It’s official: the first printed collection of Out of Order cartoons is now available. Compiling the greatest moments from the past three years and a half years of cartooning, “Out of Order: Cartoons 2005-2009″ is a great retrospective of all of the cultural, social, political, and just plain crazy topics addressed by Out of Order over the years. Click the button below to learn more and get your copy today!
Who says cartoons are just for laughs? Here’s a perfect example of how cartoons are able to communicate ideas that are both relevant for the day and quite prophetic. This cartoon really hits the nail on the head.
An amazing piano performance by my favorite living pianist, Brad Mehldau. Just had to share it.
Many thanks again this year to the Virginia Press Association and my friends at the Southside Messenger and the Central Virginian. This year my art received a total of four awards from the Virginia Press Association, including: - 1st Place in Informational Graphics (Southside Messenger)- 1st Place in Illustrations (Southside Messenger)- 1st Place in Editorial Cartoons (Southside Messenger)- 2nd Place in Editorial Cartoons (The Central Virginian)God has blessed me so much with this incredible opportunity to share my drawings with readers on a regular basis. Thanks to all my readers for another great year as a cartoonist/illustrator!
Some have said that my 1/19 cartoon about Obama’s inauguration was a bit… harsh. A bit insensitive to the historic day that Obama’s inauguration represented. I just can’t see how, with all that Obama has said about the Constitution, he can swear an oath to uphold it. The words that I inserted into Obama’s oath are his actual words. Watch this clip to hear Obama’s words for yourself.I sincerely hope that Obama turns out to be a great president, and I’m praying that the Lord gives him wisdom. But if Mr. Obama is consistent with the policies and beliefs he has expressed in the past, I’m afraid he’s going to be about as friendly to the constitution as… well… George W. Bush.
With election day only a few short days away, I thought I would give a final wrap-up of my thoughts about the decision Americans must make. In February 2007, I expressed my concern that Americans were clinging to labels, foolishly accepting words and symbols, rather than taking the time to truly analyze ideas and beliefs (click here to read this post). In the following months, I let my cartoons express my opinion about the election and, as you can probably tell, I’m not a fan of either Obama or McCain. Both candidates have demonstrated an unwillingness to uphold the constitution and protect liberty. In my opinion, the decision about the direction of our country will not be made on election day. It has already been made by the two main political parties. May God have mercy on our nation. …But on a brighter side, mind-boggingly frustrating national and world events generate some great cartoon ideas. The scarier, more frustrating things get, the more I feel inspired as a cartoonist. Sure, Obama and McCain may both want to end our nation as we know it and take it to some scary places… But who says we can’t laugh along the way? So be sure to read benlansing.com regularly… Because it looks like the joke fodder is only going to get better from here on out.
I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of television. I don’t know why. Maybe I just don’t think it seems like the best lifestyle choice to have my mind repeatedly barraged with a continual stream of brain sludge. I do, however, encourage people that enjoy sitting entranced in the dull glow of whatever may be on t.v. to play a little game that I call “Television Tag”. It’s quite an enlightening game. I would recommend it to anyone who is about to rush off to the store to get their television adapter so that they can be sure to receive programming when t.v. switches over to digital in February 2009.Here’s how to play “Television Tag”:
Obviously, this game is not recommended for kids. But, then again, I wouldn’t recommend television in general for kids. The few times I’ve played this game, I haven’t been able to count over 15 to 20 seconds before I have to change the station. An exception would be if the player lands on a golf tournament or the Weather Channel. But no matter what the programming, as soon as the commercials get started it will soon be time for step 4 of the game. Commercials seem to be just as bad, if not worse, than the actual programming. Another fun game is to try to figure out when exactly television went in such a terrible direction. When did television go from the innocence of “Leave it to Beaver” to the sludge that makes up 99.99% of all programs today? I’m not sure. But to make you pine for the days when violence and the ’shock factor’ never showed their ugly faces on television, here’s a few wholesome clips from the early 1960’s:
“Television has brought back murder into the home - where it belongs.” - Alfred Hitchcock
I’m a big fan of the 1950 Jimmy Stewart film “Harvey”, so you can imagine my delight when I recently discovered that Hollywood was planning to create a remake of the classic film, tailored to the modern sensibilities and the keen artistic standards of quality that are so characteristic of modern cinema. Below is a preview of the genius behind a project that will turn a classic film that was ‘good’ into something that will be absolutely ‘great’:
Am I being slightly sarcastic about my love for modern remakes of classic films? Nooooooooooo.
My thanks to John Seigenthaler, Sr. for nominating my work for the Pulitzer this year. I was proud to see that one of my favorite editorial cartoonists, Mike Ramirez, received the award this year. Ramirez is, without a doubt, one of the most talented cartoonists in his field. 
In other news, The Newseum, the national museum of the news in Washington D.C., opens today. Featured among the archives in this amazing new Pennsylvania Ave. building will be my Pulitzer-nominated “Today, We Are All Hokies” cartoon along with some of my original sketches.
The University of Richmond’s Collegian, my alma mater’s student newspaper, did a front page article this week about my Pulitzer nomination (click here to read the online version). I really enjoyed drawing regular weekly cartoons for the Collegian from 2003 - 2005. This article marked the first time since 2005 that I had a cartoon appear in the Collegian, and it was great to be back.
I remember one of my first concerns after being accepted by UR was to make sure that I could become the campus cartoonist. Finding time to draw cartoons between term papers and final exams wasn’t always easy, and some of my cartoons drawn during this period are hopefully long forgotten. Fortunately, the great folks on the Collegian staff put up with my cartoons over the years. With that said, I was pretty proud of some of the cartoons printed while I was at school. Here are some cartoons published in the Collegian back between 2004-2005:
