Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

The CartoonStock Cartoon Caption Contest No. 200

In the CartoonStock Caption Contest number 200, a family relaxes at home. Each family member is armed, as are the pets and even the houseplant. The father speaks.



The rules of the monthly cash prize contest have not changed: Five dollars buys up to three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $225 into the first forty-five pay-to-play contests and this forty-sixth challenge brings my total cash outlay up to $230. Having achieved runner-up status with three previous entries, I've collected $300 from CartoonStock, so I'm playing with the house's money, thank you very much. In fact, so few contestants enter that the odds may generally be considered favorable even for less-gifted caption writers. My three entries this round are shown below, above the break. The cartoonist is family man Liam Francis Walsh.

"I'd say we're ready for our Christmas card photo."
"What do you say we leave the doors unlocked?"
"Now how are we doing on butter?"
* * *
"The boy reads too many comics."
"I love our nuclear family."
"I always say, you can't have too much of a good thing."
"Here we are, the Johnson Family, locked and loaded."
"I love the Second Amendment—and our family."
"I told you I'd give you security."
"Feel safe?"
"What do you say we stand our ground today?"
"The bad guys wouldn't dare."





December 20, 2025:  The Winner





Even though I didn't make it into the top six, two of my captions were mentioned by Lawrence Wood in his Caption Contest Commentary:
Actually, that reference wasn't my intention, but no matter.

As usual, the judges are quite transparent in how they came to their decision:

The Judges Deliberate
Video added December 14, 2025


For the record, my third caption made Bob Mankoff's top ten list, just.


And my second caption made Liam Walsh's top seven, just.


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Friday, May 7, 2021

Paul Conrad: A Swipe at The New Yorker

On December 22, 1984, Bernhard Hugo Goetz shot and wounded four black teenagers on a New York City subway train, claiming they were attempting to rob him. The shooting made national news and Goetz became known as New York's "Subway Vigilante." Goetz initially had a lot of support from a public fed up with crime, but that support lessened as further details surrounding the shooting were learned.


Paul Conrad, political cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times, responded to the story in 1985 with a cartoon showing The New Yorker's Eustace Tilley brandishing a handgun in a parody of the famous anniversary issue cover by Rea Irvin. Now Goetz was in no way representative of New York City's residents, nor was he emblematic of the liberal editors of The New Yorker, nor of its readers or staff writers. The magazine, in turn, is by no means a stand-in for the city on which it is focused. The magazine's editor, William Shawn, no doubt incensed, demanded a retraction. Conrad responded, so an eBay listing tells us, by releasing the cartoon as a limited edition print. Number 4 of 25, framed, was recently offered on the auction site for $1,000. It did not find a buyer, and was subsequently declared "no longer available."


No. 4/25

Paul Conrad's signature



Paul Conrad
eBay listing ended May 1, 2021

Paul Conrad
eBay item description







Note:  The story of this Paul Conrad print is derived exclusively from the eBay listing. I have not found any online sources to corroborate it. I would be pleased to hear from anyone who can confirm the history provided or add additional details.



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