Sunday morning toons: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

(Update: Almost forgot Barry Blitt.  He's down there now.)

Mike Doonesbury, B.D., Boopsie, Zonker, Joanie, Mark, and the rest turn a respectable 40 this month. More below, plus scary Halloween costume suggestions.

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

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Nate Beeler, David Fitzsimmons, Signe Wilkinson, Marshall Ramsey, John Sherffius, Tom Toles,Nick Anderson, and Monte Wolverton.

(Combined) p3 Best of Show and Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Pat Bagley.

p3 World Toon Review: Cam Cardow (Canada), Christo Komarnitski (Bulgaria), Petar Pismestrovic (Austria), Tjeerd Royaards (Netherlands), and Ingrid Rice (Canada).


Ann Telnaes asks a pretty fair question.


Scary Halloween costume ideas, part 1: This week, Mark Fiore brings us the ultimate trick and/or treat: Little Suzie Newsykins, the Candidate of Rage.


Was this the first graphic novel? Slate's review of God's Man, a 1929 story cycle told entirely in 139 beautiful wordless woodcuts, tells you way more about the reviewer than you'll want to know, but the images are simply amazing.


By the company he keeps: I have never been a Juan Williams fan. I think he's coasted way, way too long off of "Eyes on the Prize," I think he almost ran "Talk of the Nation" into the ground after Ray Suarez left. I think his long-standing Fox gig has been the worst kind of cynical tokenism on Fox's part, with his willing acquiescence. And I think that him losing his NPR job over his comment on Bill O'Reilly's show a couple of weeks ago is like Al Capone going up the river for tax evasion. Still, if this Mike Thompson cartoon makes O'Reilly angry, then there may yet be some good to come out of all this.


"I yam what I yam" meets "Trust me:" Well, what would it be like if
Raiders of the Lost Ark had been a Popeye cartoon?


Proving that there can be too much of a good thing: IDW Publishing unleashes a crossover story involving four of its big titles: Ghostbusters, Transformers, Star Trek, and G.I. Joe.  Oh yeah, and zombies -- because, you know, what's a Spock-Cobra-Venkman-Optimus Prime story without zombies?


Almost forgot: Here's Barry Blitt's illustration for this week's Frank Rich NYTimes column, on the likelihood that the GOP establishment will pull the rug out from under any Tea Party candidates who manage to get elected.


My favorite was, is, and always will be "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Celebrating Doonesbury's 40th anniversary, Slate lists the top 200 Doonesbury panels in the history of the strip.


Tom Tomorrow two-fer: (1) Scary Halloween costume ideas, part 2, and (2) a festschrift (look it up!) for fellow Eli Garry Trudeau on the 40th birthday of Doonesbury.


The K Chronicles wonders if it's time to change banks.


At Red Meat, Bug-Eyed Earl muses over the fine print.


The Comic Curmudgeon invites you to play a new game: Who's the sociopath?


And speaking of Doonesbury, which we were, Zonker is reclaiming and redeeming his past and future. Heh.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman notes that with friends like these, the Constitution doesn't need enemies.


Nobody'll vote for a flattened-out rabbit skin, I always say! [I have no idea why blogger.com insists on throwing in that junk html code below, even after I've edited it out and republished the page, but at least now the video appears to be working again. If the embedded video still won't show in your browser, the link below should take you to the page.] Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam run against each other for mayor in "Ballot Box Bunny," directed by Friz Freleng in 1951. As copyright enforcers make online toons from the golden age harder to find online (this one's hosted, I believe, in Romania), it's also harder to be certain which version of some toons you're getting. In the case of "Ballot Box Bunny," some of Sam's gunplay has always been edited out on television, and I'm not entirely sure if the final "Russian Roulette" bit shown here is original or softened by the addition of those irises. Musical cues: The tune behind the opening credits is called "What's Up, Doc?," has a full set of lyrics, and is the subject of a whole 'nother post some Sunday. There's a non-musical reference to "Annie Get Your Guns," if you know what to listen for. And the tune Bugs plays on the exploding-piano gag is "Those Endearing Young Charms."

p3 Bonus Toon: One more reason to vote for Kitzhaber: the alternative is four years of "tall" jokes. Jesse Springer has a fair question: When record-breaking amounts are spent on a gubernatorial race, who owns the candidates when its over?

Test your toon-captioning skills at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Sunday morning toons: No sense of decency?

[Updated below.]

This week's post title comes from John Sherffius' best-in-show toon, below.

Today's selections have been carefully culled, by the same law firm that handles Newt Gingrich's prenuptial agreements, from the week's political cartoon pages at Slate, Time, Mario Piperni, About.com, and Daryl Cagle:

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Drew Sheneman, Mike Thompson, Stewart Carlson, Pat Bagley, R. J. Matson, Steve Sack, Bill Day, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best in Show: John Sherffius.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (tie): Mike Luckovich and David Fitzsimmons..

A Very Special p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence: Steve Breen and . . . Steve Breen!

p3 World Toon Review: Hajo (Netherlands), Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Aislin (Canada), and Cam Cardow (Canada).


Ann Telnaes watches Obama take a dive (without a net).


Mark Fiore shows you how to be a political pundit. It's easy 'n' fun! (Best part: Never admit a mistake.)


Taiwan's Next Media Animation are at their most ineffable in this report on American teens delaying sex.


Alternate Realities, Part 1: Tom Tomorrow brings this important intergalactic update: the non-acquiescers of the northernmost plains are at it again!


The K Chronicles notes that some stories just transcend language barriers. (Cool!)


Alternate Realities, Part 2: Tom the Dancing Bug Nobody screws with our national security!


Opus creator, artist Berke Breathed, hasn't been seen much here at the p3 Sunday toons since he ended the story of our favorite flightless waterfowl a few years ago. Comic Riffs catches up with him, and explains the significance of the crucial "broccoli scene" in the upcoming Disney 3-D treatment of "Mars Needs Moms." (Anyone else think it's no coincidence that the scene includes a cat yakking up on the floor? Didn't think so. Oop! Ack!)


At Red Meat, the exchange between Mister Wally and Papa Maoi takes an unexpected turn.


The Comic Curmudgeon asks, with some alarm, "'Trading wood' isn't a thing now, is it?"


Here's Barry Blitt's illustration to accompany Frank Rich's valedictory NYTimes column. Rich, as you may know, is leaving the Times to write in some capacity for The New Yorker [see below] (where Blitt's work is also a regular treat); p3 fans of Blitt will still find him here on Sundays.

[Sheepish update, via tactful email:

Your readers probably know this, but don't look for Frank at The New Yorker. Frank has always had more Norman Mailer in him than Dorothy Parker.

Yup. FR is going to New York Magazine.]


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman presents Thirty Seconds over Madison.


Graceful, isn't it? That's a take-off on a standard gag line by 1930s-40s radio comedian Jerry Colonna -- making his second appearance here at the Sunday morning toons. (There's another, similar line, later in the story.) "The Wacky Worm" was directed in 1941 by Fritz Freleng, voiced by Mel Blanc (Blanc probably did Colonna's voice, too; it would be cheaper that way), with musical direction by Carl Stalling (all uncredited). Oddly, I can't track down any information about the song ("All night long, I'm day dreaming . . . ") the worm sings when he first appears. Musical director Stalling mostly ransacked freely from the Warner Bros. own music catalog for the Loonie Tunes and Merrie Melodies, so it should be easily found, but . . . ?

(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 sees an ominous sign for Oregon's barely-detectable economic recovery (click to enlarge).

Test your toon-captioning skills at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Sunday morning toons: Let March Madness begin!

[Update: Link to video clip below was finally fixed. I think.]

I mean, where do we even start?

There's Fred Phelps, who took time out from insisting the only purpose of the First Amendment is to create a Christian theocratic government in the US to insist that the only purpose of the First Amendment is to let him spew more anti-gay, anti-troop poison. (The First Amendment won, but unfortunately so did Phelps.)

There's Wisconson's Governor Scott Walker, whose popularity is circling the drain even as his assault on unions seems to be cracking at the edges (to mix my metaphors).

There's Muammar Gadhafi, who clearly doesn't quite get which way the wind is blowing in north Africa.

There's Newt Gingrich, who may or may not launch a (wildly unsuccessful) bid for the 2012 GOP nomination, as he's threatened to do every four years since 1996.

There's the Congress, that has managed to postpone a full-blown federal shutdown -- for a couple of weeks.

There's the onset of the NCAA basketball tournament.

And, of course, there's Charlie Sheen just being Charlie Sheen, only a little more so.

Today's selections were chosen by a complex, computer-generated series of brackets, weightings, and rankings from this week's political cartoon pages at Slate, Time, Mario Piperni, About.com, and Daryl Cagle:

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, R. J. Matson, Mike Keefe, John Darkow, Jerry Holbert, Stuart Carlson, Nick Anderson, Mike Thompson, Steve Sack, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best Toon in All Creation (this week): John Darkow.

p3 Best of Show: Pat Bagley.

p3 Naked Truth Award: Jim Morin.

p3 Certificate of Massive Harmonic Toon Convergence: Cam Cardow, David Fitzsimmons, John Cole, John Darkow, Dave Granlund, Chris Britt, Bob Gorrell, Steve Kelly, and John Koterba. (And there's more -- keep reading!)

p3 World Toon Review: Tom Trouw (Netherlands), Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Ingrid Rice (Canada), Victor Ndula (Kenya), Cam Cardow (Canada), and Pavel Constantin (Romania).


Ann Telnaes detects a rare instance of the GOP remembering a lesson from history. (Hey, WaPo: I get that you have to have ads, but is it too much to ask that the ad not be twice as long as the Telnaes animation? Hm?)


Mark Fiore brings us Susie Newsykins and what she learned about budget cutting. Ponies: yes! Broccoli: No!


Taiwan's Next Media Animation has some recommendations concerning the launch of the iPad 2.


Love among the sea cows: I can't explain exactly why this Bizarro comic is so funny, but it is.


Hey, look over there! In today's America, says Tom Tomorrow, it's all you need to know.


Keith Knight gets his p3 Massive Harmonic Toon Convergence Certificate a little late, but it's still from the heart.


Tom the Dancing Bug presents Hollywood Tales. (Spoiler alert: TtDB comes very close to getting a piece of the p3 Massive Harmonic Toon Convergence for himself this week, too, but at the last minutes the p3 judges ruled against it.)

Google is using their logo doodle this weekend to celebrate the anniversary of uber cartoon artist Will Eisner, often called The Father of the Graphic Novel.


Johnny Depp has been calling it "the worst regional theater we could possibly be doing" -- and he means it in a good way! Comic Riffs has the scoop on why Rango could be the cool animated film of the season without making you pay an extra eight bucks for throw-away glasses. (Also, Roger Ebert likes it a lot, and you should read why.)


At Red Meat, Milk Man Dan multitasks. (Warning: Don't read this while you're drinking milk, but not for the usual reason you're probably thinking.)


The "scourge of mef" has come to Hootin' Holler, and The Comic Curmudgeon brings you the sordid details.


Frank Rich is off this week at the NYTimes, so there's no Barry Blitt illustration to upstage it. While we're waiting for things to get back on track there, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to go to Blitt's web site, click Whatnot, and find his multilevel-funny New Yorker cover from October 6, 2008.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman reminds us that political extremism can be a complicated business.


Another age, when the performance-enhancing substance of choice in baseball was spinach: Here's Popeye's baseball story (apparently obligatory for all cartoon stars at the time), the 1937 "The Twisker Pitcher," directed by Seymour Kneitel. (Hey, why don't Bluto's arms do strange morphing things after he eats the spinach?) [Update: Link fixed to correct video clip. Sorry.]

(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 starts here:

News Item: Because global climate change has made winters shorter and warmer, the Western Bark Beetle is surviving each year in greater numbers, decimating stands of forests across the west. Scientists predict that the lodgepole pine could be completely gone by 2080.

. . . and ends up here:

Test your toon-captioning kung fu at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Sunday morning toons: Special "Health care reform end-game" edition

(Updated below.)

Afghanistan? Copenhagen? Stockholm? So last week, dahlinks! This week, the health care reform end-game is the new black. Let's start with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up:

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, R. J. Matson, Larry Wright, Bob Englehart, John Trever, Jimmy Margulies, Michael Ramirez, Jerry Holbert, Henry Payne, Bill Day, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: John Darkow.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (tie): Pat Bagley and Eric Allie.

p3 "You Can't Beat Home Sweet Home" Award: Steve Breen.

p3 Croix de Guerre/Croix de la Paix Medal: Ed Stein.

p3 World Toon Review: Stephane Peray (Thailand), Martyn Turner (Ireland), Werner Wejp-Olsen (Denmark), Jiho (France). and Jainping Fan (China).


Ann Telnaes brings a carol for the holidays (be sure to stick around for the ending).


Science stupid! Science lies! Back after an extended absence from the p3 Sunday Morning Toons, Mark Fiore exposes the shocking 400-year history of fake science.


And it only took 22 years: In 1987, televangelist Oral Roberts sealed himself in the prayer tower at Oral Roberts University, claiming that God would "call him home" unless supporters contributed $8 million to support one of his debt-ridden projects. After some finagling, involving a divine deadline extension and $1.3 million from a dog track owner, he hit his fundraising mark and left the tower. This week, Steve Benson captured the moment when the Almighty figured He called in his marker.


Oh, the futility! Ever consider the down-side of all this "green" nonsense? Joel Pett sure has. (H/t Carla)


Update: Once again, Barry Blitt quietly upstages Frank Rich's Sunday essay on defining greatness downward. (If I would simply read the Sunday NYTimes on Saturday when it comes out online, I suppose I wouldn't have to keep including Blitt as an update.)


RIP Roy E. Disney: Nephew of Walt Disney, Roy rescued Disney's animation division from the abyss of "The Aristocats" and "Robin Hood" by championing such blockbusters as “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King.”

Mr. Disney was a big fan of referring to the past to define the future. He told a biographer: “The goal is to look over our shoulder and see Snow White and Pinocchio and Dumbo standing there saying, ‘Be this good.’ We shouldn’t be intimidated by them; they’re an arrow pointing someplace.”

He died this week at 87. Roy, this one's for you.

No p3 Bonus Toon this week: It's Jesse Springer's December hiatus.


But meanwhile, that leaves extra time to bookmark Slate's political cartoon for the day.

Sunday morning toons: Special "48 Hours and Counting" edition

It's something of a toss-up this week: A lot of the political toons are devoted to the end of the Bush Reign of Error and the beginning (one is tempted to say "dawn") of the Obama Administration. Others are picking up on the alignment of stars that has Obama taking the oath of office on the day after Martin Luthor King Day (a holiday that Senator John McCain opposed in his home state of Arizona, it's worth remembering). Israel's on-again-off-again war on the Gaza strip is in the mix too, but US toonists can be forgiven for being a little nearsighted this week.

Let's get to it:

Well, except that Bob Geiger is still taking January off. Jeez--you'd think he was doing this for free or something.

So let's pick up with Daryl Cagle's round-up.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Keefe, Bob Henglehart, Jeff Parker, David Fitzsimmons, Monte Wolverton, and Henry Payne.

The p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium is shared by Jerry Holbert and Steve Sack.

The p3 Bridge to Somewhere Award goes to Eric Allie.


p3 World Toon Review: Most of the world is at least as happy as we are that there's going to be a new Current Occupant: Cameron Cardow (Canada), Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), and--my personal favorite this week--Stephane Peray (Thailand).

"It couldn't fit more perfectly/Than to have a world party on the day you came to be:" Joe Heller, Milt Priggee, Sandy Huffaker, Bruce Plante, and Marshall Ramsey get the jump on the world party tomorrow.

The joy of small things: I think my favorite toon for this week isn't one of the syndicated big boys; it's this little drawing by Barry Blitt that quietly upstages Frank Rich's NYTimes online piece today. (We've featured Blitt's small, clean, pieces before here at p3 although, as befits his medium, you have to look for it a little.)


Ann Telnaes notes a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall (and the bells in the steeple, too).


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman points out Bush's most memorable line.


The Peanuts Code: Looks like DaVinci (and Lennon & McCartney) weren't the only ones slipping secret messages into their art: If you'd only seen the unending river of TV spinoffs of Charles Shulz's "Peanuts," you would be forgiven for thinking that Shroeder's musical hero was Vince Guaraldi, who wrote and performed all that great piano jazz from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and later programs that's still burrowed into your brain all these years later. But loyalists of the strip know that it was Beethoven that Schroeder worshiped, a running bit stretching back to the strip's beginnings in the early 1950s. Panels would depict him pounding away on his little toy piano (how did he crank that music out with painted-on black keys?) while the notes wafted rapturously over his head.

And it turns out that those floating notes weren't randomly drawn on the page; far from it:

[M]usicologists and art curators have learned that there was much more than a punch line to Charles Schulz’s invocation of Beethoven’s music.

"If you don’t read music and you can’t identify the music in the strips, then you lose out on some of the meaning," said William Meredith, the director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University, who has studied hundreds of Beethoven-themed "Peanuts" strips.

When Schroeder pounded on his piano, his eyes clenched in a trance, the notes floating above his head were no random ink spots dropped into the key of G. Schulz carefully chose each snatch of music he drew and transcribed the notes from the score. More than an illustration, the music was a soundtrack to the strip, introducing the characters’ state of emotion, prompting one of them to ask a question or punctuating an interaction.

"The music is a character in the strip as much as the people are, because the music sets the tone," Mr. Meredith said. […]

In a strip from 1953 Schroeder embarks on an intensive workout. He does push-ups, jumps rope, lifts weights, touches his toes, does sit-ups ("Puff, Puff"), boxes, runs ("Pant, Pant") and finally eats ("Chomp! Chomp!"). In the last two panels he walks to his piano with determination and begins playing furiously, sweat springing from his brow.

The eighth notes above Schroeder’s head are from the opening bars of Beethoven’s "Hammerklavier" Sonata (Op. 106), a piece so long, artistically complex and technically difficult that it is referred to as the "Giant" Sonata. When Beethoven delivered it to the publisher in 1819, he is believed to have said, "Now you will have a sonata that will keep the pianists busy when it is played 50 years from now."

(That 1953 strip is reproduced here. And if the Hammerklavier Sonata sounds easy to you, watch this and see if your opinion changes.)



Rule Number One: Never put on a glowing hat if it isn't your own! From Disney's 1940 "Fantasia," here's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."

Back in my academic days, I once witnessed a discussion, at which no alcohol was present, as to whether this piece represents the Frankenstein Myth in contemporary culture, or illustrated Clarke's third law of prediction, or was in fact an example of Nietzsche's principle of the Master-Slave dialectic. This goes to show how a good graduate education can ruin a harmless and enjoyable experience.


p3 Bonus Toon: As the new legislative session in Salem kicks off, Jesse Springer places the inevitable debate in its proper perspective. (Click to enlarge.)

Sunday morning toons: Playing "doctor"

It was a good week to be a formerly-trapped Chilean miner; but the rest of us are having to muddle along as best we can.

Let's kick things off with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up for the week.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Pat Bagley, John Trever, John Darkow, Patrick Fitzsimmons, Jimmy Margulies, Steve Sack, Adam Zyglis, Steve Breen, Bill Day, Cal Grondahl, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Mike Lester.

p3 Medal of Honor: Daryl Cagle.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence: Ed Stein and Rob Rogers (and many others).

p3 World Toon Review: Cameron Cardow (Canada), Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Stephane Peray (Thailand), Ingrid Rice (Canada), and Tjeerd Royaards (Netherlands).


Ann Telnaes wonders, how can it be "free speech" if you can't hear it above the sound of the cash register?


Mark Fiore outlines the Meg Whitman jobs plan for California. Don't miss the disclaimer at the end.


Comic Riffs sets some fair-minded boundaries on an otherwise-irredeemable idea: The (live-action) Family Circus movie. Where was Mr. Not Me when we needed him?


Don't want to spend the money on this myself, but if you buy one, bring it along to coffee so I can see it: The DC Superheroes Ultimate Pop-Up Book. And yes, the guy behind this calls himself an "engineer." I still love America.


Barry Deutsch lists the top 10 excuses for ignoring unemployment.


Here's Barry Blitt's illustration (the first to depart from black and white, I believe) accompanying this week's Frank Rich NYTimes column, on the future of right-wing anger in America.


Ruh-Roh! This week, Tom Tomorrow presents another edition of News from a Parallel Universe. You'll never think of the phrase "cold, dead fingers" the same way again!


The K Chronicles presents a special wedding-day edition of Life's Little Victories. Yes!


Red Meat features Bug-Eyed Earl in the child-hood BB-gun story you never wanted to hear. It'll make you want to shoot your own eyes out!


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman predicts the future of political advertising in America.


Huh -- sounds like "Inner Sanctum!" "Racketeer Rabbit," directed in 1946 by Fritz Freling, features Mel Blanc voicing both the Edward G. Robertson character and the Peter Lorre character (the latter simply disappears from the story about half-way through for no adequately explored reason.) The song launched by the "going for a ride" scene is the 1905 hit "(Come Away with Me, Lucille) In My Merry Oldsmobile."

Video extra: The NYTimes review of the DVD release "The Essential Bugs Bunny Collection" can be reduced to 8 words: the first disc is; the second disc isn't. Also, I note that, of the 4 BB images accompanying the article, one dates to 1950 ("The Rabbit of Seville," a Chuck Jones classic from the beginning of the Silver Age) and the rest, if they were ever part of actual animated releases, are from soulless post-Silver Age dreck you aren't apt to see featured on p3 Sunday Morning Toons any time soon.)


p3 Bonus Toon: With the election a little over two weeks away, Jesse Springer wonders if this is the time for Oregon to play "doctor."

Remember to bookmark the daily political toon features at Slate's Slate, Time, and About.com.

Test your toon-captioning skills at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Sunday morning toons: Special "Gibson Cherryburst Custom" edition

This week's Daryl Cagle toon round-up inspires this rhyming question:

Should America worry about the next health care town hall?
Or crank up our Gibsons in tribute to Les Paul?

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Daryl Cagle, Mike Keefe, Jeff Parker, John Darkow, Monte Wolverton, Jimmy Margulies, Steve Breen, and Ed Stein.

p3 Best of Show: Steve Sack.

p3 "Unplugged" Award: Nate Beeler.

p3 Award for Best Deeply-Pitched Roger Maris Reference: R. J. Matson.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Bob Englehart.

p3 World Toon Review: Hajo (Netherlands), Stephane Peray (Thailand), Patrick Chappatte, (Switzerland) and Cameron Cardow (Canada).


Ann Telnaes watches in horror as the truth flatlines.


Ka-ching!! :-) In the tradition of Woody Allen's If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists, Ruben Bollings asks, What if Van Gogh had been on Facebook?


The birth of irony: Last winter, p3 paid tribute to one of MAD Magazine's founding artists, Will Elder. This week, the NYTimes Sunday Book Review celebrates Elder's friend since childhood, MAD founding editor Harvey Kurtzman. The review begins, without embarrassment or exaggeration:

If not for Mad magazine, there might never have been (in no particular order) 1960s youth culture, underground comics, Wacky Packs, “Laugh-In,” “Saturday Night Live,” R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman or an age of irony, period. Mad, which began in 1952 as a comic book that parodied “serious” comics as well as American popular culture, with an emphasis on television, movies and advertising, was conceived and originally edited by Harvey Kurtzman (1924-93), a Brooklyn-born comic-strip artist, writer and editor. Kurtzman was the spiritual father of postwar American satire and the godfather of late-20th-century alternative humor.

Marginal thinking: Once again last week, Frank Rich is okay, but Barry Blitt is better.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman urges the ex-governor to go into the light.


Liberal-spirited willingness to pitch in and help out: Last week in the Financial Times, British economist and imperialism groupie Naill Ferguson offered up the notion that Felix the Cat and Barack Obama share two characteristics: both are black, and both are very lucky. Back here on our side of the great pond, Vanity Fair's James Wolcott takes Ferguson downtown, not so much because of his casual racism, but because he does a disservice to Felix.


All gummed up: With due respect to James Wolcott, when he associates Felix the Cat with a "bag of tricks," he's thinking of the chatty, limited-animation, made-for-TV cartoons that began in 1958; Felix himself goes all the way back to 1919. Like Popeye, Mickey Mouse, and other characters who've survived that long (although Felix is older than almost all of them), Felix has gone through some changes in character and style as he passed from one studio to another--in fact, over the years, about the only thing that has gone unchanged is Felix's trademark pacing back and forth, hands clasped behind his back. Here's a better example, mentioned in Wolcott's post: "Felix in Hollywood," from 1923, directed by Pat Sullivan. This copy of the silent film doesn't have a musical track dubbed in, so if you want something to fill in for the old movie palace Wurlitzer, feel free to cue up the music of your choice as you listen. I recommend some Fats Waller but, again, it's totally your call.

The caricatured silent film stars Felix meets in Hollywood include Ben Turpin, Will Hays, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and William S. Hart.


p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer gives us fair warning: Once government get between small-nostrilled left-handed babies and their doctors, then the next thing you know, we'll all be . . . uhm . . . er . . . huh? (Click to enlarge.)





And remember to check out Slate's political cartoon for today.

Sunday morning toons: Where did those nine years go? Oh. Yeah.

Nine years later, the Second and Tenth Amendments are in pretty good shape, but the other eight have taken something of a beating (unless you count corporate free speech). Americans spent this month arguing about which religions it's okay to discriminate against and which religious texts it's okay to burn.

Have to say, I'm glad that the dilbert who wanted to organize a good old-fashioned Quran-burning (a nobody who would have remained a nobody had not the shocked, shocked media swarmed him like flies) finally backed off, but I'm not pleased that the argument that may have turned the tide was that he was endangering the troops -- the universal Bush-era argument for stifling every form of unwelcome speech. The argument that should have been used to squelch the guy -- but was, alas, too seldom heard during the whole mess -- is that America was invented to be the place where book-burnings don't happen. It always amazes me when the American media -- the greatest beneficiaries of the First Amendment -- have to be reminded how important it is.

Oh yeah. And we're still at war in Afghanistan.

What the hell. Let's move on, starting with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up for the week.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, R. J. Matson, Bob Englehart, David Fitzsimmons, Jimmy Margulies, Larry Wright, Bob Gorrell, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Daryl Cagle.

p3 Award of Exceptional Merit: John Darkow.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Eric Allie.

p3 "Paul Conrad Tribute" Tribute: Bill Schoor.

p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Cam Cardow (Canada), Stephane Peray (Thailand), Ingrid Rice (Canada), and Tjeerd Royaards (Netherlands).


Ann Telnaes is back from vacation, and she brought a little First Amendment irony with her.


Mark Fiore points out that clever is overrated sometimes.


Here's Barry Blitt's for this week's Frank Rich NYTimes column urging Obama to get tough on the people pulling the GOP strings.


Two words you really don't want to see together: "leak" and "urologist." But the Comics Curmudgeon bravely goes there anyway.


Tom Tomorrow points out the seven words that always mean something dumb's going to follow.


The K Chronicles looks at evolving business strategies in the tourism and hospitality industries.


And speaking of business plans, Tom the Dancing Bug shows how to succeed at cartooning (among other things).


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman examines the anatomy of a burn-out.


I've reached the bottom! "The Anvil Chorus Girl, directed by Izzy Sparber in 1944, is one of the best of the war-time Popeye shorts. It's standard Popeye-and-Bluto-competing-for-Olive stuff, but it has a good share of sight gags and puns (starting with the title; and don't miss the sign on the tree in the opening shot). Olive gets some pretty funny bits of her own before the plot settles in.

p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer follows the latest complications on the route to the long-awaited Dudley-Kitzhaber gubernatorial debates.

Remember to bookmark the daily political toon features at Slate's Slate, Time, and About.com.

Test your toon-captioning chops at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Sunday morning toons: Belated Veterans Day

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

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Daryl Cagle, Joel Pett, Clay Jones, Jim Morin, Scott Stantis, Chris Britt, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Pat Bagley.

p3 Legion of Merit: David Fitzsimmons.

p3 Cross de Guerre: Adam Zyglis.

p3 Norman Rockwell Award: R. J. Matson.

p3 Doomed to Repeat History Medal: Steve Sack.

p3 World Toon Review: Ingrid Rice (Canada), Julius Hansen (Denmark), Pavel Constantine (Romania), Michael Kountouris (Greece), and Cam Cardow (Canada).


Ann Telnaes notes how GOP homophobes celebrate Veterans Day.


Mark Fiore looks ahead to compromising with the uncompromising.


Here's Barry Blitt's illustration for this week's Frank Rich NYTimes column: "Who Will Stand Up to the Superrich?"


Two words: Serenity: Downtime.


Tom Tomorrow looks at the aftermath of an election in which voters largely shun the party unable to fix the economic mess in favor of the party that caused it.


The K Chronicles has a message that was too late that time, but maybe not next time: Get help. (Warning: Not fun like the "Life's Little Victories" strips.)


In a strip that may have more political overtones than you might like to think, Red Meat looks at what happens when you screw with a hand puppet.


This is absolutely fascinating: Three top-of-the-chart caricature artists show how they'd draw Pablo Picasso.


The Comic Curmudgeon looks at how Funky Winkerbean celebrates Veterans Day in the most libido-killing way imaginable. Remember when FB was a harmless, high-school version of Doonesbury? Yeesh.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman sez: The voters have spoken!


Here's why you never tear your prescriptions in half! "Naughty but Mice," was the 1939 debut of Sniffles the Mouse, one of Chuck Jones' minor creations (actually, Sniffles' original design work was done by a Disney artist who specialized in cute, and it shows). In this rarely-shown-on-TV-for-obvious-reaons short, Sniffles gets -- there's no way to put this delicately -- hammered on cold medicine.

By the way: Notice that in the background at around the 2:20 mark is a box labeled "Radium Hair Pins." There's a story behind that reference.  There are several similar "high-tech" home-remedy products along the shelf at the same time. Also, the music that begins at that point is "You Go To My Head." Musical director Carl Stalling could never resist a pun like that.


p3 Bonus "News of the Future" Toon: Jesse Springer looks at where the Kitzhaber re-election may eventually lead Oregon (click to enlarge).

Match toon-captioning wits with other buffs at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Sunday morning toons: It's not really a mosque.

And, in point of fact, it's not really at "Ground Zero" either. And meanwhile, 2 million Pakistanis (a nuclear power, you might want to keep in mind) have been displaced so far by last week's flooding there. But what upsets Newt Gingrich and worries Harry Reid naturally gets higher priority. Ah, America.

Fine. Let's start with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up for the week.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Pat Bagley, R. J. Matson, Bob Englehart, Michael Ramirez,and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Legion of Honor: Steve Sack.

p3 Certificate of Achievement for Most Bizarre Concept: Daryl Cagle.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: John Darkow.

p3 Recognition of Unsung Irony: Ed Stein.

p3 World Toon Review: Stephane Peray (Thailand), Tjeerd Royaards (Netherlands), Ingrid Rice (Canada), Frederick Deligne (France), and Cam Cardow (Canada).


It's an Ann Telnaes twofer this week: With friends like Newt and Harry, does the Constitution need enemies?


Wow, that must have been a big plane! Mark Fiore gives us Dogboy and Mr. Dan, wrestling with the logistical problems raised by the idea that every single Muslim on earth attacked us 9 years ago, and other dubious beliefs.


Slouching Toward Extinction: Political cartoonist Steve Greenberg traces the slow demise of the staff political cartoonist job.


Donk-donk! How does criminal justice work in Gotham City? Well, it's complicated. (Hat-tip to Ron.)


At Red Meat, Bug-Eyed Earl considers some of the advantages of the suburban lifestyle.


La, la, la, la! Tom Tomorrow considers what happens when we finally take the Afghanistan war seriously.


Oddly, I had a similar conversation only a day or two ago -- but without graphics! The K Chronicles reviews Times I Probably Should Have Died (but didn't).


The Comics Curmudgeon asks: What if you wrote a comic strip that nobody, not even your editors, read or cared about?


It's not really a mosque. And it's not really at "Ground Zero" either. But that isn't stopping the blather. Michael Cavna counts down the top eight eye-catching cartoons about . . . well, about the blather.


Here's the Barry Blitt illustration to accompany Frank Rich's NYTimes column today.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman raises a valid point: You can't compromise what you ain't got.


I've said it before and I'll say it again: Goofy was a genius. Jack Kenney directed this 1944 gem for Disney, one of a classic series of the Big G explaining various activities such as sports and safe driving.

No p3 Bonus Toon again this week, but here's a Jesse Springer toon from three years ago this month. It was a simpler time.


Remember to bookmark the daily political toon features at Slate, Time, and About.com.

Test your toon-captioning chops at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Sunday morning toons: Like Boxing Day, but without the leftovers

(Updated below.)

Today's selections have been frantically picked out at the last possible minute from the week's political cartoon pages at Slate, Time, About.com, Mario Piperni, and Daryl Cagle's cartoon page, then hastily wrapped in a late-night, egg nog-fuelled frenzy of paper-cuts and recriminations and shoved under the tree. Season greetings.


p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Tom Toles, Jim Moran, Glen McCoy, Jim Sherffius, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Steve Benson.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (tie); Pat Bagley and Bob Gorrell.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Converence: David Fitzsimmons and Mike Keefe.

p3 World Toon Review: Cam Cardow (Canada),Christo Komarnitski (Bulgaria), and Ingrid Rice (Canada).


Courtesy of Ann Telnaes: America's favorite former failed governor reminds us that nothing will blind you to irony like a studio spotlight.


Mark Fiore's Dogboy and Mr. Dan wonder if Christmas -- perhaps! -- doesn't come from a store.


A special p3 shout-out goes to Non Sequitur for perfectly capturing the wish I wish for Christmas every year.


Don't miss the winners of the 2010 Animate William Shatner contest (approved by Shatner himself, naturally)!


Yes, as a matter of fact, there was a "Hellboy" Christmas card from Dark Horse Comics, drawn by "Hellboy" artist Mike Mignola circa 1998-1999, and here it is.


Here's Part 1 of Tom Tomorrow's annual The Year in Crazy. Undermining America through graphic design!


Update: And here's Barry Blitt's illustration for this week's Frank Rich NYTimes column on the death of those economic-equality dreams from the late 1950s.


Keith Knight discovers the crossover point between Holiday Cheer and Alternative Fuels!


Tom the Dancing Bug presents Children-Acting-Like-Adults Funnies, and other treats from Super-Fun-Pax Comix. (And it ain't pretty!)


Wallopin' Web-snappers! The new Spider-Man Broadway musical (music by Bono and the Edge -- why should Sir Elton be the only one to cash in?) is hanging by a thread, and Taiwan's Next Media Animation brings you the story. (Hard to believe -- after all, didn't this 1975 masterpiece pack in the audiences?) Here's more from Comic Riffs' Michael Cavna about the seemingly-doomed show.


Red Meat says, the best Christmas gifts are the ones you make yourself!


And as long as Spider-Man is taking his lumps this week, The Comic Curmudgeon has something to say about Aunt Mae's latest romance -- with the Mole Man! (This is an old, old Marvel wheeze; I remember once when Aunt Mae's wedding with Doctor Octopus [!] was interrupted by a nuclear detonation on the island where his secret laboratory was located -- but Peter still insisted that telling her he was Spidey would have been too much of a strain on her weak heart.)


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman muses on the awkwardness of hearing from relatives at the holidays.


It's "Boxing Day" -- get it? Ahem. Anyway, Olive Oyl gets her Adrian-like scene at the end of "Let's You and Him Fight," directed by Dave Fleischer in 1934. Uncredited voice work: William Costello as Popeye, William Pennell as Bluto, and Bonnie Poe as Olive. Ya ain't never seen none better!

(Note to Facebook friends: For reasons of its own, when FB Notes reposts a blog post it disables any video embeds. If you're reading this via FB, you'll need to click View Original Post, below, to see the video.)


Bonus animation: Just because I think it's funny. (Hat-tip to James the Elder.)

p3 Bonus Toon: Even with the Ducks playing for the championship, a lot of Oregonians didn't get the one thing under their tree they were hoping for, and Jesse Springer shares their disappointment.

Test your toon-captioning skills at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Sunday morning toons: Politeness, and Profits from Honor

(Updated below.)

I'm not even going to mention what went on at the National Mall yesterday.

Let's just go straight to Daryl Cagle's toon round-up for the week.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Mike Lester, Nate Beeler, Mike Keefe, Steve Sack, Adam Zyglis, Larry Wright, Joe Heller, Bill Day, Cal Grondahl, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 "House United" Medal: John Cole.

p3 "Dream" Award: Pat Bagley.

p3 Knight of the "Graveyard of Empire:" Jimmy Margulies.

p3 World Toon Review: Stephane Peray (Thailand), Tjeerd Royaards (Netherlands), Ingrid Rice (Canada), Alexander Zudin (Russia), and Cam Cardow (Canada).


Ann Telnaes considers profits with Restoring Honor.


It starts with "Once upon a time:" and it goes on to talk about fairies and little children, it's got somebody in a castle high on a mountain, and it ends up with "Happily ever after." But Mark Fiore's fairy tale might not be what you were hoping for, unless you live up on that mountain. You'll see.


Red Meat's Bug-Eyed Earl does something completely unexpected in panel #3: He smiles. It's there if you look closely.


This Modern World takes us to an alternate universe run by people with poor grasp of both history and language. (Oh, wait . . . . )


The K Chronicles recounts Uncle Owen's Last Adventure.


Tom the Dancing Bug asks: Will America be defeated by its own lofty principles?


Comic Riffs has a reminder: If you like a cartoon feature, speak up!


Update: Barry Blitt's illustration for this week's Frank Rich NYTimes column, on the agendas of the wealthy conservatives who fund much of the Tea Party initiatives, is priceless.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman has a philosophical question.


As with most villains in the classic Fleischer 1940s "Superman" series, we never learn the name of the criminal who menaces the city in "Electric Earthquake," directed in 1942 with a palette of deep rich shadows by Dave Fleischer, written by Seymour Kneitel and Izzy Sparber, and with musical direction by Sammy Timberg. But he is certainly one of the oddest -- and definitely the most polite -- villains Superman ever faced. And yet, even overlooking the somewhat iffy physics of his infernal invention, there are two unanswered questions: First, why does his secret scientific lair look like a coffee urn? And second, what's the Daily Planet building doing in Manhattan?

p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer sees a murky future for a state whose budget deficit may wind up being half a billion dollars more than the $577 billion already predicted. Will there be a morning after?

Remember to bookmark the daily political toon features at Slate's Slate, Time, and About.com.

Test your toon-captioning talents at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)