Hey Detroit (& Dearborn)! Check out the COVERED exhibit at Headspace Gallery!

Masheka is one of many awesome cartoonists featured in this exhibit at Green Brain Comics' Headspace gallery in Dearborn. Here's his contribution, and the details from his blog:

Check out my version of Gil Kane's cover to Sensation Comics #109. The original art and a color print are on exhibit (and for sale) at Headspace Gallery in Michigan's Green Brain Comics (see press release below) -----

Green Brain Comics is proud to announce the opening of a new exhibit entitled COVERED on Wednesday, January 13th in the recently named HEADSPACE Gallery inside Green Brain Comics.

Inspired by a similar theme at the Covered blog (www.covered.blogspot.com) HEADSPACE curator Dan Merritt has assembled several pieces by artists that have brought their own touch to famous, and infamous comic book covers from several different decades.

"The theme for this exhibit has really sparked a creative flame." says Merritt "Each of these pieces has been lovingly recreated in tribute to the original art and the original artists that created them."

Featured in the exhibit will be works from Michigan based comic creators Paul Sizer, Matt Feazell, and Sean Bieri. Joining them will be other well known local artists Eric Millikin, Jennifer Rose Evans, and Chris Houghton. The Covered exhibit also features new work by many others, including Bryan Durren, Heather Hansma, Lizz James, Jesse Hughes and a piece by Masheka Wood from New York.

The opening reception for the Covered exhibit will be on Wednesday January 13th from 7pm to 10 pm. And the art will be on view until Saturday March 6th.

HEADSPACE Gallery is inside Green Brain Comics which is located at 13210 Michigan Avenue in East Downtown Dearborn. More information is available at www.greenbrain.biz or by calling 313-582-9444

Cartoon: Damned Statistics

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For real.

Toon: The Brighter Side of Auto Layoffs

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Drew this the evening that Obama announced his restructuring plan for GM and Chrysler. It was a tough one, because I really did appreciate that Obama wasn't buying into all the anti-union and anti-worker rhetoric that swirls around stories about the demise of the auto industry ("how dare those workers demand fair wages! they're runing America!" etc!)

So I really did debate whether the woman on the right should say that Obama "won't" or "can't" do anything to save the jobs of the auto workers. I started out with "can't", but that made it seem like Obama was somehow helpless and had no power to help workers even if he wanted to. I settled on "won't", because in the end, this situation just sucks for the workers. Rick Wagoner gets a $20 million pension, and they get... crap.

Except maybe a visit from the newly appointed Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers.

P.S. See also Kevin Moore's cartoon on this subject, "Lossy Compensation."

Story Time With Senator Shelby!

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I drew this last week when the bailout was expected to fail and the lead advocate of that failure was Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama--home to plants for several foreign auto makers.

So yeah, I do support an auto bailout, if it actually involves a radical retooling of what the domestic auto makers make and do. Sure, the leaders of the Big Three are a bunch of morons, but why should so many millions of workers have to suffer for their sins? And stop blaming the unions! Grrr!!!

Toon: More Nasty Text Messages (from the mayor of Detroit)

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This is a local Detroit cartoon about embattled mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick refuses to step down even after he's been criminally charged conspiracy, obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct. 14,000 text messages revealed that he didn't just have an affair with his chief of staff Christine Beatty--he paid his friends overtime as bodyguards to help him cover up said affair, and when whistleblowers tried to stop the madness, he had them demoted/fired and lied about it and they sued for $9 million...

Seriously, just go Google it or check out this excellent and very balanced editorial in the Metro Times or see this timeline. Trust me, it's messed up. And he WAS very fond of LOL LOL talk, as his messages reveal.

The New Green Hummer

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Seriously, GM actually unveiled a new "green" HUMMER at the Detroit auto show. But a little ethanol usage does not an environmentally friendly monster SUV make. We've got to rethink transportation on a much deeper level than that.