Tried to take a break from politics today. Fat chance.I’ve seen a couple of strip cartoonists post remarks about how it’s getting hard to just make funny drawings when everything is on fire, and even this cheesy pun at Bizarro has a political base.The problem is, how do you make jokes about ordinary, day-to-day life […]
Ben Bolt hit me squarely this morning.To bring you up to speed, in this 1956 story arc (which I noted earlier came out at roughly the same time as “Rebel Without a Cause”), Ben has befriended a young hood who lost a leg in a game of vehicular chicken, and found him a job as […]
Phew! Just when I was burning out on politics, funny page cartoonists came through with a slew of good, non-political inspiration!Pen DropStart with one I have nothing to comment upon: Today’s Rhymes with Orange.This is just … nah, I’ve got nothin’ but “Wow.”She been hangin’ around with Sergio Aragones or something? John Cullen Murphy is tearin’ me […]
I was into my Vintage line-up this morning and was struck by “today’s” (December 14, 1956) Big Ben Bolt, in which Ben’s sidekick is talking to a woman he’s smitten with about her college-aged son. It’s three panels of two people talking to each other, and John Cullen Murphy had to make some choices, given how […]
The basis of humor is reversal of expectations blah blah blah yeah, let’s not get into all that today. Sure, you could talk about today’s Reality Check in political terms and rant about people who voted for off-brand candidates or didn’t vote at all because, unlike the rest of us poor slobs, they’re smart enough to […]
It’s the most earwormy time of the year and I’m with Mamet on this one. And avoiding the stuff on radio isn’t enough: If you go into a store, you’re sure to be there when they break off something relatively pleasant and drop some piece of horrible smarmy glurge on you that will persist until […]
Pros and Cons captures the post-debate mood.Enough analysis. Enough conversation. Enough advice.Pour the coffee.And, if you want an opinion, here’s one: Most people’s analysis is about as good as their coffee.Thank god for Sophie, and for good coffee. Red and Rover offers no Big Issues from which to hide, but it does offer a memory. I didn’t […]
Emily Flake takes a swipe at the “fur baby” crowd, more observationally than judgmentally, but let’s not pretend she’s being neutral. There are three more panels to this piece, “Dogs: Are They The Same As Kids,” over at the Nib, and, while I don’t mind running a four-panel piece entire, if they go to the […]
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, […]
“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 […]
(Baby Blues) (Between Friends)I’ve wanted to ratchet things down a bit here without re-introducing the Lenten Political Fast, and how better than to start the week with a Juxtaposition of Warm Parental Feelings from each end of the process.As often as you might say, “Oh, I wish this moment could last forever,” I was always interested […]
International cartoons tend to be more metaphorical, more “here’s what it is,” while American cartoons are more apt to tell a story, “Here’s what it means.”At the moment, I think the International cartoonists have the edge in commenting on the Panama Papers, an example here being the moral compass of Italian cartoonist Enrico Bertuciolli, which […]
On the Fastrack offers a pretty compelling simile this morning. I’m not sure how the year 1994 was selected, though I suppose it could be in line with Bud’s purported age; the strip itself launched in 1984, which was about when I got my first computer, a Texas Instruments Pro for which I am not […]
Deflocked nails my current working situation, because telecommuting does lead to becoming a bit, well, casual.I had to buy a white dress shirt last week and the good news was that I remembered my neck size, but my sleeves were two inches short and so I couldn’t shoot my cuffs like a well-dressed fella should.Fortunately, I […]
I gotta say, digging through the pile of New Year’s cartoons this morning didn’t yield a whole lot of ponies.Good Rule of Thumb: If the idea comes that easily, it probably occurred to everyone else, too.Whatever. You got credit for showing up on the holiday and the holiday is over.Now how’s about everyone getting back to […]