Visual description: This is a four-panel cartoon. Each panel shows the same three woman. The woman on the left and right are arguing; the woman in the middle is listening with interest to their arguments.
Panel 1
WOMAN 1: our NEW HEALTH CARE BALLOON is a GIGANTIC deal! it’s more like a RIDE in a HOT AIR BALLOON! and EVERY AMERICAN can ride to a HEALTHIER TOMORROW! it’s the balloon we’ve waited our WHOLE LIFE for!
Panel 2
WOMAN 2: LIES! the new health care balloon is more like the HINDENBURG! a GIANT FLAMING GASBAG OF DEATH FOR ALL AMERICANS! the END OF FREEDOM on our SHINING SHORES!
Panel 3: The two arguing women are now just yelling into each other’s faces.
WOMAN 1: LIFESAVER!
WOMAN 2: HINDENBURG!
WOMAN 1: BOON TO ALL!
WOMAN 2: SOCIALIST DEATHTRAP!
WOMAN 1: THE NEW NEW DEAL!
WOMAN 2: DEATH BY MANDATE!
Panel 4: A perfectly ordinary, normal-sized balloon has floated into the picture.
WOMAN 1 (Arms wide open, gesturing towards the balloon): It’s HERE! Isn’t it AWESOME?
WOMAN 2 (Fleeing in terror): AYIEE! THE NEW STALIN!
Woman in middle: Looks towards the viewer with a “you’ve got to be kidding me” expression on her face.
CAPTION: The Great Health Care Debate

This cartoon was published in the April 2009 issue of Dollars and Sense. The original art is being auctioned here.

To tell you the truth, I can’t draw Darth’s helmet to save my life. So I turned to the awesome Bill Mudron, who could easily draw Darth’s helmet with a crayon clenched between his butt cheeks, although in this case I’m pretty sure Bill used his hands. I wrote and penciled the cartoon, and Bill inked it, drawing Darth and the backgrounds pretty much from scratch.

Since this is a health care cartoon, I thought it would make sense to auction it off to help someone pay for health care. Somewhere on the internet I ran into Connie Parrott‘s case; Connie is a type 1 diabetic who is trying to raise funds for needed medical equipment through the internet. Although I haven’t met Connie, I emailed her, and she was willing to let me do the auction thing. Connie’s friend Ed Brayton, volunteered to help organize it.

So, anyway: The original art is being auctioned here on Ebay. You can find details (paper stock, image size, etc) over there.

It’s worth mentioning that I don’t usually draw my cartoons on paper! This is the first cartoon I’ve done in years that wasn’t done 100% on computer. So this is a relatively rare chance to own original paper art for one of my strips.

UPDATE: The art sold for $200. Yay!

Originally published in Dollars and Sense. A tip of the pen to Ezra Klein’s blog, my favorite health care policy blog.