Getting off the political merry-go-round for a moment to salute the silly, in which category Soup to Nutz is certainly included.Today’s is a good example of the logical twists this strip delivers, “so dumb it’s smart” exchanges that work particularly well with the cast Rick Stromoski has assembled.It’s hard to do “time bomb humor” in a […]

Start with a bit of news that — thankfully — has nothing to do with Orlando or Muslims or Trump: Microsoft is acquiring LinkedIn for an astonishing amount of money that, as Alex points out, seems to have very little toehold in logic or reality.As for “Many a truth is spoken in jest,” I did […]

After yesterday’s rant about cartoonists who don’t leap into action, Clay Bennett nails one that reminds me that some things are worth waiting for. This doesn’t erase my impatience with a system in which the response is “But I don’t do a national cartoon until Wednesday.” I continue to believe that political cartoonists need to be […]

In recapping D-Day coverage last week, I mentioned that, while afternoon papers had same-day coverage of the invasion, the morning papers, too late to cover the event on their regular schedules, published “Extras” on June 6.I’ve found over the years that, while everyone is familiar with the image of the newsboy shouting “Extra! Extra!” few […]

If Terri Libenson hadn’t just won a Reuben for best newspaper strip, today’s Pajama Diaries would have been a great argument in favor of it.As it is, it certainly confirms the votes of her peers, because Pajama Diaries is a top contender in a niche I wish were less of a niche and more of […]

I don’t know if there is a Comics Convention season, but there do seem to be a lot of them going on over the summer, and, at the moment, there is an eruption of talk over copyright infringements at Cons, specifically the people in Artist Alleys who sell artwork the rights to which they do […]

Our topic today: Where do cartoonists get their ideas?Or, more specifically, when?I’m not ignoring politics today. Just waiting for more editorial cartoonists to catch up with the news, because the “when” factor there is apparently “not right away.”Bernie ruined a lot of cartoons yesterday by promising to work with Hillary and asking only that the […]

(Ann Telnaes, 2016)(Pat Oliphant, 2012)For the past week, I’ve been sitting on an article in the Columbia Journalism Review by Ann Telnaes on the topic of Pat Oliphant in part because I didn’t want to just toss it in with other things and in part because it wouldn’t simply slip into place like the final […]

I welcome the chance to do a “Short Takes” posting, and today’s Pros & Cons pretty much tells why. Yes, there are some big important questions out there.But how ’bout those Mets?Or, more specifically, how ’bout those Tigers, because that’s what I was watching last night, and this was absolutely awesome, and I don’t mean […]

Let’s start the day with Pajama Diaries, which is funny but not funny. It’s part of an arc about a friend of Jill’s trying to find out what’s up with her child, and, while the Jenny McCarthy punchline is specific to that particular issue, the concept is universal for anyone with health issues and an Internet […]

Judge Parker is my favorite continuity strip precisely for the type of surprise that kick-starts the week today.Storylines here unfold in soap-opera slo-mo, which is understandable given the four-panel format, and for nearly two years, we’ve been following Neddy’s attempt to start up a domestic clothing manufacturing company, with the combined backing of her own […]

(Darrin Bell) (Tayo Fatunla)There are two ways of looking at obituary cartoons:1. They are a necessary marker of the public consciousness and it is incumbent upon cartoonists to say something at such moments.2. They are a wretched, cliche-filled, lazy excuse to take a day off from responsible commentary.If you contemplate the life of one of the […]

Saturdays being often a bit slack on the comics page, I decided to anticipate Monday’s anniversary date and do some looking back to the comics you’d have seen then, if the news weren’t a bit more on your mind.I really expected that it would be the June 7, 1944 newspapers that would cover D-Day, but the […]

Let’s start with an exceptional cartoon from Don Asmussen, and, when I say “exceptional,” I mean it’s an exception to yesterday’s weary, categorical denunciation of all cartoons riffing on Trump as the Cincinnati gorilla. Any idea, no matter how lame, can be done well, but the format of Bad Reporter requires that a joke be done three […]

Joe Heller gets top spot today for not over-reaching with his commentary on the Cincinnati gorilla story. Sometimes the simple statement is the best, and there’s no need to go beyond the basic observation that the Internet allows for people to be more openly vicious, judgmental and unfair than they might be in person.A lot […]