The comic strip, Beetle Bailey, turned 60 years old today and some cartoonists on Facebook drew their version of Beetle. Here’s mine.

I drew this at Reececliff Restaurant in Lakeland, Florida, while lunching with my friend, Jeremy Buchanon.

Met with Ken Culotta, James Saunders and Robert Baurle at Denny’s in Winter Park, Florida. We talked politics and worked on gags for cartoons. I did a quick sketch there, to the right. The photo below is of Ken and James trying to figure out Facebook.

We had a book signing of ‘The Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year, 2010’ at Barnes and Noble in Orlando at the Colonial Plaza. Myself and Dana Summers, editorial cartoonist for the Orlando Sentinel, first had a cartoon talk about the business. Below are photos from the event. Many thanks to old friend Richard Scott for taking many of these photos.

Here I am talking about something of other.

Here’s Dana!

Here’s me and my old friend who I went through grade school with, Richard Scott.

The towering Mitchell brothers, fellow cartoonist Dave and Gary, over the diminutive me.

My old buddy and gag writer, Ken Culotta joined us and signed books, too. Here he speaks to Dana and Dana’s friend Michael Bell.

Dana signs the book by drawing a tall Obama.

Fellow cartoonist/ comic book artist, Orlando Pagan, stopped by.

Dana passes along advice to a fellow. Robert Baurle came by. Robert, Ken and I often get together and discuss politics and joke around. Robert is brilliant about the geo-political world and is planning to start blogging about it. I look forward to his writings and his thoughts!

Here’s a group shot of us who care about politics!: Dana Summers, Ken Culotta, myself and Robert Baurle.

Sorry to post this so late! I’ll just dash off the goings  on:

Took off to join fellow cartoonists to entertain soldiers in San Antonio, Texas, on January 20th. One picture above is a sketch I drew of a lady on the plane.

I met with my cousin Jan and she took me and her children to The Bharmacy. Pharmacy and soda fountain at night. Bar at night.

The USO picked us up at the hotel early the next morning and got us to the Center for the Intrepid and the Brook Army Medical Center. The artists included Jeff Bacon, Jeff Keane, Milburn Taylor, David Mowder, Rick Kirkman, Rob Harrell, Bill Hinds and me. Above are photos of some of our great soldiers that were drawn by me.  All 8 of us artists also signed large cards to be presented later. Above are photos of the artists drawing away. We wrapped up with dinner.

The next morning, Jan picked me up and I got to tour the architecture of Downtown San Antonio. Above are photos of that.

Artwork from a couple years ago.

I attended the Friday luncheon of the Florida Press Association at historic The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. During the luncheon the Florida Press Association presented awards to those of the daily papers. Also given were awards from The First Amendment Foundation. The Pete Weitzel/Friends of the First Amendment Award was given to Pat Gleason, who is an assistant to Governor Charlie Crist on many things including open government. She is a great lady. She assisted Sandra and I when visiting the Governors Library & Sandra donated many of her books. Governor Crist was at the luncheon to present the award. Below is a fuzzy photo of Pat Gleason speaking, to the right of the photo.

I was honored to receive the Sunshine Award for my editorial cartoons on the subject of Sunshine Week. Below the photo are the two Sunshine Week cartoons. My time at Orlando City Hall greatly helped my constructing these two cartoons. Director  Barbara Peterson was a big help!

To the right is a colored sketch of drapery in The Breakers.

While at the Florida Press luncheon I met Mark Mathes who once editted a ton of cartoonists when he was with Tribune Media Services. Amongst those is cartoonist and editor, Dick Kulpa. Dick was one time editor of the infamous Weekly World News.  I once penciled a week of comics strips for Dick’s comic strip ‘Ghost Story Club’ many years ago.

Anyway, Mark invited Dick over and we went to dinner. Dick and I drew each other and a photo of such is below.

Above is this years annual Father’s Day card for my father. It’s location is in the area my father grew up. The bridge goes over a river my father used to fish in. The bridge is also an entry to the cemetery.

We celebrated the day with my father and my brother Jeff by making a trip to Inverness and having dinner at Stumpknockers. Afterward my father enjoyed a Hershey’s coconut ice cream cone from The Ice Cream Dr.

Below is a photo of my father, brother Jeff and Sandra with a giant turtle at a nearby park.

My first entry of my new Rob’s Video Sketchbook. Friends, J.R. Griggs and Mark Shilensky suggested this and I’m giving it a go. The first one is clunky, but it’s a start. below is the sketch. All done at the Steak ‘n Shake on 17-92 in Winter Park.

More and more most of the art I draw is at a local coffee shop where I get away from the phones, internet and various other distractions. Here’s one of the tables at the Chelsea Coffee shop with the drawing board that friend Richard Menard got me years ago, along with pens and an editorial cartoon. I clip the I-pod to the side of the board and listen to political talk shows.

I was handling the Marion County 9/12 Group and one in Osceola County. More at Rob’s Right by clicking here.