Sunday morning toons: Trend lines

Duck Dynasty: Down

Curling: Up

US Speed Skater uniforms: Down

Half-price chocolate candy: Up

Chris Christie: Down

Sherlock: Up

Michael Sam: Up

The entire state of Kansas: Down

Today's toons were selected by means of a telephone poll with a margin of error of +/- 3%, 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 Picks of the week: Mike Luckovich, Jack Ohman, Stuart Carlson, Matt Davies, Kevin Kallaugher, Pat Bagley, Mike Keefe, David Firzsimmons, Steve Breen, Matt Wuerker, Jen Sorenson, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Jim Morin.

p3 Legion of Merit: Ted Rall.

p3 Legion of Honor (with Paternity Test): Jimmy Margulies.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Rob Rogers.

p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Paresh Nath (India), Tom Janssen (The Netherlands), and Amorim (Brazil).

Ann Telnaes celebrates Chris Christie's impeccable sense of how to surf the big popularity wave.

Mark Fiore covers one of the worst-covered stories of the month. So far.

Taiwan's Next Media Animation tells the story that could only happen in South Carolina. In a Whole Foods parking lot.

Congratulations to this year's nominees for induction into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame.

Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau is putting his strip on haitus for a while to work on his HBO series Alpha House.

Tom Tomorrow reminds us that Ol' #1 works in mysterious ways.

Keith Knight knows: it pays to speak a second language. (Pay close attention; the differences are subtle.)

Tom the Dancing Bug brings this important news: Numbers – not just a book in the Bible anymore!

Red Meat's The Old Cowboy isn't having a good day.

The Comic Strip Curmudgeon receives the p3 award for excruciatingly correct use of the word "literally."

Looking for a chance to pick up extra credit? When I picked Kevin Kallaugher's and Matt Bors' pieces for today, I didn't realize that Comic Strip of the Day was already there.

This mysterious weed is the secret of the Earthman's strength! "Popeye, The Ace of Space," directed in 1953 by Seymour Kneitel, cashes in on several movie trends of the moment: Flying saucers, green aliens, and – wait for it – 3-D effects, one of two Paramount shorts filmed with the process during that decade. Even in the 2-D embed below, you'll notice an unusual number of things (disintegrator beams, pipe smoke, cans of spinach – one of four in the story) flying along the Z-axis toward you. Uncredited voice work by Jack Mercer (Popeye, although he also gets half story credit), plus Jackson Beck and Sid Raymond (as the Martians, although Beck was normally doing Bluto's voice in those days). Savor the prescient historical irony of Popeye watching from the sidelines as the Martians fight among themselves, announcing his resolve to make them "peace-kable," and then diving in and beating the crap out of all of them. And then stealing their ride. On the other hand, the 1950s-era Popeye did frequently sing scat, which I always considered a point in his favor.