Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sunday morning toons: Special "Hyman Roth Tribute" edition

Hyman Roth has been dying from the same heart attack for the last twenty years.

Michael Corleone, "The Godfather, Part II"

Like Roth, health care reform has been in its "end-game" stage for months--certainly since before Christmas, arguably since late June. At least if you listen to the talking heads.

(Of course now, some five or six decades after the events in the "Godfather" sequel, very few Americans could financially afford to survive that many near-death experiences--except Dick Cheney, perhaps, for whom the government picks up the tab. Note, by the way, that we here at p3 don't mean to draw unfair comparison between Roth and Cheney. Roth, a fictional character based on gangster Meyer Lansky, was, after all, an unindicted crime lord. Cheney, on the other hand, is an unindicted war criminal. So I hope that's clear.)

In any case, the HCR final push--whatever that turns out to mean (see the Legion of Merit award, below)--is topic number one in this week's p3 toon review. (Apparently, some tickling and towel-snapping will be involved too.) As we traditionally do, let's kick things off with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up for the week.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Mike Lester, Pat Bagley, R. J. Matson, John Darkow, Steve Sack, Bill Day, Ed Stein, Rob Rogers, Jeff Darcy, Steve Benson, J. D. Crowe, and Monte Wolverton,

p3 Legion of Merit: John Cole.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (tie): John Trever and Jeff Stahler.

p3 Frank Murphy* Citation: Jim Day. (*Look it up.)

p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Stephane Peray (Thailand), Pavel Constantin, (Romania), Manny Francisco (the Philippines), Ingrid Rice (Canada), and Cam Cardow (Canada).


We've got an Ann Telnaes two-fer this week: First: the wisdom of ethnic profiling; second: is that the pitter-patter of little feet? Nope.


Mark Fiore exposes the latest devilish plan of the congressional Democrats.


Disappointing: I generally like Michael Ramirez's stuff, especially his dazed-looking Democratic donkeys, but there are times I wish he could forget he was drawing for IBD.


Lance Mannion theorizes that Garry Trudeau is writing the satirical novel of our time--one panel at a time.


Update: Remember the Danish cartoonist accused of blasphemy and attacked in his home by an axe-weilding zealot? He was eventually relocated to Sweden for his safety, but apparently things are only marginally safer there:

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) -- Irish police arrested seven people Tuesday over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish artist who depicted the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.

Just to be clear, the newest target is a different artist.


Savage complaints about minor inconveniences: Kind of sounds like a lost Tom Robbins novel, doesn't it? In fact, it's the Comics Curmudgeon's tribute to They'll Do It Every Time, placing the hoary one-panel wonder in its proper historical/anthropological context.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman scores big this week.


The problem of pre-existing conditions: Let's begin with Too Much Information: Back in the day, I had a series of not-remotely-pleasant clinic sessions with a dermatologist. The saving grace of this experience was that the dermatologist herself was amazingly hot. (Yes, my life at the time was that nearly driven by sitcom premises. Alas, she also had that Doctor McCoy-like conviction that suffering was good for the soul--or sole, in my case--and was amazingly stingy with the pain-killers. But that's another story.) The point is, Popeye and Bluto can probably relate. From 1945, here's "For Better or Nurse," directed by Izzy Sparber, about the love-sick sailors' pursuit of, uhm, adequate coverage. It's dedicated to what may or may not be the end of the whole health care reform mish-mash.




p3 Bonus Toon: Glancing up from the business section, Jesse Springer observes that, as the stock market goes, so go we all.




Remember to bookmark:

Slate's political cartoon for the day.

And Time's cartoons of the week.

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