newspaper editors. Fact.
We didn’t go with this idea and I never seriously considered it for my newspaper clients. But, we did have a conversation about McRibs. Now, I kinda want a McRib. Did you know that you can tell a McRib is done by throwing it on a wall? If it sticks, it’s a McRib. If you’re a Republican, you should really try this then let me know how it worked out.

So, kids…which of these are your faves?

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.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Holy crap, we have a bunch of roughs this week. Let’s get to it.

I really wanted to draw this cartoon, but I had just done a Trump-toilet cartoon that went gangbusters (I mean, a lot of people liked it), so I felt this would have paled in comparison or had appeared to be riding on the previous cartoon’s Trump-toilet coattails.

My editor at CNN had asked for cartoons on Presidents Day last week. This was a shot at that. I thought it was a pretty hard assignment and I was struggling with it a bit. I got this idea during a conversation with my padawan, Alexandra.

And then I got this idea. I got this AFTER sketching out all the other ideas in this batch. It can be very difficult to come up with a decent idea after writing several others. I tend to be very frustrated creatively at that point. So I was kinda surprised this one came to me when it did. I may not have realized how good it was until later. And it got monster shares on social media. I’m glad my editor picked it.

I liked the subject but I don’t like this idea. I don’t like it one bit. But, I actually think it’s still a good cartoon.

Out of all the drug stuff during the Olympics, I felt sympathetic to Kamila Valieva. She is a world-class athlete but at the same time, she’s still a kid. She’s a kid the Russian Olympic Committee used and appeared to have zero sympathies for. I think it’s impossible for her to be taking banned substances on her own. I hope she defects at some point in her life.

As I mentioned above, I was working on a Presidents Day cartoon. This one sucks. This is another example of me throwing an idea against the wall to see if it sticks.

This is the Trump-toilet cartoon that went gangbusters, kinda sorta. I published the completed version of this last Saturday morning. Then I went to a memorial service for a friend who recently passed. This cartoon was mentioned at that service and later that night as several of us met up for drinks. This got a lot of social media love.

Yeah, this was before the toilet idea.

This was also before the toilet idea.

And this was before the toilet idea.

This one really sucks. I was trying to conflate the Russian Olympic teams cheating with Putin’s invasion.

And this too. I thought this one was kinda cool but then I saw a cartoon from someone else do the same concept…and then I saw another on the same concept…and then I saw…yeah, you get it.

I kinda liked where this was going but I gave up on it. Republicans were upset after photos came out that appeared to show Snoop Dogg had fired up a doobie before the Superbowl Halftime Show.

As you can see, I nearly did this cartoon. Another idea pushed it aside and I had also just done one on the Russian Olympics (this was the week before last). One of my proofers really liked it. I was going to do it but it kept getting pushed back until the Olympics were over and decided it was too late.

So, do you have a favorite?

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.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

One cartoon in his batch is from last week. The rest are from this week.

I was out and away from my iPad when breaking news came in Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was retiring. I should have known with the quickness I got this idea that someone else would do something similar…or basically the same idea. Before I could finish my cartoon, Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had published the same idea. Then I saw one by Politico’s Matt Wuerker. Then I saw a meme of the idea from The Daily Show. Even though it was obviously obvious, I still liked it. I also liked mine better.

Also, I wanted to whine and someone had to see this so I texted it to a colleague of mine. Guess what he was working on.

This is the rough for last week’s cartoon for the CNN Opinion newsletter, Provoke/Persuade. I had so much fun drawing this that I added more detail than usual to the rough. It was also the only rough I drew for the newsletter as it was the first and it was picked. This cartoon got me a few compliments from some colleagues, which always makes me feel good.

I almost kept this rough for the cartoon and briefly considered drawing on top of it to tighten things up. But I just went ahead and started from scratch.

This was yesterday’s cartoon.

And I thought of this Mr.s Buttersworth cartoon the day before I thought of Sexy M&M. I knew I could only go with one of them, so I asked my proofers, Hilary and Laura, which one they liked better, Mrs. Buttersworth or Sexy M&M. They both picked Sexy M&M. My only concern was that I had already used Sexy M&M this week. But it was too funny not to do.

This was Friday’s cartoon. This makes the third book-burning cartoon I’ve done since Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin started his campaign. I’m going to lay off the concept for a while.

This is just a template and I was planning to replace some of these with funnier lines. This was also a desperate attempt to save the first SCOTUS idea I lost to other cartoonists…and The Daily Show.

Yeah, no.

This started as something else on Sarah Palin and other anti-vaxxer celebrities, but it turned into this mid-rough. I might come back to this subject.

This was going to be an actual cartoon until I got to this point, where I realized it was giving the impression Anne Frank was an anti-vaxxer. This was based on Robert Kennedy Jr comparing the unvaccinated to Anne Frank. Hilary and Laura both agreed and said it made Anne Frank look like an anti-vaxxer, which, needless to say, would have been extremely stupid of me.

This was on Glenn Youngkin’s executive order banning mask mandates in schools. “COVID” was going to be on the tombstones. I changed my mind at this point and did something else.

This is the rough for today’s CNN Opinion cartoon. I really liked this one and it’s doing really well so far on social media, for whatever that’s worth.

Which of these are your faves?

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.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Hey, kids. I drew eight roughs last week and seven of them were on the Supreme Court.

I liked this one but I really hate to give anything to the Lets-Go-Brandon fuckers. A lot of them would have seen this cartoon and thought I was on their side.

This one might be my favorite of the SCOTUS roughs.

This was the idea CNN picked.

I liked this one too.

And I liked this one too. I should shop these to other cartoonists. Just kidding.

I drew this one for my clients. I really wanted to get something out on Djokovic.

I kinda liked this one too. Have I done something on Joe Rogan yet that wasn’t just a rough? I can’t recall. If not, I need to.

I sketched this up right after President Biden’s speech for voting rights. He said you either stand with Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, and John Lewis, or you stand with Jefferson Davis, Bull Conner, and George Wallace. The Republicans backing Trump’s white nationalist goons who attacked the Capitol howled in protest. I made this into a cartoon for my newspaper clients.

This was the first cartoon I sent to my editor. When we start the process each week, I usually kick it off by sending a rough and then we go from there. I never have much expectation the first idea will be chosen as I don’t know what our subject will be at that point.

Which of these are your faves? Don’t be shy.

Music Note: I didn’t listen to anything while drawing these roughs. My TV was on CNN.

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.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw: 

Here’s the batch of roughs from the week before last. It’s another small one, which I love.

Antonio Brown was a player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At one point during a game a couple weeks ago, he was apparently fired from the time. Did I mention it was during the game? There have been conflicting reports over why, but according to some reports, the Bucs wanted him to get back into the game while he was injured and they fired him over his refusal. His reaction to this was to rip his jersey off and walk off the field. I tried to tie that into the Chicago school situation but it didn’t work…so I bailed on it.

This was the cartoon for the CNN newsletter. I really liked this one and I would have drawn it for my newspapers if they hadn’t picked it. It did really well on social media.

I didn’t like this one. The thing is, kids…if you support Donald Trump and his lies, you’re the one deranged.

Seeing this again for the first time in over a week did make me smirk.

I was trying to do a satire of a statement Trump issued for January 6 that contained a lot of stuff that’s not relevant, along with some conspiracy theories. But this was mostly reporting and less satire. It’s like the movie “Don’t Look Up.” It’s hard to out-crazy the crazies.

I was supposed to be doing something on the “former defeated president” when I made this. I liked this one too much and it became a cartoon for my newspapers. A Ted Cruz tummy tickle? I like the weird ideas.

So which are your faves?

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.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 18 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Yup, it’s that time again. It’s time for roughs. And there’s a lot of them this week.

You may recall Thanksgiving was last week. You may also be aware that Thanksgiving typically lands on Thursdays. Thursdays and Fridays are my CNN days (they’re also the days when everyone I know wants to contact me about frivolous bullshit). So, we moved last week’s CNN day to Wednesday so we could all eat turkey without facing a deadline. All the topics covered in today’s blog were drawn before the Ahmaud Arbery verdict came in. After that, every rough was on the verdict. Keep in mind, the cartoon had to still be relevant five days later because we publish on Sundays. I didn’t think that’d be a problem after the verdict came in.

As for this cartoon, it was a warmup without any real intention of it being picked. I had done something similar a year or so ago. I do like the setting at the crosswalk.

This was actually one of my favorites of the batch. I did a lot with Lady Justice in this batch.

Looking at this one again, it made me laugh. Maybe I should have done it.

We went with this one but changed the shirt to read “Ahmaud Arbery’s Life Mattered.” Funny creative story: I did a Google Image search to see if anyone had drawn this cartoon already. I didn’t find any. After I drew it, I searched again and I found one by Nick Anderson, though it was a pin on Lady Liberty reading “Black Lives Matter” and not a shirt, which is probably why I missed it the first time. I was going to tell my editor after Thanksgiving at the risk of not having a cartoon in the newsletter, but they called me and wanted to change the shirt. That solved the problem. I later messaged Nick and told him, just to share. He said it wouldn’t have been a big deal and that he also did not remember his own cartoon. That I can relate to. I don’t remember what I drew yesterday.

Even though similarities happens to every cartoonist, I’m very particular about this, and I know a few other who are as well. It’s bad enough I see cartoonists drawing cartoons they know have already been done…but then they boast about how awesome they are. I hate that guy…I mean, I hate them.

I don’t like this one.

I did this one for my clients. I thought it was just OK but it did fit the moment.

I hate this one so much that I’m not sure if I sent it to my editor or not.

This was OK.

Right about the time of the verdict, Baby Ammo Rittenhouse went to Mar-A-Lago for a photo-op with Donald Trump. I’m sure if the three men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery had beaten the rap, they too would have gotten one of those sweet orange Nazi photo-op invites.

I loved this one so I did it for my clients.

My proofreader Laura liked this one but I chose the Trump/Kyle one over it.

The rest of this batch was drawn before the verdict. See how fast I switched gears? Get ready for a Santa’s Lap stream.

I was gonna do this one but then Jeff Stahler did something similar with Santa’s lap and shooting your eye out. I don’t remember it exactly, but I thought it migh be too close. Still, I may return to this concept in some way, especially after what happened in Michigan.

This is how Republicans would ask Santa to help the country if they actually gave two shits about the country. So, I was using creative license here.

The initial idea of this had the same dialogue, but it was being said by two guys in a bar. But the cops on horses saved me from the bar setting which I admittedly use a lot. Don’t worry. I’m still going to keep using it.

This is the first one I drew on Thanksgiving week for my batch of roughs. I later saw Ann Telnaes do something on the rich that reminded me this was still in my back pocket. Maybe I should have hung onto it before showing it to you here. I might bring it back which will be OK because you’ll forget you ever saw it by then.

Occasionally, I’ll tell you there are more roughs but I’m holding onto them for now. This is one of those. This was thought up and sketched out two weeks ago. I made an official cartoon out of it at the beginning of last week.

There’s a digital notepad full of ideas I’ll never get to in addition to a maybe folder full of roughs that I may do in the future, like when the topic returns to the headlines. Like the ideas in the notepad, I won’t get to do most of those in the maybe folder.

This was a big batch and next week’s is even larger. Trust me on this, there’s a lot of crap in next week’s batch. There’s not a lot in it I like. But with this batch, what your faves?

Creative note: I don’t listen to any music while roughing out ideas. My TV is always on CNN while doing these but it’s usually on mute.

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.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 18 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw: