The Business of Guns

View The Business of Guns, click here

Minute MBA has a very nice and nonpartisan short video on the gun industry in the United States.

My own interpretation is that U.S. gun ownership is a measure of our own paranoia as a nation. Maybe in the past pioneer era having a deadly weapon was useful, but in Century 21 private gun ownership is not about freedom, it is about fear.

As for hunters, they can use crossbows, that way it'll be a real sport.


Two links to clarify:

Watercolor series: Since I originally posted this, I have moved more solidly into the gun control camp. The more I read about Americans shooting each other, the more I welcome the day when the NRA is considered the terrorist organization it is and gets shut down. What they are promoting is destroying our country.

Cold Dead Hand: The Jim Carrey video that riled up Fox and the NRA. Go Jim!

Thank You, Jim Carrey!

Cold Dead Hand

Beautiful work. Earning the displeasure of Fox News is like winning a Medal of Honor.  In just a few minutes you accomplished more than Bowling For Columbine took too long to get across in a smarmy manner. I live deep in gun crazy country and am a product of it, and your bit here was 100% accurate in all respects.

In terms of short, irreverent, and comedic bits that insult great swaths of people, you have joined us old underground and Newave cartoonists. God bless you. And welcome to the fight. Now I know our side will win.  Right wingers exist on a foundation of fear, and in their world they fear humor more than anger in my political experience. They really really hate being laughed at.

Morty Comix # 2526

Morty Comix # 2526 was drawn on the skin of my right hand (I am left-handed) and Hettie breezed by to inspect the artwork before I washed it off. This might mark the first time Morty Comix was presented as body art, although it was very temporary. I suspect this is as close as I'll ever come to a tattoo, an adornment which has become a widespread fad for the last couple decades but I must confess is an art form I find unappealing. I'm not knockin' it, it just isn't my deal.

Why? Because I see the creation and consumption of art as ever evolving. Something that captivates me at age 18 will become lame and stupid by the time I am 35, 40, 50. Plus, and believe me I know, our bodies change shape like silly putty as we hurtle through time. And that changes the presentation of the tattoo.


I understand there are at least two people running around out there in the world with Morty the Dog tattoos, although I have not seen them. One of them gained his Morty body graphic long before tattoos became hip. That was a real radical leap and I do respect him for that. But what if I subsequently had suffered a severe head injury and became a member of the Tea Party or the NRA and allowed Morty to be an icon of these hater un-American movements that stand for nothing but fear, greed and ignorance?


But, that being said, apparently the late great underground cartoonist Greg Irons, an artist I admire very much, was a tattoo artist in Seattle working in the city at the same time I was a graduate student at the University of Washington over 30 years ago. And this was before tattoos became fashionable for middle class kids. Back then, the radicals got tattoos, but these days the radicals don't get them. If I had known Greg was in town I would've been very tempted to get an Irons tattoo. The guy was the Durer of our time, a gifted artist, and a big influence on my own cartooning. I loved his work.

As I recall, Bruce Chrislip (who was hosting), Michael Dowers and I were downing a beer or two (er, or more) next to Lake Union late 1984 when Bruce gave us the news Greg had been killed by a bus in Thailand at age 37. It's not fair. We were robbed of several more decades of work by a great artist. Very funny Mr. God, thanks a lot!    

Morty Comix # 2409 - # 2415 Watercolor Series

Morty Comix # 2409 through # 2415 can be called the Watercolor Series. Before I post these things, they will require some explanation since the final products came out even weirder than normal, and even I will admit that is saying a lot.

Last year when Colin Upton told me "Color is for the weak," I really knew what he meant. So call this a moment of weakness while I was on a staycation.

First, I tied a string between a young elm that is sharing some kind of leaf disease with all the other elms in my yard, and a tree from the Southeast called, I think, the Devil's Walking Stick. This was a tree my Dad, may he rest in peace, gave me to plant. When a guy from Alabama fixed my garage roof a few years ago, he asked why I had this big weed in my yard on purpose.

Then, using some of the very same clothespins I employed in the Bezango WA 985 art exhibit at Batdorf and Bronson in Olympia several years ago, I hung up seven blank sheets of letter size typing paper.

What I was about to do has been on my mind for quite some time. A year ago, maybe more, maybe less, I had purchased a cheap watercolor set and a suction-cup toy gun. I laid them out with a styrofoam cup filled with water on an issue of our local weekly newspaper, the East County News.

I dipped the suction cup end in water and after that in the watercolor set. Then I took aim and fired at close range. I did this over and over, for about 30 minutes.

Yes, here's a case where a gun is really a tool for something good. The "gun is a tool" argument is frequently repeated by the gun crazies. In my situation, I was making something fun. But the real gun is a tool for one thing: wounding or killing someone. And that is not good. 

Here's the ironic part. I dislike guns and think the National Rifle Association is full of paranoid rightwing nutjobs with a penis complex. Oops, I was being quadruple redundant there. My review of Bowling for Columbine in Cheaper by the Dozen 6 pretty much summarizes my mixed feelings on firearms.

Anyway, here's an example of the results of my efforts. This sheet of paper eventually became Morty Comix # 2410 after I finished with it. You'll see.

Sarah happened to be here when I was performing this act of art, wondering what the Hell I was doing as I failed to explain what I was up to while she was visiting. So she took this photo since she is a journalist. I apparently did not inherit my Willis grandfather's deadeye aim when he had his famous 1931 shootout, killing two people and taking three bullets himself and living through it. Even at this close range, I still missed several times.

When this orgy of watercolor violence was over the toy gun was no longer functional. I'm sure members of the NRA can appreciate how Freudian that is. I had to throw all the supplies away.


At any rate, now you have the background on the next round of Morty Comix.

Favorite Movie Quotes: Zardoz

"The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life, and poisons the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth and kill!"

I know the above quote sounds like it came from the National Rifle Association, but in fact it comes from the very worst movie ever made, Zardoz. Read the review in Cheaper by the Dozen 23.