Matt Wuerker posted an unusual query on Facebook the other day, and, as you’ll see at the right, he got 133 comments and, as you’ll see above, he got a pretty good cartoon out of it.I don’t know how many words Eskimos, or Inuits for that matter, have for snow. In New England, we get […]

Yesterday was about my desperate search for comics that were only funny and not thought-provoking.Today, we’ll spin that another direction, starting with the new Existential Comics in which Socrates is forced to undergo a Socratic examination, of which the above panel is an excerpt.And Socrates is wrong: It’s very funny, and I say that as […]

Okay, here’s what I’ve been needing: Brewster Rockit serves up a Monday morning comic that is impossible to overthink. Pure silliness is a very good thing and thank god I’m off to a start with no serious thoughts whatsoever.Let’s keep it that way. Juxtaposition of the Sound Effects (Baby Blues) (Poptropica) (Bottomliners)See? It’s not that hard […]

I tried. I really did. But, again, I got distracted.I had pulled out today’s Baby Blues, because it coincides with Hasbros’ announcement that they are dropping the boot, the thimble and the wheelbarrow tokens from Monopoly and adding a rubber ducky, a T Rex and a penguin, and I was simply going to laugh at the […]

When I saw Harry Bliss’s cartoon this morning, I thought, “How nice! I can just riff on reefer snobs and avoid all the heavy topics!”We’ve got medical marijuana here in the Granite State, though there was a gap between making the shops legal and letting them actually open up and I’m not sure if it’s […]

John Branch wins the day, the week, possibly the month or more.The challenge of finding humor in this ongoing horror show seems to involve either irrelevant personal attacks or a lot of misinterpretation of what’s going on, but Branch gets the gist of poor Sean Spicer who, forced to find loopholes in the loopy, seized […]

(Pearls Before Swine) (Lola)A juxtaposition on a rant familiar to those who follow this blog: Who is your audience and are you excluding young readers who form the future?Apparently, judging by this pair, the answer to the first part is “People in their forties,” which isn’t such a bad thing, though it doesn’t address the […]

Let’s warm up with a little Sally Forth, in which Hilary’s off-again-on-again garage band has been booked to play a school dance.On first take, it reminds me of college radio, in which there seems invariably to be disk jockeys intent on playing the most obscure stuff they can dig up, on the apparent premise that […]

Tom Tomorrow leads off today with a retrospective look at what Trump might have said during the campaign, if he’d been a little more forthcoming.Two takes on this, the first being what is implied in that final panel: Regardless of what Trump actually said, it should have been the job of political analysts to pull aside […]

A whole-word reader is, in contrast to a phonics reader, someone who sees the entire word as an entity rather than as a series of syllables to be sounded out and assembled. At least, theoretically, since you can’t be exclusively one or the other.That is, a phonics-taught reader would certainly learn to recognize some words on sight. […]

And a good morning to you, Dean.I’m pleased to welcome Daylight Saving Time because the dog began sensing it about three weeks ago, I hope. That is, he began pestering me for his dinner a little earlier each day and I hope it’s related to the sun because, if so, we’ll be back on schedule […]

The only good thing about the GOP healthcare bill is the number of good cartoons it has inspired. Here’s a selection of what is a really good outpouring: I’ve been sympathetic to thoughtful conservatives lately, because they are in the uncomfortable position of, after eight years of scattergun attacks on a progressive administration, having to recalibrate […]

For a change today, a book review.Charles Peattie, half of the “Alex” team, sent me a copy of the strip’s annual collection, which, first of all, I would say is an excellent idea.Collecting your strips each year and publishing them as a book, that is.But, yes, sending me a review copy is also an excellent […]

(Bill Mauldin, June 26, 1973)Since Watergate has been on so many minds and tongues lately, I thought it would be interesting to go back and look at some editorial cartoons on the topic.However, I didn’t want to write a doctoral dissertation and go through the entire period from the break-in (June 1972) to Nixon’s resignation […]

I don’t have writer’s block today, but do I have a ridiculously early doctor’s appointment, so I’ll be brief.Fortunately, Boulet is not brief — the above is but a snippet — and following his advice will get you through any lapses in creative energy. Go read the rest and take careful notes. Tom Tomorrow pours on […]