by John | Feb 15, 2026 | Blog
About today’s comic:
The ellipses in today’s comic are where I abridged the quotes to make them a little more readable. (In general, I try to keep text as brief as possible in every Last Kiss comic.) Below are the full quotes.
Donald Trump (on Fox News, Oct. 18, 2024, answering a 10-year-old boy who asked Trump who his favorite president was when he was “little”):
Trump initially said that Reagan was his favorite. (Note: Trump was 34 when Reagan first took office, and 42 when he left.) So next Trump mentioned Lincoln as a possibility.
“Great presidents?” Trump said. “Lincoln was probably a great president, although I’ve always said, why wasn’t that settled? You know, I’m a guy that—it doesn’t make sense we had a Civil War….You’d almost say, like, why wasn’t that [settled]? As an example, Ukraine would have never happened, and Russia, if I were president. Israel would have never happened; October 7 would have never happened, as you know.”
.
Abraham Lincoln. This Jan. 11, 1837 quote from our 16th president can be found on the website for his presidential website here:
“In one faculty, at least, there can be no dispute of the gentleman’s superiority over me, and most other men; and that is, the faculty of entangling a subject, so that neither himself, or any other man, can find head or tail to it.”
by John | Feb 18, 2024 | Blog
In 2017, I was in Atlanta and one of the touristy things I did was visit the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. I’ve been to three presidential libraries now. The others were for two much high-profile presidents—Kennedy and Nixon.
Carter isn’t an easy man to summarize. His presidency was marred by the Iran Hostage crisis, “stagflation” and other issues. His 1980 re-election bid ended in a landslide loss to Ronald Reagan.
But Carter was far ahead of his time in terms of energy conservation and he actually accomplished a lot internationally. But his most enduring legacy is what he achieved after he left office. His humanitarian work, his diplomacy, his efforts to support election integrity internationally and negotiate major conflicts won him a Nobel prize in 2002.
He may not have been our best president, but he was definitely our best ex-president—and probably our kindest.
If you’re interested in touring Carter’s presidential library and aren’t going to Atlanta soon, you can take a virtual tour of the exhibits and building. Plus, there are my photos below.
The museum includes a life-sized reproduction of the Carter Oval Office. Photo by me. Click image to enlarge.
Of the three presidential libraries I’ve visited, Carter’s is the only one with Marvel Comics art! The art (signed by Stan Lee) is by John Tartaglione who drew many of the romance comics panels I’ve used in Last Kiss!
The guy in the goony hat—but great T-shirt!—is me on the serene, wooded grounds that are the exterior part of the Carter library. (Photo by my sister Lisa Lustig Hernandez.)
↓ TranscriptScene: Photo of a sunset.
CAPTION: “I have one life and one chance to make it count
for something...
"My faith demands that I do whatever I can,
wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long
as I can with whatever I have to try to make
a difference.”
--Jimmy Carter, now 99 and
in hospice for one year as of yesterday.
by John | Feb 19, 2023 | Uncategorized
Happy Presidents’ Day!
I know George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are the presidents usually associated with this holiday. But I wanted to do something different. And I really like this quote by F.D.R.
Adapted from a photo by Jessica Tan on Unsplash.
↓ TranscriptSCENE:
CAPTION: Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt
Adapted from a photo by Jessica Tan.
Happy Presidents’ Day
jessica-tan-2Ae69B_9AP8
by John | Feb 20, 2022 | Uncategorized
This is about 180 degrees away from what I was originally planning to do for President’s Day. I thought I’d feature an inspiring quote about leadership or courage or patriotism or some such. But for some reason I kept coming back to this quote by Abe Lincoln that doesn’t seem to fit any of my expected categories at all.
But we live in difficult times. Depression and anger are rampant. So I thought something clearly and strongly upbeat might be more appropriate. And maybe looking for good things does have something to do with leadership, courage and maybe even patriotism after all.
Transcript:
SCENE: A rose garden.
CAPTION: “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns…or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
–Abraham Lincoln
Adapted from a photo by Heidi Kaden
heidi-kaden-tHplJOPwsmI
↓ TranscriptSCENE: A rose garden.
CAPTION: “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns...or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
--Abraham Lincoln
Adapted from a photo by Heidi Kaden
heidi-kaden-tHplJOPwsmI
by John | Feb 14, 2021 | Uncategorized
You can still vote for Last Kiss model Felina Vie in Inked Magazine’s cover girl contest. (You’ll need a Facebook account to sign in to vote.) Vote for free once every 24 hours. Thanks!
Transcript:
President Abe Lincoln: I’m finally in a comic? Really? And it’s…Last Kiss?!! So no superhero suit? No cape? What’ll I tell Mary? I promised her we’d play Caped Crusader and First Lady tonight!
Happy President’s Day!
↓ TranscriptPresident Abe Lincoln: I’m finally in a comic? Really? And it’s…Last Kiss?!! So no superhero suit? No cape? What’ll I tell Mary? I promised her we’d play Caped Crusader and First Lady tonight!
Happy President’s Day!
