So say we all, because we can simply enjoy a few giggles over things of no particular weight and import.Theoretically.Let’s at least start with some light-hearted fare.By July, 1935, “Thimble Theater” was firmly given over to Popeye, but it had not simplified things down to (A) Bluto grabs Olive, (B) Popeye eats spinach (C) Popeye […]
Let’s get the political piece out of the way first: In today’s Non Sequitur, Wiley Miller comments on the new rules for press briefings at the White House.I’m okay with the new format, not because it’s a victory for press freedom, of course, except to the degree that it is.I don’t believe in being overly […]
If I’m going to connect comics with the past, I should start with today’s Bizarro, which riffs on the Reality TV notion of pampered, catty women in big houses, comparing them to housewives of earlier days.The 19th Century was about when things began to turn around for “housewives,” which, up to the end of the […]
Mike Luckovich replaces the now-familiar firehose metaphor with something closer to everyone’s heart.Though it’s only fair to note that Luckovich penned this humorous commentary a day or two before Trump’s delusional ravings began to cost lives.At this stage, the challenge for responsible editorialists is not keeping up with the flow but dealing with two emerging […]
Tom Cheney gets the top spot for drawing a tin-can telephone with a taut string.He’s originally from my part of the world, which is a good thing in itself, but the important thing is that he’s old enough to remember when comic books were for kids and had instructions for a tin-can telephone in about […]
Before we get to the main event, Pearls Before Swine has a well-timed strip today.The Manafort/Cohen news broke late enough yesterday that I’m going to give cartoonists a chance to catch up, but one difference between this and Watergate is that, in a world without gatekeepers, those who insist that laws don’t apply to the […]
In “Anne and God,” Anne Morse-Hambrock breaks away from the lighter questions she normally poses to confront the Deity with this more fraught issue.The obvious answer is to repeat the well-know koan of the two monks and say, “Put her down; I did a mile ago.”But, as she says, she already knows that the burdens […]
New Yorker covers are fascinating enough that an article called “20 Iconic New Yorker Covers from the last 93 Years” can be at once disappointing and well worth your time.”Disappointing” in that only a half dozen are from more than 20 years ago, and it’s hard to believe that a little more digging in those […]
This is actually yesterday’s Brevity, but editorial cartoons get a little break from the “same day” rule and this accidentally became an editorial cartoon when the administration announced its cunning plan to replace food stamps with “American Harvest Boxes.”Dan Thompson thereby proves that, indeed, you can make this shit up.White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney […]
Eight years ago, CSotD launched with a pithy recommendation that you read Phil Dunlap’s “Ink Pen,” which apparently not enough of you did, since he retired the strip two years later. Although, in the course of moving the blog to a different provider a week later, I got the name of the strip wrong, so […]
In today’s Between Friends, Kim asks a question that all writers — and creative people in general — face, or, at least, ought to. The key is not what people want to read but what you want to say.It’s not that hard to see what is popular but there is that old Hollywood gag that what […]
Leading with Mike Thompson’s cartoon because he takes advantage of one of the most astonishing press briefings to emerge from an astonishing White House.In case you missed it, that insufferable teacher’s pet that Dear Leader puts in charge when he leaves the room explained the objection to “Fire and Fury” thus:“The president believes in making […]
A bit of good timing from the Dogs of C-Kennel, given that my own dog has just this week moved from the couch back to the bed. When things warm up in spring, he’ll go back to sleeping solo.Dog Lore: The dog wants to be touching you, in part (apparently) because it allows him to […]
Another “Where to start?” day, so we’ll start with Between Friends, where it looks like the story arc of Maeve and Frank is heating up a bit.I have infinite faith in Maeve’s ability to screw up any relationship, mind you, so the suspense is whether she blunders into something awful and only gets out at […]
At Between Friends, while Maeve ponders quitting her job to gallivant off with her wealthy boyfriend, her assistant Helen contemplates what would happen to her then, and wonders if it’s time to retire.I’m sympathetic. Having “retired” at the start of my career in order to try being a novelist, I’m now in a position where […]