Sunday morning toons: Fear of a Trump planet! And other horrors.

(Welcome to visitors from The Vagabond Scholar and other kind supporters out there! And thanks to Batocchio for continuing to do the lifting and toting that keeps the Jon Swift Memorial "Best Post of the Year" Roundup!)

Marshall Ramsey captures the theme of this week's toon review. (Hint: It leads to the dark side. Second hint: It's the mind-killer.)

Yes, you can just smell the sour odor of fear out there everywhere this week. Establishment Republicans fear Trump. Americans, egged on in no small part by Trump, fear Muslims (whether they're Still Over There, or Already Over Here, or Over There But Trying to Get Over Here). People who know what fascism is (Jonah Goldberg obviously doesn't make the cut here) fear Trump's most ardent followers.

Antonin Scalia fears that black students are setting their educational sights too high. Students and faculty at the University of Texas now have a lot more to fear than just a shooter on the University Tower. Second Amendment enthusiasts, at long last, may see their fears of Obama comin' for their guns to be even remotely justified.

People with ocean-front property or farm land in the Central Valley – or children – fear the Paris climate agreements won't do anything – and the people who think climate change is all a hoax perpetrated by corrupt scientists and sinister one-world government types fear that it somehow might.

Today's toons were selected in a flight-or-fight frenzy 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 cartoon goodness.

p3 Picks of the week: Mike Luckovich, Matt Davies, Bill Day, Dana Summers, Gary Varvel, Signe Wilkinson, Nick Anderson, Steve Breen, Joe Heller, Chan Lowe, Paul Szep, Matt Wuerker, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Ted Rall.

p3 Legion of Merit: Clay Jones.

p3 Mollusk Medal of Distinction (with Slime Trails): John Cole.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence: Jeff Danziger and Clay Jones.

Ann Telnaes says we really only have one thing to fear. She could be right.

Mark Fiore illuminates the Trump/FDR parallel: It starts with "We have nothing to fear but . . . " and then, unfortunately, it ends right there. Funny, isn't it, that the Short Fingered Vulgarian would latch onto Roosevelt's worst moment as president for his inspiration?

Tom Tomorrow's Sparky learns that it's okay to stoke fear, or even to give in to it, so long as we're practical about it.

Keith Knight asks the obvious question.

Reuben Bolling unveils the NRA's plan to make Christmas last all year. (Hint: it rhymes with "year.")

Red Meat's Stubbo may not be feeling any fear, but he made me realize I need to get my flu shot stat.

The Comic Strip Curmudgeon locates the Fear of Christmas Alone in a rare one-panel Blondie.

Comic Strip of the Day notes a historic occasion when the fear of farts, the odd Jesus Christ, and the occasional oh fuck off provided much-needed leverage in negotiation. The post also confirms my long-standing belief that there aren't many guys who once had a VW bus, but got rid of it, who don't have moments when they wish they still had it. If it was running right.

Lucky Lois – always gets her story! "Terror on the Midway," directed by Dave Fleischer in 1942 with animation by James Davis and the magnificently-named Orestes Calpini, was the last of the 17 Superman theatrical cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios. After Famous Studios took over, the stories (which until then hadn't noticed that World War II was going on) were much more about the Man of Steel battling Axis powers. (Interestingly, covers from the comic series at that time had lots of stirring imagery of Superman jumping into battle against the Germans and Japanese, but the stories inside had little or no connection to the war, based on the concern that it would disrespect American soldiers to suggest that they had to fight it out for four years while Superman could have ended the war in a day.) Uncredited voice work by Joan Alexander (Lois), Bud Collyer (Clark/Superman), Jack Mercer (carnival barker), and Jackson Beck (narrator). Mercer and Beck were also the voices for Popeye and Bluto, respectively, at the same studio.

The Oregon Toon Block of Terror:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman imagines something that even Trump might fear.

Very Possibly Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen puts fear in its place (hint: after the next shooting, before the next intimidated politician speaks up, next to the cash register).

Matt Bors knows what has him worried. I like the detail of the mustache swirling as much as his combover. You'll see. Also, although I'm not a yooge fan of the pun, he has one of two that I found amusing this week. Here's the other.

After spending last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning bailing water from a record rainfall, I'm totally down with Jesse Springer about the one thing that holds no fear for Oregonians. Of course, the thought of being stranded at sea on what looks like someone's enormous hairy butt-cheek – well, okay, that might strike a little fear in my heart.

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

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.