From Writer’s Digest:Much like names, slogans and ideas, titles are not protected by U.S. copyright laws (which is why so many books have the same titles). To qualify for copyright protection, a work needs to possess “a significant amount of original expression”—and while “a significant amount of original expression” isn’t fully defined by hard-and-fast rules, […]
Cartoonist Fred Purucker has passed away.Frederick J. (Fred) Purucker, Jr.May 28, 1931 – June 30, 2020Malibu Times editorial cartoonist 1999-2016(?),art school teacher, Disney animatorFrom the Malibu Times notice: Purucker, TMT cartoonist for more than two decades, died last week at the age of 89. Although his face may not be known to most of our […]
A bit of cautionary wisdom from Arlo for anyone who hasn’t noticed that whatever crazy was out there to start with has really flourished in the current crisis.Someone the other day was making excuses for Costco Ken, that belligerent fellow who was threatening an old lady who wanted him to wear a mask, stepping up […]
Last week you heard, and maybe saw, the fireworks going off, but you were probably mistaken about the cause. It is my theory that those illuminating the sky with rockets were celebrating the release of the 2020 updating of Bottorff’s ComicBacks Price Guide & Checklist (in PDF).Some of you may have noted that I have […]
In 1999 Aaron McGruder shook up the comics pages in America’s newspapers. In 1997, not long after Aaron McGruder pulled The Boondocks from his college newspaper, he submitted his strip to syndicates, companies that provide comics, puzzles, and advice columns to hundreds of newspapers…The rejections piled on, with the syndicates feeling that The Boondocks was […]
With three Sunday strips left until Stone Soup ends, Jan Eliot is interviewed. … what have you learned in the process of creating it?Well, I have learned that there’s no magic. You know, everybody always asks, “Where do you get your ideas?” And there’s really no magic to creativity other than sitting down and working […]
Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? — Matthew, 7:9I agree with Ann Telnaes. It is unconscionable that employers can provide health coverage but limit it to only the care they deem moral.As a recovering Catholic, I’ve always felt persuasion was a more defensible tactic than prohibition, which […]
From Seven Days’ introduction to The Cartoon Issue: Like every other Vermont enterprise, Seven Days has scrapped, postponed or reinvented many of our perennial projects this year because of the pandemic. But we decided to go ahead with the Cartoon Issue. It goes without saying that cartoons and print media are made for each other. […]
A bit off our normal path, but too cute to let go.From Bored Panda: Our world is so beautifully different. Unique appearances, cultures, and traditions are what make it so rich and exciting to live in and learn from. Packed with details such as national animals, food, outfits, or makeup, these adorable cartoon-like characters resemble […]
Today’s headline is from an old joke, one that struck me as funny at an age when I wasn’t quite old enough for more sophisticated wordplay:Woman: Where is the platform for the 8 o’clock train? Attendant: If you go left, you’ll be right. Woman: Don’t be impertinent! Attendant: All right. If you go right, you’ll […]
Just me? Or is today’s panel unusually political?
As promised Gary Larson has returned!And it’s annotated: … So a few years ago—finally fed up with my once-loyal but now reliably traitorous pen—I decided to try a digital tablet … I got one, fired it up, and lo and behold, something totally unexpected happened: within moments, I was having fun drawing again. I was […]
Here are the most recent two days at Prickly City, and whether or not this is going to be a week-long story arc, Scott Stantis has already outlined the dilemma facing thoughtful conservatives.It’s that whole thing about whether it’s nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageously offensive blathering or to […]
The Lincoln Project is hitting Donald Trump again—this time partnering with a well-known Latino cartoonist from Los Angeles who never thought he would work with Republicans. The group made up of veteran Republican strategists, who have endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president, partnered on a political cartoon with pioneering artist Lalo Alcaraz, who created La […]
Kal Kallaugher makes the best use I’ve seen of the two lawyers who freaked out (again?) because people were marching up the private road next to their property en route to the mayor’s house.Which long sentence I employ because of all the people who have spoken up to defend the couple, misrepresenting the nature of […]