Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: It takes a lot of gall

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Nick Anderson found himself the victim of the most sincere form of flattery recently, on a surprising level.

It's not unusual for cartoonists to have their material pirated rather than shared, by which I mean stripped of its signature and copyright notice, which apparently makes some people think it's then okay to use it however you want.

And it's also not unusual, though even more infuriating, for people to erase the original caption and insert one of their own.

You don't expect it, however, from a supposedly major political campaign, and having a cartoon stolen, stripped, re-captioned and posted by the Gary Johnson campaign was, in the words of Jimmy Hatlo, "Diffo."

This is something you expect from the local PTA newsletter, not a major campaign.

Here's the story from Houston Press, and a less amusingly complete version from Anderson's paper, the Chron.

I like the campaign's original response to Anderson's protest over the theft, which was to give him credit for the original cartoon they stole and altered. This is so ridiculously inadequate and inept that it underlines, rather than redeems, the boneheaded, amateurish attitude at the center of the action.

It takes a lot of gall, that's all I can say.

Or it may be all I have time to say, because as I sit here typing this, there are people planning to come whisk me out of my hospital room into an operating room to remove my gall bladder.

Yes, folks, I'm not totally disassembled yet, but we're working on it. I'm thinking of getting a t-shirt with that old bumper-sticker slogan printed on the back: "Watch for flying parts."

It's not medically significant: The gall bladder is semi-vestigial, you can do perfectly well without it and the procedure, which will be done lapriscopically unless a last minute revelation changes things, is a routine as an appendectomy.

And it apparently has nothing to do with all the other "Fun With Medicine" I've been enjoying lately.

But it did come as more of a surprise and so I had no time to round up a fill-in cartoon expert this time and will, instead, post some "Best ofs" and so forth to keep you amused until I'm back in action.

So to start, here's a piece on copyright infringement and cartoons that I did in April, 2015, which, though I say it who shouldn't, is worth the click, particularly since David Horsey weighed in and gave the cartoonist's side of things.

And I'm fine and it could have been worse. This is the first time all week I have been glad I didn't take that plane ride to Kenosha.

Not that I think the surgeons there couldn't remove a gall bladder, mind you.

Check in tomorrow to meet some giants.

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Comments 6

  1. Gallbladder removal is easy peasy, and you’ll feel LOTS better afterwards; just remember to rest, take your pain pills and drink lots o’ water!

  2. Keep plugging away, Mike. We’ll wait for you.

  3. Geez, Mike, of all the gall! Hang in there!

  4. Well, you were mercifully sedated and missed the most galling thing today – Trump’s admission that Obama is, indeed, an American Citizen. GET WELL SOON !

  5. Dude. I was right here. Had my lines memorized and everything.
    Nah, you don’t need an understudy to step in this time. But if you’re in an experimenting mood, try popping a bunch of pain pills, start typing, and see what happens. Could be entertaining.

  6. Thanks for chuckle, Brian. (It may not have the long-lasting enjoyment of a column, but amusement is always appreciated.)

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