Ed Hall, who is ever helpful, just emailed me to let me know my White House toon sucks.  No, he didn’t.  But he e-mailed to let me know that the windows on the South Lawn, from the rotunda go triangle, arch, triangle, arch.  Where I just made them all triangles.  In my defense, the arch windows were obscured by a pesky tree in the photo I used.  There are Republicans in the White House…I’d figure they’d get rid of those trees by now to clear the way for oil drilling on the South Lawn.  By the way, Ed is married to a brilliant architect so he can’t help but notice screw-ups like this.

Ah, the project.  It’s time to wrap it up and hope some numbskull doesn’t mess it up by drawing a Halloween toon in November.  First cartoon to include is mine.  I figured since it’s Halloween and I’m doing this, then I should end it with a Halloween toon.  I gotta tell ya, I’m kinda tired of ‘em.  I normally wouldn’t stoop so low to draw FOUR Halloween toons (yes, I drew four) but it’s like crack…ya just can’t stop..not that I would know how addictive crack is…but I read things.  I also figured this worked really well on a local subject as the Expo Center is asking for a yearly treat and the city might be tricked. 

But yeah, doing as many as four is kinda lame.  I’m not really sure why I’m doing this project.  I don’t know if I’m making a point or not.  And if I’m trying to point out how lame and repetitive it is to draw Halloween toons over and over then I’m proving it by example.  Eh, let’s count the last batch.

Here’s Dean Turnbloom.  Here’s Victor Harville.  Here’s John R. Rose.  Here’s Gordon Campbell.  Here’s Ron Rogers.  Here’s Adam Zyglis.  Here’s V.C. Rogers.  Here’s J.D. Crowe.  Here’s Rob Rogers.  Here’s Rob Tornoe.  Here’s Mark Streeter.  Here’s Charlie Daniel.  Here’s Deb Milbrath.  Here’s Lisa Benson.  Here’s Phil Hands.  Here’s Elena Steier.

This brings our total to 97.  NINETY SEVEN FREAKING CARTOONS!!!  OK.  Now the guy who drew four of those is thinking that’s too many.  And ya know, I didn’t count ‘em all.  I only included cartoons by those who submit to the AAEC site, and I didn’t start the project until October 11 so I know I’ve missed several.  I’m confident the actual number is over 100.

But wow, 97.  Hey, let’s find out who drew the most and hope it wasn’t me.  (this is where you pretend I’m away for a while while I’m counting, which I was).  And the winner is….drumroll please…………..It’s a freaking tie.  Crap!  I didn’t do this all freaking month for two of these people to tie.  Now I gotta split the prize up.  You guys suck.  OK, our tied winners with a huge FIVE a piece are…..Rob Rogers from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Paul Combs of Tribune Media Services.  Boys, your candy is on the way…as soon as I’m done procrastinating and if I don’t eat it all before I send it.

Let’s see who our runner ups are.  The cartoonist with four a piece are, me..I did four which means I almost won my own stupid contest.  No, that would have been a tie too because Gordon Campbell drew four.  The cartoonists who drew three are Gary Varvel, Lisa Benson, John Rose, Randy Bish, Ron Rogers, Phil Hands, Mark Streeter and Mike Luckovich.

If you’re a cartoonist who’s reading this and wondering how many you drew…you drew two.  OK?  Just leave it at that.

Now that we’re satisfied as we know who draws the most Halloween toons (losers), it’s about time to start counting turkey toons which I’m not looking forward too.  Heck, today’s blog alone is long enough and required a LOT of work. 

To finalize, I like Halloween as a theme for cartoons.  It’s the most fun holiday and it’s not really a holiday at all.  Now I don’t like Thanksgiving.  I like eating and devilled eggs rock but I’m not into the Thanksgiving use as a theme and I don’t like that it provides us with two months of a holiday season.  Just last night I saw Christmas decorations at Wal Mart….which reminds me…don’t go to Wal Mart.

I had fun…it was work.  It’s over.  Now prepare yourself for the GREAT TURKEY AND PILGRIM THEME EDITORIAL CARTOON RESEARCH PROJECT.  This is gonna suck.