Sunday morning toons: Theory and practice

The anti-intellectualism behind those who want to ban books -- that's the theory. The shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai -- that's the practice.

The institutional misogyny of just about every world religion, to say nothing of the current Republican Party -- that's the theory. The slick corporate misogyny of Mitt Romney's binders, and the crude and obvious misogyny of Todd Akin and Joe Walsh -- those are the practice.

Feh.

This week, in addition to the fearsome prospect of women's freedom to think and control their own bodies, we've got the prospect of the final presidential debate and the end of several enduring American institutions.

Today's toons were salvaged from a trash bin in Virginia where GOP operatives had dumped them, from the week's pages at GoComics, McClatchyDC.com, Slate, Time, About.com, Daryl Cagle, and other fine sources.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Joel Pett, Pat Bagley, Steve Sack, Chris Weyant, Randy Bish, Nate Beeler, Adam Zyglis, Matt Wuerker, Joe Heller, Jen Sorensen, J. D. Crowe, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Legion of Merit: Nick Anderson.

p3 Best of Show: R. J. Matson.

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

p3 Alternate Reality Medal: Joel Pett.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence: Mike Luckovich and Nate Beeler.

p3 World Toon Review: Cam Cardow (Canada), Rachel Gold (Austria), Paresh Nath (India), and Ingrid Rice (Canada),

Tribute to Malala Yousafzai, including such familiar faces at p3 as Steve Breen, Adam Zyglis, Cal Grondahl, and Bill Day.


Ann Telnaes reminds us of another Romney binder.


Mark Fiore predicts the sad, but probably inevitible future of electioneering.


Taiwan's Next Media Animation documents the first of several American institutions to go down the drain this week.

Unfortunately, I misjudged you. You are just a stupid policeman -- whose luck has run out. Here at p3 we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr. No, the first James Bond film (although the sixth James Bond novel). The popularity of the film inspired a Classics Illustrated comic version of the story in the UK, indebted more directly to the film than the book. (Click to enlarge)

(And the success of the UK comic inspired an American version that was seriously bowdlerized.)

Dr. No is also noteworthy for having the longest, most boring theatrical trailer not just in the history of the Bond franchise, but perhaps in the history of cinema itself. I'm sure the trailer for "The Sorrow and the Pity" -- if there was one -- must have cut to the chase a lot sooner than this one.

Meanwhile, Joseph Wiseman's portrayal of Dr. No is enjoying a brief -- a very brief -- revival in the extended Heineken advertisement linking the beer to the upcoming Bond film “Skyfall” (watch for him at the 00:54 mark, and don't blink!):

If your browser won't display the embedded version, click here. 

(Wiseman himself died in 2009. Mike Myers fans around the world mourned.)


Dilbert and Romney: Scott Adams pretty well played out his hand around here at p3 quite some time ago, so neither the fact that he's endorsing Romney (and exactly what voting block will that unleash upon the polls?) nor the reason why is terribly interesting. Like the demise of the print Newsweek, it's simply noteworthy as the final implosion of something that last caught the zeitgeist about 20 years ago.


Please don't let my niece grow up to be a Disney princess! Please?


”Gently aging” Superman: Here's a page of beautiful art from DC's revival of All Star Comics in the late 1970s. It's remarkable to realize that shadowy tribute to the black-and-white golden-age strips of a couple generations earlier was actually published (#64 Jan-Feb 1977) only a year or so before the brightly-colored, borderline-camp “Superman: The Movie.” It's even more remarkable to consider that the artist is the same Wally Wood who created this legendary parody for issue #4 of Mad Magazine in 1953. Seriously. You can look it up.


Diversity in the GOP, Part 1: Tom Tomorrow plots the future of the GOP base.


Diversity in the GOP, Part 2: Keith Knight debunks the myth that there's no diversity in the Republican Party.


And speaking of distinguished alumni of the Evil Medical School, Tom the Dancing Bug Billy Dare, Boy Adventurer tracks his nemesis from an unlikely clue!


Red Meat's Bug-Eyed Earl has his plan in place.


Try Duck: The Food Supreme! “Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur” (1939) is the first DD story directed by Chuck Jones, who would, in the early 1950s, reinvent Daffy's character (and modify his look), thereby landing the duck on two of the 50 greatest cartoons of all time. Daffy's voice is done by Portland's own Mel Blanc (Casper the Caveman's Jack Bennyesque voice is provided by 40s and 50s all-arounder Jack Lescoulie.) The manic score is by musical director Carl Stalling. (I'm pretty sure that several of the duck billboard slogans are references to famous advertising campaigns of the time, although the only one I can name off the top of my head is “the pause that refreshes,” taken from Coca-Cola ads of the time. And "Wheaties: Breakfast of Champions," of course.)

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The p3 Big Oregon Toon Block:

Jack Ohman notes the importance of the Boy Scout motto.

Everyone has a cause; Matt Bors has his.

Jesse Springer has some good advice: Don't open your door to Eighty-four!

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