The new version of the app for which I originally did 540 caricature of every senator and representative in the United States Congress, Bobble Rep: the 112th Congress Edition, is finally out in the App Store. The new edition features links to social media like Facebook and Twitter pages for each congressional member as well as the previous website, physical address and telephone contact info. I did 140 or so new caricatures of the most recent editions to congress for the app—of course with the way our politicians act, I’ll be doing frequent replacements. For example, the developers made the unfortunate choice of using this guy as one of the example screenshots on the app’s page:

I imagine I’ll be doing a new one for his congressional seat soon. In the meantime I updated his Bobble Rep image appropriately:

… okay, that’s unofficial and I don’t think Apple will approve it for inclusion in Bobble Rep 2.0. Still, the app is available now for $1.99!

The 112th Congress Edition of Bobble Rep should be available in the Apple App Store soon now… just awaiting Apple’s approval. Of course, you never know with Apple. Maybe this time they’ll decide my artwork was racist because 90% of the caricatures I did were of old, white guys. Well, this is the U.S. Congress after all.

Just for fun film director and app creator Ray Griggs had me do bobblehead versions of the people who produced the program, so above is my bobblehead. Another old, white guy.

Anyway, look for that updated app with 107 new congressional caricatures coming soon.

The brouhaha from Nov. 2008 concerning Apple’s rejection of the iPhone app “Bobble Rep” due to the heinous nature of my caricatures has long died down, but the app needed updating now that the 112th congress has convened. Thus, I had to do small disembodied caricatures of the new members of congress for the app’s bobblehead images… all 108 of them!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Steve Chabot- OH                              Daniel Coats- IN

Sean Duffy- WI                              Alan Nunnelee- MS

James Renacci- OH                              Frederica Wilson- FL

The new and improved Bobble Rep app will be available in the iTunes App Store soon… I’ll let you know when you can go there and spend $.99 of your hard earned dough on it.

Bobble Rep, the iPhone app for which I did 543 (yes, the number keeps going up as members of congress get replaced) caricatures for, keeps getting a lot of praise and attention. Developer Ray Griggs called me the other day to say the app was listed as the number one recommended “Educational” app by the just released book Incredible iPhone Apps for Dummies by Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus.

Upon getting a copy of the book, I did indeed read a very positive review of the app on page 30, listed first under “Education”. The author mentioned the internet firestorm set off by the apps initital rejection by Apple, and it’s subsequent approval. I was surprised to see I even rated a mention in the review!

From Incredible iPhone Apps for Dummies:

Tom Richmond created all the artwork for this app. If the images in Bobble Rep look familiar, you might recognize Tom’s work as a contributor to MAD Magazine or from the movie “Super Capers”. I just love the art in this app, and it seems to resonate with just about everyone who checks it out.

My kids were pretty impressed that their dad got mentioned in a … For Dummies book. I thought it was pretty cool as well. Of course Ray and his programmers, including Stevo Brock, really deserve all the credit. It was Ray’s idea and he conceptualized the whole thing, while Stevo did the programming with the database backbone. After reading the entire book I found a whole bunch of great and useful apps I didn’t know about and am now using, as did The Lovely Anna. The reviews in the book are thorough, the choices are good and there are plenty of tips on the use of the apps listed.

BTW, as long as we are talking about Bobble Rep, here are the three newest additions to the 111th U.S. Congress since the app’s release in November:

California’s John Garamendi and New York’s Bill Owens just got included in the app with the most recent update. Massachusetts’ Scott Brown will be in the next update, coming soon.

Its amazing how quickly the cynics come out when something like what happened with the “Bobble Rep” app last week takes place. While the vast majority of people I have heard and read comments from are supportive of the app and our trouble with Apple, a few have come out of the woodwork to malign and cast stones at myself and app developer Ray Griggs. Most of these people are woefully uniformed and guilty of the usual crime of the internet serial commenter… that being not bothering to read the entire story but casting judgment based on a headline.

So, here are some of the misconceptions and downright totally wrong conclusions drawn by a few ignorant folks:

1. You should have contacted Apple directly to resolve this issue and get your app reviewed. It’s obvious you were waiting for the rejection to launch a massive publicity stunt.

Apple does not have a review process for an app rejection. There is no one to call, write to or inquire for further details or to “argue” your case. You are simply told you are “rejected” with an e-mail citing one of the rules (which you might very well not think applies at all to you) and are told to change whatever YOU think is the problem and then resubmit the app again fresh. That is one of the most frustrating things about the App Store’s approval process.

There was no calculation or plan on our part for any publicity. We were truly shocked at the app’s rejection. Ray wrote me saying he had no recourse. I wrote this innocent little rant on my insignificant personal blog, and posted a few links to it on some cartoonist’s forums I frequent. That’s it. I did not send it out to dozens of media outlets or promote the story any further. The rest happened on it’s own.

2. This whole thing was done as a stunt to make more money with the app. Your motivations are pure greed.

Again, see above as to the facts concerning the spread of this story and why it clearly was not a calculated publicity stunt.

I have no financial stake in this app at all. I was paid up front for my artwork. It does not matter to my bank account one bit if this app sells one or one million copies. I was simply enraged that the app itself was rejected based on some idea my artwork was “ridiculing” the public figures it depicted. Also after doing 540 caricatures I wanted to see the app in action. That simple.

3. Apple rejected the app because of the caricature of Nancy Pelosi, and her husband owns a lot of Apple stock… plus Apple is a flamingly liberal company and is biased against conservatives such as yourself.

Although I have no proof the Nancy Pelosi caricature was not part of Apple’s problem with the app, there is ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF or even any suggestion that it is. The Pelosi image was one of several images sent to Apple, as was the one of John McCain and several others. The one image Apple cited in the letter as being representational of the “issue” is this one:

As you can see, no Pelosi. Apple has given zero indications that Pelosi had anything to do with it. Personally I think its a major stretch to attach the name of any single politician or party as being a cause in the original decision… after all Apple has shown they stay away from basically ANY politically charged app, be it a left or right wing vehicle.

The caricatures of the dems and the reps are even handed and no party is given better or worse treatment, nor is there any editorial commentary (although I was tempted a few times). The entire app is completely non-partisan.

Finally, while Ray Griggs is a conservative and his upcoming documentary “I Want Your Money” is decidedly right wing, the app in no way publicizes that fact. Also for the record politically I am a liberal in general.

4. Your caricatures suck.

No argument there.

Those are the major points I’ve seen addressed on various comment boards. These are the facts. By the way Bobble Rep has been as high at 37th highest ranked paid app on the App Store list, currently at #52. Ray thanks you for that, as he DOES have a decidedly financial stake in the app.

Bobble Rep, the iPhone app conceived and produced by Ray Griggs and featuring my caricatures of all 540 members of the 111th U.S. Congress was APPROVED by Apple late last night and is now available on iTunes for the low, low price of 99 cents (cheap). This after my innocent little blog post of a few days ago caught fire and was picked up by major news outlets and high traffic tech blogs.

Apple came to its senses yesterday and approved the app. You have to wonder how much of the decision was based on the press covered and image hit Apple had taken, and how much of it was simply that some overworked approval person rubber stamped it as a reject. My less cynical side is hoping for the latter, but I am pretty sure any reconsideration at all was facilitated by the many responses and support of people on the internet who were dumbstruck that such an innocent and innocuous app would be determined “defamatory” to the members of congress we depicted.

Regardless, it’s now approved and you can check it out on iTunes. Thanks to everyone for the support, and thanks to Apple for taking the time to give it another look and see that their initial rejection was unwarranted!

Wow.

The power of the internet is an amazing thing.

Yesterday I posted a little rant here on The MAD Blog about Apple’s head-scratching rejection of Bobble Rep, an application conceived and developed by film director Ray Griggs for which I was commissioned to draw a caricature of each of all 540 members of the 111th United States congress. As usual I just wrote off the top of my head, grammar errors and somewhat acerbic tone included.

24 hours later my blog was twice crashed by overwhelming traffic coming from links on virtually every major independent Apple blog/website including TUAW, 9to5 Mac and Macworld, from Twitter links via the New York Times David Pogue, CNN/Fotune and many others.

Thanks for the suggestions and support. Ray and his programmer guru Stevo Brock are looking into other options including porting the app to other platforms. For those asking about seeing all 540 caricatures, I will make sure that they are published here on my website if the app never sees the light of day or other venues such as a flash-based website are not developed.

Thanks again for all the interest in this little tale. No word yet from Apple, but I can almost guarantee you that few people going to work in Cupertino today have not heard about this story thanks to all of you.