Greenwashing

With growing concern about climate change and rising energy costs, consumers are increasingly conscious about the environment, and also increasingly drawn to environmentally friendly products--one need only look at the car dealerships filled with unsold SUVs for evidence. Some corporations are more than happy to exploit the public's newfound environmental awareness, "Greenwashing" their corporate identity by launching PR campaigns to trumpet that they are "going green" or are now more "eco-friendly," without making the hard decisions and sacrifices that actually doing so would entail.

Flow of Information

Network neutrality is the principle that information sent and received on the internet should not be discriminated against, regardless of its type, source, or ownership. Network neutrality legislation would prevent telecommunications giants such as Comcast and AT&T from being able to “tier” internet traffic, deciding what information is transmitted swiftly, and what isn’t. Without it, these corporations have the potential to charge fees for the unimpeded flow of that information, or, worse still, influence the load times of competitors’ websites, search engines, internet services, and more. Each time we log onto the internet, we assume that we’ll be able to read the news, to communicate with our friends and associates and to download entertainment, all without interference. Net neutrality allows internet data and information to continue to flow unimpeded, making these assumptions possible.

An Imbalanced Diet

More than ever in the age of the internet, news consumers are faced with the temptation to immerse themselves in only the news sources that reinforce their current political point of view. Though the mere existence Drudge Report, The Huffington Post, and other news sites with a clear partisan agenda does not constitute a problem, I believe that we owe it to our country and ourselves to maintain a balanced news diet which contains ideas from all sides of the political spectrum. Otherwise, we risk demonization of opposing viewpoints, partisan gridlock, and intellectual apathy.

You either are or you ain't

The lack of attention I've been paying to this blog is pretty shameful, frankly. I've been on vacation since spring quarter ended and am just now managing to get some of my more recent work uploaded, so I've got a bit of a flurry of work here that will hopefully serve as atonement! Working on a thing or two right now, and I've been spending some more (much-needed) time in the old sketchbook as well--some of that may potentially appear on here sometime soon.

In the meantime, I've got a few political illustrations for ya'll. Enjoy!

Also, special thanks to the handful of people checking in regularly and giving me those helpful kicks in the pants--I really need those, once in a while!

If pleasure be happiness

Ink and Watercolor

From The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, who is simultaneously the author of some of the most hilarious theater and of the most heartbreakingly beautiful children's stories I've ever read. I have as much of a man-crush on him as ever I have had on anyone.

I could probably die happy if I ever had the chance to illustrate a collection of Wilde's amazing stories, though it may be pointless anymore, considering that the inimitable Michael Hague has already taken his crack at it. Here's some of his lovely illustrations from the version of The Hobbit that I grew up with.

Incidentally, I just discovered that Hague has a graphic novel (!) that was just released a few days ago, so apparently I've got a trip to the bookstore in my near future...

This is One For the Good Days

For the cover of a short story comics collection (including the stories "Wake" "Hero" and "One Spring Day") that I finished recently.

I wish it looked like this in print!

The composition seems odd right now, but bear in mind that there is a title / byline overlay design over the finished image.

Honk, honk, honk

(Yes, that's the sound of me indulging in a bit of my-own-horn tooting... I don't do it often, but then, it's not every day that a fella gets a national journalism award!)