For the most part, an “interesting” strip that doesn’t make me chuckle is unlikely to get top billing here, but Candorville is often a fairly straightforward piece of social commentary and since — other than his grammar-nazi issues — Darrin Bell generally mirrors my thoughts, well, here we are.(Holy Serendipity, Batman! What an opportunity to point […]
Let’s start in Denmark today. Well, in Scotland. But with a Danish story.Here’s one of HJ Ford’s illustrations from Andrew Lang’s 1894 retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “Thumbelina,” from “The Yellow Fairy Book”: And now we’ll go to Denmark.Or, the US. But it’s imported: And that’s Wumo, a newly syndicated strip that Michael Cavna writes […]
Today we roll out the big guns, and big in a couple of ways. First of all, they are large format books, which allows you to see the artwork pretty much as the artist intended.Second, they are big guns in that we’ve gone from “Oh, this will be fun! Thanks!” stocking stuffers to serious “Oh […]
While I’m off playing the wistful wallflower at a vendor’s table, here are some comic collections you may want to put on your list. Any list you like. I’ll even suggest who might like it:For your older and still obnoxious sibling: Rick Stromoski’s Soup to Nutz is not the only syndicated strip that serves up nostalgia […]
I’m going for the award for Most Obscure Headline. If you got it right away, you got an earworm with it. If not, we’ll get you one at the end.The reference is that, on days when I have nothing, I get nothing. On a morning like this, when I’m trying to get ready to split […]
My freshman year, I had a history course taught by the department head, which consisted of two very entertaining and informative lectures by him and a test section by his teaching assistants that had nothing to do with the lectures but was based instead on reading assignments.The history course I subsequently took in summer school […]
This is why you shouldn’t waste a good reference by overuse.As Jeff Danziger suggests, Edward Snowden has exposed the stunning secret that the United States spies on world leaders.What a great time to reference Louis Renaud’s quote from Casablanca: “I am shocked, shocked to find that espionage is going on in here!”But we’ve wasted its […]
I suppose I could have simply noted this as a “Juxtaposition of the Day,” but it happens to trigger a rant that’s been building up for about two weeks, but that I have been suppressing because being direct would have involved calling out particular cartoonists, a violation of the Prime Directive, and, besides, it also […]
For some reason, I’ve managed to stumble across a bunch of cartoons, each of which amused me, none of which triggered a major rant.You’ll have to get by today with a series of minor rants. Be strong. A few roses grew out of the steaming pile of ACA commentary today. Drew Sheneman sums up a […]
The Great Cartoon Insight Famine continues, and, with the shutdown (sorry, “partial” shutdown) over, the major issue now is that a bad web site means the entire overhaul of the healthcare system is a complete failure.I believe I flogged the issue sufficiently yesterday, but I thought Jim Morin’s cartoon showed some insight, if not a […]
Jen Sorensen has become something of the standard bearer for the Affordable Care Act, which is okay with me. I like my standard bearers to have some passion for the standard they bear, and I’m also glad she’s received some credit beyond the alternative comics world for her advocacy.(Before we go any farther, I’m going […]
Garry Trudeau has extended his sabbatical into next month but, while the six-day strips are reruns, he’s still producing Sunday Doonesburys.Today’s is intriguing because, as a one-off, it’s a wry commentary on modern families and helicopter parenting, but it also has strong potential to herald a shift, if Mike and Kim really do move from […]
“Cruz” sounds a lot like “cruise.””Cruz missile.” “Cruz control.” ummm … Did I already say “Cruz missile”?And the Great Cartoon Insight Famine continues, buoyed by the endless discovery and rediscovery of that fascinating source of inspiration.We could use a little insight about now, because too many cartoonists, while at least passing up the chance to […]
Our supple tribes repress their patriot throats, And ask no questions but the price of votes; With weekly libels and septennial ale, Their wish is full to riot and to rail. – Samuel Johnson So Tim Eagan basically has […]
I went into my various stashes of political cartoons this morning knowing that, with the budget crisis having hit an armistice overnight, a lot of the commentary would be out-of-date even if it was filed yesterday. That may have put me into a mindset whereby timing, fortunate or otherwise, was forefront. Take today’s Tank McNamara, […]