Sunday morning toons: Just cutting to the damned chase

Several people either officially declared their candidacy for the presidency in 2016 or inched ever-closer to that point – but the reaction seemed to center on semiotic analysis of Hillary's campaign logo.

The House of Representatives voted to repeal the Estate Tax, but the fellow who somehow landed an autogyro on the Capital lawn as a protest against ever-increasing inequality of wealth and income got all the notice.

So, since this hasn't been much of a week for perspective, let's just cut to the chase. Today's toons were selected, with exquisite care, 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, Mike Lester, Signe Wilkinson, Pat Bagley, David Fitzsimmons, Matt Wuerker, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Jim Morin.

p3 Legion of Merit: Kevin Kallaugher.

p3 Crown of Glory (with bells): John Deering.

p3 Perspective – Figure It Out – Award: Either Glenn McCoy or Joel Pett.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence (Part 1): Tom Toles and Rob Rogers.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence (Part 2): Signe Wilkinson, Matt Davies, and Clay Bennett.

p3 World Toon Review: Ingrid Rice (Canada) and Martin Kamensky (Austria).

Ann Telnaes neither forgives nor forgets, as she welcomes the launch of Mario Rubio's 2016 campaign.

Mark Fiore welcomes the beginning of the next presidential campaign in the world's remaining superpower.

Tom Tomorrow considers proof that the system works.

Tom the Dancing Bug takes a moment to celebrate where it's all been going all along.

Red Meat's Ted Johnson has a surprise for Mrs. Johnson. And it reminds me of the wallet of a friend of mine –actually the sixth or seventh in a line, if I remember correctly, but that's another story.

The Comic Strip Curmudgeon brings you something you didn't expect, I'll bet: a quick lesson on trademark and intellectual property law history from Shoe.

Comic Strip of the Day begins with one my favorite strips from my younger days (athough I admit I either never noticed the wrist hair or forgot about it in the intervening years), and ends with an item that may – or may not – landing you in hell, depending.

Ah-yup, yup, it's ten all right, Leo! There were several one-off characters from the Warner Bros studio in the late forties and early fifties who never quite caught fire. One was Charlie Dog ("Look, pal – you ain't got no dog, and I ain't got no master.") Another was Beaky Buzzard, a Bob Clampett creation who first appeared against Bugs Bunny in "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid" (1942). Here he is eight years later, starring in his own short, directed by Friz Freleng from a story by Tedd Pierce. Voiced by Portland's Own Mel Blanc, with musical direction by Carl Stalling.

Beaky Buzzard - The lions Busy (1950)

The p3 Sunday Comics Read-Along: Pearls Before Swine, Doonesbury, Rhymes with Orange, Zits, Adam @ Home, Mutts, Over the Hedge, Get Fuzzy, Prince Valiant, Blondie, Bizarro, Mother Goose & Grimm, Rose is Rose, Luann, Hagar the Horrible, Pickles, Rubes, Grand Avenue, Freshly Squeezed, The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee, and Jumble.

The Big, And Getting Bigger Since We Started Cheating and Welcomed Back The Departed, Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman unveils a less turtle-like, more potato-like rendering of one of the saddest pieces of work in the Senate.

Very Possibly Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen looks at the bottom line.

Matt Bors suggests some reasonable restrictions.

Jesse Springer sniffs at the Oregon legislature's refusal to put in place any protections from aerial herbicide spraying. Wonder how that happened?

Test your toon captioning awakening Force at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.) And you can browse The New Yorker's cartoon gallery here.