Originally published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal, December 15, 2003.

Here's a curious thing for a cartoonist to admit: I don't really like to draw.

Oh, I love to draw comics, but just drawing for drawing's sake -- that's not me. Most cartoonists that you read about will claim to be doodlers. "I was always drawing when I was a kid." "I liked to just sketch animals." That sort of thing.

Me, I never drew anything unless it was going to turn out to be a comic. I took a few drawing and graphic arts classes in the course of my formal education, but frankly, they were difficult for me to get excited about. Anybody could draw a bowl of fruit, but to draw a bowl where the majority of the fruit is incensed with the banana for lewd behavior, that seemed worthwhile.

Of course, being funny (or stupid) wasn't the point. The point was to practice and develop technique. If I had to do it over again, I would certainly swap the time I spent taking "Differential Equations" and Metallurgical Ternary Phase Diagrams" for "Basic Shading Techniques" and "Creating Landscape Portraits." (I would also choose not to buy all those expensive and completely useless required books and instead invest the money in Intel and Microsoft stock.)

But as a consequence of this lack of foresight, I occasionally find myself without the skills needed to execute the vision I have for a comic. Case in point, this week's comic.

First, the back story. President Bush, under threat of some significant trade sanctions, lifted a 19-month tariff on steel imports. Bush enacted the tariff in hopes of protecting the American steel industry from subsidized foreign steel -- a noble enough deed, but certainly odd for a free-trade Republican. That is until you consider the political capital to be gained from pleasing steel-making states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the critical electoral votes that might swing his way in the 2004. Conversely, the artificially high steel prices really hurt steel-consuming states like Michigan with our automotive, office furniture, and tool & die industries. Higher material costs meant higher prices for products or less profits or both. So it was a bit galling that when Bush lifted the tariffs he declared everything to be all fixed and no harm done.

I wanted to show in a graphic way that damage was, in fact, done. And what better way than the indents of a steel I-beam left in some poor suckers' heads. Except that I could never quite get the angle of the I-beam right. It is supposed to be perfectly positioned above their heads, flanges aligned with the indents. I drew it over and over and over. I said things like "foul and filthy, I-beam." And "carnsarnus and rabbleflatsum, I-beam." But that didn't help. Eventually (and humanely), the deadline for the comic saved me from further futility.

Anyway, I've got to get back to paying work, which unfortunately has nothing to do with practicing my perspective drawing, so expect comics with lots of words for the next few weeks. Stupid I-beam....