Start with some housekeeping: The other day I updated a blog posting late in the day, after I finally tracked down a Harvey Kurtzman/Will Elder Mad Magazine parody of “Archie.”Here’s the entire feature, which Mark Jackson pointed out in the comments was originally in Mad #27, the April, 1956 issue and which I found in “Mad For Keeps” from 1958: […]
Adam Zyglis points out the vast number of positions and promises that Donald Trump has abandoned since he took office.He’s right and it’s a good way to put them all in one place, and, in another context, it might be damaging.John Kerry’s presidential campaign was deeply wounded by both relatively benign and deliberately misinterpreted accusations of […]
It’s April 15, which means little on weekends and less on Patriots Day, but taxes and Easter are sharing the comics pages today and you still can’t do better on the subject of taxes than this Shoe from 1979.An opinion that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I’m a writer of opinions. And […]
Amid a host of responses to The Grand Presidential Pivot, Jimmy Margulies focuses on the question I’m asking: Where is the love you said was mine, all mine, ’til the end of time?Talk about buyer’s remorse! Poor Vovochka must surely be awakening to that “you knew I was a snake when you picked me up” […]
“Donald Trump has become a favorite of cartoonists, thanks to his flapping hair and his flapping mouth. That’s not necessarily a good thing, because it’s easy to be lazy when the target is so inviting.” — Me, July 20, 2015 I start with a quote and a screenshot of that 2015 posting to disarm anyone who […]
I’m going to start with something serious, but stick around anyway.Marvel Comics has recently pulled an issue of X-Men because an artist snuck some anti-Semitic, anti-Christian messages into it. Here’s Michael Cavna’s Cleve Wootson’s article on it, and Tom Spurgeon’s write-up, which mirrors my response: “If you play a prank and get caught, embrace the consequences.”And […]
We’ll start today with Bill Bramhall’s response to the United Airlines incident.I’m seeing a few funny takes on the event, but I like Bramhall’s piece because there really wasn’t anything funny about what happened, or, at least, what appears to have happened, since there may be a little more sorting out of facts.The “Leggings Incident” […]
Edison Lee reminds me of my responsibilities and makes me feel guilty over my failure to live up to them.The other day, I noted that Yellowstone National Park is one of the few places that truly lives up to its billing, but I failed to provide a warning for parents: It’s made of dirt, and even […]
Thank you, Darrin Bell.Today’s Candorville makes the point, now that every editorial cartoonist has done a “Trump kills Big Bird and Elmo” cartoon, that Sesame Street hasn’t been a PBS or CPB production for a couple of years now.This isn’t to say that public broadcasting shouldn’t be in the budget. But if you’re going to […]
The Syria air strike cartoons are coming in, but I’m not seeing a lot of consensus, either in cartoons or in social media.Joe Heller is one of the few who salutes an actual, as he says, change of heart, which, by the way, I would note might also be indicated by the demotion (and rumored impending […]
The whole Kendall Jenner/Pepsi thing kind of blew by me until it blew up. (Best link you’ll click all week)My celebrity spokesperson commercial exposure is pretty much limited to Marie Osmond who, as you may know, lost 50 pounds on Nutri-System.Those commercials made me wonder why she wasn’t still working, and then I looked her […]
Nothing, alas, ever turns out to be quite as cool as you thought it was going to be, Keefe.Except Yellowstone, but nothing in daily life. However, what is cool is that cartoonists like Keith Knight have introduced being a dad as a normal, interesting, challenging but, again, normal part of life. Your kids may occasionally be frustrating, […]
I was into my Vintage line-up this morning and was struck by “today’s” (December 14, 1956) Big Ben Bolt, in which Ben’s sidekick is talking to a woman he’s smitten with about her college-aged son. It’s three panels of two people talking to each other, and John Cullen Murphy had to make some choices, given how […]
Arctic Circle got Tuesday off to an intelligent start, and I don’t know if that skewed my appreciation of the comics that followed or not, Comics Kingdom being my first start and Arctic Circle being alphabetically near the top of that page, though I’ve done a little bit of customizing on the order.In any case, […]
Pajama Diaries on a common issue for those of us who work at home: When does the factory whistle blow?There’s always been spill-over, at least among people with a tendency to be workaholics. I remember one publisher I worked for who would walk out to her car every night with a double armload of ledgers and […]