Industry news for the professional cartoonist
One bit of political commentary before we switch to humor: Wilbur Dawbarn’s piece reminds me of a conversation I had with my father as he pondered his future in the steel industry. He accused his contemporaries — the WWII generation — of failing to bring younger people into leadership positions, with the result that there…
My usual rule is to not feature a cartoon more than a week after it runs, but I’ve recently wound up with a collection of good pieces that got buried by more immediate issues. I’m allowed to break my own rule. Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that generating cryptocurrency gobbles up a lot of…
Ted Rall was hardly the only person who, in 1995, pointed out that Bob Dole was old. And, compared to his opponent in the 1996 election, he was, given that Clinton was 50. Clinton was also the incumbent, but I felt at the time, and still believe today, that Johnny Carson’s flood of “Old Bob…
Today’s Rubes (Creators) brings back memories of being a reporter at a paper in a city on Lake Champlain, which has its own cryptozoological mascot that people honest-to-Marlin-Perkins believe in, “Champy.” A lot of people believe in him but nobody seems to have ever gotten a clear shot of him, but I do remember one…
Jeff Danziger (Counterpoint) sounds echoes of the bandwagon/Bellman effect discussed here yesterday. Yossarian was asked, “What if everyone felt that way?” and responded “Then I’d certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn’t I?” Understandable answer, but then again, Edmund Burke wrote, “Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the…
There being no nearby Ren Faire, I had missed the uproar over elephant rides until I saw Sunday’s Brevity (AMS). Up until then, my main issue with Renaissance Festivals was that turkey legs were an anachronism and poxy drabs an annoyance. But it didn’t occur to me that elephant rides were cruel, since working elephants…
Being a collection of items about cartoonists, cartooning, and comics. Michael Cavna Wins Cartoonist and journalist Michael Cavna took a second place award in the General Features category from the Society for Features Journalism for his Washington Post profile of courtroom artist Jane Rosenberg. GENERAL FEATURE (999 words or fewer): Excellence in short feature writing…
Capsule Debate Review: Trump didn’t respond to the questions, Biden didn’t respond to Trump, Bash and Tapper just asked the next question on their list as if they weren’t listening either. It was hard not to feel like the young couple invited to spend an evening with George and Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia…
Mike Smith (KFS) begins things by expressing doubt that tonight’s debate will change any votes, and he may be right, not because it won’t be a chance to evaluate the candidates head-to-head but because the people who watch will likely be the people who have already been paying attention. Lisa Benson (Counterpoint) makes much the…
I like Zits (KFS) more when they focus on Jeremy and his friends rather than Jeremy and his parents. Jeremy is a slacker, but he seems to represent all kids in the parental strips while he’s more of a Maynard G. Krebs comic figure alongside his more together pals. This week features a teens-and-jobs story…
Peter Steiner sums it all up. Thank you for coming and don’t forget to tip your waitress. But, no, I’ve never been known to avoid elaboration, and there’s a lot more to be said, even if you shouldn’t say it in Louisiana. Or Texas or Arizona or in any of a number of other places…
It seems appropriate that Madam & Eve, which has of late dwelt entirely on South Africa’s corrupt and discouraging political scene, should offer this suggestion for relief, which applies to everyone in a corrupt and discouraging political scene, which these days feels like pretty much everybody. Besides, one of the 10 Commandments — available soon…
Yesterday, Tom Heintjes, known to comics historians for the magazine Hogan’s Alley, posted on Blue Sky that it was the anniversary of the first “Davy Crockett, Frontiersman” strip in 1955, which set me to pondering. First thing I pondered was that Jim McArdle’s version of Davy Crockett looked about as much like Fess Parker as…
I’m going to let Bill Bramhall’s tribute stand for all the Willie Mays cartoons, most of which took advantage of “The Catch” but too many of which cluttered it up, particularly with Pearly Gates cliches. Bramhall keeps it simple, though I have to chuckle over him giving Mays a blue hat rather than a black…
Too Much Coffeeman brings up the hostility some people have for banjos, which I confess I don’t understand, but which seems to be of a piece with their hostility towards bagpipes and accordions. I’ll confess to not being a big fan of full-sized accordions — forgive me, Myron Floren — but I enjoy a well-played…