R.C. Harvey has an interesting write-up over on The Comics Journal about the trouble Milt Caniff would get into with editors over the women he drew – more accurately the plunging necklines he often drew.A little over a year later, Caniff made another foray into the forbidden territory. A woman called Fancy, another version of […]

To say it again, timing is everything in comedy, and when the first of these Rhymes With Orange comics appeared last month, it put me on the floor but it also happened to coincide with the verdict in the Jerry Sandusky trial, which demanded more urgent cartoon commentary.So I filed it away because I wanted […]

The Penny Arcade gentlemen, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, are using Kickstarter to take their site ad-free. According to their promotion video, to get rid of all the ads will require them to raise $1 million. They’ve set up a milestone chart with levels of support equating to ads being removed and new features being […]

I’m not sure who’s behind this Garfield search engine, but it claims to allow you to search through 31 years (1978-2007) of Garfield comic strips by keyword or browse by date. Search returns strip date, character dialog, as well as an image of strip.The screenshot below is me searching on the keyword “bored” and finding […]

Nelson Mandela — “Madiba” (his clan name in Xhosa, used affectionately throughout his multicultural nation) — turns 94 today, and South African cartoonists joined in a sort of benevolent conspiracy to wish him a happy birthday. My favorite is this gentle thank-you from Nanda Soobben, which is not only a very nice caricature of the man […]

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker remembers Doug Marlette five years after his untimely death in an auto accident in Mississippi in 2007. I know I speak for dozens of close friends and family members ? and even a good number of enemies ? when I say that Marlette was that rare creature who could size […]

From Tom Richmond’s blog comes news that MAD Magazine is releasing a 60th anniversary collection due out in October. The book will be 256 pages that includes 12 classic front covers, Spy vs. Spy, Al Jaffee’s MAD Fold-in, Sergio Aragones’ A MAD Look At…, David Berg’s The Lighter Side of…, Outrageous artwork of Don Martin […]

Robot6 reports that Neil Gaiman has signed a 5 book deal with HarperCollins Children’s Books. One of the five, Fortunately, the Milk, will be illustrated by Eisner winning illustrator Skottie Young. Dave McKean was at one point set to illustrate Fortunately, the Milk, which Gaiman referred to last fall as “a very silly children’s book” […]

Best known for his children’s books, Theodor Seuss Geisel or Dr. Seuss, was an editorial cartoonist for two years (1941-1943) for the short-lived “PM” newspaper in New York City. The Jewish Journal has a write-up about the round-up of Jews in France 70 years ago this month and Seuss’ editorial cartooning reaction. In one important […]

Between Friends is always good reading, and I like the current arc, where Susan is in the midst of a deep dithering period and Maeve has become the voice of reason.Mostly, I like the idea that Sandra Bell Lundy has created characters with enough nuance that, while the idea of Maeve being “the voice of […]

Last weekend was the Sand Diego Comic-Con and the announcement of the Eisner Awards. This year’s winners are:Best Short Story “The Seventh,” by Darwyn Cooke, in Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition (IDW)Best Single Issue (or One-Shot) Daredevil #7, by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Joe Rivera (Marvel)Best Continuing Series Daredevil, by Mark Waid, Marcos […]

Somehow I missed these from Mike Lynch who has posted six pages of photos of some of the biggest names from the Golden age of comics. Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six

Last week a Jonathan Shapiro (AKA Zapiro) cartoon ran in the Mail and Guardian depicting South African President Jacob Zuma as a penis. For context, the BBC explains that the African National Congress forced an art gallery to remove a painting of President Zuma with exposed genitals which touched off a debate about free expression […]

Matthew Inman (AKA The Oatmeal) made good on his promise to photograph the $20,000 (plus the other $200,000 raised) and send it to FunkyJunk attorney Charles Carreon (see above). But that’s not the only photo he took of the stacks and stacks of money. Check out his blog for the rest.

Montreal Gazette’s Terry Mosher (AKA Aislin) compares the US vs. Canadian editorial cartooning job stability:In an interview with Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC’s Q cultural affairs show, Mosher says he believes American cartooning has fallen victim to syndication, which results in very bland cartoons. “Editorial cartooning is disappearing in the U.S. I think that’s primarily […]