Today’s sketch is from South Haven, Michigan, which my wife and I visited a few years ago. This might be the most complicated urban sketch I’ve attempted. I’m definitely feeling the limitations of the small size of the sketchbook and the lack of hues and values. At some point I’m going to try to get back to using watercolor.

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“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” - Nietzsche

Across the United States, individual citizens and whole communities are pushing back against the proliferation of Flock cameras. The devices are meant to be used as high-performance traffic cameras, which use an AI network to track license plates. But many are feeling that the Flock cameras could be used for more nefarious forms of invasion of privacy. There are concerns that the data could be used by ICE or other Trumpian agents to track individuals. Already, police officers in Georgia, California, Massachusetts, Wisconson, Texas, and Kentucky have been caught using Flock data to stalk ex-partners and others. According to a Washington Post report, over 50 law enforcement officers around the country have been charged or accused with using Flock cameras to illegally track people.

In this age of algorithms and AI, where an ad for something you spoke about five minutes before pops up on your social media feed, it’s a given that we’re all under constant surveillance. Whether it’s the government monitoring your calls or businesses buying your data or hackers watching you through your laptop’s camera, we’re being watched all the time. Privacy is a illusion.

Flock may not be the worst offender of the constant surveillance state, but at the moment it is that state’s most visible example. Maybe all those people trying to disrupt or destroy the cameras and the communities choosing to sever their contracts with Flock is a sign that Americans don’t want to be spied on at all times.

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For the past two years I’ve taught a fall class at Northern Kentucky University. I was a late addition to the faculty my first year, coming in at the last minute to take over for a friend who no longer had the time to teach the class. I was shown the syllabus on a Thursday, and by the following Tuesday I was in front of a roomful of students in my first-ever college art class. (I was a journalism major college. My last art class was in the 11th grade.) Even though I had no idea what the hell I was doing, I somehow survived, the students seemed to have fun, and I was invited back. Year two went much more smoothly, though by the end of the semester I wasn’t sure if I was going to return. But earlier this year I was asked to come back for a three-peat and agreed.

With two years of teaching under my belt, and a lot of other matters occupying my attention, I assumed I’d be able to be on autopilot this year. All I needed to do was update the dates on the syllabus, maybe add a bit or two to my already prepared lecture slides, get to class every Tuesday and Thursday by 6 p.m., and Bob’s your uncle.

Except that didn’t happen.

I teach only one class during just one semester of the academic year. And because I’m barely part of the faculty, I turn off the notifications for my NKU email the other eight months I’m not at the university.

And I forgot to turn the notifications back on. Because if I had checked my NKU email, I’d have seen that my class schedule had changed from Tuesday-Thursday to Monday-Wednesday.

Guess who has two thumbs, didn’t show up to teach class on Monday, and instead got multiple frantic calls and emails from the department head.

This guy.

I owned up to my oopsie. Everything’s smoothed over (except for the egg on my face). And with plenty of humility and self-effacing jokes, I made it to my first class of the semester on Wednesday.

One of the first assignments I have my students do is draw a simple, one-panel cartoon about something that happened on their first day of the semester. I figured it was only right that I drew my own experience as an example to show the students.

Help me keep the lights on and the cartoons flowing. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Kevin’s UnNecessary Things. Your support allows me to draw more cartoons and speak truth to power. You can also support me by leaving me a one-time tip on Ko-fi, or by clicking here to visit my Etsy store, where you can purchase signed prints of my cartoons.

Today’s sketch is of a house in Covington, Kentucky, that I saw while taking a walk. I really dig the details of the house and just how visually interesting the entire structure is.

I’ve been dealing with burnout for several months. Before I go any further, I will say that I think I’m coming out of it, and even during the worst parts of the burnout, I’ve stayed as active and as healthy as possible. I’ve been burned out before, and I’ll have burnout again. Such is life.

There have been a lot of stressors in my life this year, both personally and professionally. I’ve got a lot of spinning plates, and more than a few have crashed and shattered in the last six or seven months. This all came to a head yesterday, when I made a major screw up with one of the various gigs I work.

I was able to sort everything out, and was given a surprising amount of grace by those affected by the snafu. The person most upset with me was, well, me. I came down hard on myself, as I always do. I felt like shit for a good hour or so, cursing my existence.

And then I did something I don’t think I’ve ever done when feeling low: I laughed about the situation, and decided to move on.

I don’t often show myself a lot of compassion. But I’m learning to. I have enough stressors in my life. I don’t need to be one of my own stressors.

So I’m saying this to myself as much as I’m saying this to anyone who might need to hear this: Treat yourself with compassion. You deserve it.

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The Trump Republican cult has no ideas. It refuses to govern. All it knows is power, and the only way it can stay in power is by trying to scare voters. Nearly every GOP attack ad I see can be boiled down to: “IMMIGRANTS! COMMUNISTS! BE AFRAID!”

Except that there’s no logical reason for anyone to be afraid of immigrants, regardless of their legal status. Undocumented immigrants aren’t taking away your jobs or your social security or any welfare benefits, even though they still have to pay taxes. They’re not a hoard of dangerous criminals; they keep their heads down and actively try to avoid being noticed by law enforcement. They’re just people, like you and me.

And as more and more people realize that unchecked capitalism has left them in ruin while the wealthy prosper, a spate of Democratic Socialists have won elections across the country. In response, the GOP has rolled out its ancient boogeyman, Communism, and is trying to convince its voters that a new Red Menace wants to turn America blue. The GOP is banking on the ignorance of its red meat-devouring constituency gobble up and regurgitate a scary-sounding buzzword.

There are real dangers and challenges facing Americans. The GOP is again cutting health care. Trump’s disastrous war in Iran and his foolhardy trade wars have caused prices to skyrocket. DOGE dismantled vital government services, such as warning systems for extreme weather. Artificial intelligence is eliminating jobs and polluting our country due to data centers. Republicans are attempting to curb voting, while Trump is threatening to spoil the upcoming midterm elections.

I could have added so many more sharks to this cartoon. Climate change, ICE, the destruction of civil services, poop lettuce, right-wing media, pedophiles, etc. But then it would have been nothing but sharks.

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I’ve always had hand-eye coordination issues. To be honest, I’ve had issues with motor skills, both gross and fine, my entire life. Drawing definitely requires at least decent fine motor skills, which for me has been a constant challenge. Most times I don’t as much draw but rather I beat my weird, sloppy, blobby lines into submission. I’ve learned to lean into that to some extent with my editorial cartoons, where I feel I can get away with loose, lumpy characters and wonky proportions. But whenever I do any other kind of illustration or comic, I tend to freeze up. My hand clamps around whatever drawing instrument I’m using at the time in a death grip, and I’ll grind into the paper or tablet, fighting to get my hand and eye to work together to draw clean shapes.

That’s one reason why these daily sketches have been invaluable. There’s no pressure. No deadline. I can sit back in the drawing process and remind myself to lighten up. I can loosen the death grip on the pencil. I can lean in to weird lines. All while still practicing that elusive hand-eye coordination.

Help me keep the lights on and the cartoons flowing. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Kevin’s UnNecessary Things. Your support allows me to draw more cartoons and speak truth to power. You can also support me by leaving me a one-time tip on Ko-fi, or by clicking here to visit my Etsy store, where you can purchase signed prints of my cartoons.

This morning I joined several friends, all urban sketchers, for a trip to the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Parked among the hundreds of historic aircraft were full-size mockups of a Rebel Alliance X-wing and Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter.

This sketch is bigger than what I’ve been drawing lately. I could feel it getting a bit unwieldy at times. Overall, I think it worked out well.

It’s been a minute since I’ve done any sketching on location. Drawing on location is an entirely different beast than sketching in my home studio. I think I’ve gotten a little soft by only drawing in a controlled environment, where I have plenty of light, an ergonomic workspace, and don’t have to hear screaming children.

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I doodled this idea in a sketchbook earlier this week, and I plan on making it my next cartoon. But I’m not sure which version of the rough sketch should become the final cartoon. In both sketches, a GOP elephant is on a pier, looking down at someone in the water. The person in the water encircled by sharks, which are labeled as “Data centers,” “Healthcare cuts,” “War,” “Rising prices,” and “AI.” You know, actual dangers. But the Republican wants to talk about what’s really scary: Immigrants and communists.

Originally I had a gleeful MAGA cultist who ignored the actual threats and wanted to hear more about those dangerous brown people and, I guess, that mean ol’ Karl Marx. But I’ve also drawn a version of the cartoon where it’s Uncle Sam, acutely aware of the dangers swimming around him, while the GOP prattles on with its baseless fearmongering.

I’m not sure which one works better. What do you think?

Help me keep the lights on and the cartoons flowing. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Kevin’s UnNecessary Things. Your support allows me to draw more cartoons and speak truth to power. You can also support me by leaving me a one-time tip on Ko-fi, or by clicking here to visit my Etsy store, where you can purchase signed prints of my cartoons.

Today’s sketch is of a couple of houses in my neighborhood. Northside is the most eclectic of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods. The streets are lined with large, old, funky houses that are just a visual treat. Expect more scenes from my neighborhood as this continues.

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I went with another mausoleum at Spring Grove Cemetery. This one wasn’t my best effort. I spent the day finishing my monthly comic for the Give Them Ten foundation. By the time I started on the above sketch I was exhausted. I also a bit rushed, as I was racing to finish before my wife came home with dinner. The important thing is that I did a sketch at all.

I’m sure you’re waiting for drawings that aren’t just small sketchbook doodles. Things like cartoons making fun of the grifters in Washington, comics, etc. That’ll be coming soon, folks. Stay tuned.

Help me keep the lights on and the cartoons flowing. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Kevin’s UnNecessary Things. Your support allows me to draw more cartoons and speak truth to power. You can also support me by leaving me a one-time tip on Ko-fi, or by clicking here to visit my Etsy store, where you can purchase signed prints of my cartoons.

This morning I passed by Urban Artifact, a brewery and event space in my neighborhood that’s inside an old church. It’s another overcast day today in Cincinnati, so there weren’t many shadows to provide the scene with contrast. I think I overdid it in some spots trying to create contrast with my limited tools.

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I’m fortunate to live near Spring Grove Cemetery & Arboretum. It’s the third largest cemetery in the United States, and dates back to 1844. Gothic mausoleums, towering obelisks, and silent headstones dot the beautifully cultivated landscape amid willows and elms and maples and bountiful flowers. While it’s still an active cemetery, it’s also a popular spot for wedding photo shoots, picnics, history lovers, and avid walkers such as myself. I try to take at least one long walk through Spring Grove, around four to six miles, every week. It’s one of my favorite places in Cincinnati.

I often take photos of the grave stones and tombs so I can sketch them later … which I never seem to do. One of the, um, joys of ADHD is having trouble starting, well, anything. If it’s not urgent or on a deadline, chances are I don’t do it. Couple that with perfectionism, and all I end up with are just hundreds of reference photos and no sketches.

That’s why I use small sketchbooks, only a few drawing tools, and a timer when doing sketches like the one above. I give myself a deadline, and I limit what I can do and the space I can work within. It’s my way to curb perfectionism before even putting a mark on the paper.

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I’ve often tried to start and maintain a habit of doing small, timed (usually under an hour) sketches, just to get me warmed up and drawing. No pressure, just fun. ADHD makes any habit, regardless of what it is, a challenge.

I doodled this based off a house I saw last month in Ketchikan, Alaska. I wish I’d been able to spend more time there, but I only had a few hours to wander around.

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Donald Trump has thick, golden hair. Or, as of last week, he has thick, golden hair. Trump, who is definitely balding, and whose natural hair looks like a sun-bleached tumbleweed, went on stage in Las Vegas with a whole new ‘do. It’s stupid. It’s ridiculous. Trump is obsessed about his looks, and thinks he looks good. (Just goes to show how detached the overweight, elderly, balding sack of degenerate flesh wrapped in a dirty diaper really is.) He’s clearly wearing a rug, or, perhaps, he joined the Hair Club for Men. Who knows? And, honestly, who cares?

On the surface, Trump’s mane is just a dumb story. A moment where we can laugh at this clown of a man who thinks he’s an Adonis. He’s laughable. His enablers are just as ridiculous as he is. And many of his supporters deserve our ridicule, too.

And Trump’s rug (or hair plugs, or whatever the hell it is) is just a small, hairy example of Cheeto’s obsession with image. It lays bare his smallness and ego. He had to put his name on the Kennedy Center. His scowling mug adorns government buildings. He turned the Oval Office into a gaudy shrine to gold. He demolished half the White House to build himself a ballroom. There’s the botched Reflecting Pool rennovation. His planned triumphal arch. His cabinet of TV personalities. Hell, even his military misadventures and murders are all about projecting an image.

But look deeper, and it’s clear that his obsession with image has done real damage. Everything he does is performative, regardless of whether it’s the right thing to do or if people get hurt. Trump and MAGA — and decades of Republicans before them — turned politics, governing, and civil discourse into a two-dimensional reality TV show. There’s no depth to governance. The GOP has made sure that generations of Americans have been dumbed down to view politics as a bloodsport, with no sense of how or why our country and our government works. All the bigotry on the right, all the ignorance, all the paranoia spread about science and democracy and fellow human beings just trying to live their lives, all comes down to selling a Republican-crafted image of a dumbed down ‘Murica.

Everything feels fake and false. Everything feels cheap. What was once a flawed but powerful nation, built on deep foundations and with aspirations to reach the stars, has been symbolically reduced to a bad wig on a bad man’s head.

Help me keep the lights on and the cartoons flowing. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Kevin’s UnNecessary Things. Your support allows me to draw more cartoons and speak truth to power. You can also support me by leaving me a one-time tip on Ko-fi, or by clicking here to visit my Etsy store, where you can purchase signed prints of my cartoons.

The US Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency is once again in hot water, as two men, one in Maine, the other in Houston, were killed by ICE agents last week.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican man who had lived in the United States for 35 years and was apparently just months away from obtaining permanent legal residency, was killed in Houston when ICE agents in an unmarked car tailed and then surrounded Araujo’s vehicle. No video of the shooting has been released, but according to ICE, which has tried to paint its victims as dangerous terrorists, Araujo tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. ICE later admitted that Araujo wasn’t even the person ICE was looking for.

In Biddeford, Maine, ICE agents killed a Columbian man, Johan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, who was also in a vehicle when he was shot. As with Araujo, ICE later admitted that Guerrero was not the subject of a warrant. Since then, information about the violent past of the ICE agent who killed Guerrero, David Brouillette, has surfaced, including accusations by his ex-wives that he physically abused him, and statements from his family members saying he should never have been issued a firearm.

In the wake of these killings, the Department of Homeland Security put a temporary halt to ICE traffic stops. But Donald Trump’s thirst for blood and violence cannot be quenched, and immediately reinstated ICE traffic stops.

I drew this cartoon last week, but I’m only now publishing it on Substack. After posting it on Bluesky I saw a similar, but better cartoon by Ann Telnaes that had apparently been published while I was still drawing my own toon. This tends to happen more often than you’d think. (We call it a “Yahtzee.”) There aren’t that many political cartoonists still out there these days, and we often think alike. I let Ann know about my cartoon, and decided to wait a bit before publishing it on Substack.

I’m still feeling super rusty when drawing. I spent two weeks traveling, and didn’t have much time to draw beyond some super rough sketches in a notebook. My drawing arm is slowly coming back to life. Too slowly for my tastes. It’s like I forgot how to draw. But I’m working hard to get back to where I was before my trip.

Help me keep the lights on and the cartoons flowing. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Kevin’s UnNecessary Things. Your support allows me to draw more cartoons and speak truth to power. You can also support me by leaving me a one-time tip on Ko-fi, or by clicking here to visit my Etsy store, where you can purchase signed prints of my cartoons.

I didn’t expect this to be the first cartoon I drew after my hiatus. Heck, I didn’t expect this to be the first GOP Senator reporting in from Hell cartoon that I’d be drawing. (Though it does tie into a future idea I’ve had …)

Lindsey Graham is dead. And, apparently, whilst I was drawing this, ol’ Mitch popped his head out of his shell with a sign of life. Does it ruin the cartoon a bit? Yeah. Do I care? Nope. Both Graham and McConnell have sold out the American people for the sake of power. Both bent the knee to an idiot orange fascist when they knew better. While many Trumpers are ignorant dolts, failed by cuts to education, a culture of hatred, and a stream of right-wing propaganda, Graham and McConnell knew what they were doing by tearing down our civil institutions while propping up a wannabe dictator.

Don’t cry for Graham. He betrayed his country, his best friend, the late Sen. John McCain, and every American citizen.

“Are you alive?” I got that text message from a friend and fan of my cartoons a few days ago. That’s a fair question. I haven’t posted anything in a month.

So yes, I’m alive. As I write this, I’m sitting with my wife at a brewery in Skagway, Alaska. We’re on a cruise, and I had a ton of work to get through in June prior to that. But that meant I was focusing on said work, and my cartoons fell by the wayside.

I apologize for not posting much or drawing cartoons. I look at my cartoons as a public service. But sometimes other things must take priority. June was a busy month. I’ll write a post once I get back about all the things I’ve been working on. And yes, I’ll have new cartoons soon.

In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys a doing well, fighting the good fight, and not letting the fascists ruin your July 4 festivities.

The biggest difference between the Republican Party and the Democrats isn’t that one party is full of bigoted, hateful, grifting, rapist fascists and the other party is the Democrats. It’s that the Republicans, especially in the days of Trump, don’t give two shits about law or democracy or guardrails or doing anything other than destroying the United States and hurting as many people as they can, while the Democrats keep acting like those aforementioned laws and democracy and guardrails still have any effect.

I’m not naive. I know there isn’t a lot of procedural things a minority party can do in the halls of Congress. I know it’s hard to mount a legal defense if, say, the Supreme Court strikes down a voter-approved redistricting map in Virginia, all while it gives the thumbs up for the rest of the old Confederacy to lynch the Voting Rights Act and force gerrymandered maps down citizens’ throats.

The Trump regime believes it can do whatever the hell it wants, and the Roberts court and Congress are A-OK with his lawlessness and grift. Democrats should stop pretending the law actually matters. Why not keep the voter-approved map in Virginia? Sure, Trump and the GOP will cry foul. They’ll probably go to extreme lengths to stop anyone elected under that map from being seated. What would matter is that we would see Democratic leaders acknowledging that the game has changed. That the rules have been tossed out the window.

We have millions of regular citizens who are fed up with the fall into fascism, who actively work to protect their neighbors. Who turn out en masse to protest. Who’ve been beaten and gunned down in the streets by federal agents. Those people deserve to have leaders who will fight with them, tooth and nail. Not just throw up their hands and say, “We’re not in power, so what do you want us to do?”

Help me keep the lights on and the cartoons flowing. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Kevin’s UnNecessary Things. Your support allows me to draw more cartoons and speak truth to power. You can also support me by leaving me a one-time tip on Ko-fi, or by clicking here to visit my Etsy store, where you can purchase signed prints of my cartoons.

The 2024 election was, in large part, decided by Americans’ wallets. Even though the economy was recovering from — checks notes — a years’ long global pandemic that brought everything to a standstill, many Americans didn’t feel as if they were part of that recovery. So they voted Donald Trump, who promised that — checks notes — prices would drop as soon as he took office and that we’d all be prosperous.

Except prices haven’t dropped. Everything’s more expensive. Trump’s tariff trade war drove up prices, with many of his supporters — checks notes — shocked that they were the ones who would pay for the tariffs, not foreign countries as Trump promised. Now oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed, due to Trump and Netanyahu’s war against Iran. (A war that — checks notes — didn’t need to be waged.)

And how much thought does Trump give to the tens of millions of Americans struggling in these bleak economic times? “Not even a little bit.”

Help me keep the lights on and the cartoons flowing. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Kevin’s UnNecessary Things. Your support allows me to draw more cartoons and speak truth to power. You can also support me by leaving me a one-time tip on Ko-fi, or by clicking here to visit my Etsy store, where you can purchase signed prints of my cartoons.

TL;DR: I talk with fellow editorial cartoonist Angelo Lopez about how the news and our lives under the Trump regime affects our mental health.

May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. There’s never a bad time to talk about mental health. Over the last few decades, mental health has evolved from a taboo topic only whispered about, to being an openly discussed subject that’s acknowledged to have touched the lives of nearly everyone on the planet.

Despite the wider acceptance of mental health awareness, there is still a stigma that surrounds having mental health issues. Suffering through a mental health issue, such as anxiety or depression, is still too often seen as a sign of weakness or worse. And talking about one’s own mental health can sometimes be a balancing act between open and healthy conversation and being perceived as someone who trauma dumps on others.

I’ve been open about my own mental health issues, but only to a point. I’ve dealt with anxiety and depression most of my life, though it’s only been in the last two years that I’ve learned most of that stemmed from undiagnosed ADHD. And while I’ve touched on how ADHD has affected me, I’ve hesitated to really discuss how debilitating it’s been throughout my life. Nor have I talked about how I’ve been learning over the past two years how to finally manage my ADHD, now that I have a diagnosis and am in treatment. That’s something I’d like to change, and I hope to explore that in coming months with short comics.

But mental health is more than just conditions and diagnoses. The world we live in can have a massive impact on one’s mental health. For the last 10 years, we’ve ricocheted from crisis to crisis. The rise of authoritarianism, a global pandemic, a shaky economy, AI, war, racism, homophobia, sexism and more weighs on many of us. I’d worry about someone’s sanity if they weren’t feeling crappy about the world.

It’s hard for me to admit, given what I do as an editorial cartoonist and as a former newspaper journalist, but the state of the world has me in a continual funk. I can feel my heart rate quicken with dread every time I open a news site. The news is always bad. Things are getting worse. The impulse to bury my head in the proverbial sand gets stronger each day. And I often see drawing cartoons based on the news as an exercise in anxiety, rather than as a defiant release.

Journalists — and editorial cartoonists — are supposed to have cores of steel. We’re on the front lines of history, eyes open to the atrocities and madness of our world. In my experience, many of us wear that trauma as a badge of honor. As much as we often stand at one removed from the world we cover, we are still only human. That trauma affects us.

That’s why I was excited to talk with fellow editorial cartoonist Angelo Lopez about how commenting on the world affects our mental health. Angelo emailed me a few months ago, asking me about my use of Substack. But in that email he mentioned the anxiety he’s felt as a cartoonist and as an American during the time of Trump. I opened up about my own struggles with my mental health and how it’s been affected by the constant barrage of bad news. That lead to a nearly three-hour phone call and the idea to talk about how the news affects our mental health and our lives in general.

Help me keep the lights on and the cartoons flowing. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to Kevin’s UnNecessary Things. Your support allows me to draw more cartoons and speak truth to power. You can also support me by leaving me a one-time tip on Ko-fi, or by clicking here to visit my Etsy store, where you can purchase signed prints of my cartoons.