If you’ve visited here more than, oh, two or three times, you know I have an affection for gallows humor.The gallows, however, need to be somewhat metaphorical, and, as Matt Bors points out here, gags about what a “gift” the current campaign is for cartoonists aren’t particularly funny or insightful.Or original, for that matter. Every clownish […]
I have been a Jack Ohman fan for a very long time, with this piece serving as my catch-all analysis of what they’ve done to my song, ma, for nearly a quarter of a century.Which is not bad, given that it’s the work of a cartoonist who is only a little over half a century old […]
Stuart Carlson explains the past week’s coverage.I’m not sure which to be less forgiving of in political commentary: Unthinking vitriol or sheer laziness.The notion that editors stir things up “to sell papers” is nonsense, but the analogy of a rock band is not: It isn’t a matter of how many tickets you sell, it’s a […]
As Easter dawns, it brings an end to my Lenten political cartooning fast. It also brings news that Bernie Sanders swept the three contests last night in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii, but not without a bit of confirmation of this Adam Zyglis cartoon.As Politico put itBernie Sanders swept all three Democratic caucuses Saturday — scoring […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
I’ll admit from the start that this is not my favorite time of year. Back in the days of listservs, I had a filter set to automatically delete any email that contained the phrase “Twas the night before,” because there was never anything entertaining in the satiric doggerel that followed.And I wish Facebook would figure […]
I’m using this cartoon because, in it, my little pal Edison Lee sums up my feelings about New Year’s Eve.Also because I think it’s the only syndicated cartoon in the universe that didn’t do a New Year’s Eve gag about falling asleep early. Reading cartoons about falling asleep on New Year’s Eve is kind of […]
It’s fitting, I think, that “Between Friends” would feature the first fruitcake joke to make me laugh in more or less forever.I consider fruitcake jokes to be lazy, one of a number of comic kneejerk gags that kind of straddle the ho-hum of Santa caught in the chimney and gags about animals without opposable thumbs. […]
This is like being stuck at the airport. Not like being stuck in an elevator. We’ve got access to bathrooms. That makes a big difference, but we’re still not going anywhere for awhile. And I’d rather sit here than have Capt. Obama feel pressured to take off into a blizzard so I could be part of a […]
Nick Anderson comments on the NIMBY aspects of free-market capitalism in general and explosions in fertilizer plants specifically.One comment I read — and, yes, I know, the only people more foolish than the people who post those comments are the people who read them* — said that, well, they built this plant years ago and […]
Okay, yet another rant on the topic of cloth-eared editors and the state of cartooning. Start here: On Sunday, Daryl Cagle posted this cartoon to his Facebook page: He was immediately hit by a flurry of negative comments (mine among them), more or less along the line of yesterday’s CSOTD posting: That the Constitution not only […]
Candorville is close to being a political cartoon, in that Darrin Bell spends equal amounts of time provoking thought and telling jokes. Today, however, he is letting his geek flag fly, as he often does.And — unintentionally perhaps — proving that we will never invent time travel unless we completely and absolutely change our society first. […]
Adam Zyglis made good use of the binder concept.And a few others came close, but the binder meme seems to me a pretty good example of what’s wrong with this whole group-participation form of presidential campaign: A lot of piling on over something of very little significance; a lot of straining over gnats and swallowing […]