Caulfield ponders the change in seasons, and is accurate enough to say summer “kind of” starts with Memorial Day. To my mind, it’s perfectly logical that summer “kind of” ends with Labor Day, because that was when we’d head back to school. Several decades ago, when my boys were little, Colorado schools tried starting school […]
Hearst’s International Feature Service The history of newspaper syndication — and specifically the distribution of cartoons and comic strips — is a story yet to be told, and told well. Rick Marschall at Yesterday’s Papers shares a booklet with us about a Hearst/Koenigsberg side hustle. By 1917, Hearst’s lieutenant Moses Koenigsberg split up the syndicate […]
Notes on Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Shrimp & Grits, Flash Gordon, Crabgrass, Macanudo, Andy Capp, The Saga of Brann Bjornson, Home Free, Heaven Help Us, Crankshaft, Phoebe and Her Unicorn, The Far Side, Thimble Theater Starring Popeye, Wallace the Brave, and including a Ziggy Stardust cameo.With Ripley’s Believe It or Not characterization in mind […]
Ann Telnaes originally posted this a year ago, but brought it back recently to comment on the flourishing of AI. Then someone re-posted this segment with a link to the full piece:That fragment zeros in on the main problem with AI. Whether it’s graphic art, writing, music or whatever, the essence of art is translating […]
Cartooning Pope Leo XIV Pat Byrnes and the newspaper he rode in on is taken to task by a Yakima Herald-Republic reader: To the editor — I’m Catholic and from Chicago and celebrating the election of the new Pope. But your May 13 cartoon on the editorial page went too far. The depicted “communion wafers” […]
This morning’s Duplex reminded me of a news story I was sure I’d clipped, but can’t find. A business professor at the University of Denver wanted to make a point about ethics, so announced to his class that he was going to award a certain number of A, B, C and D grades and that […]
The premise of Macanudo is that two children living in Nuevo Aires, Henrietta and Martincito, possess imaginations so powerful that it gives them the special ability to see the invisible, magical world underlying the lives of children everywhere. This power is called “Macanudo,” giving the strip its name. In its native country, the strip is […]
Comics artist Tod Smith has passed away. Tod Garfield Smith October 4, 1952 – April 4, 2025 From the Providence Journal obituary: Tod Garfield Smith, 72, of Rocky Hill, CT, passed away on April 4, 2025, after a long illness. Throughout his childhood, Tod was a fan of comic books and comic book heroes and […]
A nice salute to the fallen, which not only honors their sacrifice but recalls what they sacrificed for, in a way that serves as a reminder — and a rebuke if needed — as well as a tribute. It’s all well and good to say “Freedom isn’t free,” but this is a good day not […]
The NCS Conference and Reuben Awards Playbill is the perfect way to give a shout out to your peers, promote your work, or highlight your business! The 6×9 full-color collectible booklet – with a feature on every nominee and conference session – is given to every attendee at the Conference and Reuben Awards dinner and […]
With Barbara Shermund, Edward Gorey, Stan Mack, Dan Tyree, and courtroom sketch artists Art Lien, Cedric Hohnstadt, and Christine Cornell.The Trailblazing Cartoon Art of Barbara Shermund We began today watching Jane Pauley and CBS Sunday Morning and a segment about a cartoonist: Artist Barbara Shermund (1899- 1978) was one of the first women cartoonists for […]
The question is theoretical, like “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” which is about how much space non-corporeal critters take up, the answer to which is “Get a grip.”The tree falling in the forest is about whether sound is the vibration itself or the sensing of the vibration in the […]
Cartoonist Steve Breen has accepted the position of Director of School Communications at San Diego’s Cathedral Catholic High School leaving him precious little time for his regular duties at inewsource. Steve informed readers of his Drawing Conclusions newsletter this weekend: All good things must come to an end! I appreciate you so much for following […]
Some things noted of recent comic strips. From the last few days of Dan Schkade’s Flash Gordon … comes a sequence that reminded me of another scene: While as 9 Chickweed Lane kicked off a week of definitions I’m reminded that Brooke McEldowney cut off comments on his strip because he could brook no opposing […]
Weyant kicks off today’s commentary with a salute to the obvious: Donald Trump is for sale. There are cynics who say he ran for a second term to avoid being tried, convicted and jailed for things he did in his first term, but that’s not true. Most of the charges he was trying to avoid […]