Chip Bok's Bokbluster

I spent last week drawing cartoons for wounded warriors.

First stop was the VA hospital in Cincinnati on Sunday. The trip was organized by Polly Keener, the president of the Great Lakes chapter of the National Cartoonists Society.

The only picture I have is this one of New Yorker cartoonist Michael Shaw. Michael made a witty presentation explaining that he draws 10 cartoons a week and considers it a good year if New Yorker publishes 12! That’s cutthroat cartooning.

Our visit, however, was decidedly non-cutthroat cartooning. We drew for vets with all kinds of injuries and health problems, as well as a few perfectly fine staff members. The most interesting vet was an 85 year old guy who lied to join the navy at age 16. He served in the pacific during WWII. Then he joined the army and served at Inchon in the Korean war.

Wounded Warrior Tour

L-R Top: Steve Moor In the Bleachers, Eddie Pittman Phineas and Ferb, Sam Viviano Mad Magazine, Bill Hinds Tank McNamara, Buzz Beamer, Cleats, Paul Fell editorial cartoonist. Bottom: Rob Smith, Jr. editorial cartoonist, Jeff Bacon BroadSide/GreenSide, Your faithful correspondent

On Monday I headed out on a USO sponsored tour of forward operating bases – in Florida and Georgia. I’ve made other USO trips in the past to Germany and the Persian Gulf. My cartoon buddies from the Sunshine State theater are pictured above.

Jeff Bacon, a retired navy captain turned cartoonist, works with USO to put the trips together. We visited MacDill Air Force Base, The Naval Submarine Base at Kings Bay, Georgia, and the Naval Air Station at Jacksonville.

We didn’t get to fly any drones and the closest we got to a sub was lunch. But we did draw for vets with everything from head and spinal trauma, to paranoid schizophrenia. We also drew for PlayStation jockeys at the base shopping mall.

It was a rewarding trip but I fell way behind on my regular workload. Something about health care and debt ceilings. Got caught up over the week-end. Now you can see everything you need to know about last week’s news in the posts above.