Sausage Factory Episode 396

So I had this notion to do a cartoon about the "Clinton surrogates", those anonymous lackeys who spread lies and rumors on behalf of Hillary, smearing her opponents. They plant the rumor that Obama is Muslim. They bring up old stories about his drug use as a kid. The Clintons claim innocence and outrage, but their ends are served. Anyone who has watched Bill and Hill all these years knows they orchestrate every move in this campaign.

The image of the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz occurred to me. That's them in my coded scrawl above.


I got this far in inking the cartoon when my inner tuning fork started vibrating. Something felt wrong. The flying monkeys were still right, but calling Hillary the Wicked Witch of the West wasn't my point and it was threatening to overwhelm the subject.

Believe me, if I ever feel Hillary is a witch I'll draw her that way. But that's not how I feel, and it's way too strong of an image to toss off casually. I like a lot of what she says and I'm pulling for her as a woman, I just hate this machiavellian aspect of how the Clintons operate. The witch image had to go or somehow be minimized.

(The scanner didn't pick up the pencilwork on this drawing, so I've approximated some elements I hadn't inked yet -- Obama trapped in the crystal ball, an hourglass, and the monkeys approaching the window. Man, those monkeys inhabited most of my childhood nightmares!)

Then it struck me as funnier to have Bill and Hill in a normal strategy meeting releasing the flying monkeys. I flipped the paper over and we were back on track.



Before the swiftboaters scream, yes, I looked up the old Oliphant cartoon from the early '80s when I was about halfway through to make sure I wasn't skimming his composition or characters. I was pleased to see we had entirely different orientations, but I did like the way he drew the legs of the monkeys hanging down in flight in the distance, so I used that. I gave them all monkey tails. Did they have tails in the movie? I couldn't remember.