I recently realized how much the tumult of the past four years has caused me to focus on politics rather than funnies, so much so that I had to set aside Friday Funnies as an escape.I’m hoping — when we’ve finally won the War of the Presidential Succession — to go back to a greater […]
Recent (and not-so-recent) articles on comic and cartoon history.God’s Man, A Novel in Woodcuts by Lynn WardThis is “Gods’ Man,” a 1929 black-and-white wordless novel that tells a Faustian tale of ambition, love, greed and death. It’s by the illustrator and woodcut artist Lynd Ward. It is widely regarded as the first American book of […]
Carlo Goldoni found the prospect of a fool serving two masters hilarious; Matthew was less impressed with the notion. And at the moment, cartoonists seem to be falling on both sides of the matter, torn between farce and outrage.For my part, I was tempted to leave the whole thing to resolve itself and run an […]
It seems that before famed comedian Steve Martin teamed up with famed cartoonist Harry Bliss last year, Steve had earlier been writing gags for a cartoonist.No, this is not about his 2007 collaboration with Roz Chast.At Inkspill Michael Maslin pulls a line from today’s New York Times interview with Steve Martin (or read it here […]
words & pictures © Steve Martin & Harry BlissThe New Yorker presents The Origin of Team Steve Martin and Harry Bliss,a multi-page sequential comic as shown in their new book A Wealth of Pigeons.Spoiler: It’s not all fun and games.
A month late but GoComics is interviewing cartoonist Paul Trap as his Thatababy comic strip reaches its 10th year of syndication. GC: How do you keep the jokes fresh and funny every day for 10 years?Paul: Caffeine and panic. GC: What’s your trick/go-to to overcome artist’s block?Paul: I’m first in line if someone comes up […]
It’s Veteran’s Day, as Michael Ramirez (Creators) points out.Most years on November 11, the comics pages are flooded with little kids saluting tombstones and suchlike, but there weren’t that many this year.From a creative point of view, it’s not much of a loss because they aren’t generally very good and don’t stand out often, one […]
© King Features SyndicateHägar the Horrible is slated for prime time animation. From Deadline: Hägar the Horrible is set to make a raid on the small screen with an animated family sitcom series in development. Fresh Off the Boat writer and producer Eric Ziobrowski is writing the adaptation, which comes from King Features, the Hearst-owned […]
The responses to the King Features survey for suggestions to a comic revival brought varying responses as to which character to bring back in new strips. But they seem united in agreement that bringing back Krazy Kat would be sacrilege. (For the record I marked Krazy on #2 and for #3 Krazy was the only […]
(Non Sequitur — AMS)(Prickly City — AMS)The most unpleasant part of our current situation is that a pair of cartoonists, working from different sides of the political spectrum, could drop such spot-on strips today, despite each working with a substantial lead time.We’re that divided politically, and, more than that, we’ve also divided between people who […]
King Features Syndicate is running a short survey to find which Classic KFS comic strip fans would like to see revived with all new stories and art.While I remain totally noncommittal, you can secretly deliver your preference by casting your vote for King Classics at the SurveyMonkey page.all images © King Features Syndicate
Morten Morland (London Times) provides a pretty good picture of what Joe Biden is facing. Between things that never happened and things that never should have happened, this isn’t going to be a matter of quietly continuing but of a massive cleanup.The good news is that, having been a vice-president who was genuinely consulted and […]
Over the Hedge gives us their Sunday lead time (six weeks).© M Fry & T Lewis Are there no boundaries in Red and Rover?© Brian Basset Bizarro teases a hard copy that doesn’t exist (but the webcomic does).© Dan Piraro Curtis, Rex Morgan, and Lola all accept that they are figments of imagination.© King Features Syndicate© North America […]
Bon vivant and cartoonist Janet Salter has passed away.Janet S. (Lipsky) SalterDecember 10, 1922 – October 31, 2020From the obituary: Mom was on lots of commissions, but enjoyed the Fine Arts Commission the most.Early on, she became part of the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild, which honored comedians, actors and singers and raised funds for struggling […]
Rupert characters are © & ™ Express Newspapers & DreamWorksNewspaper comic features that are still appearing in newly produced and printed episodes after 100 year can be counted on one hand – Gasoline Alley, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Thimble Theater starring Popeye, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, and now Rupert Bear.*On November 8, 1920 […]