For any strips with families, and certainly for any that feature kids in starring roles, back-to-school cartoons are one of those tiresome annual required arcs, most of which can be safely ignored, except that then you’d miss a headspinner like today’s Agnes.Much of what makes this work is that it uses the concept of back-to-school […]
Brad Diller’s salute to marital empathy and engagement in Funday Morning struck me at the right moment. I’ve been streaming Netflix while doing dishes recently, and, in particular, the “American Experience” series on presidents. Apparently, finding a spouse who even knows what you do for a living, much less gives a rat’s patootie about it — […]
Pat Bagley notes the plight of a soldier in a war with no direction and that calls upon no American to sacrifice except him. The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. I’m really sorry, guys. Wish I had more to offer than “You’re not the first.” In 1985 […]
Todd Akin’s remarks on “legitimate rape” provided the kind of moment you know will spawn a thousand editorial cartoons. I wanted to give it a few days to swirl, because it didn’t seem like the sort of cartooning prompt that was going to produce good work in a short period.And, true enough, the first few […]
It’s not uncommon for a comic strip to reveal its lead time by riffing on a specific event.But the only conclusion to be drawn from today’s comics page is that somebody left a huge tank of silly uncorked a few weeks ago and cartoonists inhaled the fumes in large numbers. Most of these don’t inspire […]
Dana Summers comes up with a cartoon now that I would have condemned back in May, when Facebook stock prices launched a raft of “Faceplant” cartoons that pretty much missed the point in favor of the pun.You may recall that, when Facebook launched their IPO, it didn’t live up to the hype, in part because […]
Tom Tomorrow probes the lack of substance behind Paul Ryan’s declared passion for Ayn Rand. Ryan has said that “Atlas Shrugged” is required reading for his staff, and he has given people copies of the book as Christmas presents, an improbable choice of ways to celebrate the Lord’s birth that readily plays into the “say […]
I don’t always agree with Ted Rall, who can be awfully heartless in his ideological purity. This time, however, he’s commenting on someone whose ideology is twice as heartless and it sure works for me.There is something deeply and offensively cynical in the “We won’t touch the benefits you’ve been promised” approach. On the surface, it […]
Jim Morin apparently didn’t get the memo about it being “Biden Gaffe Week,” went all rogue and did a cartoon about something else. Boy, is he gonna be in trouble!Meanwhile, however, this business of Romney refusing to release his tax returns is becoming a fascination, and not the kind a well-run campaign should welcome. Certainly […]
Richard Thompson has announced that, due to the increasing impact of Parkinson’s and the need to address it without the additional pressures of deadlines, he is retiring “Cul de Sac.”I’m going to miss the strip, but I applaud the choice because I’m sure it’s in his best interests as well as that of his wife […]
OUR BLOG ENTRY WILL BEGIN AFTER THIS BRIEF WORD: Last month, Mitt Romney appeared before the NAACP Convention and made some remarks about health care that, perhaps predictably, drew some verbal disagreement from the audience. It was widely reported that he had been booed, but a listen to the video showed only that people disagreed, […]
Wiley Miller plays with fire in today’s Non Sequitur. They’ll get him for suggesting that everyone who claims to be the victim of a conspiracy is cracked or some kind of egghead. (heh heh)Did he jump? Did he fall? Or was he pushed???Uninquiring minds want to know. (Inquiring minds might wonder, but then they’d look into […]
It’s Shark Week, and, in one of comicdom’s great annual unilateral crossovers, Sherman has a starring role.Sherman’s Lagoon is one of my favorite sources for the Bob Newhart-style humor I enjoy, but Jim Toomey (whom I interviewed some years ago) is also a genuine aficianado of ocean life and manages to use his strip from […]
One of my long-time favorite strips is taking advantage of that long-time factor. Here’s yesterday’s Arlo & Janis:We’ll all see, and be happy to do so. I hope it goes for more than a week.On the other hand, it’s possible to get a flashback fix even when he’s not providing one in the current strip. […]
Jeff Danziger points out a potential issue with the selection of Paul Ryan as runningmate.His heartless budget proposal will play to a certain dogmatic segment of the population and not a small one. The past few years have demonstrated beyond any doubt that there are a lot of people who will accept a simplistic solution, […]