Jim Toomey has a way of combining throwaway lines and great timing that keeps me amused even during unspectacular story arcs in Sherman’s Lagoon. The current arc has been rather good: A deadly jellyfish comes into the lagoon and terrifies everyone until Filmore remembers that turtles eat jellyfish. Is this the end of the arc? […]
This could well be a totally personal choice. Not only have I recently signed up with a couple of places with very specific “your password must contain” requirements, but since I switched to a laptop six months ago, I constantly hit the cap lock and have to go back and retype five or six characters. […]
The only cartoon of which I own the original. When I interviewed Jef Mallett for my newspaper some years back, I mentioned this particular strip as an outstanding example of making demands on readers, which is typical of Frazz. What’s wrong with asking the reader to pause and think for a moment? I do have […]
I’m not watching the Olympics. Fact is, I’m on basic broadcast cable, and the good stuff, such as it is, is apparently on CNBC and MSNBC. At least the stuff they show on their main network hasn’t been very compelling, and certainly not three hours after the fact. However, here’s some good stuff from Vancouver: […]
One of the nice things about Mark Tatulli’s Lio, aside from Tatulli’s ability to maintain the pantomime format, is that Lio can be king of his universe one day and put-upon the next. Which is probably one of the reasons Tatulli can maintain the pantomime format — he hasn’t locked the character into too restrictive […]
Tank McNamara reads my mind. I normally stay with NBC Nightly News after the local news, since the best of it happens to be on the NBC affiliate. But I’ve been changing the channel now that two-thirds of it is an infomercial for their coverage of the Games. Near as I can tell, Millar and […]
This is part of a longer Between Friends arc in which Maeve is being set up with a much younger guy. It stands alone rather well, however. I’m hoping the arc continues for a while longer. (Check the sidebar for a Between Friends collection)
Tony Cochrane’s Agnes has always been a blend of impossible dreams, complete self-delusion and a slightly skewed vision of how the world actually works. This particular strip stands out because Agnes manages to put you into the (perceptual) head of her grandmother in a way that not only makes sense but is really creepy, too. […]
Rhymes with Orange cartoonist Hilary Price recently went on a cultural tour to Havana, which she blogs about here. Included in that is the information that, instead of going crazy trying to get ahead on her strip, she turned it over to fellow Northamptonian Mo Willems for a week. His stuff begins today. She’s got […]
This was part of a series of Duke strips that I recognized all too well. I was, at the time, being “Dad” during the day and “the author” at night, and I set a clock for 12:30 AM in my office, knowing that anything I wrote after that would have to be re-written in the […]
Matt Davies is a Pulitzer Prize winner who was recently cut by his newspaper, then rehired after an outraged response from the public and within the profession. Cartoons like this explain both the prize and the re-hiring.
Darrin Bell has a talent for thoughtful self-mockery, assuming that Lemont Brown, protagonist of Candorville, is Bell’s doppelganger. I think that’s a pretty safe assumption, though, if so, I hope that’s a scenic overlook and not the driving lane. Darrin’s got a couple of books out.
Sometimes the best laugh is over a joke so silly that you can’t help snickering. But it’s easy to ruin a silly joke, and even a one-panel gag contains an element of timing — This one wouldn’t work if it showed people reacting to the signs. John Deering’s Strange Brew does a nice job of […]
Steve Breen’s Grand Avenue raises a question I had never pondered before. And the clever line would be “and will never ponder again” except that I really think this silly complaint is going to stick with me. Collection here.
This is the second day of an arc in the quasi-autobiographical strip “The Knight Life” that has Keith nominated for an “Idiot Grant.” Stay tuned. And if you want to catch up with rest of his only semi-fictional life, here’s the collection.