Out Of Hand
My local cartoon for The Hamilton County Reporter
“In 49 States It’s Just Basketball, But This Is Indiana.” - State Catchphrase
Needless to say we take basketball pretty seriously here in the Hoosier state and we couldn’t have been more thrilled when Caitlin Clark landed on the roster of our WNBA team a couple of years ago. She’s a great player, a great person and her entrance into the league elevated the exposure and income of everyone involved. That’s why it is so baffling to see so many cheap shots taken towards her over the last 2 seasons. It’s obvious that many players around the league go out of their way to do her harm that’s well outside the norm of physical play.
I don’t think that Caitlin Clark should be treated special, but she doesn’t deserve the targeting that she’s going through either. She’s made the WNBA more relevant. She’s increased ticket sales across the league to the point where teams have moved into larger venues to accommodate fans. Televised games get more viewers and paychecks around the league have increased. All because of the arrival of Caitlin Clark. To that end, one would think that a teeny tiny smidgen of gratitude might be in order.
Sketches & sketchy stuff…
I’m out of town at the moment visiting my daughter and her family in Minnesota so I’ll keep this brief.
I came up with this cartoon because of the frustration I and a lot of my fellow Hoosiers are feeling with this situation. I began the idea process by writing down several words and phrases to see if that would spark and approach. The best one was “Biting the hand that feeds you” which I altered to “feeds them”. From there it was a matter of sketching out a few versions of Catlin and a large crazed dog. I did think about having her hold a large dog dish of cash, but I preferred the idea of her simply holding a basketball. I really liked the idea of her looking bored and unfazed by the dog chomping up to her elbow. Sometimes that’s the proper attitude to have when you’re being treated badly.
Final drawing…
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