Sunday morning toons: Special "Think Pink!" Edition

Bob Geiger is still on leave from his blog.

So let's kick things off with Daryl Cagle's round-up:

p3 Picks of the Week: R. J. Matson, Cameron Cardow, Jeff Parker, Jimmy Margulies, Michael Ramirez, Steve Sack, and Joe Heller.

The p3 Naked Truth Medal goes to Pat Bagley.

Following up on last week's story about the NYPost political cartoon that provoked a rare editorial (semi-)apology from the Rupert Murdoch machine: Mike Lane returns the favor.

Congratulations to the Salt Lake Tribune's Pat Bagley, winner of this year's Herblock Award.

p3 World Toon Review: Stephane Peray (Thailand), Christo Komarnitski (Bulgaria), Victor Ndula (Kenya), and Peter Broelman.


Ann Telnaes examines the two Hillarys. Oddly, this doesn't seem to be attracting the same outraged attention as the Cubs fan/Yankee fan kerfluffle a few years ago.


Guest toon: Tom Tomorrow explores the advantages of leaving the basement.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman notes who won't be the next idol.


Lance Mannion notes that the animated titles were the best part of any Pink Panther movie--even nearly upstaging Sellers' madcap performances (in the early Panther movies; the rest, as LM also points out, seemed to be a tad on the phoned-in side, and I haven't had the heart to see the Steve Martin remakes). The animated titles owed much of their success to their striking and imaginative look, but also (although LM doesn't mention it) to the unforgettable Henry Mancini theme.

The success of the character, matched with the Mancini score, launched a series of animated shorts (later collected on Saturday morning TV). The first of these is my favorite, the 1964 Academy Award-winning "The Pink Phink," created by refugees from the old Warner Bros. operation, including director Friz Freleng and musical director William Lava handling the Mancini theme. (The animated opening for "The Return of the Pink Panther" in 1975 which Lance features, was done by another member of the Looney Tunes diaspora, Ken Harris, without screen credit.)

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p3 Bonus Toon:The Oregon budget process is never simple, especially not this year. But Jesse Springer thinks maybe it could be simpler than we're making it. If only we could put our finger on what's missing . . .