Massachusetts


Dersh’s Delights

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Alan Dershowitz was so eager to paw those pierogis, he opened his own Martha’s Vineyard farmer’s market booth. This month’s comic for $5 patrons.

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Massachusetts Flag Redesigns

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Massachusetts’ flag and seal are problematic, so every once in a while the state legislature pretends to do something about it. There is currently a public call for submissions, and while I don’t think I have any actual shot at winning, I figured it was a fun prompt for some jokes that aren’t about our country’s slide into fascism.

With the state and its cities being majority Democratic, Republicans frequently switch parties to actually have a shot at winning in general elections. Bob Kraft’s nepobaby Josh recently did this, and moved from neighboring Brookline, to challenge Mayor Wu, who is as good a mayor as I’ve ever seen. Kraft moved to Boston so hastily, he doesn’t even know what ward he lives in, something that everyone who votes regularly in Boston knows by heart.

If you’re not familiar with The Modern Lovers’ debut album, that’s what the seemingly random “Massachusetts Forever” panel is referencing. Jonathan Richman’s birthday was this week, so I’ve been listening to that album even more than usual.

I know it’s been five years, but yeah, I’m still salty about the Mookie Betts trade. The Bruins also traded longtime player and captain Brad Marchand earlier this year, and while he’s a a fan favorite, myself included, he’s on the backend of his career, not his prime like Betts.

As a native of Plymouth County, the pilgrims are synonymous with boring field trips and terrifying wax museums. Fuck them genocidaires and their buckle hats.

I’ve gotten a few comments that some of these should be t-shirts, so I did a soft launch of a store over on Threadless. I’ll be adding designs from comics in the future and promoting it more heavily once there’s a decent library.

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Massachusetts, Vote for Ed Markey

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The pandemic has proved that we need leaders who have plans for disasters before they happen, and Senator Markey’s been leading the way on preventing climate disaster before it’s too late, even before co-authoring the Green New Deal. He’s also more progressive than his opponent, much more than the mainstream media is leading voters to believe.

Joe has a famous last name, but even that can’t paper over his work for incarceration-happy DAs, keeping marijuana illegal so cops have a pretext to detain minorities, and “accidentally” voting to give Trump more nukes. A xerox of a mimeograph of a carbon copy of a Kennedy might be enough to get the nostalgia vote, but most of us are worried about the future, not wistful for a dynasty of the past.

Ol’ Dynasty Joe Kennedy III was also a member of a racist fraternity that explicitly claims Robert E. Lee as its “spiritual founder” until denouncing them just before launching this entitled senate bid … if he even denounced them. I was not a member of a billionaire family, yet I somehow managed to avoid joining a Confederate cosplay frat to find housing in college. It’s sketchy as hell, especially considering his work for and endorsements of hard-line district attorneys who seek to increase policing and incarceration of communities of color. If you find it as disqualifying as I do, sign this petition.

Register to vote and apply for an absentee ballot today. Our shitty Secretary of State makes it hard to vote, so you have to apply, even though there’s a fucking pandemic.

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Climate Action Distractions

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You know Joe Kennedy LMNOPXYZ is to the right of Senator Ed Markey when half of the establishment already endorsed his primary challenge while I’m in favor of the incumbent.

Here’s a cartoon I did for The Nib when Prince Joe first entered the race.

I hope Hyannisport has enough boats for when the Kennedy Compound floods.

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Meet Mike Bloomberg’s Biggest Fans

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Sharing a media market with most of New Hampshire’s population means I’m already bombarded with Tom Steyer’s faux-cornpone ads during every Bruins game. Now with Bloomberg’s $37-million ad buy, there’ll be no space to advertise everything else I’m also not buying.

I’m a sucker for pandering to the local audience, even though I haven’t been in a Boston area paper since the beginning of this decade.

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Ture Turnbull for MA State Rep.

My friend and neighbor Ture Turnbull is running to represent our 11th Suffolk District in Massachusetts’ House of Representatives. If you live in Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Roxbury or Dorchester, you might be in our district. Find out with this simple form, then vote for him on September 4th. I’m so convinced he’s the best choice to represent us, I made my first local issue comic:

In a deep blue state like ours, it would be easy to think midterm primary elections don’t matter. But the State House of Representatives has elected a conservative Speaker who chooses to ignore the Democratic supermajority at his disposal, in favor of tabling bills to protect conservative Democrats like himself from making progressive votes. Our current representative likes Speaker DeLeo’s status quo so much, they voted to end term limits for the guy!

Our State Senate has passed countless progressive pieces of legislation, such as Medicare for All, that have died in House committees, such as Ways & Means, of which the 11th Suffolk incumbent is vice-chair. With Republican governor Charlie Baker, it’s essential both Houses act to resist his catering to Massachusetts’ big business interests and serving the interests of the Trump Regime.

Our electoral process is rigged for incumbents; why else would they schedule the primary the day after Labor Day? On September 4th, show them our deep blue district won’t let Speaker DeLeo continue holding Massachusetts back.

Connect with Ture Turnbull at voteturnbull.com, on Facebook and Twitter.


Washington Witch Hunt

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Trump bitched and moaned on Twitter about being the victim of the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American History. It’s a shitty analogy, since witch hunts are baseless, because witches don’t exist.I live close to Salem, Mass., which has built a cottage industry around witch tourism. All the Wiccan parties up there tend to gloss over the fact that those persecuted in the witch trials were normal and it was their accusers who believed in the witch nonsense.

For accuracy, I was going to include the old-timey long s in the title, Waſhington Witch Hunt, but that would be a pain to type every time I promote this comic on social media.

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