Sunday Funnies

On Sunday, 18 October 2009, the USOs in Kuwait were visited by members of the National Cartoonists' Society, including Army Cartoonist Bruce Higdon, Editorial Cartoonist, Chip Bock, Jeff Bacon of the Army Times and Navy Times, Jeff Keane (Family Circus) and Tom Richmond from Mad Magazine. After receiving plaques and thanks from the Base Command, all of the cartoonists sat down for over two hours to draw caricatures of our troops. Of course the soldiers were delighted, but the artists too were having a ball. They chatted and laughed with everyone as they worked. In addition to accurately capturing faces, the sketches also depicted something particularly personal for each subject. The drawings were just amazing.

I was astounded by Tom Richmond from Mad Magazine; every sketch looked exactly like the person. Later in the afternoon we asked the illustrators if one of them would illustrate something for our UTR program. Tom drew this picture of Sgt. R as the father reading to his son. Sgt. R was long gone, back at work for over an hour, when Tom Richmond drew his face and body perfectly from memory. (See photograph of Sgt. R with his own drawing and then the UTR sketch.) The picture takes my breath away.

We are so grateful that these extraordinarily talented men are willing to share their gifts with us and support our troops.