No, Marcus Hamilton is not really a menace to anyone or anything, except to his daily Dennis the Menace deadline.Earlier this year Charlotte Magazine interviewed the local celebrity.CM: Where do you get your daily inspiration for drawing ‘Dennis?’ MH: Mr. Ketcham told me you’re not just an artist. You are the photographer, the director, and […]
At Comics Kingdom today a number of John Rose’s stablemates joined in wishing Barney Google a Happy One Hundredth. Shoe Arctic Circle Mark Trail Pros and Cons On The Fastrack Mutts Six Chix Dennis the Menace Not the first time the Mitchell family has visited Hootin’ Holler. For the Great Comic Strip Switcheroonie (April 1, 1997) […]
Today featured a lot of good work on the funny pages, but, just to show I’m not ignoring the current crisis, I’ll start with Non Sequitur, which is good commentary on the Department of Justice.And I’d add that, while I’m not sure of Wiley’s timing on posts, it’s not easy for a comic strip to […]
Barney Google (and Snuffy Smith) June 17, 1919 – present (and beyond) We’ve mentioned the centennial celebration here and here and here. So this is just to mark the official 100th on June 17, 2019.John Rose, after a couple of weeks with birthday guests, jumped the gun by one day with the June 16, 2019 […]
Today’s Sunday Tarzan comic strip was the last by Gray Morrow (originally dated August 19, 2001).A bit over 18 years on the Sunday strip, at the end Morrow had to increasingly rely on assistants due to a progressive affliction with Parkinson’s Disease. If ERB Inc./Andrews McMeel continue with the original run, we will see 39 […]
Bruce Plante lays out the top issue of the day. As noted yesterday, the Trump Administration has a self-inflicted lack of credibility, but we’ve managed to lie our way into several wars, and the two World Wars we entered honestly, we entered late and mostly when cornered. However, not everyone has the same doubts as Plante […]
Hats off to cartoonistThis is just a quick opinion from a regular reader that the cartoon by Joe Heller in this week’s Herald-Independent about Bart Starr entering heaven is the best cartoon I have seen anywhere in a decade. Maybe two decades. Huzza Heller. Cartoon of Mother Goose poem sad example to useThe Gazette’s publishing of […]
Here are some comic strip and cartoon books scheduled for June 2019 release. Images and links via Amazon (though ordering through your local comic book shop is a good idea.) Prince Valiant Vol. 19 1973-1974 by Hal Foster Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County Artist’s Edition The Blue Day Book Illustrated Edition: A Lesson in Cheering Yourself […]
We’ll start on a relatively high intellectual plane today and then gradually glide on down to nothing at all.I was taken aback — only appropriate in a sea-faring tale — by this Rip Kirby, not because of the name “Minx,” though I associate it mostly with “Servant of Two Masters,” which is I think the […]
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. — Romans 13, 1-2Ann Telnaes summons the ghost of Thomas Hobbes, […]
Warner Bros. Animation is producing new Looney Tunes for the public.Returning to the original 1930s and 1940s cartoons for inspiration, new shorts go heavy on sight gags and don’t spare the violence. So snowflakes, who demanded the elimination in the ’70s and ’80s of what made the Tex Avery/Bob Clampett/Frank Tashlin/Chuck Jones cartoons such classics, […]
John Rose discusses 100 years of Barney Google and Snuffy Smith.I had been Fred Lasswell’s inking assistant for three and a half years. When Fred passed away in 2001, I was offered an audition by Jay Kennedy, the late, great longtime editor at King Features. He auditioned four or five other people and apparently liked […]
Fresh off winning a divisional Reuben Award for Newspaper Comic Strip, Will Henry sits down with Dave London and Pete Chianca.It always sounds like Dave London and Pete Chianca are having fun on “Strip Search: The Comic Strip Podcast,” but it’s rare that they seem to have this much fun recording a new episode. But […]
Next to the door of my father’s studio stood a non-functioning lacquered mahogany grandfather clock, which faced down a hall that ran the length of our 10th-floor apartment. If the studio door was closed I would sometimes open the clock’s cabinet and set its brass pendulum swinging to produce a resonant tick-tock that softened over […]
Bizarro explains it all, or, at least, most of it.There are any number of directions you could go from here, starting with a reminder of how daunting it is to come up with 313 daily laffs, plus 52 Sundays.Charles Schulz used to recommend that aspiring cartoonists start by doing a year’s worth of strips and […]