There’s a substitute teacher at “Big Nate” this week, and not only that, but he’s fresh out of teacher’s college. Game on!Or, as today’s strip suggests, maybe not.Nate leads a life of quiet frustration, though it’s actually never all that quiet. Middle school boys aren’t very good at playing their cards close to their vests. […]
With the best cartoons, you really don’t know where things are going. Arlo & Janis is often a reflection on mortality, but the current arc appears to be heading into a harsher place than even Jimmy Johnson generally ventures.Arlo is painting the garage, and, Monday, Janis was on the phone with their son, Gene, and […]
I like Derf. He’s mean to everybody. I don’t know why there can’t be more commentators who spread the joy around like that.I got into it on-line with a dressing-up-like-a-sea-turtle type the other day, not over sea turtles but over something else where I commented on the story as reported and he became furious with […]
There is a large raft of Egypt cartoons floating around right now, some of them totally cloth-eared, others obvious and some, the ones from a little closer to the scene, more focused on what it means to the rest of the region than what is actually happening there.Well, what is actually happening there? South African […]
In today’s Cul de Sac, the inestimable Richard Thompson demonstrates how to pick up a dropped storyline.con brio
“Dilbert” is a bit like “Cathy” in that it pioneered a particular niche for itself, but, once you’ve done that, the question becomes whether you’ve got a second act.For “Cathy,” the temptation was to simply send her back to the bathing suit store time after time, repeating the idea that, yeah, most women can become […]
One of the great advantages of working for a newspaper rather than a syndicate is that a strip can be done on deadline like an editorial cartoon. Madam & Eve has always been a bit of both, and the iconic South African strip can thus take a break from mocking and hammering against government corruption […]
In case you thought Canadians all came pre-packaged in down parkas, toques and mukluks, Sandra Bell Lundy cites a conflict familiar on both sides of the border in today’s “Between Friends.”Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, but it was too damn hot to wear it.These days, I can be completely neutral on this topic: […]
Mike Luckovich takes a look at our national family reunion.On one level, this story isn’t particularly shocking. We already knew that Oprah didn’t grow up on a silk pillow, and these things do happen.On the other hand, it comes hard on the heels of the story of the woman who discovered she’d been kidnapped […]
Doonesbury uses this narrative technique better than anybody in the business — ramp it up just enough to show how silly it is, but not to the point where it no longer reflects the original thought.By using Mike-watching-television rather than Roland-interviewing-speaker, Trudeau avoids having to depict Congressman Shuler, who has indeed said he plans to […]
The temperature has just climbed up to 1. For those from outside the US, that’s 1F as in “too cold to bother doing the conversion.”After a little more than 24 hours of this subzero stuff, 1 is almost an insult, like the thermometer is just goofin’ with me.In such times, the only refuge comes in […]
Yesterday, I said that, while I’m properly in awe of Winsor McCay’s artistry, I don’t feel total reverence for his classic strip, Little Nemo, because I’m a storyteller, not an artist. As Gilda suggested in the comments yesterday, his illustrations were amazing, but the actual storytelling was not his long suit.Here’s a cartoonist who […]
In today’s Cul de Sac, Petey escapes into the world of Little Neuro scholarship, which is different than escaping into the world of Little Neuro himself. Alice is suitably impressed. I don’t know if you’re allowed to make fun of comics scholarship or not, but there you have it. And I’m pretty sure you’re not […]
Phil Dunlap has been doing little character profiles for his Ink Pen crew from time to time, and I don’t have any doubt that they are fillers, for which purpose they are better than just throwing in a lame joke, but, on the other hand, it’s hard to consider any of them a potential […]
Bug is a relatively new (the archives go back to October, 2009) webstrip that is suddenly generating a lot of buzz. It’s simple and anarchic and thoughtful, which seems to be a trend in strips that generate buzz.I came across it on a list of new strips being considered for some kind of Lucite plaque, […]