New book, Boston Comic Con and NPR appearance!

"The Devil and Sarah Palin" excerpt, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

Busy couple of days, faithful readers. I've got a new book out, "The Devil and Sarah Palin," an illustrated look at the political career thus far of the 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee. It contains selections from my "Devil Made Me Blog It" strips plus previously unpublished material, chronicling Palin's path from John McCain's running mate to her resignation as governor of Alaska to her "Going Rogue" on death panels.
"The Devil and Sarah Palin" is on sale at three locations in the greater Boston area of Massachusetts:

• -Hub Comics in Union Square, Somerville;
• -The Million Year Picnic in Harvard Square, Cambridge;
• -New England Comics, Harvard Square, Cambridge.

I'll also be selling copies at the Boston Comic Con in the Back Bay this weekend.
And yes, that was me you heard talking about Boston's influences on budding writers on the NPR program "Radio Boston" today!

Pro Football and Patriotic Perceptions

Looks like not everyone in the US is following President Obama's example of a more conciliatory tone toward the United Kingdom and the international community in general.
Next week, the New England Patriots of the National Football League will make a transatlantic trip to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in London. Yet on Monday the morning crew on WROR-FM wondered how the Brits would react to a team named after the colonials who defeated the mother country in the American Revolution. (The team eagerly promotes this image, as witnessed by the "Minutemen" in colonial garb who fire their muskets at Gillette Stadium after the Pats score.)
As opposed to a friendly Obama giving an iPod to Queen Elizabeth II earlier this year, the Pats seem more emblematic of everything the international community loved to loathe about America during the George W. Bush presidency, especially its perceived arrogance. On Sunday, the Pats humiliated the Tennessee Titans, 59-0, tying an NFL record for the largest margin of victory in a game.
Let us hope that when the New England Patriots tour Old England, they will at least prove gracious guests and not make their hosts think too much about their team name. Then again, their opponent -- the Buccaneers -- derives its name from the pirates who once plundered English shipping. Whoever wins this game, it goes down as a defeat for international relations.

Liberals, Love Your Laureate!

Obama Nobel Peace Prize Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

Liberals aren't unanimous in supporting President Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The New York Times noted in an editorial that the Left may feel uneasy about a wartime Commander-in-Chief winning the award, and several letter-writers to the Times identified themselves as Obama voters who nevertheless had misgivings about the peace prize going to Obama. Mephistopheles urges these liberals to stand by their man in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!
Merci to my muse for her help with the last panel.

Palin's Next Stop: Harvard Square?

Palin Hong Kong Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

Sarah Palin impressed an audience of investors with her speech in Hong Kong last month. Now Mephistopheles suggests Palin take her oratorical gifts to the Hong Kong Restaurant in Harvard Square, in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!
Merci to my muse on this one...

Satan Sees Will Ferrell's Health Care Ad

Will Ferrell Ad Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

Sometimes, humor is so deadpan that we miss the fact that it's a joke. Satan proves this point when he watches the recent Will Ferrell "ad" on health care and thinks the comedian is actually feeling sorry for health-care execs. Frank Faust gives Mephistopheles a reality check in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Hat tip to my friend Mark for telling me about the ad in the first place.

Joe Wilson, Serena Williams, Kanye West and Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur 2009 Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

Much ink has already been spilled in writing about the sins of Joe Wilson, Serena Williams and Kanye West. Now it's time for God and Mephistopheles to voice their views, in a special Yom Kippur-themed edition of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!

Forgetting Twin Towers, Remembering Wall Street

9-11 Cartoon, originally uploaded by rbtenorio.

"Crisis" ... "catastrophe" ... "collapse" ... These are words you'd likely associate with the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01, right? Wrong. Eight years after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, people are using these words to describe a different anniversary ... that of a fateful stretch in September that sunk Lehman Brothers last year. Satan and Frank Faust assess this development in the latest episode of "The Devil Made Me Blog It"!