Sunday, September 1, 2013

Sunday morning toons: If I were president


I have to say, if I were President Obama, and I wanted a way to back myself out of the corner I'd painted myself into with Syria, since there's useful purpose to bombing Syria and most of our allies and the American public don't want us to bomb Syria, it might seem like a pretty good idea to actually let Congress play its constitutionally-mandated role (for the first time in several wars), so it wouldn't look like I was backing down from my really bad idea.

Because that would send the wrong signal.

Also too: Happy Labor Day tomorrow.

This week's toons were launched from three hundred miles off-shore from the pages 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, Joel Pett, Steve Sack, Jim Morin, Clay Bennett, Jeff Parker, Nick Anderson, Eric Allie, Dave Grundland, John Darkow, David Fitzsimmons, Jen Sorenson, Matt Wuerker, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Adam Zyglis.

p3 “It's Just a Jump to the Left!” Trophy: Lee Judge.

p3 Legion of Merit: Joel Pett.

p3 World Toon Review Ingrid Rice (Canada). Petar Pismestrovic (Austria). Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland). and Paresh Nath (India).


Ann Telnaes hears a familiar sound.


Having trouble rising to the occasion? Mark Fiore has the product you need. Heh.


Taiwan's Next Media Animation brings good news to students facing education debt.


Tom Tomorrow brings us the news: Somewhere in China a butterfly beats its wings at a slightly different rate, and suddenly, seven thousand miles away . . .


Keith Knight celebrates the secret engine that moves our economy.


Tom the Dancing Bug presents Louis, livin' the dream. Sort of.


Red Meat's Bug-Eyed Earl is not a satisfied consumer.


The Comics Curmudgeon is the only page we're linking to this week that uses the phrase ”sexy lady bird.” Find out why.


You guys'll get hurt, travelin' alone! Don't look for a lot of narrative coherence in “Blow Me Down,” the third Popeye theatrical short ever created. It's long on unmotivated violence and sight gags, which isn't so bad, I suppose. It was directed in 1933 by Dave Fleischer, with animation in luscious black and white by Willard Bowsky and William Sturm, and uncredited voice work by Billy Costello (Popeye), Bonnie Poe (Olive Oyl), and Gus Wickie (Bluto). According to Wikipedia: “Winston Sharples and Sammy Timberg composed most of the music for Popeye shorts. Timberg composed the themes to the Fleischers' Betty Boop and Superman cartoons, but asked Lerner to write Popeye's theme song because he had a date that night.” The pipe music that begins the opening theme is an 18th century sea chanty called “The Sailor's Pipe.” So now you know.

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


The Big Oregon Toon Block:

Matt Bors gets our priorities straight in the Manning case.

Jesse Springer charts one of Oregon's rockiest relationships.




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

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