I’ll admit there are some cartoonists on each edge of the two lunatic fringes that I don’t even bother to follow, but it is a small and clearly crackpot group. I still see plenty of off-target takes. So when an issue draws a raft of 7-out-of-10-star commentary, that in itself is a good thing.Plus, it […]
Earlier this week, I received an advance copy of Bob Mankoff’s new book, How About Never–Is Never Good for You?: My Life in Cartoons. The first test of whether I’m excited about a book is whether after pulling it from the package, I sit down and read it or put it aside with a mental […]
Retail is in a story arc that both amuses and appalls me, based on the Target security breach (Ouch. Nice timing!)Of course, Retail always both amuses and appalls me, which is why I like it so much, but, in this case, Norm Feuti has an opportunity to deal with both the damage and inconvenience done […]
Salt Lake Tribune editorial cartoonist Pat Bagley talks about Utah politics with reporter Bryan Schott. The political spectrum here in Utah skews heavily toward conservative Republicans and by skews I mean Utah is essentially a one party system. Brian claims that Pat is the “defacto ‘opposition’ to the Republicans on Utah?s Capitol Hill because Utah’s […]
From Ken Shepherd of NewsBusters: Editors of the Saturday Washington Post’s Free for All section published three angry missives from readers wishing to censor the conservative-leaning cartoon strip Prickly City. Obviously Knopf, Ushers, and Brooks are all entitled to their opinions, but it’s curious as to why the Post decided to give them a platform […]
Stuart Carlson offers a refreshing change from the Inkpot Generals who are inundating us with cartoons about how sanctions are for pantywaists and that real men send other people’s children out to die.There has been a thing floating around the Internet for a few years about how no two countries with McDonald’s have ever gone […]
The much anticipated Bill Watterson, Richard Thompson twin exhibit opened last weekend at the Billy Ireland Library at Ohio State University. Curated by Jenny Robb and Caitlin McGurk, by all reports, it surpassed all expectations.The best play by play of the event came from Chris Sparks’s Facebook account. Since it’s not open to public, read […]
Lee Salem, perhaps one of the most influential individuals in newspaper comics in the last 30 years, officially enters retirement today. He stepped down as Universal Uclick president last year taking the title of president emeritus and editorial director. Some of the talent that Lee discovered and fostered include the biggest names in comics: Garry […]
Donna Lewis’s “Replay All” is a good place to go right after a discursion on New Yorker cartoons, because she has that same, “yep, that’s how it is” approach: Observational humor that doesn’t have a punchline so much as a wry acknowledgement. This particular arc has me laughing because, to start with, a once-noble paper, the […]
Sunday, Morley Safer took 60 Minutes to the New Yorker to see how the cartoons were selected. The 13 minute segment is below along with other web extras.So you want to see your cartoon In The New Yorker?Extra: Morley Safer’s favorite New Yorker cartoons:Extra: Bob Mankoff as a cartoonExtra: Twenty-five years of cartoon rejection
Last night, 60 Minutes did either a profile on Bob Mankoff or a piece on how the New Yorker selects cartoons, the two being close enough that it may be a distinction without a difference.If you missed it, go here. It’s an interesting 13 minutes, and I was going to embed it, but, while it […]
I’ve put Neil Degrasse Tyson’s reboot of “Cosmos” in the category of things I’m glad are happening but that I’m not actually going to watch. I did watch the first part long enough to get tired of whiz-bang special effects telling me things I already knew.But, if I still had little kids, I’d be making […]
“Personal time” is kind of a strange concept for writers and I would assume cartoonists as well, and perhaps for anybody who gets paid to do what they want to do anyway. I have a service dog, in that he exists simply to get me up and away from the computer twice a day for […]