The U.S. of A. may still carry the biggest megaphone with regards to influencing policy across foreign nations worldwide, but that’s not to say that the volume of said megaphone should always be turned up to 11. Historian Michael Beschloss critiques Leslie Gelb’s foreign policy tome Power Rules (mostly favorably) in this week’s Book Review in the Times and even goes so far to suggest it as possible nighttime reading for Mr. President.

I made the picture above with art direction by Nicholas Blechman.

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This piece for the Book Review concerns two books that argue that liberalism extends beyond supporting exclusively leftist policies and reminds the reader of its broader objectives. Says author Alan Wolfe: “As many people as possible should have as much say as is feasible over the direction their lives will take”.

Not wanting to include any of my own politics in the illustration for fear of making it look like a big chest-beating drum circle, I went for a straight-ahead literal (not liberal) approach to the material. I twisted the U.S. flag 90˚ on its side to reveal its inherent ‘L’ shape in the stripes and then I ‘liberated’ the stars. Nicholas Blechman, who from past experience has demonstrated that he is not shy about letting the image physically inhabit the text, took it even further and allowed the stars to float freely into the article. Liberals and conservatives alike who would appreciate the merits of a good visual pun might both regard such a layout as “totally badass” and they’d both be right.

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The above illustration accompanied a review for Marlon James’ new novel, The Book of Night Women in the Times’ Book Review. The book is a closer-than-one-may-prefer portrait of slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation. Says Kaiama L. Glover, (the professor who wrote the review), “James has conducted an experiment in how to write the unspeakable — even the unthinkable. And the results of that experiment are an undeniable success.” Art direction by Nicholas Blechman.

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I recently contributed six illustrations for the inauguration issue of the Times’ Book Review. The articles that the illustrations were required for span books that concern the historical significance of Barack Obama’s victory, how his victory is informed by the work of Martin Luther King Jr., how race factored into his campaign (and eventual triumph), his timely connection to FDR in the wake of the current economic collapse, what specific threats his presidency will be forced to counter from Al Qaeda in Pakistan and how presidential power is in no way as organized, controlled or as smoothly managed as public perception perceives it to be. It was quite a bit to cover in pictures.

Nicholas Blechman at the Book Review contacted me about this assignment the day before New Year’s Eve (a Tuesday) and required finished art with him on or around the following Monday. With that pesky celebration known as New Year’s Eve occurring amidst all of this, the provided time that I had to complete these illustrations did not allot too much time for dilly-dally. Anticipating heavy revisions on at least half of them, the majority of the heavy lifting was conducted in the early daytime hours of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and the hangover day that followed. To my extreme relief, only little nips and tucks were required over the weekend leading up to the deadline, so depending on how you look at it, I either burned the wick for no reason at all, or to earn a sublime peace of mind at the start of the new year.

It should go without saying that being asked to contribute work that corresponds to an event as politically, socially and culturally brain-busting as Obama’s historic presidency is a real treat. That said, the other thing that I took away from this assignment is that when Nicholas Blechman announces to you in a sober and metered tone that he is “sending you an avalanche of work”, he is not screwing around.

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Roy Blount Jr.’s ‘Alphabet Juice’ is essentially a literary manual dissecting as many of our language’s oddball behaviors as the author can wrangle (and he can wrangle quite a bit). As this was an illustration for a piece that ran in the Book Review, I wanted to find a solution using only type that would encourage the reader to sound everything out aloud as the reader “read” the image.

The two additional type experiments that didn’t quite make the grade are posted below. Making people talk out loud using only a picture is simply not an easy thing to do.

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