Boiling Point Blog

I'm still working on responding to dozens and dozens of wonderful e-mails I've gotten since being featured in Daryl Cagle's e-mail newsletter and blog a few days ago. Daryl tells me about 100 subscribers canceled their subscriptions as a result of viewing two of my more controversial cartoons, "Every Sperm is Sacred" and "What to Expect When You're Pre-Expecting". Here are some of the ones I've gotten to so far:

Hi Mikhaela,
I just saw two of your cartoons in the Cagle newsletter. I just about fell out laughing! These are fantastic!!! I just HAD to write a note to say "Keep it up, girl!".
Love it!
Rebecca D Terrill,
Zephyrhills, FL

Mikhaela,
I became aware of your cartoons today via Daryl Cagle. From what I have seen I like them very much and agree 100% with them. I wish you nothing success and freedom. Keep up the excellent work.
Also, very interesting and pretty first name.
Regards,
Gary England

You go, girl!
Hope you can get placed in as many "square" media as possible.
Aspasia

Dear Talented One,
You Rule! At last, and not a moment too soon, a real, live, American with a genuine sense of self mockery and social satire: a sense of humour.
The Poms lost their's when Tony Blair took Bush II seriously and are now confusing humour with schadenfreude, derision coupled with a powerful sense of inferiority.
Bless you, Possum! More power to your pencil!
Regards,
Chris

Hi Mikhaela
I just found you premiered on Cagle's site too, having just finished the Institute for Humanist Studies newsletter.
Excellent, now I find your cartoons in multiple sites.
I'm glad for you.
Rael

As a 50 year old woman, I say "GO FOR IT". I have a difficult time dealing w/ the Republican hate mongers clothed in high morals. Draw as many cartoons as you want to. I'll enjoy reading them.
Evelyn

Ms. Reid-
I was just introduced to your cartoons by an email from Daryl Cagle and MSNBC. I regret I haven't had the opportunity to view your work before but I commend you on your stand in the two cartoons included in Cagle's email. Even though as a lobbyist I am usually associated with the corporate position, I believe that the Bush administration and the former Republican majority have for too long intruded on the private personal choices of Americans. The decision to conceive or not to conceive is a personal choice between a man and a woman and the inclusion of the government in that decision represents an unholy trinity. Even though the cartoons included in the email didn't include gay rights I see by your comments that you have also taken a stand about that as well. The decision of two people of whatever sex to love each other is also a personal decision and one the government should embrace instead of regulating and prohibiting. I hope that when my children are old enough to make a choice of a mate that society will support them in whatever choice they make.
Thoughtful expressions such as yours will eventually assist in turning American attitudes towards personal liberties into mainstream thought instead of just "alternative" thinking. Thank you for helping to make America more free.
I look forward to your future work.
Jim "JJ" Lantry
California Legislative Advocates

Yay! not all of us are too dumb to appreciate your cartoons...keep up the good work! Arty Gladstone, Lauderhill, FL

You're attacking this issue from a completely new (to me) direction, and I love it! You bring a female viewpoint and sense of humor to this issue.
Please keep working, and I wish you great success!
Ginny Hoskins

Great stuff! I felt shocked, a bit, and that doesn't happen much. I teach political science at a junior college in California, and I think to myself that any subject's fair game, and I found myself wondering if I would use your cartoons to illustrate reproductive rights. I appreciate that you could give me pause and provoke thought.
Jack Hames

Glad to see you on Cagle! Don't remember seeing you in the Albuquerque Alibi (our prevailing weekly alternative). The quality of your thought/drawing and sarcasm should find a welcome audience here in the Land of Enchantment. Hope you can present yourself to them at a time when their purse-strings aren't too tightly held.
Regards,
RB Carleton
Albuquerque

Hi Mikhaela,
I loved your ‘every sperm is sacred’ cartoon. Love it Love it, forwarded it on to my 75 year old mom who is wildly liberal and thinks that protecting humans after they are born is so much more important than denying women the right to control their own bodies. I love her commitment to this and know that she’ll appreciate your sentiments as much as I.
For some years I have thought of re-writing the lyrics to this famous Monty Python song, I am stumped because I am neither a poet nor a lyricist, but were I to attempt it would go something like this…
Every Vote is sacred,
Every vote is great,
If a vote gets wasted,
God gets quite irate.
That’s at what point I lose my train of thought, I’d love to see someone do something with this, I could see a song of it plastered on YouTube or something but again, I have no talent, just some random ideas.
You probably know way more way cool people than even live in my hometown so if you don’t do a cartoon of it maybe someone you know could sing it to me baby,
Love your work!
Valerie B.R. in Spokane, Washington

And of course I've gotten some negative mail, too, though not nearly as much as I expected. Here are a few of the more tame ones without any really nasty language:

Republican pharmacists did this? Really? Not good old fashioned left wing socilaist sociopaths?!!!! The same ones who gave condom's to school kids!!! I may read your cartoons, but I do not think they are cute, clever or funny.
-Jim Fridas
Sorry, but I don't see any humor in your work. Maybe you can get a job with one of Larry Flint's publications.

Labels: feedback, letters