Industry news for the professional cartoonist
Reality Check (AMS) serves a heapin’ helpin’ of “Tom Swifties,” based on cartoon characters, Tom Swifties being a fad of the early 60s. This Wikipedia article explains the phenomenon, which drew from a foible of the syndicated authors of the Tom Swift adventure series, who avoided the simple “said,” and gives examples both of the…
Today’s Judge Parker (KFS) has set me thinking about continuity strips, and, since there are only a few left, that puts me in the somewhat uncomfortable position of criticizing this one, which isn’t my point. I think there should be more continuity strips, because, whether they would induce people to buy newspapers, they’d at least…
I’ve criticized Steve Kelley (Creators) enough times for views I don’t share that it’s only fair I give him the lead-off position when he does one that nails the issue squarely. I’ve seen no defenses of Andrew Cuomo except, as Kelley suggests, from Andrew Cuomo, and I’m more than a little surprised that he hasn’t…
A bunch of Andrew Cuomo cartoons have dropped in the past 24 hours. Some are pretty good, some are predictable, at least one was an argument in favor of my advice to pencil your idea but then check to see if someone else already did it, because someone else absolutely had. In any case, my…
Rabbits Against Magic (AMS) establishes today’s theme with a joke that should make you weep rather than laugh. Facts are facts and opinions are opinions, but truth seems to waver somewhere in the middle, and saying “seems” only emphasizes the uncertainty. There are limits: When George Berkeley wrote that reality was only what our minds…
June Brigman, former Brenda Starr and Power Pack cartoonist, is the current cartoonist of Mary Worth, and also, it seems, the current cartoonist of Power Pack: Power Pack creators Louise Simonson and June Brigman are working together on a new limited series for the adolescent team at Marvel Comics. Although not officially announced by Marvel,…
Clay Bennett (CTFP) starts our discussion of health issues. We’re awash in misinformation and disinformation, and this was quite the week, even for poor Baby Tuckoo, who specializes in purposefully spreading it. Not only did he get called a bad human being, but one of the few people willing to advertise on his show no…
The political stuff today is mostly awful, so we’ll deal with that tomorrow and just go for silliness, starting with Bizarro (KFS), an exploration of the wonderful world of poop signs. I don’t know what there is about dog poop that makes sign painters become so illiterate, but, besides this, there are also a number…
A bit of political catching up, and Ann Telnaes expresses what I hope is a wider frustration with the lack of accountability for the architects of the insurrection. There was a fair amount of frustration over the fellow who only got eight months in prison for his part in the uprising, and it’s understandable in…
I’m going to start with something substantive before moving on to trivia today. I don’t entirely disagree with Mike Lester (AMS), but, then again, I don’t entirely agree with him, either. The more argumentative point is that, from my side of things, we are paying for the Pigs in Space Race, based on the way…
Another hero bites the dust, and I’m assuming this Barry Blitt piece is based on Eric Clapton declaring that he won’t play in venues that require proof of vaccination. He was already on the record as an anti-vaxxer, along with — sigh — Van Morrison. I don’t get the “white” thing, but I’ve seen a…
Mike Lester (AMC) continues to press the rightwing fantasy that Critical Race Theory is taught in elementary schools, when, as a formal inquiry, it is generally confined to collegiate graduate courses. However, he hits on an element that I agree with, not about the real CRT as practiced by serious historians, but in how it’s…
John Wells recent posting of an intriguing 1954 Judge Parker Sunday … … got me thinking of a Rex Morgan, M.D. story by the same author of few years earlier. Nick Dallis tells of the dangers of drugs on America’s youth. A couple months later the comic strip would be reproduced in a comic book…
Hate to burst your bubble, Agnes (Creators), but these things are scattered all over the Internet and everybody seems to be filling them in exactly the way you are. I really need to take a break from social media. In fact, let’s take a break from politics, too. There are too many imponderables out…
Pat Byrnes (Cagle) points out the obvious, which is okay because there are so many people who can’t see the obvious, though, as noted here before, it’s not like they’re gonna see it even if you rub their noses in it. Still, it’s necessary to raise an objection when ignorance is being ginned up by…