Alison Bechdel has a blog
... and I'm in it.

That's right folks, I'm Required Reiding. In case you weren't aware, Alison Bechdel is my personal cartoon idol, so this is all very exciting.

Boston, Red Sox, Yankees, etc.

A lot of people have been asking me what it's like to be a Massachusetts transplant in New York during this whole playoffs and World Series thing. My family are of course all Sox fans, but to be honest, I don't really have too many feelings about baseball. But my friend Yves, a lifelong Yankees fan living in the Boston area, has a story about his conversion to Red Sox fandom earlier this year (back when they were still doing poorly).

Calling Boston-area feminists
Check out this blogging workshop (register by Friday)

Passing this along from the wonderful Center for New Words:

Friday is the deadline for applications to our amazing BLOGGING WORKSHOP with NATALIE DAVIS! Davis is the mastermind behind the no-holds-barred political blog ALL FACTS AND OPINIONS She's coming in for an entire weekend to teach the feminists of Boston how to make our voices count online, from the techie logistics of blog software, to developing a compelling written "voice," to driving traffic to your site. Don't miss out -- check http://www.centerfornewwords.org/davis.html for details, and send those statements in!

I don't know anything about the workshop, so please email New Words if you have questions.

Susan Ryan-Vollmar has a blog!

Susan used to be the news editor of the Boston Phoenix--she was very supportive when I started out cartooning and gave me some really good feedback when I was working on Wartime ABCs. Now that's she's left full-time newspaper employment to stay at home with her two young daughters, she's started SRV, "A blog about motherhood, politics, and gay marriage." Check it out--so far she's got some great stuff on Marygate.

Please stop it with the "No Shame" crap already

Margaret Carlson explains ("She's Here, She's Queer -- Get Used to It") why it's silly to criticize Kerry for bringing up Mary Cheney's lesbianism. It's only "shameful" if you think that being a lesbian is a "shameful" secret. Mary Cheney is a grown-up, openly gay Republican campaigner. It's no secret, and no shame (except, perhaps, the "Republican" part, but that's just me).

In cased you missed SPX...

... here's a picture of me and Ted Rall at the NBM table. See, I'm not really that angry-looking at all (I'm practicing my happy face for when Bush is voted out of office). And here's a picture or two of the panel about Politics and Comics I was on (from left to right, it's Frank Cammuso, Ted, Keith Knight, Jen Sorensen, me, and our wonderful moderator).

New Cartoons, Four More Years: Afterschool Abstinence and Charming Cheney

(click detail to see full cartoon)

(click detail to see full cartoon)

P.S. If you want to get new cartoons by email, please join my mailing list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net. And yes, I'm still selling signed books.

Goodbye, Grandmommy

Mikhaela, with scotch, by the Kennebec River in Solon, Maine

As regular cartoon readers will remember, my beloved grandmother Melba died in March, leading me to draw a rare non-political cartoon, Melba and Me. This past weekend, I went up to Solon, Maine with the rest of her children and grandchildren to say goodbye as a family. It was a perfect fall weekend--the leaves were turning colors and the ladybugs were infiltrating our beds in the old farmhouse.

So why the scotch? I can assure you I'm not a hard-drinking woman, and neither was my grandmother--in fact, she never touched the stuff. But her last week in the hospital, when the nurse asked if she wanted anything to drink, Melba told her "Scotch--100 percent." So we bought a big bottle of scotch, poured it into little plastic cups, and drank a toast to Melba Ruby Reid on the banks of the Kennebec River (her last wish was that her ashes go out to sea). My dad put on my grandmother's favorite anti-Bush T-shirt. And my brother and I rolled up our jeans, climbed down over the rocks at the edge of the river, and poured our grandmother's ashes and the rest of the scotch into the river.

The little sketch above is from a photograph my dad took of me finishing off the last of the bottle. I love you, Grandmommy.

SPX fun + various cartoon Mikhaelas

Me, as drawn by Ted Rall and Keith Knight

I had a lovely time at SPX this past weekend hanging out with Ted Rall, Keith Knight, Jen Sorensen and others (like Matt Bors). Big thanks go to Warren for inviting me to be on the panel, Politics and Comics and for his general hospitality.

It was Keith who gave me the idea to ask for caricatures of myself, and I realized that I had already collected a decent number of such things. So, in no particular order...

As drawn by political cartoonist Scott Bateman. As you might be able to tell from my own self-portraits, I have natural Bateman hair. And no, I'm not actually a third anything, I'm the only Mikhaela B. Reid I know of.

As drawn by the great political artist Steve Brodner (in the front of my copy of his new book Freedom Fries)

As drawn by Seattle Post-Intelligencer cartoonist David Horsey the last night of the AAEC in Kentucky this year. (With sincere apologies that I didn't post this sooner!) The caption refers to the fact that this is actually the second drawing of me that he did; the first got me all upset because my smile looked so freakish.

As drawn at the AAEC in 2003 by fabulous painter/cartoonist/caricaturist Cindy Procious (check out her lovely new web site!).

As drawn at the MOCCA in 2003 by Ariel Schrag, who draws cartoon portraits on demand for $5 at conventions

And for comparison, here's a picture I drew of me and my cat

It had to happen sooner or later...

Yes, I've been reviewed (scroll down past Keith Knight and Brian McFadden). It's sort of a mixed bag, but really not so bad overall, as the reviewer ends by saying I have "tremendous potential," which is always good to hear.

New Cartoon at Women's eNews:
The Real Security Moms

For the rest of this month, in addition to my regular cartoons for the Boston Phoenix and Bay Windows, I'm going to be filling in for Pultizer-prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes at Women's eNews. This is a huge honor, not the least because the other substitute for Ann is going to be one of my political cartooning idols, Kirk Anderson. Here's the announcement from Women's eNews:

Our prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes is taking a three-month leave from Women's eNews, starting today October 6. We hate to lose her, if even for a little while, but it was wonderful to have a chance to ask some of the other top political cartoonists if they would mind filling in for a little while.

We pored over portfolios and selected two whose drawings were funny while they told the story and whose viewpoints were politically acute. Mikhaela B. Reid will fill in for Telnaes during October.

Reid is a 24-year-old political cartoonist whose work appears in the Boston Phoenix, Bay Windows, Ms., In These Times, and the Funny Times, among other publications. She was born and raised in Lowell, Mass., and attended Harvard College, where she studied social anthropology and photography. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her cat Riley.

Next month, Kirk Anderson--yes a man!--will provide us will some chuckles during the election aftermath and the beginning of the holiday season. Anderson is a 15-year veteran editorial cartoonist, with 8 of those years at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. His work has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and hundreds of other newspapers and magazines, including Ms. The two will share December's slots.

We hope Telnaes enjoys her break, await her return and are thankful two such talents have agreed to provide Commentoons.

Of course, this also means I'll have even less time to blog, I'm afraid. But cartooning really has to take priority.

New Cartoon, Election Time in Afghanistan

(click detail to see full cartoon)

P.S. If you want to get new cartoons by email, please join my mailing list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net. And yes, I'm still selling signed books.

New Cartoon, Four More Years: The Supreme Court

(click panel to see full cartoon)

VOTE FOR KERRY. Please.

P.S. If you want to get new cartoons by email, please join my mailing list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net. And yes, I'm still selling signed books.

My favorite cartoonists say nice things about me, updated again

Adding Ted Rall:

"Mikhaela B. Reid is, at the start of a promising career, already one of America's sharpest political cartoonists."
--Ted Rall

"Mikhaela Reid's cartoons are right *$%@ing on."
--Alison Bechdel, "Dykes to Watch Out For"

"Mikhaela Reid has what every great editorial cartoonist needs most - passion. Her work is insightful, inventive, and unambiguous. She is way too good to be so young."
--Clay Bennett, Editorial Cartoonist, The Christian Science Monitor

"Mikhaela Reid rocks!! She's where i steal most of my ideas from!!"
--Keith Knight ("the K Chronicles", "(th)ink")

"Mikhaela Reid is easily the best and brightest new editorial cartoonist since, well, me."
--Scott Bateman