Last October I was privleged to be part of a group of cartoonists who traveled to Washington D.C. and then on to Landstuhl, Germany to visit with and draw for wounded U.S. soldiers. Those who went on the trip with me were Chip Bok, Jeff Keane, Rick Kirkman, Mike Peters, Bruce Higdon, Jeff Bacon and Stephan Pastis. The trip was an incredible experience.

Last month another group of 8 cartoonists made the same trip. Bill Amend (Fox Trot), Jeff Bacon (cartoonist for Navy Times and Marine Corps Times), Dave Coverly (Speed Bump), Jack Davis (Mad Magazine), Bill Hinds (Tank McNamara, Cleats, Buzz Beamer),  Jef Mallett (Frazz), Michael Ramirez (editorial cartoonist for Investors Business Daily) and Rob Smith Jr. (editorial cartoonist for Glen Beck) made the trek this time, visiting convelesing soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital and Bathesda Naval Hospital in the D.C. area, then Landstuhl Medical Center and other U.S. military medical facilities in Germany. You can read a bit about their trip here. I know they had an amazing trip… it’s impossible not to become emotional seeing these young men and women who have given so much for us and our country. They are all heroes.

These trips are great and I hope they will continue. Jeff Bacon is the man who has gotten these things organized, funded and overseen. He deserves a big hand:

My friend and fellow caricaturist and cartoonist Jim Batts is an entertainment trivia genius, and is about to test his mettle on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” two weeks from today, October 23rd in New York City.

Jim traveled to NYC this summer to try out for the program and it’s “Movie Trivia” focused week run of shows sponsored by Netflix. Jim nailed the audition and got the callback last month. He’s scheduled to tape his show on the 23rd. Believe it or not, I am one of his “Phone a Friend” lifelines… basically I am on call to answer any Harry Potter or Batman film related questions. That’s about all I have to offer, as Jim knows roughly 10,000 times more than I about movie trivia. I’ll be sitting next to my phone all day and probably jump every time it rings.

If you are in the NYC area and want to go see the taping and cheer on a fellow cartoonist, visit the “Millionaire” website to order free tickets. I’d get the earlier taping if available because Jim is likely to be selected early. Last year they gave away a free year of Netflix to all audience members, and this year will likely have some kind of movie related gift as well. If you think you have a big brain you can also audition for a future “Millionaire” show when you go watch the taping. Check out the details on the website.

Jim won’t be the first cartoonist I know who has been on “Millionaire”. Gordon Purcell is a local Twin Cities comic book artist I know who does a lot of licensed comics like Star Trek, The X-files, Xena, etc. In 2005 he was on the show and won $50,000!! Alas I was not one of his “Phone a Friend” lifelines. Maybe that’s good as I would have had no idea Rhode Island was the U.S. state that signed a 1790 treaty under the threat of being declared a foreign nation.

I would have guessed Iowa.

Sorry Bucky.

UPDATE- It seems I know one other cartoonist who has been on “Millionaire”- “Love and Capes” creator and caricaturist Thom Zahler, whom I know through the NCN, was on the show in 2002 and won $32,000.

Did this sketch on the bus in Germany…

Our day at the National Naval Medical Center and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center got cut short because our flight out to Europe left at 6:30 p.m. that night from Dulles. So the six of us were whisked to the airport and boarded our flight on United, headed to London’s Heathrow airport. There we had a two hour wait until our Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt departed. We landed at the Frankfurt airport at about 11:30 a.m. local time, which was 5:30 a.m. Washington time.

A lot went on with our group during our travels, and during what little free time we had on the trip. I’m not going to go into those stories here or it would take hours to read this post. I’d like to concentrate just on the sequence of events and spend the time describing the area and the facilities and people we met. Sorry… it all makes for some great stories but this is going to be long enough.

At the airport we met up with the USO Europe folks who would be our escorts and guides during our time in Germany. A USO rep brought us through the airport to the USO center… a large trailer in the pickup area of the airport. Here we hooked up with Mike Peters and Chip Bok, both of whom had been traveling together with their wives and others in France and flew in earlier that morning for this part of the tour.

I’ve got to take a quick second to describe the dynamic of this group of cartoonists. Traveling with people you do not know well can sometimes be a trying series of misadventures. This could not have been farther from the case here. I had met some of these folks before, some briefly and some for a little bit longer, but some I had basically never met at all. Despite that, it was like getting together with a bunch of brothers or longtime friends you just hadn’t seen in a few months. We all settled in quickly, and in short time the laughs were flowing. In their own fields each of these guys is top notch, yet there was no evidence of egos or one-upmanship. We mercilessly ribbed one another, cracked jokes and slung one liners. Maybe it’s just that at heart we are all a bunch of kids who never grew up, and kids can make friends at the drop of a hat. Whatever the reason, it was quickly apparent there would be no problems getting along. I was personally in awe of the quick wit and talent of everyone in the group. I was honored to be included.

Dinner in Landstuhl- From far left clockwise around table: Jake Jacobs, Chip
Bok, Bruce Higdon, Rick Kirkman, Stephan Pastis, Jeff Keane, Mike Peters,
Jeff Bacon. I’m taking the picture.

Our liaison, driver and main guide was a gentleman named Jake Jacobs. He pulled up outside the USO center in a half sized blue transport bus and we piled in for another one and a half hours of travel to the small town of Landstuhl, in the south west corner of Germany near the border to France. Jake was good-natured and an excellent guide, speaking fluent German. He also took our ribbing in stride. He dropped us off at our lodging, The Hotel Christine, right in the heart of Landstuhl. We each took a well needed short rest and cleaned up before heading out for dinner. We had no plans for the evening outside of our own free time. Wednesday we would start our visit to the military medical facilities. We did, however, manage to find a local pub where we would spend our evenings (and Euros) unwinding.

Wednesday, October 1st

The Gang at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center

The next morning at 10:30 we headed out to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC). Operated by the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense, LRMC is the largest military hospital outside the continental U.S. I was told there are over 7,000 military personnel on staff and over 50,000 extended family members living on the base (including Ramstein Air Force Base next door) and in the area, which makes it the largest community of U.S. citizens not on U.S. soil. LRMC acts as the main center for treatment of wounded soldiers coming from Iraq and Afghanistan. The basic purpose of the center is to treat the injuries of the incoming soldiers to stabilize and prepare them to be sent back to the states for ongoing and more comprehensive treatment. In most cases soldiers only stay at LRMC for a few days. The quick turnaround of incoming and outgoing soldiers is staggering. (more…)

The group at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. R to L: Bruce Higdon,
Jeff Bacon, Me, Rick Kirkman, Jeff Keane, Stephan Pastis and one of our NNMC guides

So now I am rested and recovered (mostly) from the NCS/USO trip to Landstuhl, Germany to visit wounded U.S. soldiers with a group of cartoonists. Prior to flying out to Germany, we spent Monday last week visiting recovering soldiers in the D.C. area.

Our group in D.C. consisted of trip organizer Jeff Bacon (“Broadside”/Naval Times), NCS President Jeff Keane (“The Family Circus”), Rick Kirkman (“Baby Blues”), Bruce Higdon (“Punderstatements”"/Freelance caricaturist), Stephen Pastis (“Pearls Before Swine”) and myself. This is a fun group of talented cartoonists, and needless to say we were cracking jokes (and each other up) all week long.

On Monday the 29th we left our hotel in Silver Spring, MD and traveled to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. This is a center of excellence for head trauma and other serious wounds, and is one of the principal places of surgery and treatment for soldiers just back from action as well as continuing treatment for complicated injuries. Our guides escorted us to the patient wards to see some of these brave wounded kids.

The way it works is this: the patients are told who we are and asked if they’d like us to visit. Then a list is created for us of the people who would like to see us. We are brought to their rooms and briefed prior to entering on their names, rank, injuries, when and where it happened, their state of mind and mood at the time and if they have any family there as well. In some cases we had to get “gowned up” in surgical scrubs and gloves so we did not bring in any infections or other bugs into the patient’s area. We had five patients our list. We were not allowed to take our own pictures, but they got pictures with us for them to keep.

I was at a bit of a disadvantage within the group. The others had a character they could draw. I did not, unless you include Alfred E. Neuman. I did a few Alfreds later, but what I mostly did was caricatures of the soldiers and staff. I was worried about that, as I was afraid I’d have to decide if I should or should not include some of the ghastly injuries that would be obvious on them. As it happened, few of the soldiers had any head traumas, so I could draw their faces and not have to address their injuries. Actually my caricatures ended up being a pretty big hit with most of the folks we saw. Bruce also drew caricatures and occasionally his army character. Chip also did some caricatures of either the patient or some politicians like Bush, Clinton or Obama. The others did their strip characters and added the name or some reference to the subject. (more…)

Did I say I’d be at the Minnesota FallCon today??

Thanks to a late flight back from Germany I missed my connection to Minnesota and ended up stuck here in Washington D.C. for the night. I am flying out this morning but of course my flight is already delayed an hour. Figures. If they would have delayed last night’s flight by even 20 minutes I would have made it.

As a result I won’t be making it to FallCon today after all. I’ll be there tomorrow, though.

Check back on Monday and Tuesday for a complete report of the NCS trip to D.C. and Lansdstahl, Germany. It’s was very inspiring. Here’s a link to a short story about the visit from Stars and Stripes.