Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sunday morning toons: United we stood



Ten years ago today . . . well, everyone knows where they were. I know where I was, and it wasn't that interesting in itself, just for the news I got while I was there. And ten years later, where are we? Clay Jones, Marshall Ramsey, Mike Luckovich, Cam Cardow, Bill Day, Jimmy Margulies. Jeff Danziger, and Gary Varvel.

Molly Ivins of blessed memory rarely missed a chance to tell a story about Texas politics, the punchline of which is, "There are things that won't hurt you but will scare you so bad you'll hurt yourself." It took three commercial jets -- flying bombs, really -- to destroy the two World Trade Towers and take a big chunk out of the Pentagon, but no one flew a suicide jet into the Bill of Rights; to our everlasting disgrace, we killed the Fourth Amendment ourselves, with its quaint medieval notions of "innocent until proven guilty" and "due process." (They hate us for our freedom? Problem solved.) On the other hand, there is talk that we may once again be able to keep our shoes on at airport security, so I suppose that's something to be grateful for.

Meanwhile, Obama has pivoted to jobs and the Republican presidential candidates had a quilting bee of crazy. Life goes on in these United States.

Today's selections have been lovingly hand-selected from the week's political cartoon pages at Slate, Time, Mario Piperni, About.com, and Daryl Cagle:

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Pat Bagley, Chan Lowe, Mike Smith, Steve Sack, Clay Bennett, Joe Heller, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Nick Anderson.

p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Manny Francisco (Philippines), Ingrid Rice (Canada), and Luo Jie (China).


Ann Telnaes considers our response to 9/11.


Mark Fiore calls for a return to America's originalist founding principles.


Taiwan's Next Media Animation presents a few things you should know about Rick Perry. Don't miss the cameos by a pole-dancing Abe Lincoln and a bemused looking God.


Lance Mannion presents his summation against the GOP's current star:
So let’s tally it up. Rick Perry doesn’t understand science. He doesn’t understand basic conservative economic principles. He doesn’t understand his own religion. And he doesn’t understand TV westerns or comic books.

Reminder for Portland's Mel Blanc fans: Tomorrow's your last chance to see the Mel Blanc exhibit.


Fifty years ago, or so, the phrase to know was I go Pogo, when cartoonist Walt Kelly ran the Okeefenokee Swamp's favorite marsupial for the Oval Office. This week, Jim Hightower has a new nominee from the ranks of classic animation.


Tom Tomorrow brings us another baffling adventure from the case files of Conservative Jones, Boy Detective. Oh, Moonbat -- how I envy you your blissful detachment from reality!


Keith Knight looks back to 9/11/2001 and thinks, What a difference a day makes!


Tom the Dancing Bug imagines what it would be like if American history were really a George Lucas movie. (Here was TtDB's first toon following the 9/11 attack.)


Comic Riffs' John Cavna compares two New Yorker covers: Septemer 24, 2001, and September 12, 2011.


At Red Meat, Ted Johnson works on community relations management.


The Comic Curmudgeon discusses the best installments of the comic strip "Momma" (adding: "and by 'best' I mean 'most horrifying and unsettling'). Not to be missed.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman looks at the Republican Party and finds the postmodern prometheus. (I love Igor!)


Oh, hell -- why not! From "Anchors Aweigh," directed in 1945 by George Sidney, here are two of MGM's biggest stars: Gene Kelly and Jerry the Mouse. According to Wikipedia:
The movie is famous for a musical number where Gene Kelly dances seamlessly with the animated Jerry Mouse (voiced by Sara Berner). Tom Cat appears briefly as a butler in the sequence supervised by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The animation was entirely done by veterans Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson and Irv Spence. Originally, the producers wanted to use Mickey Mouse for this segment. Some sources claim Walt Disney initially agreed to loan out Mickey, but Roy Disney rejected the deal. According to Bob Thomas's book on Roy Disney, the studio was in debt after World War II and they were focusing on trying to get their own films out on time. According to Roy, they had no business making cartoons for other people.
(Note to Facebook friends: If you're reading this in FB Notes, you'll need to click View Original Post, below, to see the video.)


p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer doesn't like the math: 7000 Oregon public school teachers laid off in two years.





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