New Poster

Mankato Man Sentenced to 14 Years for Abusing Newborn Son

14 years for father who abused infant son.

Heck was convicted of injuring his 6-week-old son, Jordan, who had fractures to his legs, arms and ribs. 

Man Beats 2 Year Old Son

A 23 year old Florida man nearly beat his 2 year old son to death. The boy is not expected to survive.

Miami-Dade police said the incident occurred Monday night when Dejesus was watching the child while his mother was at work. Dejesus told police that he put on boxing gloves and struck the child about 15 times on his face, head, torso and shoulders over a period of 15 minutes, punching him so hard at one point that the boy fell off the bed and struck his head on the tile floor.

Man Drowns 6 Month Old Son

A 36 year old Minnesota man admitted to intentionally drowning his six month old son.

After talking to his wife on the phone, the father said, he took Rowan to the basement, filled one side of the laundry tub partway with cold water and "intentionally submerged" Rowan and "held him down while he struggled," the complaint read. "Once [the boy] stopped struggling, the defendant left him in the tub and went back upstairs and waited for his wife to get home."

New poster

Not a Parenting Tool.

A "fist is not a parenting tool" is an obvious message to be sure, but some folks just do not get it, so I thought I would make it easy for everyone to understand. 

Advocating for the victims of child abuse can also serve the dual purpose of advocating for better parenting education, parental support, and marriage counseling.

Feel free to share this blog posting with your friends, family, co-workers, local community leaders, state congressmen and women, as well as your senators and representatives in Washington, D.C.

-Corey


Text and image © Copyright 2010 Corey Sauer & Which Way Studios.

10 Year Old Boy Beaten & Burned

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Man Found Guilty of Beating and Burning Boy

"Hurley beat the boy with his fists and an extension cord at the apartment in the 2200 block of Elliot Avenue S. The boy's mother, Debra Chatman, told police that she also punished the boy by striking him with a belt, then Hurley burned him with an iron."

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Another case of parent(s)/guardian(s) who have no real parenting skills, knowledge, experience or support. And because of their ignorance, another innocent child suffers. What might this child think about being a parent some day in the future? Will he look forward to it? Will he respond to his own child's behavior with violence and torture?

And while I am glad the man was convicted of a crime against a child, why is there no mention of the mother? What about her complicity in the assault on her son? And what about the boy? Will he be stuck in the home with his mother, where he will be in direct line of fire of her impatience and anger at her boyfriend going to jail?

WHAT ABOUT THE BOY????

-Corey

Six Year Old Child Tied Up & Whipped

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

6 Year Old Whipped 100 Times

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Asked to gauge the severity of the assault, Reinhardt, who oversees child abuse investigations, said: "Short of a child dying, or a skull fracture, this is egregious. This goes beyond discipline to uncontrollable violence against a child."

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Real life stories like this are all too common, not only in Minnesota, but around our country. Regardless of the individuals involved in any case such as this, the adults always have power over the children or victim(s). Our society is built around the benefits that cater to adults: voting, higher education, money, parenting, decision-making, etc. The outgrowth of only catering to the needs of adults in a wealthy society like ours, is that a significant portion of the population goes unspoken for and unprotected. Namely, children.

In 2008 alone, nearly 5,400 powerless and defenseless children were abused and neglected in the state of Minnesota, and the median age of those victims was six years old*. The very same age as the victim in the article posted above.

It will never cease to amaze and frustrate me that those with the power and the access to knowledge, resources, and community, are those who systematically exploit, abuse and destroy the helpless and most vulnerable human beings of our world.

You may be wondering why a post like this is appearing on the blog of a cartoonist. Well, number one, I read a story like that and it angers me as a man and human being.  Number two, as an artist, when a story like this appears, I have to ask myself, "What would an artist do?". How can I respond to such cruel and inhumane violence using my talents?

One way is to verbally speak out against this terribly heinous crime, and advocate for the welfare of all children, especially those who are victims of abuse & neglect, as well as those who are at greatest risk of becoming new victims. Hence, this blog and this post.

Another way is to create art, in the form of comics, that helps others to better understand the importance of child abuse prevention and the very real need for the treatment of the trauma that abuse victims will suffer for much of their lives.

The art, of course, takes a bit longer to produce than a quick ten minutes of typing for a blog post, but it will be coming. My goal is to create art that is honest, realistic, non-sensationalized and informative. More importantly, I hope that the art I bring to this very serious issue will inspire others to speak out, to volunteer to help, and to advocate for those who have no power, who have no voice, who have no defense.

To fight for children. Our children.

Regards,
Corey

* Source:  Minnesota Department of Human Services 2008 Minnesota's Child Welfare Report.

TRIPLE PLAY #2 - Preview

A short preview of Triple Play #2, originally published in print form in 2008. Triple Play is a baseball-themed collection of sketches, poetry and cartoons.

Click on the cover for a FULLSCREEN view.

-Corey

A TALE of LUCY #1 - Preview

It's been a couple of years (!!!) since I have posted ANYTHING, so to get back into the swing of things, here is a short preview of "A Tale of Lucy" #1, a 16 page black and white comic which I wrote, illustrated and self-published in September 2009.

Click on the cover for a FULLSCREEN view of the preview.

Enjoy!

-Corey

The Diarrhea Diaries: Part 2

Here are the very rough pencil layouts for the eight page story I am illustrating for "The Diarrhea Diaries."

A lot of work remains to be done to make it ready for transfer to bristol paper and after that it will be ready for inking and lettering.

To view larger images, please click on the thumbnails below:

The Diarrhea Diaries

My first project that will come out of the new studio, is creating the art for an 8 page story in the forthcoming second issue of The Diarrhea Diaries, created and written by Phil Miarmi.

At this point I have only done some rough thumbnails to lay out the sequence of the story and a couple of character sketches, one of which is of Phil himself, who is at the center of the stories that appear in the comic.

Here's my rough take on Phil:

Movin' Part 2

When I was still living in New Jersey, I shared a rented studio space with four fellow artists, Mark McMurray, Ronnie Casson, Brian Bilter and the late Mark Griffin. We five were Joe Kubert School alums who also happened to work together for a brief time at the flag company Annin in Roseland, N.J.

We had dubbed our space, Clark Studios, after a band that Mark Griffin was in at the time called simply, Clark. We had the studio from Fall of 1998 to the Fall of 1999, never to return.

When we first got the space, there was a nameplate stuck on the door from the previous occupant. It read: Barbara Newman Electrolysis. I "borrowed" the nameplate and had it hanging over the door of my home studio for the last nine years. I decided it needs to be mounted in the new studio someplace. I temporarily placed it on my front door while my "Which Way Studios" nameplate is being made...


I have been intrigued for years about this enigmatic Barbara Newman and her Electrolysis business. It's a weird thing to get into, at least I thought it was weird, until I noticed the name of the business that is directly across the hall from my new studio...

Movin' On Up...To the WEST Side

The first two photos are of my old home studio as I began to pack things up last week for the move. My massive drawing table had already been dismantled at this point and put out by the front door. The "studio" as it is here, actually occupied my master bedroom. It will be nice to have the space back, I need it! Plus there are only two windows in the bedroom, one of which is covered by the cool Superman banner (courtesy of those fine fellows at Annin & Co.).



Here much of my supplies and reference ended up in these boxes, waiting to be moved out of my living room and into the new space....



And here we are in the new studio space. I had some time on my hands last night, so I thought I would get moving, why wait? The third photo shows where my drawing area will be (to the right of the short wall) and where my office and computers, scanner and printers will be (on the left, more clearly seen in the second photo). The space is 699 sq. ft., features built in cabinets in a "kitchen" area complete with counter top and a sink. The space also has 4 large windows and one narrow window (next to the front door), plus plenty of overhead fluorescent lighting.

Out with the Old...Yadda, yadda, yadda.

A photo of me working on a cartoon for JobDig at my
home-based studio, circa 2005.

Which Way Studios is on the move for the first time in nine years. Originally based in my apartment in Hackettstown, New Jersey starting in 1995, I packed it up at the end of 1999 and moved it back home to Roseville, Minnesota where the Studio has been in my home now for nearly a decade.

In early 2006, my regular cartoon " Ask, Don't Tell" I was creating for the employment newspaper JobDig was unceremoniously dropped from the publication and I found myself struggling to figure out what to do next. While in the middle stages of working for JobDig, I had developed tentative plans to create business-related cartoons and sell them to publications and presenters via a web-store. After I got the axe from JobDig, I did some serious reflection about whether I truly wanted to devote many long hours to creating business cartoons, when in all honesty, I didn't really enjoy making them.

I ultimately decided to put the cartooning work on hold for a time and allow myself to get more involved in my family's foundation, the Sauer Children's Renew Foundation.

Now, after a little more than 2 years of working as an administrative assistant in the foundation office, I am in the position of having to quit that paying job so that come November, I can step into the role of president on the foundation board, of which I have been a trustee for the last 12 years.

This leaves me a great opportunity to dust off my drawing board and get back into the game of creating comics as it were. Only now, instead of breaking my back for JobDig, I will be challenging myself toward a very different goal and a very different audience. More on that later.

As far as WHERE I will be working on my drawing board, that will all change in about five days. I will post images of my new digs as I begin the gradual process of setting up my working space in a brand new studio at a very comfortable office park in New Brighton, Minnesota.

From there I will be working "full-time" on comic books and other artwork. As time permits, I will post updates, along with photos, here about the work I am doing and the progress I am making.

Feel free to comment on my posts as I break new ground personally and professionally over the coming weeks, months and (hopefully) years.

Best,
Corey