Sunday, September 8, 2013

Sunday morning toons: Politics and poker both stop at the water's edge


And other mixed metaphors.

So what toony goodness do we have in store this this week?

 John McCain, war-hawk extraordinaire, once again raised the question of whether he's playing with a full deck.

Syria: America's next Iraq? Or it's next Vietnam? Or maybe it's next Cambodia? You decide.

Last week I cycled about 50 miles. Diana Nyad swam from Cuba to Florida. Thanks, Diana.

Oh yeah. And a special message from the NFL to the players (paraphrasing a line sometimes attributed to Alfred Hitchcock): We never said players were livestock. We merely said they should be treated like livestock.

Today's toons were selected by Congress after I punted the decision to them, from the pages of 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, Jim Morin, Chris Weyant, Clay Bennett, Nate Beeler, Pat Bagley, Mike Keefe, Signe Wilkinson, Adam Zyglis, Joe Heller, J.D. Crowe, Mario Piperni, Jen Sorenson, Matt Wuerker, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Nick Anderson.

p3 Old Media/New Media Award: Kevin Siers.

p3 Blunt-Force Criticism Medal: Lee Judge.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence (belated): Matt Wuerker and Bill Schorr.

p3 World Toon Review: Petar Pismestrovic (Austria), Jeff Treves (Turkey), Rachel Gold (Austria), and Payam Boromand (Iran).


Ann Telnaes
detects a fine natural imbalance.


Mark Fiore brings Suzie Newsykins to tell us about her summer job with the Obama Administration.


Tom Tomorrow's Sparky the Penguin and Chuckles the Sensible Woodchuck consider the importance of social media.


Keith Knight is sympathetic, but he's not amused.


Meanwhile, Comic Strip of the Day offers a take on Keith Knight's take.


Tom the Dancing Bug ponders Dorothy's famous question: “A place where there isn't any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto?”


Red Meat's Milkman Dan explains to Karen: He's not horrible; he's okay.


The Cartoon Curmudgeon detects further signs of the decline of humans as the dominant species on the planet. (Me? I detect further signs of Shylock Fox as being so sloppily drawn that I'm never sure which differences are deliberate and which are accidental.)


In observance of the start of football season: Before "We Are the Champions," before "Who Let the Dogs Out," there was “You Gotta Be a Football Hero,” the most widely-recorded football anthem of the age, written in 1933 by Al Sherman, Buddy Fields and Al Lewis. The song was so popular that, in this Popeye short directed by Dave Fleischer in 1935, the song actually interrupts the traditional Popeye theme – one supposes that audiences of the time, once they saw the song title in the opening sliding-door credits, were probably singing it anyway. Animated by Willard Bowskie and George Germanetti, and (uncredited) voice work by Billy Costello in his last appearance as Popeye, Mae Questel as The Slender One, and Gus Wickie as Bluto, plus musical direction by Sammy Timberg. (Note that the performance-enhancing substances come out at the 4:32 mark.) Presented in glorious black and white, with lifelike monophonic sound.

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


The Big-But-Not-As-Big-As-I'd-Like-It-To-Be Oregon Toon Block:

Matt Bors asks: What could possibly go wrong here?

Jesse Springer is shopping through Oregon's back-to-school specials:





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

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