Sunday, September 15, 2013

Sunday morning toons: The accidental diplomat

(Update: Ann Telnaes link is fixed.)

I'm still not 100% confident of the outcome -- not even close – but I have to say that Syria may be the first build-up to war in my lifetime that didn't get worse the longer the people in charge talked about it (and no, Grenada wasn't a war; it was the varsity football team rolling a couple of seventh-graders for their lunch money). I think I prefer “accidental diplomacy” to “n-dimensional chess” – and I certainly prefer it to “screw it, he tried to kill my daddy.”

Todays toons were selected based on an offhand remark by the Secretary of State, from the pages of at McClatchy DC, Cartoon Movement, Go Comics, Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoons, About.com, Politico's Cartoon Carousel, Comic Strip of the Day, and other fine sources.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Jack Ohman, Rick McKee, Chris Weyant, John Darkow, Mike Keefe, Joe Heller, Pat Bagley, Bill Day, Mario Piperni, Matt Wuerker, Jen Sorenson, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Joel Pett.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (tie): Signe Wilkinson and Rick McKee.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence: David Fitzsimmons and Eric Allie.

p3 Legion of Merit Award: Jeff Darcy. p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Lupfie (China), and Olle Johansson (Sweden).


Ann Telnaes
presents your John Kerry moment of Zen.


Mark Fiore warns Syria: The Obama administration is unleashing America's advanced accidentally diplomacy technology.


Taiwan's Next Media Animation presents some sound advice we hope you'll never need, regarding fifty dollars, a photo session, and a Motel 6. Downside: “This wasn't no ordinary modeling shoot.” (Sigh.) Upside: the rendering of the guy in the next room.


Tom Tomorrow asks: When is a war not a war? Hint: it may involve air quotes.


Keith Knight discovers someplace where Portland has the edge over L.A.. Woot! (Although it takes kind of a creepy turn at the very end.)


Tom the Dancing Bug compares life on Earth with life on a similar – but not identical – planet on the far side of the sun. It's deeply pitched, so stay with it for a few panels.


And Comic Strip of the Day sees TtDB's strip as a moment to go all Andy Rooney. (By the way, there really was a 1969 movie about a duplicate earth discovered on the far side of the sun. Just, you know, for what that's worth.)


Red Meat's Ted Johnson and Clyde discuss tactics.


The Cartoon Curmudgeon weighs the history and uses of the negative concord. Twice!


Doonesbury faces up to the cold realities of the new-media world.


Before you can go to a hospital, you have to be very sick, or hurt real bad! “Hospitaliky,” directed by Dave Fleischer in 1937, is another exploration of every Obamacare enemy's worst fear: two healthy men exploiting the health care system. Uncredited work by William Henning and Seymour Kneitel (animation) Sammy Timberg (musical direction), Jack Mercer (Popeye), Mae Questel (The Slender One), and Gus Wickie (Bluto). In glorious black and white.

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


(By the way, if you're wondering why we've been featuring a lot of Popeye cartoons lately, there are two reasons: First, TimeWarner is making it harder to find classic Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes online. And second, in the last year or so, a lot of Popeyes have turned up online that are in pretty nearly pristine shape.)


The Somewhat Reduced Big Oregon Toon Block:

Matt Bors suggests unleashing the ultimate weapon against Assad. Sure, it's inhumane, but it's not technically a war crime.

Jesse Springer has a bone to pick: While Oregon public schools struggle for basic funding, Oregon students performed the same or worse than the previous year on standardized tests at all grades and in all subjects except for high school math.





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

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