Industry news for the professional cartoonist
Mr. Boffo offers a bit of safe harbor for troubled marriages and thank goodness for finicky cats. Our cat ate Friskies kibble every day without a complaint and maybe that’s why our marriage didn’t last: We didn’t have cat food to agree to disagree about. Somebody was kvetching on social media yesterday about how half…
Eric Allie (Counterpoint) offers a sort of “I know you are, but what am I?” analysis of Cancel Culture, in which, he contends, liberal attempts to control disinformation have become an attack on free speech. There is, obviously, no lack of Cancel Culture happening at the moment, and not just Ron DeSantis limiting the ability…
There’s not much to say about the place of truth and illusion in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? without spoilering Edward Albee’s play, which is nearly as mandatory to watch as George Orwell is to read if you want any insights on what’s happening around us today. Let’s just say it deserved the stack of…
If I were going to address politics today — which I am not — I’d have given Scott Stantis the Great Timing Award for dropping this Prickly City (AMS) just as yet another Republican congresscritter appears to have turned in a piece of autobiographical fiction. Alternative facts? The GOP is promoting alternative lives! Or I…
Prickly City (AMS) has been looking askance at the GOP lately, which would be unremarkable if the strip weren’t a conservative outlet or if we were living in a normal world. However, we’re in a world in which “conservative” seems increasingly to mean going along with the party line. Moving your lips while you cling…
I sometimes feel that the kids in Baby Blues (AMS) have become a little too consistently bratty, but then I read Carolyn Hax’s advice column in the Washington Post and so realize that, indeed, there are bratty kids who grow up to be bratty adults. Hax is a lot more indulgent about it than I…
John Auchter frames our ongoing debate, a conversation that could have ended long ago: Why do we need Black History Month? This NPR article does a good job of tracing the commemoration itself, including answering the question of why it is in February: The founder of the concept chose the month that contains the birthdays…
It seems Patrick McDonnell was doing more than collaborating with the Dalai Lama during his sabbatical last year, he was also creating a graphic novel featuring his favorite comic book superheroes of the 1960s. Patrick McDonnell, Marvel Comics, and Abrams books will publish that graphic novel early this Fall. From Marvel Comics: Abrams ComicArts and…
Scott Stantis (Counterpoint) brings up the question of the First Amendment, which doesn’t apply to private companies except, perhaps, in communist countries where the central government controls industry. But that itself offers a lot of fodder, because moderation of media is very much on the table at the moment. The rightwing blogosphere is currently in…
Tom Tomorrow sums up the bizarre problem of life in a country divided between two realities. Sparky lays out a litany of abuses that ought to arouse at least concern, if not fury, in a civilized mind, only to discover that they bounce off because the person he is talking to lives in a totally…
I don’t know how things are working in Ireland, but the couple in this Graeme Keyes cartoon would have to die quickly if they were Americans. The soaring prices of housing have, indeed, barred many people from homeownership, though much of it is the massive chunk of change required for a down payment. But I’d…
The whole world is indeed watching, and, as Andy Marlette (Creators) suggests, the outrageous number of mass shootings in this country is becoming part of our brand. I don’t know how Germans feel about being associated with beer, and my favorite Mexican restaurants don’t feature mariachi music, but it seems Americans buy into our macho,…
I wasn’t looking for anything too brain-involved today, and so the predictable foolishness of Sherman’s Lagoon (AMS) seemed just right. But even the funny stuff involves thought. Example: “Predictable foolishness” is different than repetitive or monotonous foolishness. There are all sorts of strips which simply repackage the same few gags in different settings. “Predictable foolishness,”…
A Modern Day Battle Over Prince Valiant Brian Kane, the preeminent Prince Valiant scholar, and Gary Groth, the preeminent Prince Valiant book publisher, are at odds over a six part Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant Sketchbooks series with King Features seemingly caught in the middle. Rich Johnston, at Bleeding Cool, carries both sides. Brian Kane: “I…
I don’t mind the fact that I often disagree with cartoonists and other political commentators. Not only does it give me something to write about, but I’d be suspicious of a system in which everyone agreed with everyone else, mostly because there’s never been one. Still, I think it’s possible for everyone to agree, for…