Trump's newest puppet

Hi!

Twice in one day, eh? Looks like the cartoon I posted on the USS Abraham Lincoln earlier today is doing pretty well, at least on social media.

For those of you who have been with me for a while—or, heck, since the start of my journey here on Substack—you might have seen me mention that I tend to load up on cartoons early in the week. I mean, that can’t always be the case as there are those times when a big story is calling out for a cartoon no matter what day of the week it is.

But, in general, editors tend to pick up cartoons earlier in the week...in fact, by Wednesday and Thursday they’re already choosing cartoons for the weekend. Sadly, these days, it’s rare for an editor to add in a fresh cartoon over the weekend. Lots of reasons for that—editors are likely overworked and underpaid, etc. But I digress.

The main reason I’m here again today is to share this sketch, posted

here exclusively for paid supporters. I was horrified enough when Todd Blanche was approved to run the DOJ, but then, to hear him say that he has no intention to pledge independence from The White House? Yikes.

That’s when the idea of a puppet or marionette came to mind. But I knew I needed to do a bit more with it than to simply call him a puppet of the president. And, if you know me, I love a good visual rhyme. That’s how I landed on this idea—the visual nature of the scales of justice juxtaposed to Blanche as the marionette, the strings held by a tiny-handed Trump.

Also, a funny thing happened on the way to making this sketch. It turned out nothing like I’d imagined. Which is to say that I didn’t originally envision Trump stretching his arm into the air as he is. That’s not an angle I usually draw. When I sketched it there was even a brief moment where I thought...”hmm, that doesn’t look like a regular Koterba cartoon!” But I quickly got jazzed about it and decided not to change a thing. I love stumbling upon stuff like that, you know?

I’m grateful for your sustaining support of my human-made creativity, journalism, and satire.

Finished toon coming soon!

—Jeff