Sometimes doodles just keep going. I was trying to imagine Frankenstein's Monster. I was always blown away from how Bernie Wrightson's take on him. I guess I would have to draw him a bunch to find my own version. The color is one of my early experiments with Photo Shop painting. I don't think I'm any faster although I like that you can edit a paint stroke that might have went off course.

Happy Turkey day. I did this for The Week UK a few weeks ago. I hope it's out now!

I'm so glad I don't have a television. I gave up TV around 2002 or so. I did have one when I lived in DUMBO, Brooklyn and the World Trade Center was bombed. Front row seats to see it live. I woke up after a deadline and saw it on the news. For confirmation I went outside and saw the towers burning for myself. I went back inside as I realized whatever was spewing out in the smoke probably wasn't healthy and told my wife and roommates to not open any of the windows until the smoke cleared. Soon after I saw the last 10 minutes of a "Survivor" episode while taking a break from a painting that was due the next day. I tapped out of TV soon after. It was the biggest waste of ten minutes of nothingness, half of which was annoying commercials.

I didn't know anything about Ben Carson as I walked in to the meeting at The Week offices. Oh I'd heard his name, I knew he was running for president for the GOP, but that was about it. The editors and art director began telling me what they wanted me to do for the cover. They gave me the main facts of what was going on... I thought to myself, I'm so glad I don't own a television.

Below, my under drawing. They asked that the Trump Caesar be smaller in the final.

Refugees in a mass. My girlfriend is for open borders. I must say that makes total sense from a compassionate human being. I think "compassionate human  being" would be the ideal person to strive for. Most religious people, mostly christian, that I've talked to through the years seem to have this theme that they strive to be a better Christian, a better Buddhist, a better Muslim... Maybe not in such direct words but the "struggle" is a common thing. In a non religious context a struggle to be compassionate seems to be a comparable term.

Unfortunately the world has many people in decision making positions who come from different points of the "struggle". I think people start out with good intentions. I have watched a lot of sci-fi movies with aliens and thought, like in "Independence Day", people from different countries, religions, and families, or whatever would put aside their differences to resist the alien invasion. I'm not so sure anymore.

I guess if you look at the refugees in this context, you can either see them as the invading aliens and the different countries are all on different pages on how to deal with this. Or the refugees are a world wide problem (not evil aliens) that everyone in the world needs to come together to solve this problem.

Some people choose to blame things that have already happened. This is not a solution for the present. What we can learn from the past is that we've done a horrible job in most cases. No country seems willing to take in refugees, and if they do, are willing to spend the money needed to help acclimate them into their society. Germany has made a good attempt, and I've seen what Turkey is doing first hand. Turkey seems to treat them pretty well unless they are Kurdish. But still, it's no way to live. No country seems to have an end goal, so whatever camp situation a refugee finds themselves, that is as good as it will ever get until you die or until you can't stand it and you try to risk everything to go somewhere else.

Open borders seems like a good solution. As an American, I can go almost anywhere in the world if I can get a plane ticket or whatever. Many Syrians could easily afford plane tickets. Let the airports sort out any bad apples in the bunch. But know there might be some people that slip through and that's the price we pay for being the better human being. Watching people lose hope and wait out a miserable existence until they die when this doesn't need to be, makes us horrible people.

Cover for The Week (cropped) Syrian refugee crisis.

Cover for The Week. Oregan massacre. A few people killed in America and it's a national vigil. Thousands killed in another country and we just blame others. Not that our national vigil changed anything.

Cover for The Week. I guess I should have replaced Obama with French President François Hollande. Or maybe have Obama in there with Putin also beckoning Hollande. Or replace Putin with an Daesh member beckoning Hollande.