Sunday morning toons: Special "Moon-a and June-a" edition

It's been quite a week: The Haitian disaster let the American right show its warm and fuzzy side. The one person left on the planet who still hadn't acknowledged Mark McGuire's obvious use of performance drugs spoke up. The annual holiday that John McCain opposed is almost upon us. NBC wished it knew how to quit Jay Leno. And airline travelers faced heightened security measures in order to experience diminished airline service.

Where to begin? How about, as always, with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up for the week?

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Nate Beeler, Pat Bagley, John Darkow, Jeff Stahler, Nate Beeler, Mark Lester, Randy Bish, ,
Steve Sack, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Legion of Honor: Jeff Parker.

p3 Peter Venkman Prize: Daryl Cagle.

p3 World Toon Review: Frederick Deligne (France), Ingrid Rice (Canada), Arcadio Esquivel (Costa Rica), Stephane Peray, (Thailand) and Cam Cardow (Canada).


Ann Telnaes offers some some much-needed advice on counter-terrorism.


Mark Fiore invites you to play along on the game show that's sweeping America


"Mad tea party," indeed: This morning's Frank Rich NYTimes column on the iffy relationship between Palin, Steele, and the Tea Partiers is accompanied by this uncredited Barry Blitt hat-tip to John Tenniel.


Yesh! Patrick McDonand's strip Mutts is charming, and one of the few graces retained by the ever-diminishing Oregonian. As the O's Sunday comics section began to shrink, several years ago, one of the earliest casualties was the title panel for most strips--the initial panel with the title and artist's name, and usually not much else. (Look! Here's one now!) McDonald has often used that panel to slip in a tribute to famous images, including not only should-have-learned-in-college artists like Magritte and Dali, but also iconic political posters, magazine and comic book covers, and album jackets--always featuring cameos by Earl, Mooch, and the other characters populating his strip. Take the trip and see how much you remember from Art Appreciation class.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman takes a look at NBC's woes.


"Owl Jolsen"--get it? The "Merrie Melodies" series was originally created by Warner Bros. as a way to further promote the songs from its musicals by building them into the story of a seven-minute animated short. This 1936 Tex Avery toon, "I Love to Singa," features a song originally sung on screen by Al Jolsen and Cab Calloway. The result is something somewhere between "The Jazz Singer" and "American Idol"--and a hell of a long way from Avery's later adventures in sight gags, popping eyeballs, and ah-ooga horn sound effects:

p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer thinks that opponents of Measures 66 and 67 may be missing something obvious. (Click to enlarge.)




Don't subject yourself to the shame of being the last p3 reader to bookmark Slate's political cartoon for the day.