Sunday, December 29, 2013

Sunday morning toons: 2013 – going out in style

(Update: Happy 91st birthday to Marvel Comics impresario Stan "The Man" Lee! Excelsior!)

What's been happening this week? Well, Vladimir Putin is putting on the most transparent pre-Olympics PR offensive to disguise the corruption and oppression in his country since . . . China's pre-Olympics PR offensive in 2012.

It may turn out that the only thing that the Absentee Congress could do to lower their popularity, after bailing out of DC for Christmas with SNAP and Unemployment Insurance unfunded would be to come back to Washington next month.

And, while we're on the subject, what color is your Santa Claus?

Today's toons were lovingly hand-selected from the week's offerings at McClatchy DC, Cartoon Movement, Go Comics, Politico's Cartoon Gallery, Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoons, About.com, and other fine sources of toony goodness.


p3 Best of Show: Ben Sargent.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence: Joel Pett and Rob Rogers.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Walt Handlesman.

p3 World Toon Review: Martyn Turner (Ireland) and Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland).


Top Toons of 2013, from About.com and the Washington Post,


Ann Telnaes covers the real war on Christmas.


Mark Fiore watches Congress learn the true meaning of Christmas – a day late and many, many dollars short.


Taiwan's Next Media Animation presents the seven most dreadful words on earth: It's never too early for an iPad.


Tom Tomorrow presents 2013 in Review: Part 1. Spoiler: It was already looking bad on January 7th.


Keith Knight goes there. Oh yes, he goes there.


Tom the Dancing Bug presents the further adventures (well actually, I think that this is the first one, so the next one would technically be the "further" adventures) of Harvey Richards, Lawyer for Children. Tune in next week (once again, that would be the "further" one) when Harvey Richards thinks he's found grounds for appeal under the 1911 "I'm Rubber and You're Glue" decision.


Red Meat's Bug-Eyed Earl knows how to get into the season.


The Comic Strip Curmudgeon takes the week off. He's earned it.


Comic Strip of the Day finds reassurance, if not hope, in Dilbert, which puts the site one jump ahead of us here at p3.


Superman versus Hulk, Part 3: It's been a couple of years since Michael Habjan released "The Meeting," setting the stage for the confrontation between the strongest characters from the DC and Marvel universes. Part 1 and Part 2 of this amazing indie CGI creation followed shortly thereafter. (The p3 toon review covered the release of both.) Now the latest installment is out. Still very good stuff. And it's pretty funny to watch comic nerds argue about who should really win.


New Year's comes but once a year! Although it was released on January 26, 1938, "Let's Celebrake!" is a New Year's Eve story, in which Popeye adopts the unusual role of Bluto's wingman. Directed by Dave Fleischer, with animation by Seymour Kneitel, and uncredited work by Jack Mercer (Popeye), Mae Questel (The Slender One and Grandma), Gus Wickie (Bluto), and Sammy Timberg (musical direction).



The Big, But Could Be Bigger and Will Be in 2014, Oregon Toon Block


Jesse Springer laments the passing of an Oregon Christmas tradition that's gone off the rails.





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

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