Comic Strips

Sunday Funnies for the Fifth

Genesis 4:8 – Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go for a walk.” (Contemporary English Version)

Unlike today’s Pearls Before Swine, which I instantly figured out what was going on, it took a double take for me to transliterate the words in Pluggers to names and figure out what was what.

Bragging rights: I got all the Pearls Before Swine names on the first round, a rarity for me.

I noted Doonesbury‘s tribute to Nicole Hollander yesterday and the Dark Side of the Horse multi-gag Sundays are always enjoyable, but this is about the comic strips’ color schemes. Doonesbury alternating blue and amber background colors are great and work in any configuration that it may be presented except… to keep the changing colors uniform shouldn’t the title panel have used the amber color?

As for the blue and ocher colors in Dark Side of the Horse they work in the third page format but for the half page the 4th and 5th panels and the 6th and 7th panels should have been switched creating some space between the blue and ocher colors in the top tier. The blue background color for the traveling car works which is why I say to switch the gag panels.

As always your mileage may vary.

Before we get too far away from the holiday let’s give three Huzzahs to Ray Billingsley for my favorite 4th of July comic strip this year. The designs, the colors, and the simply message makes yesterday’s Curtis the best of the lot this year. In this your mileage shall not vary.

Guest Starring (Sorta)

Even earlier this week I got a laughs out of Brann donning Obelix’s pants and Maria turning into The Heap.

Also surprise came when Mark Tatulli gave us some commentary on the emerging new media landscape.

Errata

While Bogie and Bacall were a famous Hollywood couple on and off the Silver Screen they did not partner in what may be Humphrey Bogart’s most well-known film as Mike Lester asserts in Saturday’s Mike du Jour. (In the comments Mike places the blame on his young editor who didn’t catch the Bergman/Bacall switch.)

Nancy by Caroline Cash – July 5, 2026

Unless this is another switcheroo shouldn’t the Nancy rich (home theater) kid’s name be “Rollo” with two L’s?

Finder’s Fee

Believe It or Not by Robert L. Ripley – November 3, 1929
Believe It or Not by Robert L. Ripley – November 3, 1929 (detail)

Believe It or Not! World Entertainment wants to fin the original art to the Sunday cartoon that compelled the United States Congress to adopt “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the official anthem on The United States.

Help Find Ripley’s Lost Cartoon: $5,000 Reward + 4 Lifetime Passes!

Help us find this missing original cartoon!

On November 3, 1929, just one week after the stock market crash, Robert Ripley made a bold claim in his first Sunday panel for William Randolph Hearst: America had no national anthem.

At the time, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was widely recognized and regularly performed, but it had never been officially adopted by Congress. Ripley’s cartoon pointed out that the song was still unofficial and, adding fuel to the fire, that its melody actually came from an old English drinking song.

The panel sparked a massive national conversation. A little more than a year later, Congress passed a one-sentence bill officially making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the United States. On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed it into law.

While the printed cartoon became historic, the original, hand-drawn Robert Ripley sketch mysteriously disappeared.

Somewhere out there, the original artwork behind the Star-Spangled Banner cartoon may still exist…

Believe it or not Ripley’s leads us to another installment of…

Kinks Komiks

Crankshaft features not just the lyrics but the notes to The Kinks’ “Death of a Clown.”

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Comments 11

  1. AMC had a show called “Turn: Washington’s Spies”.
    They did a scene of a group of drunken British officers spilling ale and groping women.
    They started singing….and in a few seconds, it was obvious they were singing “Anachreon”.

  2. I don’t need to drink to the death of a clown, I would happily settle for his impeachment or resignation.

  3. I’m slightly puzzled by the second panel of “Brann”: why did Webster write “…Belgium pants” (and not “Belgian“, or even better: “French“) ?!?

    1. Those “pants” should read “comics“, of course. Brain fart. I wish it were possible to correct a comment here.

  4. This Land is Your Land SHOULD be our national anthem.

    1. That is an excellent suggestion, but the unfortunate fact is that too many politicians (and citizens) feel much more patriotic about war and subjugation than they do about peace and equality.

    2. It SHOULD be, and it would be a lot easier to sing into the bargain! But there are still copyright claims on “This Land.”

      It would have been fun to see politicians with hands over their hearts at a presidential inauguration with Lady Gaga singing out the lyrics:

      In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
      By the relief office I seen my people;
      As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
      Is this land made for you and me?

  5. Re: Sunday colors. Excellent points, no notes. Thanks!

  6. Why does the Denver Post strip the first line of Doonsbury every Sunday? We only get that comic on Sundays and they throw away a third of it. I DO realize they are trying to save space for all those zombie comics, much to my frustration.

    1. I sympathize, that is my world and my local newspaper too.

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