One of the fundamental philosophies here (obviously) is that a good cartoon makes you think beyond the few seconds it takes to read it. Whether or not you actually “laugh out loud,” there’s some element of the piece that you identify with or it doesn’t work at all.Between Friends, for instance: I sometimes envy people […]

Watson’s been on a roll lately, and today offers up a good intro for some themed parenting thoughts.It’s as dangerous to play the “all parents” game as it is to play the “all anybody” game, though comedy relies on stereotypes and assumptions. I’ve offered a quick “well done” to parents of young children as we […]

This isn’t really news, since we passed the headline on from Mike Lynch three weeks ago, but Playboy has stopped buying cartoons, and here is an article that provides the magazine’s point of view.It’s worth the read, but what it comes down to is that, in addition to no longer featuring full nudity, they are […]

There was a standup I have otherwise forgotten except for one bit, in which he took a roll of aluminum foil, tore off a sheet, wadded it up and then put it in his mouth and chewed on it while the audience writhed in horror.Which came to mind as I read today’s Dustin.I leave it […]

The big theme in political cartooning this week has been “inevitability” crossed with a bit of “what have we done?” and Scott Stantis spent the week asking that question in Prickly City. I like that both his liberal and his conservative characters are appalled. First of all, it’s politically accurate: Neither party has a lot to […]

For some reason, the only strips that inspired real rants today threatened to take me places I dare not go. However, there were several that simply made me chuckle, starting with Baby Blues, which reminded me of when our firstborn learned to say “Daddy!” and, as with Wren, shouted it at all sorts of things.Including […]

I don’t remember how I stumbled across Fowl Language, but I’ve enjoyed the addition to my daily rotation, even though I see it as a grandparent and not a parent.Or maybe “because.”Brian Gordon has been cartooning long enough that he could be drawing from memory, but, then again, he’s still young enough to be one […]

I’m not sure when crossovers in comics became “a thing,” though likely with the Comic Strip Switcheroo of April Fool’s Day, 1997. But two years earlier, apparently Zippy popped up in Family Circus, inspiring this Tom the Dancing Bug that is today’s Classic at GoComics.Crossovers generally pose the challenge that readers need to be familiar with […]

Today’s Brewster Rockitt touches on a fallacy I work very hard to not try to explain, because it is certainly among the most circuitous and fruitless.Let me explain:It’s a two-parter, with Macro- and Micro- aspects, but they are really one, because we only argue about history and politics to avoid talking about our own personal […]

Nick Anderson responds to Spotlight’s Best Picture win with this dour assessment, and, while there are certainly some political aspects to the commentary, it’s more of a societal observation than a partisan one, so I’m not going to wait until Sunday to talk about it.I haven’t seen the film in question, one disadvantage of semi-rural […]

 Several cartoonists took up the topic of this being February 29, with Retail taking the prize for pointing out how utterly insignificant the phenomenon is in the long run. Or even the short.It would be great if Leap Year Day were an actual universal holiday, if we really said “This day doesn’t count!” and everything […]

Glenn McCoy leads off the weekly foray into politics with a plain statement about where we’re at.People who bridle at having to vote for the lesser of two evils might be tempted to stay home in November, except that the Republicans are providing two strong motivations for voting: Hatred or fear of one of the likely […]

One of the small frustrations I face on this blog is trying to figure out when to point out a promising arc, and Piranha Club is one of a handful of strips that repeatedly triggers it by having “suck you in” pacing, such that you don’t realize how good a story arc is until you’re […]

My trip back a half century the other day sparked some curiosity, and when I did a little poking around this morning, it turns out that a quarter century ago today, papers were covering the news that Saddam Hussein had announced his withdrawal from Kuwait. So here are some cartoons from that date, and let me […]

Between Friends is right at the head of the line among strips that sometimes get it so right that the humor sort of fades into the background and the response is “yeah.”Not “Yeah” and certainly not “Yeah!” but just … yeah.Lovely timing, because not 24 hours ago, I unfollowed — not “unfriended,” but close enough […]