Through some bit of snafu I get a preview of comic strips from two weeks in the future… but when I open my local weekend paper I get last week’s Doonesbury:       

Here’s a cartoon from Mike Keefe and an explanation from me of today’s headline.We had a pair of brilliant musical wits working as counselors at summer camp who collaborated on a hilarious play in which the King was a tyrannical nitwit, and I wish I could remember all the lyrics to his grand processional, which […]

 An actual lesson…How To Be A Cartoonist by Chas. H. KuhnKuhn was a working cartoonist who created freelance illustrations, editorial cartoons, and a syndicated comic strip for half a century, from 1919 to 1969. His comic strip “Grandma,” which I hadn’t heard of, began in 1947 when he was 55 years old and ran until […]

 American (and other) Cartoonists in ParisEvery year a big group of cartoonists from [the Cagle] syndicate meet up in France with cartoonists from around the world. This year 23 CagleCartoonists were there.Apparently Daryl Cagle is a modern day Bill Gaines, taking his usual gang of cartoonists on an annual tour. Daryl, with words and pictures, […]

Here’s an unusual start: On the left is Jeff Stahler’s “Moderately Confused” for today, on the right is a picture he posted of the kitchen on a cruise he took recently.A lot of cartoonists are also graphic designers or commercial artists, but a lot aren’t, and it’s worth pointing out that there is more than […]

Hey, TDC readers! It’s time for another roundup of comics-related letters to the editor from around the continent.From the Fairfield (Calif.) Daily Republic a reader writes to lament the loss of “the best” comic strips and lets the paper know comics are the “main reason” he subscribes. Click here for letter.A reader of the Topeka (Kan.) […]

I’ll confess to not having watched the funeral yesterday, but, from what I’ve seen of the commentary and photos and a few videos, Tim Eagan has grasped an aspect, if not the main thrust, of the event.I like funerals, because grief eliminates a lot of inhibitions, and so you have not only laughter, but sweet […]

 In 1994 United Feature Syndicate decided to go retro with the Nancy comic strip. Word was quietly spread among the cartooning community that UFS was looking for submissions to bring Nancy back to the Ernie Bushmiller style. Cartoonist Ivan Brunetti heard and created almost nine weeks of tryout strips. He says the competition came down […]

Jimmy Johnson has a dedicated following, but it was still ballsy of him to produce a comic using only Arlo & Janis’s former hairstyles as an indicator that it’s set in the past.I’m just pointing it out, not criticizing it, and he’s crafted a cartoon that stands up even if you didn’t realize it was […]

 The Life and Times of Andrew NutzRick Stromoski’s Soup To Nutz comic strip ended earlier this year. Now Rick is bringing back the Nutz family as part of a Patreon page.The star of the newly named Andrew’s Journal is the delightful Andrew.As I wrote when I thought I wouldn’t see Andrew again:Saying that the child […]

 George H. W. Bush is the overwhelming topic. In the Orlando Sentinel Dana Summers recalls a 1989 White House luncheon for editorial cartoonists hosted By Bush 41.   The internal White House weekly cartoon roundup called “Friday Follies.”Ronald Reagan started “Friday Follies” during his administration, and Bush had kept the tradition going. Reagan loved editorial cartoons and had […]

 In South Africa:The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) came under fire over the weekend for the use of an alleged right-wing cartoonist’s image as the feature image for one of their latest media releases.OUTA hired Jeremy Nell, aka ‘Jerm,’ to help in its fight against tax abuse and corruption in Cape Town.It did not get […]

There’s much hubbub on social media on Tumblr’s new content policy. Cartoonist Shan Murphy had posted a couple of Garfield drawings and they were flagged and removed.Kotaku covered the story here. (some potentially NSFW content included in the piece). 

Pros and Cons puts matters in a way I like: Whimsical on the surface, darker inside. It’s a good starting point for today’s post.The face you present to a jury and the face your friends and relations see might be an extreme example, but much in your life depends, I think, on the distance between […]

 The Origins of Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb TiniesGorey’s darkly droll tales touch—lightly—on weighty matters: the death of God, the meaning of life, and, always and everywhere, our impending mortality. Emblems of innocence and naïveté, children make perfect victims, as Gorey told the New Yorker. “It’s just so obvious,” he said. “They’re the easiest targets.”Gorey wrote The […]