Cheating and its consequences.
People through the years have asked where I learned to draw. My answer has always been honest, yet embarrassingly so. I learned to draw in algebra class. I'm proud to say, however, while I actually scored single figures on several tests (or pretty darned close to it), I never once cheated.
I love doing these cartoons about how sports effect us in our everyday lives. One of the things I enjoy most about sports are the important lessons we can learn from them. Teamwork. Hard work. Hustle. Persistence. Patience. Honor. Integrity. Rising above Adversity and defeat.
Yet these days, it bothers me a great deal the lessons that are being passed on to our children from people like Mark McGwire, Tiger Woods, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and Brandon Marshall. And, yes, us. Fans who root for people like this regardless of their conduct and what it means. I feel as though we are not only losing some moral ground here, but skiing right off of it into a perilous abyss." title="To Cheat or Not to Cheat: that is the question…" />Today’s View From the Bull Pen
Wasted Time
Growing up in the late 60's and early 70's, I was a huge NBA fan. From Wilt the Stilt to Jerry West to Nate Archibald to my personal favorite, Pete Maravich, I loved the game and watched it as often as I could. Somewhere along the way, sometime after Magic and Bird, I lost that loving feeling, and, unless I just have to watch it for work purposes, I avoid The NBA at all costs.
This cartoon is as clear a comment about those feelings as I can make in less than 100 words. Inspired by the Eagles song "Wasted Time" which I recently heard while watching the History of the Eagles DVD, I think it is my definitive statement about how I really feel about the NBA. It all seems like a colossal waste of time. Don't you agree?As always, your readership and your comments help to make the world go round, so please continue to add them. I will try to do a better job of responding.
There isn't a way to leave comments in the Bull Pen so please feel free to leave your comments under the latest cartoon that I post.
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“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.”- Franklin D. RooseveltTwitter Goodies
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When you know life is unfair
High School sports
Maybe it’s just me, or the market I live in (Denver) but it pains me to see so little importance and air time given to high school sports. I wish, sometimes, the coverage was the other way around.Comments and critiques
I realize I have foisted a tremendous amount of new stuff here on the site all at once. But it’s been almost a year since the loss of the Rocky Mountain News and almost that long for this blog. I felt like it needed some refreshing here. Feel free to let me know what you like and don’t like about the changes here. I want to make this place a blast for you to come to! -
Groundhog day: Seligs shadow
Groundhog day
One of my favorite days of the year! Old Punxsutawney Phil pops up to see just whose shadow he sees. These days it could totally be anybodies. I narrowed it to Bud Selig, Tiger Woods, and Josh McDaniels. I finally settled on Selig. He’s so much fun to draw. -
To Cheat or Not to Cheat: that is the question…
Cheating and its consequences.
People through the years have asked where I learned to draw. My answer has always been honest, yet embarrassingly so. I learned to draw in algebra class. I’m proud to say, however, while I actually scored single figures on several tests (or pretty darned close to it), I never once cheated.
I love doing these cartoons about how sports effect us in our everyday lives. One of the things I enjoy most about sports are the important lessons we can learn from them. Teamwork. Hard work. Hustle. Persistence. Patience. Honor. Integrity. Rising above Adversity and defeat.
Yet these days, it bothers me a great deal the lessons that are being passed on to our children from people like Mark McGwire, Tiger Woods, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and Brandon Marshall. And, yes, us. Fans who root for people like this regardless of their conduct and what it means. I feel as though we are not only losing some moral ground here, but skiing right off of it into a perilous abyss. -
Drew in Review: 2009
PLEASE NOTE: THESE IMAGES ARE NOT CLICKABLE
2009: Unforgettable
For me, 2009 will always be remembered as the year a great newspaper died. The Rocky Mountain News had been a part of the Colorado landscape for 150 years until it’s closing in February. It set my life and career onto a new path, drawing cartoons for this blog and for places like 9News, the Chicago Tribune, United Media syndicate and The great Guadalupe County Communicator in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. I hope you enjoy this year in review piece I put together. It will be featured in the January issue of Mile High Sports Magazine on news stands next week.I’ll have a new cartoon on Saturday.
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Yankee$$$$ Win!
Yankees prove Money Talks, and hits the occasional homer.
True story. I’m not much of a Yankees fan. Now, my brother, Gary, is a HUGE Yankees fan. Crazy about them. Not an easy thing to do when you live in Boston, but somehow he has managed. Here’s the deal though. You ever had one of those 4th cousin removed kind of brush with something strange. We had a guy in our newsroom at the Rocky who was related to Tex Watson, one of the members of the Manson family. Not something I’d brag about, but, hey, he was a Braves fan. My family fortunately fared better. We got the distinction of being able to say we were related to Mickey Mantle. Yes. That Mickey Mantle. Not that it meant anything. He was so far down the bloodline from us (of which, I’m sure he was thankful) that our paths never crossed. So, one day I’m having this deep philosophical debate with my brother, Gary, about the whole Mantle thing and why should that mean that Litton’s have to be Yankees fans. “You’ve got to be kidding right?” I said in disbelief. ” Just because he’s in the bloodline (barely) we have to be Yankees fans?” “Yep” he answered. So I played devils advocate. “Gary, name one time we ever got his autograph? Did he ever send us one of his rookie baseball cards? A jersey? A baseball”? No. No. No. and No. “Then I rest my case. No autograph, no Yankees fan.”And besides. The Yankees have more money than Bill Gates. The don’t earn their world series titles, they buy them. Probably at some baseball memorabilia store. Right next to the Micky Mantle rookie cards.
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Da Umps are in a Slump
Thoughts and Musings for Monday
If you missed the weekends announcement that I posted Friday night, here’s a recap. We are in the process of putting together the first ever Drew Litton wall calendar. We’ll have more updates as they become available. They will be out in plenty of time for early Holiday shopping. I’m excited about this project as it’s one of the first real attempts at merchandising here at DrewLitton.com.
Another item of interest. Sunday’s edition of the Denver Post featured an article on Chris “The Birdman” Andersen. In the article there is a reference to some Arby’s glasses that will be coming out soon. I can’t say much but I might have had a bit of involvement in that project. There’s a set of 3 glasses total and I really think you’re going to go all Birdman over them.I’m also beginning to make serious in roads on a couple of things. First, are all of the caption contest mailings. All of the winners prizes went in the mail on Friday, and I’ll have the rest of the runner-ups prizes in the mail by Wednesday. I’m working diligently on the first chapter of Cartooning 101: How to Act Like a sponge: A primer on capturing an idea, smacking it on the head and caging the little sucker. All while keeping your sanity. And the last, but not least, I’m making progress on a web comic/ graphic novel I’ve been toying with. It will be vastly different then anything you’ve seen me do in the past. I’m excited about branching out a bit and doing a wide variety of new content, so please stay tooned. And feel free to let your friends know about this blog. The more the merrier.
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A Drew Litton Calendar is Coming!
A Drew Litton Calendar is Coming
We’ve begun production on the first ever Drew Litton wall calendars. My wife, Marcia, is helping input the events and I’m working on choosing the images. We’re doing a super cool calendar with dates for all of the major sports events of 2010 plus cartoons for every month. We weren’t able to get the daily desk calendars done. I just don’t have the financial resources right now to make that happen. This calendar is really an experiment. If it goes well then we will start to do a lot more merchandise in 2010 including a new book. So you can help me out by telling all your friends about the Drew Litton calendar (not to mention this blog). The more people who know about it the better. I’m also exploring doing a few Christmas Craft shows but I’m not sure about that yet. If any one has any ideas about that, I’m all ears. If there is any other merchandise you would like to see made available for this Holiday season feel free to let me know. You might remember a poll we ran back in September. It was a big help.
