Monuments to self, messiahs in pixels and popes in the firing line – Week 61 confirms that on Earth, reality is not so much bent as enthusiastically reinterpreted | @xylbtokthemartian.bsky.social Xylb'tok the Martian for @northwestbylines.co.uk
northwestbylines.co.uk/politics/opi...
Xylb'tok, a pink, knobbly-headed, three-eyed Martian alien is sitting against a background of intricate Persian (Iranian) frescoes, surrounded by medieval Persian scientific instruments and hardbound volumes of Omar Khayyam, Rumi and One Thousand and One Nights. He is reading a comic titled 'KINGPEN' featuring a looming orange-faced figure of US President Donald Trump gripping a Sharpie pen and a wad of dollar bills. On its back cover is pictured a nuclear explosion with comic-book text callouts 'POW' and 'BANG' and text in capitals that says 'A WHOLE CIVILIZATION WILL DIE TONIGHT'.
Clash of Civilisations
Cartoon for @northwestbylines.co.uk Xylb'tok the Martian correspondent's column, Week 60. @xylbtokthemartian.bsky.social @bylinesnetwork.co.uk
northwestbylines.co.uk/politics/opi...
Mouthpieces removed, alliances misnamed and rockets heading out – Week 60 shows us that while some look up, others try to burn what’s below | Xylb-tok the Martian
Judges intervene, and Agent Orange unveils an invisible gift – Week 58 confirms that cause and effect remain on only speaking terms | Xylb-tok the Martian
Ink drawing, based on John Singer Sargeant WWI painting 'Gassed' A procession of sick and injured people holding onto each other and health workers trail past the National Covid Memorial Wall covered in red hearts. In the foreground, lying in the long grass are coffins, and signs saying 'Covid-19 Public Inquiry' and 'Lessons will be learned'. Above the scene banners in patriotic colours are flying in the air, saying 'Herd Immunity', 'Get Brexit Done', 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'.
Collateral Damage
#LongCovidAwarenessDay
#LongCovid
(after Gassed, by John Singer Sargent, March 1919)
Steak splurges, clown shoes, banknote meltdowns and the SAVE Act tantrum, Week 56 proves Earth politics still runs on pure absurdity | Xylb-tok the Martian
Personally, I think it should be Larry the Cat @number10cat.bsky.social
Three older white men holding papers marked with doctoral letters: DPhil, DLitt and DPsych respectively, stand over a darker skinned woman lying on a hospital trolley, the coversheet over her market with multiple physical sequelae of Covid, including mitochondrial and vascular. Captioned with conversation text: 'This is a clear case of Health anxiety...Neurasthenia... an attack of the Vapours... definitely Hysteria"
Eminent Victorians
#MedicalMisogyny #LongCovid
#InternationalWomensDay
#CovidDayOfReflection
Still this, today.
Cartoon based on the Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger, featuring two purple multi-limbed Martian ambassadors, one withe a while felinoid drapped around his shoulders and holding a gavel standing in front of a table containing various items including an orange staring furiously at a bottle of olive oil, a bar of Dubai chocolate, and on the lower shelf a globe, some books inclusing a text that reads 'Blessed be the peacemakers, and a lunar Haggis, peeking out cautiously. On the floor in front of them is an oblong artillery missile shell with bearing a golden globe logo and text in gold letters that says 'BOARD OF PEACE'
Earth’s Follies: Week 55 – Armageddon, Incels and the Department of Education banners | Xylb'tok, Martian correspondent for @northwestbylines.co.uk northwestbylines.co.uk/politics/opi...
The Ambassadors, by dormouse, after Hans Holbein the Younger. #politics #satire @bylinesnetwork.co.uk
Are rumours that you have been kicked out of the other place by Elon Musk true, and would you be interested in being interviewed about it?
Black and white ink sketch of a rocket missile half-buried in the ground where is struck, with building rubble in the background and an exercise book and a child's shoe lying next to it in a pool of dark liquid. The rocket is branded with a logo of the Board of Peace.
Bored of Peace
#BoardOfPeace #IranWar
A Dalek-like, black capped robot, with a red rosette marked Shabby, all of it, including the rosette turning from red to turquoise blue, shouting 'DEPORT! DEPORT! DEPORT!!'. On the background in increasingly bright shares of green behind it, pick letter say 'FAILING TO READ THE ROOM AWARDS'.
Having lost a safe seat in a by-election to the Greens, Labour today signalled, via Shabanah Mahmood, that it got the message and will try harder to out-Reform Reform
northwestbylines.co.uk/cartoon/peop...
People at Large - Cartoon series for North West Bylines
@northwestbylines.co.uk #Politics #UK
A sketch based on Rene Magritte's painting. A cigar on a plate, with a Cuban flag patterned wrapper branded 'CUBAN AMERICAN', with text in French on a plate that reads 'Ceci nest pas une cigare' ('This is not a cigar'). Caption text says 'With these double entendres, Ambassador, you are really spoiling us'.
Earth’s Follies: Week 54 – self-driving rovers, self-awarded medals and the state of delusion| Xylb'tok the Martian for North West Bylines @northwestbylines.co.uk northwestbylines.co.uk/politics/opi...
@bylinesnetwork.co.uk #US #UK #politics #satire
Week 54: rogue rovers, record rants, alien distractions and medals for men who didn’t win them Earth spins on in chaos | Xylb-tok the Martian
$10B seems to be a magical number for launching legal claims and political tithes. What is costing Mr Trump $10B that he so urgently needs to crowdfund?
A Minneapolitan tells: at a sacred Native American spring in Minnesota a prayer camp rises against federal raids; reclaiming land, memory and shared humanity | C J Gronner
Sewage politics, papal snubs, FBI stonewalling and The Boss rising – Earth remains gloriously, stubbornly chaotic | Xylb-tok the Martian
Drawing of a garden scene. A middle-aged woman with a dog talking to a younger woman with a girl next to her. The girl is holding a bucket of gardening implements. An elderly man is pruning a push behind them. Dialogue text above says '- Had that Matthew whatsit here the other day. He said he wants to talk to young girls about biological reality. - Pass us them secateurs, will you love?'
Biological Reality
northwestbylines.co.uk/cartoon/peop...
People at Large — Cartoon series for
@northwestbylines.co.uk @bylinesnetwork.co.uk
#GortonandDenton #UKpolitics
A ministerial office room with yellow wallpaper and ochre curtains. A large white and tabby cat is sitting on the windowsill, with its back to the room, looking out. On top of an oak desk in the centre, a Siamese cat is stretching and shedding papers with its claws. Behind in, on the right, a grey tabby is sitting in a blue cardboard stationery box in front of a filing cabined, under a painting of a cat. On the left, a black cat with white socks is sleeping, curled up on a union flag patterned cushion in a leather armchair with a high back, from which a tortoiseshell cat is about to leap.
Today, Larry The Cat @number10cat.bsky.social has been resident at 10 Downing Street for 15 years. He is a stable genius who does NOT appear in the Epstein files. When asked for a comment, Larry yawned and decided to sleep on it. northwestbylines.co.uk/politics/mat...
A red-haired young woman in a chartreuse green dress is sitting on a sofa with a hot drink and a cat, while a dark-haired young man in a blue jumper in an armchair types on a laptop. Dialogue text says '-SO, he's on the run from ISIS, he's left his family in danger, he's claiming asylum, and he wants us to foot the bill. - Oh, a Saudi prince wants to give me his fortune!'
The British Patriot
northwestbylines.co.uk/cartoon/peop...
People at Large — for North West Bylines @northwestbylines.co.uk
Thank you, I may have finally discovered why I am allergic to dictators.
Xylb'tok, a multi-limbed pink Martian, with a while Martian felinoid coiled around his shoulders, wearing white bottoms, is playing a Martian three-mouthed trumpet and knobbly maracas style instruments. Behind him are tufts of purpe-blue alien vegetation. In front a pinguin is dancing, and wile Lunar haggis, a shaggy dun six-legged creature wearing a Tam O'Shanter hat is twerking.
The only thing more powerful than hate is love ❤️
northwestbylines.co.uk/politics/opi...
Earth’s Follies: Week 52 – boos, sulks and coal-fuelled delusions| Xylb'tok the Martian for @northwestbylines.co.uk @bylinesnetwork.co.uk
#Trump #BadBunny #politics
Melania: a covfefe table film | This glossy, self-serving and performative propaganda vacudrama of the second Trump era is emotionally empty | Su O'Brien
:-)
#CimateChange in the #UK Part 4
Billy & Will @northwestbylines.co.uk| illustration: Dormouse
Logo in gold on white background with a gold coin embossed with a dollar sign inside a gold outline of a shield, surrounded by wreath made up of scissors and loose leaves inscribed with names of conflict zones and disputed territories. The title above it says 'SMORGASBORD OF PIECES'
A red mug nest to a red and blue packet with brand name FAFO and a picture of a boat in the colours of the USA flag. Text on the packet says 'All-American INSTANT KARMA'
Earth’s Follies: Week 51 – FAFO, King Bruce and the Bigot Awards
northwestbylines.co.uk/politics/opi...
Week 51 sees ICE back down, artists silenced, journalists arrested, Canada under siege allegedly | Xylb'tok, Martian correspondent @northwestbylines.co.uk
#USA #politics #Mars
Images by dormouse
Trump has sued large media organisations before – it seems to be more about muzzling the press than defamation or money | Dominic Jackson
A TV reporter in a dark blue anorak speaking in to a microphone, with the Royal Albert Hall, London, in the background. Caption text says 'We are live outside the Albert Hall as President Trump sues the entire British media over repeated claims that Hitler has only got one ball'
Trump filed a defamation case against the BBC: an analysis part 1
- by @northwestbylines.co.uk
Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, which stands very little chance of legal success
northwestbylines.co.uk/lifestyle/tv...
#BBC #Trump #defamation
Colour pencil and ink drawing of Russian President Vladimir Putin holding US President Donald Trump by his tie and talking to him in his new White House ballroom, decorated in gaudy white and gold mock baroque and bedecked with crystal chandeliers. In the foreground two workmen in string vests, one with a name tag bearing the name Fred, are manoeuvring an impossibly long marble-top table on gilded turned legs, tied with a giant gift ribbon in the red, blue and white of the Russian flag. Conversation text says ' You might need a BIGGER BUNKER downstairs'.
The endgame and the legal defence, billionaire bunkers, fortress politics and the ECHR
northwestbylines.co.uk/environment/...
-by Willy & Bill for @northwestbylines.co.uk
'The Ballroom' - by dormouse
#climatechange #democracy #ECHR @bylinesnetwork.co.uk