National Cartoonist Day de Mayo
Skip to comments
Nancy Beiman gave us a three week notice of the annual “holy day.” The others mostly waited until today.
Today comic strips transition from World Press Freedom Day (not mentioned at all) and National Star Wars Day (many references yesterday) to National Cartoonist Day/Cinco de Mayo. Or Inko de Mayo.
Lalo Alcaraz and Chip Sansom weren’t the only ones to blend the two. Jonathan Lemon also went with the mix by celebrating a dozen cartoon characters with a Mexican heritage:
Some cartoonists began celebrating on Sunday.
Though the above mentioned Jonathan Lemon in his Rabbits Against Magic was less celebratory than disturbed by a recent trend overtaking our comics pages.
Though I always differentiate “zombie strips” from “legacy strips.” Legacy strips being those continued by families of the creators, while zombie strips are those continued by cartoonists unrelated to the original cartoonist. Reruns are just “reruns” in my mind. Your mileage may vary.
On the other Sunday hand…
Robb Armstrong featured “the best comic strip in the world” in his Sunday JumpStart with a nod at the end to the National Cartoonists Society, while Zakour and Roberts do a very commendable faux Peanuts tribute using their Working Daze characters.
Some other comic strips celebrated today’s holidays.
In sync:
There was a meeting of cartoonists’ minds on National Cartoonist Day as Wayno and Mark Parisi both featured their recurring musical panels on the same day.
Who Knows?
So the commenters for that Back to B.C. strip naturally discuss Lamont Cranston but I was reminded of the Sergio Aragonés occasional feature “The Shadow Knows” that ran in MAD magazine back in the day.
I, naturally, wondered which one came first. Well it’s a tie. It seems both cartoonists came up with the idea at about the same time. Mad #107 is cover dated December 1966 while Johnny Hart’s B.C. was published early November 1966. But MAD was on the stands in early October 1966 according to the GCD.
But what was the lead time for the cartoonists? I rate it a toss up.
I wouldn’t want it to turn into a predominantly WWF/ASPCA/PETA feature but I would enjoy Mike Osbun using Animal Crackers to highlight animal endangerment/protection on a, say, fortnightly basis.
Comments 4