At 93 Sy Barry, artist of The Phantom comic strip from 1961 to 1994 and a comic book artist for 16 years leading into that assignment, remains active as an art instructor. Every Monday afternoon, laughs and wise-cracks come from the art room at Stone Hill at Andover, a retirement facility on Elm Street. A […]

I was recently reminded that Allan Holtz’s annotations to George McManus’s Bringing Up Father (Forever Nuts edition) was put on the internet for all to read, and that the remarks remain available.There are many things going on in these nearly century-old Bringing Up Father comic strips which may be incomprehensible to the average reader of […]

My first impression of this Steve Breen (Creators) piece was that he obviously hadn’t read up on the particular level of sanctions which Biden apparently proposed, should Putin (further) invade Ukraine.As noted here (and in the general news coverage), it’s not just the type of sanctions against individual oligarchs that Obama invoked in Putin’s initial […]

Bad Reporter cartoonist Don Asmussen has passed away.   Donald Alan (Don) Asmussen October 31, 1962 – December 9, 2021Don has been fighting cancer for a few years, a battle he lost yesterday.John Backderf has informed us of the sad news. The San Francisco Chronicle has published a notice: Don’s loss is absolutely devastating,” said Chronicle […]

The 2012 Tarzan webcomic (retitled The New Adventures of Tarzan in 2013) by Roy Thomas, Tom Grindberg, and Benito Gallego has (finally) been scheduled to be collected in a hardcover book.In 2012 Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. began to produce new Tarzan adventures as a webcomic by Roy Thomas and Tom Grindberg in a Sunday half-page […]

(Dr. Macleod)(Jeremy Banx)Two threads in this particular Juxtaposition: The backgrounder is the current dustup in the UK about Boris Johnson locking everyone down and then allowing his own staff to hold a Christmas party last year at 10 Downing Street. It was revealed, apparently, in a wonderfully foolish cock-up when the Prime Minister’s new PR person […]

On December 9, 1991 Betty by Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen debuted from United Feature Syndicate.Here is how The Camden Courier-Post introduced the new comic strip to its readers:But there was some Betty before “Betty”: Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen first met as senior high school students in a local art competition. Their paths crossed […]

To the delight of some and the dismay of others, the socialist idea continues to slowly, if very belatedly, make its way throughout the channels of American culture. Of particular recent note was its appearance in Dilbert, the daily comic strip send-up of the foibles of corporate office life. Of course, since it is the […]

The L. A. Times gets letters about 9 Chickweed Lane © Brooke McEldowneyThe Los Angeles Times received hundreds of letters from fans of their comics page about dropping the 9 Chickweed Lane strip, and printed a few of them. They prefaced the letters with further explanation for the drop.To our readers: We gave the decision […]

Pearls Before Swine (AMS) sets the mood for the day. Rat seems to have caught on to the fact that confrontation simply doesn’t work in a world in which team loyalty is more important than logic. Pat Byrnes (Cagle) is right: The current crop of Republicans would absolutely reject Abraham Lincoln’s stances, though they’re proud to […]

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, “Cartoonists Run Amok,” is SOP.But this is an exhibit and greet & meet by NCS members of the Philadelphia Chapter Friday December 10 from 5–8:30pm, check out the National Cartoonists Society of Philadelphia’s gallery opening, curated by Moore’s own adjunct professor Andrea Beizer! Exhibit and sale of toons by […]

Those Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers by Gilbert Shelton became famous through their underground comix books, but got their start down in the Texas alternative lifestyle of 1967. True heads know that the three Freak Brothers—Phineas, Freewheelin’ Franklin, and Fat Freddy—were born in Austin in 1967. Shelton wrote cartoons for an underground weekly called The Rag, […]

Stuart Carlson (AMS) offers a pun which I suspect is more about unavailable and late-arriving Christmas presents than about World Peace, but Jacob Marley’s regret can cover both topics, particularly if we get away from the specific notion of importing goods and focus, instead, on Marley weighed down by his voluntarily assumed burdens.And note that, […]

Caption: Even though my hand doctor assures me the image of a skull in my MRI is an optical illusion, the Punisher icon is apropos considering what this injury put me through in 2021. Cartoonist J. P. (Jape) Trostle has “trigger finger,” which presents a major problem with his drawing hand. My index finger and […]

Dean Mullaney has announced that beginning in 2022 The Library of American Comics publishing imprint will primarily be in partnership with Clover Press going forward. The Library of American Comics founder and Creative Director Dean Mullaney announced that beginning in 2022 the primary home for LOAC and its sister imprint EuroComics will be Clover Press, […]