The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Citizens United vs. FEC case has expanded the free speech rights of corporations and, more significantly in the short term, allowed our corrupt system to become even more corrupt, if that were possible. Like Glenn Greenwald, I am ambivalent about limitations on the political speech of groups, whether they are corporations or unions or non-profit advocates. But the “corporations as persons” principle is total nonsense. They are a special class that receive special treatment that is beyond the reach of the average citizen. They are, in effect, if not in law, super persons. We ought to rethink that. Just sayin’.

As I mentioned last week, this week’s strip will be the last to appear on In Contempt. I have been at this off and on for ten years, and political cartooning in general for triple that, if you count my high school, college, and random underground work. But I have made very little money at it in all this time, and a lot of other projects have been put on the back burner or delayed due to this pursuit. Having just turned 40, I’m feeling a little urgent — a lot urgent, really — get those back burner projects going. That means I have to make a sacrifice. And this one is it.

I won’t go into the economics of political cartooning. There has been a lot of breath, ink and phosphorous expended on that subject. The recent sacking of Mr. Fish from LA Weekly speaks more eloquently on that subject. And quite a few great webcomics — D.A.R., Thingpart, Boxcar Astronaut, to name a few — have closed shop recently, as their creators start new projects and seek new directions.

My new direction is not really that new: I began Wanderlost under a different title (“Sheldon”) a couple years after starting In Contempt, but it has had many fits and starts over the years. Over the past few months I have returned to it in earnest. There are many stories to tell, the artistic challenge is interesting to me (and fun), and there are subprojects — games, animation, etc — that I want to create for it. Unlike In Contempt, the series is not political (intentionally, that is) and it takes a very gentle tone. My goal has been all along to create a kid-friendly comic that was not adult-hostile, something that was cute without being cutesy, and fun without being stupid. I think I’ve been pretty successful at that so far. Please drop by and check it out if you have not already.

My goals for In Contempt have changed over the years. At first I aimed it at the weekly alternative market. Then I turned it into a webcomic. Now this site will be an archive of my political work. But it will also become a portfolio of my caricature work. After this week I will be posting a new caricature every week. Don’t expect the kind of commentary that I have offered so far. But then, it won’t be just a series of silly drawings of famous people. My models are the late David Levine, Stephen Brodner, Barry Blitt, and others whose work has been stylistically unique while retaining a sharpness of attitude.

In other words, the strip is dead, but the site lives on. Very dramatic words, really.

Thanks to everyone who has supported my work over the years. Big shouts out to Ted Rall, Barry Deutsch, Matt Bors, Shannon Wheeler, Mikhaela B. Reid, Brian McFadden, Tom Tomorrow, Abell Smith, Jen Sorensen, and everyone else at Cartoonists With Attitude for your support, commiseration and friendship. Big smooches to Chris and Jen and Kip and Steve and Sara and Dylan and Erika. Big thanks to Lisa R. Jonté for guest-scripting earlier this year.

And many, many thanks to fans of the strip who have chimed in, blogged and tweeted over the years. Stuff like that really keeps a cartoonist’s spirit up.

I’d end this by thanking my wife and kids. So I will: thank you, wife and kids. But I won’t belabor that, because they will be putting up with my other creative endeavors in the future, putting the meaning into “long-suffering.”

Tags: capitalism, citizens united, corporations, new projects, supreme court, the end

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under In Contempt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.