Move over liberal art

May 18, 2006 7:57 AM

Hilarious website showing one mans passion for drawing conservative themed art.The real gems are in the archive. My personal favorites include "Team W" and these creepy Reagan ghost ones [1] [2]. Don't forget his epic comic The Patriot.
posted by DougieZero1982 (58 comments total)

What's he got against Andy Warhol?
posted by cloeburner at 8:02 AM on May 18, 2006

A. Quotation marks within speech bubbles make Baby Jesus and Jack Kirby cry.

B. The style wouldn't be all that horrible if the artist were in junior high. And the artist is not in junior high.

C. But I have to admit, he does a decent Connery.
posted by grabbingsand at 8:06 AM on May 18, 2006

I'm impressed by how he doesn't just spout partisan hate, but instead deals with complicated issues.
posted by papercake at 8:10 AM on May 18, 2006

I'm impressed by how he doesn't just spout partisan hate, but instead deals with complicated issues.

I'm impressed that he resisted the temptation to augment Ann Coulter's flat chest.
posted by three blind mice at 8:17 AM on May 18, 2006

Ouch.

I feel kinda ill after seeing some of those. Also, why is America so absolutely mortified of socialism?
posted by slimepuppy at 8:18 AM on May 18, 2006

The "American Patriot" comics, horribly-written as they are, are somewhat decent. As for the main gallery: Ugh. Awful.

Realism doesn't equal talent: you can be what elitists would call a "bad" artist and still put life and excitement in your drawings. His politics are really irrelevant here- these look like the generic caricatures you see at the carts by the Orange Julius stand at your local mall.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:19 AM on May 18, 2006

I like how, in the finaly frame of The Patriot, Bush explains to the superhero-guy that Saddam is planning on reconstructing his weapons program. Not WMD, not nukes, not chem or bio weapons. Just, you know. weapons.

Careful, kids. Iraq wants trebuchets...
posted by verb at 8:20 AM on May 18, 2006

C. But I have to admit, he does a decent Connery.

Not so bad, I suppose, except he appears to have used leeches for Sean's eyebrows.
posted by JT at 8:21 AM on May 18, 2006

Does anyone else think this looks a lot more like Christopher Lee than Sean Connery?
posted by dagnyscott at 8:22 AM on May 18, 2006

Not so bad, I suppose, except he appears to have used leeches for Sean's eyebrows.

Also, is it just me, or is he looking a little moldy?
posted by 912 Greens at 8:25 AM on May 18, 2006

Funny how President Bush gets word of the cowardly attacks in Patriot Part 1 but doesn't show up again until Patriot Part 21. Just sayin.
posted by three blind mice at 8:27 AM on May 18, 2006

This and this, among others in the portrait section look kinda, well, traced (and are probably copyright infringements as well).

I like the "quotation marks" in the "speech bubbles" thing, though. "I think I will start putting quotation marks around everything I say" "When talking, I will use 'finger quotes,' at least until the people I am talking to get annoyed and tell me to cut it out."
posted by TedW at 8:30 AM on May 18, 2006

Quote marks inside speech bubbles? why that calls for finger "quotin'" Margo!



as stolen from here, and as I am at work I don't have the software to change the text... insert your own witty sayings.
posted by edgeways at 8:32 AM on May 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

seeing a somewhat decent artist fall to a political trend, much less a conservative trend, depresses me. especially when he's overlooked so much more of what has gone on in the world.
posted by Doorstop at 8:35 AM on May 18, 2006

This stuff is awesome. He's like the Lil Markie of the inkstuds. I love that two people combine to make this stuff, too. I love both of you!

Patriot Part 1

Ha, ironic similarity to Mack White's art, from the Fantagraphics Bush Junta book.
posted by Peter H at 8:36 AM on May 18, 2006

Also, why is America so absolutely mortified of socialism?

Anyone find it funny that Hillary is the embodiment of socialism and the 'extreme left'?
posted by mountainmambo at 8:38 AM on May 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

I liked Reagan, for the most part. He screwed me personally over a bit, but ok, some stuff he did I was on board with.
Having said that is, I think, crucial to conservativism.

This hero-worship, this - let’s call it what it is - idolatry, does more harm to conservative thought than any argument or political success liberals (or the “left”) may have.
You see guys like this at the gun range. Talking guns, wearing gun hats, bitching about north shore liberals, buying carrying cases, straps, new sights...
“Say Bill, gonna shoot today?”
“Uh...yeah, maybe later.”
In love with the culture and the mystique, but not the actual substance.

Reminds me of the hybrid drivers on South Park.

I don’t know that political principle can be applied to art. I suspect art is “liberal” in the sense it is more accepting of innovation - but that’s an argument within the art world (in those terms that makes me very liberal indeed in philosophy if not in taste)

I will conceed nationalistic and/or partisan art and it’s relations are a blight on whatever media (canvas, film, Ashcroft’s voice, etc) they’re perpetrated on and can be so close to propaganda that it makes no difference.

But the same can be said for left spectrum partisan art (what kind of puppy kicking child hating bastard doesn’t care about the ‘environment’!? I’m going to drive an art car around and around to expose how evil your hatred of the environment is!)

Devoid of those tangents though, yeah this guy’s a nut.
posted by Smedleyman at 8:41 AM on May 18, 2006

Andy Warhol did a great Nixon campaign poster... well, sort of.
posted by R. Mutt at 8:43 AM on May 18, 2006

As a very thick-necked man, I feel personally oppressed by this guy's anatomic stylings.
posted by COBRA! at 8:44 AM on May 18, 2006

I wish I was autistic.
posted by spinifex at 8:49 AM on May 18, 2006

Truly the worst of the web. Reading 'The American Patriot' just made my eyes bleed.
posted by MrMustard at 8:52 AM on May 18, 2006

/I’d hate to trot out the PMRC - but Tipper Gore v. Frank Zappa (& John Denver, et. al) - what was that artistically? Zappa was to the right on some issues. Didn’t smoke teh doobige, etc. So was it Left vs. Leftier? Was/is Tipper - and Al - ‘left’? - Fully accepting all the ‘right’ jagoffs labeling rap, et.al. but not country)
posted by Smedleyman at 8:52 AM on May 18, 2006

Anyone catch the swipe I posted. Obviously not a real swipe (would this guy read this?) But the same elements and photo reference, just re-arranged. Like some bizarro world! Just sayin....
posted by Peter H at 9:04 AM on May 18, 2006

He's not a somewhat decent artist.

There is something psychopathic about detailed colour pencil drawings. Fiddly little shaded coloured pencil renderings (127hrs work) of every hair on Pamela Anderson's are serial killer territory.. and not very realistic.
posted by oxala at 9:14 AM on May 18, 2006

stuff reminds me of those teens in amusement parks doing caricature, then going home to obsessively draw nude pics of cartoons/celebrates.

Generally seems pretty batty
posted by edgeways at 9:30 AM on May 18, 2006

yeah, oxala. i take that back. i just went through his comic and archives. he's not a good artist at all.
posted by Doorstop at 9:31 AM on May 18, 2006

Ah edgeways. Perfect use of Margo!
posted by jazon at 9:47 AM on May 18, 2006

Smedleyman: Precisely which issues was Zappa "to the right" on? He didn't take drugs but that hardly makes you a Conservative.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:54 AM on May 18, 2006

I liked many of his drawings, John Kerry is very fun to characture and he does a very good John Kerry. His Al Gore is god awful though, he makes Al Gore short for some reason and its hard to to tell who it is without context. He should really do a more droopy dog angle with Al instead of a squat fat guy. His Hillary Clinton is pleasingly mean spirited.

I think his "jokes" are about as funny as drawing George W. Bush with a dunce cap over and over. Plus he is clearly crazy.
posted by I Foody at 9:56 AM on May 18, 2006

I think that J. C.* would have something to say about these cartoons:

Proper art, says [James] Joyce in [Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man], is "static" and improper art is "kinetic." Kinisis, as you know, means movement and Stasis, as you know, means standing still.

Kinisis: Improper art is kinetic in that it moves the observer either to desire, positive, or to loathe or fear, negative, that object represented. That's clear and simple. Improper art is kinetic, it moves the observer either to desire or to refuse, to fear or hate the object represented.

Art that moves you to desire is pornography. The Supreme Court of the United States can't define pornography, therefore, that's what we have. All advertising art is pornographic. You are going through a magazine and you see a picture of a beautiful refrigerator and beside it stands a lovely girl with lovely refrigerator teeth. And you think, I love refrigerators like that. Pornography. Picture of a dear old lady and you think, "Oh, lovely old sweet soul, I'd love to have a cup of tea with that dear lady." That's pornography. You go into a ski buffs department and you see pictures of ski slopes and you think, "oh, wow, to go down slopes like that." Pornography.

*Joseph Campbell
posted by LooseFilter at 9:59 AM on May 18, 2006 [1 favorite]

Does my crushing apathy, my utter indifference, qualify this guy's stuff as kinetic art?
posted by FormlessOne at 10:22 AM on May 18, 2006

I'm assuming he has a secret stash of Katharine Harris slash.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 10:30 AM on May 18, 2006

Brett Noel has every right to use his talent to express right-wing passion, but I can’t help but having dark thoughts. What if he’s subsidized by our tax money? Thinking Web sites like this might be where some of that faith-based money could be going really brings me down.

Looking at this dork’s link list is what brought that evil thought to mind. After all, the Bush neocons do have a well-oiled propaganda machine aimed at assaulting our founding principles. One wonders if this cartoon bore is a well paid cog in that monster.

In institution green sub-basements, I imagine crack teams of propagandists working under buzzing florescent lights making lies seem true. This Noel guy looks more like a playboy, but can’t you just see teams of spectacled geeks doing similar work.

I’m thinking they are GS-8 drones, assigned to muddy information waters. Maybe they even believe they are patriots whose job it is to help us simple paroles ignore a trampled constitution, and the spectacle or our president committing high treason.
posted by BillyElmore at 11:00 AM on May 18, 2006

Strip away the political message and his art is kind of suck.

I have no problem with him using his artwork to communicate whatever point of view he wants (though, in the spirit of the cartoon art related links in the last few days, I wish there was more tentacle porn) but the dude seriously isn't all that good.

Of course, bad art is often forgiven when people agree with the political message.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:30 AM on May 18, 2006

The spelling is great in this one.
posted by dead_ at 11:39 AM on May 18, 2006

I thought we were done with the Brokeback Mountain parodies.
posted by PlusDistance at 11:59 AM on May 18, 2006

This is both disgustingly exploitative and hilariously inept.

The restaurant was called Windows on the World.

I doubt a traffic cop's wife and kids would, unbeknownst to him, randomly drop in for breakfast.

And the planes did not hit the towers with a KA-BLAM sound.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 12:12 PM on May 18, 2006

Christ sakes this guy is the Jack Chick of the conservative political sphere... who am I kidding, Jack Chick is the Jack Chick of the conservative political sphere by virtue of being the Jack Chick of the conservative religious sphere.

This guy is just a no talent hack compared to the glory of Chick.

America prevails!
posted by C.Batt at 12:19 PM on May 18, 2006

I note that The Patriot series ends right before the Iraq War.

I wonder why?
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 12:24 PM on May 18, 2006

Precisely which issues was Zappa "to the right" on?

He was very anti-union, mostly based on several obnoxious experiences with the musicians union, particularly involving hiring minimums for his orchestral works.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 12:39 PM on May 18, 2006

Gotta love the evil image in the smoke. Could it be...Satan?
posted by kirkaracha at 12:56 PM on May 18, 2006

As a politically-motivated cartoonist, I have to say... his stuff sucks. It makes me think of those roving cartoonists in a county fair...

"So... you like waterskiing? (quickly draws in big goofy skis...)."

...

"So ... you believe in a woman's right to choose (quickly draws in a crushed fetus...)?"

(like the Margo image too. From Comics Curmudgeon, I assume?)
posted by jpburns at 1:57 PM on May 18, 2006

Perhaps this guy was an understudy of the very talented, and often misunderstood Larry Van Pelt.
posted by adamms222 at 2:03 PM on May 18, 2006

Precisely which issues was Zappa "to the right" on?

Zappa proposed a national sales tax to replace income tax...though to be fair, part of his reasoning was the benefit of making churches "shining stars" of the tax base. (Drug dealers too.)
posted by edverb at 2:08 PM on May 18, 2006

Meet the next conservatard pin-up girl
posted by delmoi at 2:50 PM on May 18, 2006

Someone needs to catch up with this guy and find out if The American Patriot, Pt. 2: Iraq is still in the making. I really want to see how he explains the war.
posted by johngoren at 3:04 PM on May 18, 2006

What I find interesting is that apparently even Conservatives with superpowers can't find Osama Bin Laden. I guess not catching terrorists is just part of the Conservative philosophy or something.
posted by sotonohito at 4:06 PM on May 18, 2006

and these creepy Reagan ghost ones

I think you mean Zombie Reagan.
posted by hangashore at 5:01 PM on May 18, 2006

The "American Patriot" comics, horribly-written as they are, are somewhat decent.

Can you define "somewhat decent?"

There is a certain even flow to them, which I think I'd have to attribute to good writing, if anything.

What's wrong with them is they're ill-conceived. Any comic that sets a post-911 hero out to capture Bin Laden is doomed. Doesn't this crackerdick know he's still at large?

And there is no "reason" why he has superpowers. Just blessed by god, I guess, via his dead relatives. What shite. Fit for a Chick tract.
posted by scarabic at 9:18 PM on May 18, 2006

Why do these "conservative chicks" always look like transvestites? Where is Crocodile Dundee when you need him?
posted by scarabic at 9:19 PM on May 18, 2006

http://www.christcenteredmall.com/stores/art/greene/the_senior_partner.htm
posted by tomharpel at 10:06 PM on May 18, 2006

Where's Bill's right hand. OMG WHERE IS BILL'S RIGHT HAND? NO! NOT THE FALAFEL MY GOD MAN GIVE IT UP!

ahem, sorry about that... anyone notice O'Riely's initials are B.O. ? Childish I know, off to the showers I go with my loofah
posted by edgeways at 11:30 PM on May 18, 2006

Bwahaha: American Patriot assaults a hippie.

Next exciting issue: American Patriot bombs an abortion clinic.
posted by dgaicun at 1:22 AM on May 19, 2006

grade Z-
posted by telstar at 2:10 AM on May 19, 2006

“Smedleyman: Precisely which issues was Zappa "to the right" on? He didn't take drugs but that hardly makes you a Conservative.” -posted by lupus_yonderboy


Note to self: stop omitting the obvious.
You mean apart from arguing against government intrusion into his business?

Lets see, what else hasn't been mentioned upthread - he was critical of the public school system, he asserted that government authority was subject to the will of individual citizens - I read his bio book (with Peter Occhiofrosso) and it left me with the impression that - apart from his hatred of the Republican party and the ‘bunting’ facade not - he shared some values....

Ah, I see the problem - that’d be ‘Smedleyman right’, not the socially accepted term ‘right’. ‘specially not the one now.
Obviously his activism had very (common term) leftist tendancies, but that’s because they were anti-establishment. (And hell, I’m pretty conservative, but anyone who isn’t anti-establishment right now hasn’t been paying attention) But he wasn’t a radical - which I believe is the more proper antithesis of ‘conservative’ not ‘liberal’.

“I believe that people have a right to decide their own destinies; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only so long as) individual citizens give it a 'temporary license to exist' -- in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy, you own the government -- it doesn't own you.
Along with this comes a responsibility to ensure that individual actions, in the pursuit of a personal destiny, do not threaten the well-being of others while the 'pursuit' in progress.”

-- Frank Zappa, 1989

Couldn’t have said that better myself.

also:
“Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mundane educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and *educate yourself* if you've got any guts. Some of you like *pep rallies* and plastic robots who tell you what to read....”
- liner notes for ‘Hungry Freaks
posted by Smedleyman at 10:02 AM on May 19, 2006

Radical means desiring fundamental change. Conservative means wanting to preserve the past. Pseudo-conservative means wanting to radically change back to a ficticious past, at least in the sense that Richard Hoffsteader and Daniel Bell meant when they coined the term. Radical has gotten twisted into shorthand for "radical leftist" meaning leftist, not radical. There are right-wing radicals, after all. Like the racial nationalists clustered around Pat Buchanan and that ilk.

And nowadays, conservatifve has morphed into what used to be understood as batshit crazy. Witness the hopelessly deluded tool who is the subject of this post...

Don't even get me started on neo-conservative. That actually applied to a handful of Jewish Trotkyites and parlor Socialists who opposed the Civil Rights movement and supported Nixon. It's not really a political philosophy so much as it's a flavor of stale and outdated elitist opportunism for moral cowards and racists

Oh, well. Liberal used to mean opposition to government-enforced trade monopolies and merchantilism by "liberalizing" trade (as in Free Trade.) It also meant economic imperialism.

But what the hell, who isn't opposed to imperialism, at least among the polis of the imperialist nations?

Art, schmart. This guy needs his ass kicked until he bleeds from the ears.
posted by warbaby at 6:17 AM on May 20, 2006

Smedleyman is a Zappa fan too? Dude, you have to fly to England for a meetup (or vice versa).
posted by longbaugh at 7:03 AM on May 20, 2006

Meet the next conservatard pin-up girl
posted by delmoi at 2:50 PM PST on May 18 [+fave] [!]

Funny how the conservatives don't seem to mind her playing the phony victim card. and engaging in serial harrassment as also detailed here (PDF).
posted by Rumple at 1:25 PM on May 20, 2006