Follow the Boiling Point on Bloglovin'! (before Google Reader goes dark)

I know this blog is a bit quiet these days (though I'm very busy sewing and knitting over at Polka Dot Overload), but I still have the occasional cartoon for you. Google Reader goes dark on July 1, so follow The Boiling Point blog with Bloglovin' if you want to stay in the loop on new posts.

I know Bloglovin' has some bugs and is missing a few features—the ability to save posts to read later, for example--but I prefer it to the other options for one huge reason: it lets you read actual blog pages in their own design, the way they're meant to look... and it gives bloggers pageviews.

Why do pageviews matter? Many bloggers rely on people actually viewing their sites (instead of just the text and photos from a single post) to earn money from ads, sponsors, Etsy shops and links. When you read a post through something like Google Reader, that didn't count as a pageview. So every time you view an actual blog, or read it through Bloglovin', you are helping to support your favorite bloggers!

I don't make MUCH money from ads on my two blogs but I have noticed since folks started switching over to Bloglovin' my pageviews have doubled (30,000/month average now). And instead of $10/month from Google Adsense, I'm seeing $30 or more. (That may not sound like much, but I live on a REALLY tight budget!)

So again—please follow me on Bloglovin'!

P.P.S. If you are a blogger, even if you don't make the switch to reading blogs on Bloglovin', you should still claim your blog over there to have more control when people subscribe to you that way!

My Essay on "The Way the Future of Political Cartooning Wasn't" (Herblock Foundation Report)

The Herblock Foundation has a brand spanking new whitepaper out on the state of political cartooning called "The Golden Age for Editorial Cartoonists at the Nation’s Newspapers is Over." Too true.

The whitepaper (which you can download as a PDF here) contains a glum survey and a depressing collection of essays by a wide range of cartoonists, including Clay Bennett, Ted Rall, Jen Sorensen--and yours truly.

Here's a quote from my essay, which is untitled in the collection, but which I like to call "The Way the Future of Political Cartooning Wasn't."

The future of political cartooning I imagined in 2001 was already a far cry from the future of political cartooning in 1981. My fellow 20-something alternative cartoonist friends and I didn’t even vaguely aspire to comfortable drafting-desk staff positions at daily newspapers with reasonable salaries and health benefits. The Pulitzer Prize application just seemed like a waste of money.

Our model was self-syndication in the alternative weeklies. We looked to Ted Rall, Keith Knight, Alison Bechdel. We’d pay our inky dues, toiling in the Bristol Board — or Wacom tablet — trenches. We’d work day jobs. By night we’d comb through news sources and write and draw and write. Sleep was for suckers.

We’d market ourselves with clever self-promotional packets mailed regularly to hundreds of alternative and niche publications. We’d blog and send e-mail newsletters, and we’d draw attention to our cartooning book collections at comic conventions with big vinyl banners and brightly colored tablecloths. We’d sell T-shirts and stickers to our legions of super-dedicated online fans.

Our aspirations were modest. Maybe one day we’d quit our day jobs and squeeze by on a low five-figure income. Or if we were already squeezing by fulltime, maybe one day we’d be able to afford — gasp! — basic health insurance.

That's one of the least sad bits. Download the whitepaper PDF to read the whole thing.

Yeah, um... Happy New Year. And stuff.

P.S. If you want a more thorough sum-up of my 2011, it's over here at my sewing blog Polka Dot Overload, but I do warn you that it is mostly about babies and sewing and not political cartoons or politics (except for a mention of me getting laid off from the cartoon syndicate United Media when they outsourced all our jobs to Universal Press Syndicate).

"Should I work for free?"

For all the times I received emails asking me to draw cartoons for free for various forms of "exposure," I wish I had had this amazing flowchart to refer to.

Broken RSS feed for Boiling Point Blog?

Yes, I know, it's been a while! Since I went on political cartooning hiatus there's been a giganto evil oil spill, legal racial profiling in Arizona, and any other number of atrocities.

Anyway, I'm still here, still angry as ever about politics, and still VERY pregnant (39 weeks pregnant). But Blogger made me move this blog from mikhaela.net FTP publishing over to blogspot, and I worry that the RSS feed broke. Please comment if you're still able to get this--I'd like to revive this blog (relatively) soon!

The End of "The Boiling Point"

I'm afraid I have to announce--with equal parts sadness and relief--that I'm retiring from regular weekly political cartooning. "The Boiling Point" as it has existed for the past 8 years--1-2 cartoons per week that I've been drawing for a variety of print and web clients since 2002, is, as of this moment, on indefinite hiatus.

I've been considering this seriously for over two years now, but I'm not ashamed to say that when I came to my final decision yesterday and notified my major remaining clients via email there was indeed some uncontrollable sobbing on my part.

I've been drawing political cartoons since high school. I started drawing them regularly again in college with a vengeance in 2001 (which is when I started this blog) and I've been drawing them professionally for newspapers and paying web clients since 2002. Over the years my cartoons have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Boston Phoenix, Bay Windows, Metro Times, The Rochester Insider, Women's eNews, In These Times, Ms., The Funny Times, Campus Progress, Girlfriends, The Minnesota Women's Press, and other assorted fine publications. I've been interviewed by NPR and the BBC, appeared in art exhibitions such as "She Draws Comics: A Century of Women Cartoonists" and come in third place in the Detroit SPJ Journalism Awards for editorial cartooning. This past fall I was elected Vice-President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (a position I'll hold until this September).

So why am I quitting? It's not as if the world is running any lower on evil wars, economic injustice, environmental disaster, homophobia, transphobia, racism, misogyny... And while he's no Bush, I'm certainly no big fan of Obama.

• The political cartooning market sucks. This is really no secret. I started out in 2002 with one paying client, the Boston Phoenix. Over the years I picked up and dropped more, and at my peak I was appearing regularly in six or seven print papers. In the past two years, as my clients eliminated or cut their political cartoon content, that number dwindled down to two, and finally, just one (the Metro Times). I did have a few fabulous web clients, but my cartooning income had halved, then quartered itself.
• The relentless deadlines. There are no vacations or sick days in freelance weekly alternative political cartoons. When I had pneumonia in 2003... I had to draw or risk losing my papers. When I had severe carpal tunnel problems in 2008, my husband Masheka had to illustrate my cartoons for me. I had to draw a cartoon the morning for before my wedding and while on my honeymoon. Sometimes you need to take a break--but you just can't. (And yes, I know I could have drawn some extra cartoons and saved them up for a rainy day, but still!).
• I'm just TIRED. And it's not just because I'm hugely pregnant and exhausted all the time, though that certainly doesn't help. I've tried to develop a thick skin and ignore or laugh at the nasty hate mail, the "hope U burn in hel" and "you can't draw" and "you uggly dike bitch I hop the papers cancel you're stupid cartoons" letters and comments, but after a while, it gets a girl down. I wasn't getting paid enough for that kind of abuse.
• I need to make room for other things (and a tiny new person) in my life. I have a lot of other passions and projects I've been wanting to tackle over the years, but drawing political cartoons in addition to working full time and having some vague semblance of a social life has made it difficult to pursue them fully. With the peanuts I was earning for political cartooning, I was theoretically doing it for fun--but I wasn't really having fun anymore.

  I'd like to do a graphic novel or a cartoon book on body image issues (along the lines of my "Your Yucky Body" cartoons) someday. I love writing science fiction. I LOVE to make things, and I've recently been having an amazing, hate-mail-free time blogging about sewing and style at Polka Dot Overload.

  Not to mention that Masheka and I are expecting our daughter (our first child) on June 18. I'm going to be going back to work full-time after a 12-week maternity leave, and if I'm this exhausted and finding it this hard to draw cartoons and while pregnant, I'd be foolish to imagine it would be any easier while taking care of a newborn.

Despite all that, it was still a hard decision. I'll definitely miss:

• Having a regular public outlet to express my outrage. I'm still furious and I'm still angry and I still want to fight injustice and make change in this world. But I'll just have to do that in other ways and venues.
• The fans. You are awesome. Every time in the past I thought about quitting I'd get an amazing and inspiring letter or comment or meet someone at a cartooning convention who'd been reading my work since the beginning and I'd get new energy to keep drawing.
• Hanging with fellow political cartoonists. I've loved being a part of the AAEC and Cartoonists With Attitude, and I've made some of my best friends through these groups. Obviously I'm still a cartoonist and they're still my friends, but I will miss some of the camaraderie in griping about what it's like to be a regular political cartoonist.

But as I said above, I won't miss the hate mail, the comment trolls, or the never-ending deadlines.

So what's next for me? As mentioned, I have a new blog about sewing and style for those of you who care about such things, Polka Dot Overload. And Cartoonist Baby will be here in a matter of weeks. I'll be leaving this blog and my complete cartoon archives old (1998-2008) and more recent up indefinitely.

I may post occasional political thoughts or cartoons here again, and I'll let you know about those graphic novel or book projects, but it'll probably be rather silent here for a while. For now you can always read the work of my amazing friends in CWA, folks like Ted Rall, Brian McFadden, Matt Bors, Jen Sorensen, Stephanie McMillan, Keith Knight...

Signing off for now...
Your Angry Cartoonist

P.S. A head's up and apologies in advance to my Facebook friends who are readers or fans... I'm going to be changing most friends I don't know in real life to limited profile status (or possibly just deleting), as I would like to make my Facebook page more of a private space for real-life friends and family so I can safely share photos and thoughts about my daughter when she is born in June. I hope you understand.

Cartoon: Texas Textbooks

Click to enlarge

It's been quite a ride for the last eight (nine?) years but I'm sorry to say that this is my last regular weekly cartoon for "The Boiling Point." I'll explain my decision to retire from political cartooning in my next blog post.

Goodbye Bush!

So I FINALLY got rid of the Bush-themed banner at the top of this site--it only took me over a year to get around to it! Not only did it feature an ex-president, it also showed me with the flaming red hair that, truth be told, actually came out of a bottle, and I stopped dying my hair in 2007.

I realize I don't look particularly angry in the above image, but that's only because I clipped it from an illustration I did of a vintage dress pattern I'm sewing. But trust me, I'm still SEETHING with RAGE, even in my fabulous orange floral silk maternity dress.

Here's the retired banner:

Here's the image I pulled the new banner from:

Big News

Click to enlarge

Notice any differences between this picture and this one taken just a month ago (besides the lack of googly eyes)?

Anyway, this is why I have been under the weather so much lately. I've discovered it's quite a bit more difficult to blog/draw/whatever when you're uncontrollably nauseous all the time.

Cartoon: Bloggers Without Book Deals

Click to enlarge

Even though I mock the concept, I've found myself reading and enjoying quite a few of these "one-year blog project" blogs—even the ones with book deals. Such as:

• Julie Powell's The Julie/Julia Project, which became Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen and eventually Julie & Julia: The Movie. If you haven't heard of this one you've been under a rock, and I admit to picking up the edition of Julie & Julia with Amy Adams on the cover and the edition of My Life in France with Meryl Streep on the cover (I was at a train station news stand, ok?). I have to admit the movie half about Julie Powell's blog project left out most of the fun bits—her self-deprecating humor, her friends' romantic mishaps, her rants against Republicanism, the flies and maggots. But whatever, I generally enjoyed the movie and there were no celebrations of high-heeled shoes to be found. I even made cassoulet before going to see it.
  
• Colin Beavan's No Impact Man blog, about to be launched as a book ("No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet...") and a documentary. It's about a New York family who tries to reduce their carbon footprint to as close to zero as possible, even eschewing public transportation, elevators, toilet paper and packaged goods from the farmer's market. It's educational and inspiring, but I worry that the focus is too much on individuals choosing to reduce. Still, at least he rejects green consumerism and silly half-measures and I love the anti-consumption message.
  
• Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Another inspirational tale about a family, in this case a family on a small farm in Virginia, attempting to eat as locally as possible for a year (including growing and preserving their own produce and raising chickens and turkeys for eggs and meat). Just a book and website, not so much a blog, but it's a similar type of project, and quite eye-opening. I even ordered the 30-minute mozzarella cheese-making kit she mentions. My only gripe was the random rant against vegetarianism, which seemed odd coming from someone who rejects CAFO meats. Even Michael Pollan (guilty of a similar weird treatment of vegetarianism in The Omnivore's Dilemma) has come to the conclusion that it's not enough help to the environment to just eat free-range meat—Americans need to eat WAY fewer meat and dairy products.
  

P.S. I have nothing against tripe or offal (if you're going to eat meat—which I do—might as well make use of every bit) though I doubt they would be palatable in cereal form.

P.P.S. I am quite myopic and did once (accidentally) get the wrong glasses prescription. I went around with what Kurt Vonnegut would call a "whanging headache" all day, bumping into all sorts of fun walls and whatnot. No fun! But not particularly blog-worthy.

P.P.P.S. I got so caught up I forgot to mention the other reasons I loved Kingsolver's book--my grandparents had a farm in Maine, and when I was a kid, my family had a huge vegetable garden and fruit trees and kept ducks and chickens. We had fresh duck eggs for breakfast on weekends and made homemade applesauce, peanut butter, pickles, canned stews, the works.

Vice President Reid!

I've been nominated as the only candidate for Vice President (and very likely future President-Elect and President) of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists! This is an honor/exciting/terrifying.

P.S. Also, I may have mentioned this before, but I'm on Twitter. You could have gotten that news live from the nomination meeting!

Back from Europe!

Just got back from a 2-week+ trip to the UK, France and the Netherlands (a "short holiday" by the standards of the guy at passport control, a very long holiday by my sad American standards!) Will be at MOCCA this weekend with Masheka. Was horrified to return to awful news of the assassination of Dr. George Tiller.

Sugary new heights of giggle

The cartoon I'm drawing about antigay weddings is actually making me giggle out loud. Especially the line "soar to sugary new heights of one man, one woman love."

This is a refreshing change from my usual expression while drawing--the sleep-deprived squint.

Two Left Feet: A (Mostly) True Story

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The true part is that I rebroke my foot recently while Masheka was still in his left foot cast. The not-true part is that it was intentional--having a broken foot SUCKS. And HURTS!

Note: I rarely use photo references when drawing myself, but I needed them here--these are quite accurate recreations of how I broke my foot, the giant stack of pillows (complete with cats) I used to keep it elevated, etc. I even donned a wool coat in 80ish degree heat to pose for panel three!

P.S. Yes my foot is all blue and nasty under the cast--or it was last time. I'm sure it will be again when they remove the current cast.

My brother's burning house

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Not at all comics-related, but I love these pictures. My brother and his wife bought a piece of land in Maine that had an incredibly decrepit unlivable old house on it, so the fire department burnt it down as a training exercise. Photo by my mother Beryl Reid.

Here's the final result:

Detroit SPJ Journalism Award

Just found out I came in third place for editorial cartooning in the Detroit SPJ Excellence in Journalism Awards for 2009 (after Henry Payne and Mike Thompson) for my cartoons for the Metro Times. (PDF with complete list of winners here.) The judges comments were: "Welcome breath of fresh air with great promise for the future."

Cool!

Update: More here.

I broke my foot. Again.

I broke my foot AGAIN. For real. Same left foot. Different spot. And Masheka has a cast on his left foot now for a tendon problem. WTF?

More cartoons soon, by the way. About torture.

Update on My Hacked and Delisted Website

After some diligent headscratching and web directory searching, I found three suspicious directories on my website that I had never created which seemed to be part of the attack on my website that Google notified me about earlier: "yptkl", "kjkpb" and "uiojc." They were created over the course of a few weeks, so I'm worried this attack is still active.

I asked Google to relist me, but that might take a while. And I'm not sure how to prevent the attacks happening again. So now a web search for my name comes up first with the MySpace page about my cartoons that I do not check or update. Blech. How exactly do I prevent this crap from happening going forward?

Google says I've been hacked--and they're delisting me? Help!

I got the following message today, and I followed all their instructions but I honestly have no idea where these hidden keywords are lurking on my site or how to find and remove--Google's documentation is really confusing and seems to assume I'm some paid fancy webmistress instead of a blogging cartoonist. Any help or suggestions are appreciated--I don't need to be any more obscure than I already am!

By the way, I did check to make sure this wasn't a spam email--I have a webmaster account on Google and it really is from them.

Dear site owner or webmaster of mikhaela.net,

While we were indexing your webpages, we detected that some of your pages were using techniques that are outside our quality guidelines, which can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769&hl=en. This appears to be because your site has been modified by a third party. Typically, the offending party gains access to an insecure directory that has open permissions. Many times, they will upload files or modify existing ones, which then show up as spam in our index.

The following is some example hidden text we found at http://mikhaela.net/:

# # fathers # ub # comunity # mambo # seam # denied # resellers # racial # knight

In order to preserve the quality of our search engine, pages from mikhaela.net are scheduled to be removed temporarily from our search results for at least 30 days.

We would prefer to keep your pages in Google's index. If you wish to be reconsidered, please correct or remove all pages (may not be limited to the examples provided) that are outside our quality guidelines. One potential remedy is to contact your web host technical support for assistance. For more information about security for webmasters, see http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-sites-been-hacked-now-what.html. When such changes have been made, please visit https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reconsideration?hl=en to learn more and submit your site for reconsideration.

Sincerely, Google Search Quality Team

This sucks and I am royally confused.

Now on Twitter, though not sure why, exactly

I'm m1khaela on Twitter, and here's my Twitter feed, but I'm not exactly sure what the point is, really.

About that out-dated Bush-crushing banner...

By the way, a couple of folks (actually, mostly just Masheka) have needled me about the out-datedness of the banner on this here website (and the illo on my business card), being that it features an ex-president. I totally plan to change it at some point soon, I swear.