by Joe Sutliff
It seemed like a good idea at the time. After listening to all the commotion over AI and all the work it would take away from cartoonists,I decided upon something that AI could NOT do: create an artistic experience. While I suppose you could get ChatGPT to create a digital file and do it a lot faster (my version took over two months) I wanted to do something beyond caricature. An exhibit designer I met once said "if you can't find any other way to make it interesting, make it big." So I decided to caricature all the members of congress that voted to pass the "Big Beautiful Bill" on a single roll of paper.
Barbara Dale gets credit for the political cartoon part of the project. I showed her a photo of the first few drawings, and she commented that they needed to be tied together somehow. This lead to the title and caption "Follow My Lead" with the current President holding a long leash to the dog collars I added around each representative.
After that all I had to do is draw the dang thing. The hardest part was not tearing the paper roll after the first 50 or so drawings. Once completed, I wanted to display it before the mid terms elections, and doing it on Capitol Hill seemed the best location. I called the Capitol Police for the necessary permissions, which included specifying dates, times and lots of other details I had to pick on the spot. This week was supposed to be the last full week before the break, and I chose Thursday with a Friday rain date backup. Mike Johnson must have discovered my plan and, recognizing the power of the political cartoon, called the early recess just to confound me.
On the day of the "great unrolling", after verifying the weather, I headed downtown early enough to find parking and get set up before my appointed start time. This is when Minister Xi Jinping decided to throw another wrench into my carefully laid plans and visit Washington on the same day. The Secret Service thought it a good precaution to close every street between the Potomac and the Hill (at least that is what it felt like)so I arrived late, only to find the redoubtable duo of the Jenkins brothers and their dogs waiting and ready to assist me. Their aide proved invaluable, as brief wind gusts periodically turned the long sheet of paper into a kite. After much adjusting, the completed piecewas on display: https://youtu.be/LEqIn6tMajU
Immodestly, it was pretty cool. Staffers going out on their lunch break walked the length until they found their bosses, but declined to be photographed with the drawing. The police ("so you're the cartoon guy they told us about") took pictures, but also did not want to go on record. Tourists seemed delighted, even ones that didn't speak English, and one shopping cart lady asked if she could have it when we were done. Everything was great until a senior officer came up and announced that, after checking with his office, we would have to pack it up and leave. A small amount of pleading and groveling did not work on the Denzel Washington-look alike, so we rolled things up and drank to our brief success at the Tune Inn, where we showed the 3rd generation owner a sample of the work.
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| Caricaturist Mike Jenkins & Tim Jenkins assisted with the rollout |
"Wow," she said. "Do you do commissions?" So at least I got a gig out of it.
