One hundred years ago saw the debut of Smitty by Walter Berndt.From Don Markstein’s Toonopedia: [Berndt] sold Bill the Office Boy to The New York World, but didn’t last long there, due to what might euphemistically be called “creative differences” with his boss. But the same strip, presented to Captain Joseph Patterson, editor of The […]
Baby Blues (AMS) touches on a regrettable consequence of our centralized corporate world.When I was a kid in the ’50s, there were all sorts of small amusement parks scattered throughout the country, including several designed by Arto Monaco, who created a number of those imagination-sparking parks in the years after the war, including Santa’s Workshop […]
Portrait by Pete McDonnell for The Petaluma Argus CourierFrom NPR: Cartoonist Charles Schulz died in February 2000, the night before his final comic strip ran in the Sunday paper. But the characters he created and developed over the course of five decades still endure, in the form of reruns, beloved TV specials, a movie and […]
I was going to let DD Degg cover the Charles Schulz tributes today, but this Arctic Circle (KFS) deserves some separate commentary.Alex Hallatt has been doing “Grown-Up Peanuts” gags all week, but today’s strikes at her usual health/environmental themes, and pinged my receptors for a couple of reasons.We’re long seen research indicating that farm kids […]
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Charles M. Schulz birthday saw over 100 comic strips and panels pay tribute to the master cartoonist and creator of Peanuts.The Schulz Museum’s “A Cartoonist Tribute” page linked to 92 of them.Notable is Lynn Johnston coming out of retirement reworking a special For Better or For Worse and Mary Worth […]
Since we all went a little overboard yesterday I’ll follow Mike’s lead and start off with a Man Overboard strip.© Man Martin Moving on…The New PopeyeJoining the new Popeye Sunday page by Randy Milholland and Randy and Shadia Amin’s bi-weekly Olive & Popeye strip is the new manga influenced Eye Lie Popeye by Marcus Williams. […]
Man Overboard offered a familiar but important observation on Thanksgiving, which is, as widely known and often said, that history is written by the victors.It’s true, at least in terms of popular history, which is largely what matters, since popular history is how a nation establishes its identity.There’s probably no better example of this than […]
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat features a special Peanuts section today celebrating the 100th birthday of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. An added bonus for those of us not in the PD’s hard copy distribution area is they are making it accessible online for free today.Added bonus: every article has a slideshow.Among the articles found online […]
Pogo starts us off on Thanksgiving, 1972, with a typically backhanded bit of thankfulness from Porkypine, their opposite characters being a high point of the strip.I hadn’t remembered that Charles Barsotti, far better known for his New Yorker cartoons, had a strip back then, but this particular episode is also a reminder that Earth Day […]
Unlike partner Mike Peterson and apparently the majority of people on Planet Earth I have never signed up for a Twitter account.(I thought I had and even have a password listed in my Book of Getting onto the Interwebs, but am not allowed into that world wide public square.)So as an outsider I have to […]
UPDATE:Comics Kingdom has explained the change. There’s a crisis of toxicity online. The social platforms meant to bring us together are pushing us apart. It doesn’t have to be this way. Websites often have a love-hate relationship with their comment sections: on the one hand, they’re a sign of reader loyalty, a great way to […]
It’s not always easy or possible or productive to separate comics into either humor or politics, and Prickly City (AMS) has always been a political strip.In this case, we see the Republican party gain nominal control of the house only to have the Freedom Caucus preparing to play the temper-tantrum gridlocking roles Democrats have faced […]
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More than 80 comic strips and comic panels will use their November 26, 2022 releases to honor the 100th birthday of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts.From the AP story (via The Gazette): NEW YORK (AP) — Cartoonists across the nation are celebrating the 100th birthday of “Peanuts” creator Charles M. Schulz as only […]
Andrews McMeel Syndication has announced that beginning on the first day of 2023 the Crankshaft comic strip by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis will join the AMS roster. © Mediagraphics, Inc.From the Andrews McMeel notice: Kansas City, MO (November 17, 2022) Andrews McMeel Syndication (AMS) will assume sales and distribution of Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk, […]