Industry news for the professional cartoonist
It is occasionally brought to my attention that, while the feature is called “Comic Strip of the Day,” it often features editorial cartoons. I’ll also confess that I always feature more than one comic strip, which wasn’t the case back in 2010 when I started doing this, either. Anyhow, one way to make me…
The passage of the Infrastructure bill seems to have caught political cartoonists flat-footed, with most of the published commentary this morning assuming it remains stalled. I’m not sure I’d go as far as Steve Brodner and compare it to the coming of the Paraclete — Okay, I’m sure I wouldn’t — but it was still…
Got an early doctor’s appt today — nothing critical, just the only time it could happen — so here’s a look back to 1966. Fifty-five isn’t a round number, but it’s a Sunday in a pretty good era. Our comics will begin right after this word from Chicken of the Sea. I’m not sure…
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” Lennon wrote, but today’s Pearls Before Swine (AMS) suggests that so does pizza. I had a life plan not so different from Neighbor Ned’s though not quite as grandiose. I wanted the novel published sooner, but then only to be a successful novelist…
If you’re gift-shopping for a middle schooler, here’s When Pigs Fly, a graphic novel we can pretty well guarantee they won’t already have, since it won’t be published until next week. Better yet, it’s funny and inventive and I promise they won’t come away with any lessons. Well, beyond “Believe in your dreams,” of course,…
Ruben Bolling, author of the “Tom the Dancing Bug” satirical weekly cartoon strip, has won the 2021 Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons from the National Press Foundation. The judges cited Bolling’s mordant wit, superior artwork and inventive delivery. The cartoonist parodies well-known American cultural memes, from Charles M. Schultz’s Peanuts…
I’m using this Halloween-themed Clay Jones cartoon to make a point that Clay Jones doesn’t represent. Jones is self-syndicated and pumps out cartoons at a prodigious rate, often giving his clients more than one choice on a given day. Today is November 2 and he’s already put up four cartoons since this October 31 one…
Andy Marlette (Creators) begins our Halloweeneen celebration with a reminder of what scares at least some of us. The weirdest part of this is that these people are more scared of precautions than they are of actual danger. Wait, no. The weirdest part is that they don’t want to do what experts tell them because…
Today’s Non Sequitur (AMS) offers my favorite: A combination of humor and potential for serious thought. It’s only funny if you recognize the blend of fact and folklore that runs not only throughout most religions but most ancient histories as well. Fundamentalists on either side simply don’t get it. One group feels you should…
My first reaction to Michael Rameriz (Creators)‘s cartoon was that I wish he’d posted it yesterday, when I was ranting about violent movies and TV shows, because forbidding your own kids from watching such things doesn’t protect them from the influence of other kids whose parents have no idea what they’re absorbing and passing along…
We’ll start this review of things that shouldn’t shake the firmaments with a Peter Brookes commentary on Dear Ex-Leader’s latest foray into the Intertubes. The main point of featuring this is that it was once flattering when the greater world took notice of our leaders, but lately perhaps not so much. It’s hard to tell…
“What is it like to work at a small-market local newspaper in the United States?” Earlier this month the Columbia School of Journalism’s TOW Center in association with the Columbia Journalism Review published the results of a survey of small local newspapers. The observations in this report are based on an online survey conducted between…
Reply All (WPWG) brings up internships, sparking my memories of interns who did more than collate. I placed two interns in the newsroom, one a high school student and the other a young teacher working on her masters in English. They both dug right in as full-blown reporters, and the high schooler was promptly hired…
125 years ago Hearst’s New York Journal promoted the first issue of the American Humorist – “8 full pages of color that make the kaleidoscope pale with envy.” On Saturday October 17, 1896 Hearst promised (above) to outshine that puny Pulitzer’s “wishy-washy” Sunday color supplement with, “Eight pages of iridescent polychromous effulgence that make the…
Some days, I take Wallace the Brave (AMS)‘s cheerful outlook on things, other days I adopt Spud’s dour viewpoint. Today will be a mix of both, though perhaps a bit more on the Spud side of life. F’rinstance, Lee Judge (KFS) makes a pun out of Cost of Living Allowance and cola-as-in-soft-drink, but that’s…