Last night I attended a G-20 TOWN HALL MEETING sponsored by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PNC Financial Services Group at the new August Wilson Center. Below you can see my sketch of three of the distinguished panelists who were on stage to discuss the agenda and the implications of the G-20 Summit. From left to right are: James Dobbins, director of the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center; Barbara McDougall, former Canadian foreign minister and chief finance minister; and Post-Gazette Associate Editor Dan Simpson, a former ambassador and diplomat in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

The fourth panelist, Susan Schwab, a former ambassador and U.S. trade representative, asked me about my unusually large reporter's notebook. I explained it was a sketchbook, she asked to see the sketches ... and then thanked me profusely for not drawing her.

There was a lot of good stuff talked about and you can read about that stuff in the story I linked to above. I was mainly there for the laughs. Moderator David Shribman, Executive Editor of the PG, got a good laugh when he mentioned that Minister McDougal had coughed and wondered whether we should adopt her Canadian health care plan. The audience also liked Dan Simpson's line about how all the tiny municipal governments we have here in Allegheney County reminded him of all the independent governments of Africa.

Monday I spotted workers covering the front of the Hilton Hotel with a giant tarp welcoming the world to the G-20. They were trying to hide the eyesore of unfinished construction due to a labor/financial dispute. Not the face Pittsburgh wants to put on the summit, so they covered it up. It reminded me of the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit where all the empty blighted buildings were covered with giant canvases featuring bright shiny football images.

G-20 madness is here and I will be out and about doing sketches and some blogging from the front lines. In the meantime, I thought you might like to take a look back at some of the cartoons I drew leading up to this momentous week. Click HERE to all of my earlier G-20 cartoons.

Also, be sure to scroll down to see cartoons from the current Warhol show Drawn to the Summit: A G-20 Exhibiton of International Political Cartoons in a special package crafted by my colleague Jonathan Bieda from our Interactive Media department.  It's almost as good as being there. Enjoy!