I’ll be the first to admit that I love dumb jokes. And, when it comes to dumb jokes, Joe Martin is the champ, with a lineup of strips in which stupid reigns supreme and Willy reigns above all. Willy & Ethel make the misadventures of the Kramdens look like “Dynasty,” and have been doing so […]
Now, freshly returned from the Reubens where it was named “Best Newspaper Panel,” Rhymes with Orange!Okay, this one was completed well before the convention, but it cracked me up, and I promptly began probably reading way too much into it.To start at the most superficial level of the gag, I’ve tried on-line dating and, when […]
Last week I was walking past a local rec center and saw that the flag was at half-mast. I searched my brain but couldn’t come up with a reason, but someone was just coming out and so I asked. He didn’t know either and I thought about going in and asking the people at the […]
The Reubens were last night, and, while I don’t think much of awards in general, I do like the idea of people getting together, particularly people who tend to otherwise work in well-lighted garrets, in isolation from anyone who does what they do.And, while even a Pulitzer won’t protect you from the beancounters these days […]
Baby Blues earns its popularity by mirroring parental experience, which makes sense when you trace the strip back to its roots. It was, as noted in this interview, based on the chaos in Rick Kirkman’s life as a young father.At the time I spoke with Baby Blues creators Kirkman and (Jerry) Scott, it had been […]
Damien Glez addresses the poaching crisis in Africa. For the benefit of those who never learned où est la bibliothèque, the elephant is consulting a plastic surgeon and asking to be made to look like a hippopotamus.I like everything Glez does, even when I have no idea who the people he’s drawing are or what the […]
Not just “breaking with format” today but actually violating the Prime Directive. I don’t like these cartoons, and some of them are by cartoonists I like a lot. But c’mon, man.Look, I ran an early one by Pat Oliphant. Even then (a week ago) I said the analogy was strained, and further developments have made […]
Matt Bors has got it.But the thing is, I don’t mind when the lunatic fringe responds to something in a lunatic manner. That comes with the territory.I object, however, to sloppy, incomplete reporting feeding into their delusions of persecution. They’ve got people within their own organizations to do that, thank you.Yet we keep hearing on […]
When you’re right, you’re right, and, in today’s The Buckets, Greg Cravens gets it right.I vented pretty thoroughly on my Braveheart/Babe theory a year and a half ago, but it’s still relevant if you like a good rant and don’t mind that the video at the end has disappeared. (Here it is, for that matter.)The […]
Joel Pett makes the connection that has seemingly eluded other cartoonists. The use of Kermit Gosnell as an argument against keeping abortion legal boggles the mind.To start with, the fact that he was on trial at all shows that what he was accused of doing was outside the law, and now his conviction underlines the […]
No kidding, Harry Bliss. No kidding.Thank goodness comics cover a variety of topics, although right now a substantial portion of them appear to be dedicated to depictions of Barrack Obama as Richard Nixon. Many cartoonists avoid looking at other cartoons for fear of absorbing an idea and later inadvertantly using it without recalling that it wasn’t […]
I always like Tom the Dancing Bug’s Super-Fun-Pak Comix, but I particularly like the sidebar of garbage served up with this installment.Fact is, I was hoping that somebody would post a cartoon today that was light and breezy and funny and would get me off the political kick for a bit. In part because, when I […]
“Noone is trying to kill you,” Clevinger said.”Then why are they shooting at me?” Yossarian asked.”They’re shooting at everyone,” Clevinger answered. “They’re trying to kill everyone.””And what difference does that make?”It’s good to have both sides upset over revelations of selective IRS scrutiny and of the collection of telephone data from the phones of Associated […]
One of my favorite kinds of joke is the kind that plants a naughty, inescapable giggle, almost like an ear worm, so that it pops up every time you see the trigger.I don’t find the stick-figure families on the back windows of cars all that obnoxious. It’s not bragging, like the honor-role kid stickers, or […]
I thought I’d use this Mother’s Day as a chance to look at a pair of nostalgic comic strip families, to supplement the coverage of contemporary mothers in today’s funny pages.JR Williams “Out Our Way” launched with the nostalgia pre-loaded in the 20s, since he was purposely pitching to the grownups and basing much — […]