The traditional “How We Know It’s Canadian” example in cartooning is the red mailboxes in “For Better or For Worse,” one of the ways in which Lynn Johnston famously declined to strip FBOFW of its roots or, if you like, its Roots.Today’s Ben also betrays the fact that the strip is Canadian and, even moreso, […]

Sometimes more is more, as witness the latest K Chronicles, in which Keith Knight takes on the “in my day” statement of Clint Eastwood.He’s not the first cartoonist to go after Eastwood’s remarks, and it should be noted that the statement itself is so overwhelmingly foolish as to invite both refutation and ridicule. There are a […]

The first point to ponder today came from Rip Kirby, who is being targeted by a rich, beautiful woman who has asked for his help with an extortion threat, but we know she’s setting him up, and now he has apparently tumbled to the scam, or, at least, he knows it’s not all kosher.What struck me this morning […]

  Let’s warm up with Wumo, which raises the question, if this is what Heaven is like, how bad could Hell be?Maybe the one in Hell asks for specific dates, credit card numbers, etc. And note that the one for Heaven is on a clipboard. The one in Hell is on-line, which sounds much better — […]

Pajama Diaries has always provided me with smiles, as Jill works within the home-office atmosphere I adopted for many years. But as the girls morph into teens, it’s taking on new elements of nostalgia. Jill (and cartoonist Terri Libenson) have a pair of girls while I had a pair of boys, but there are plenty […]

… and if that headline touched off an earworm, you’re one of the old folks. And if you’re one of the young folks, here’s your trigger warning: Don’t click that link, because it contains cultural history you prob’ly won’t like. (I learned it as “Mission Sunday School,” which sanitizes it a bit. No, not much.)Anyway, […]

“Libertarian!”In today’s “New Yorker Daily Cartoon,” Kim Warp raises a question that perplexes but only occasionally infuriates me. I understand why cats go leash-free, though I know people who walk their cats on leashes and good for them. But cats are only marginally domesticated and, while they are interesting companions in their own off-beat way, they’re […]

One of the strengths of Pros and Cons is that, by combining a cop, a lawyer, a psychologist and a cafe owner, Kieran Meehan offers himself a cast with the diversity to make a lot of gags work well.Because it’s such a small cast — the four majors and a very small number of recurring extras […]

I don’t often promo new strips, because even with a full development process, they tend to start out a little rough and only find their legs with time.However, Ali’s House is so timely that I’m going to give them a chance to be overly sincere for a few weeks while they establish characters and setting. […]

Zits brings to mind a fellow who, back in the 60s and 70s, used to advertise a book called “How to Pick Up Girls” in the back of various magazines. We used to make fun of it, but, then again, it’s not like it went away. Somebody was buying it.Leave aside for the moment the […]

Here’s an oddity that might have appeared in Mad Magazine rather than under its own label: Rex Morgan doesn’t simply confront the Dorian Gray element of a strip that has been around this long, but challenges readers to take it seriously themselves.It’s a fun break in a process of reinvention that apparently includes wrapping up […]

One thing that Brian Fies brought to the table during his tenure here is that sometimes it’s enough to simply appreciate a comic without declaring it the finest thing ever to grace Bristol board. I’m going to try to remember to do that, but it’s a little late for “Little Dog Lost,” which Steve Boreman wrapped […]

Fowl Language is a fun panel in which Brian Gordon illustrates the small contradictions and occasional frustrations of caring parenthood. I add “caring” because he doesn’t spend a lot of time bitching and moaning about those darned kids but holds up the mirror as well, not to blame but to ponder.And if you’ve never been […]

The “where to start?” question was answered this morning by Keith Knight, who nimbly addresses something I’d been pondering.I, too, had noticed that political diatribes have at least somewhat supplanted dumbass food postings on Facebook. And that the political diatribes are similarly dumbass, in that they have about as much relation to political reality as the recipes […]

I’m back and, as it happens, moreso than I had reason to expect. I’ve been sliced and diced and apparently, rather than simply holding back the Beast, they got it completely.Which puts my expiration date into the vague future and so I should look both ways before crossing the road, because stepping in front of a […]