With the Chinese would-be hegemon grasping at headlines over the last few days, we've been reminded that many of the threats beyond the Near East recognized before 2001 still exist. This drawing is from a clutch of political cartoons I scribbled out in the Fall of 2000. I sent the lot out to a few newspapers and received, from Washington Times editorial page editor Halle Dale, a rejection letter I was happy to accept and keep. There was currently no place in the Times for my, as she put it, "creative, well-executed drawings."
The undertaking was a bit of a whim, and I soon moved on. But anybody who's ever solicited knows that no reply need be gracious, let alone complimentary.
As for the subject matter itself, this one remains my favorite. Though the implications are unsettling the statement is quite relevant nearly five years later — and besides, that dragon is so grotesquely adorable.