Sunday evening toons: And having once turned round walks on

And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.

Coleridge wrote that, and Mary Shelly lifted it for the moment when Victor Frankenstein beheld his creation. We've featured a number of toons this spring that compared Trump to Frankenstein's creature, and the GOP establishment to its horrified creator. But now, as the Thunderdome that will be the GOP convention draws nearer, the party elite are realizing that, while Trump may be a dreadful nominee, there is another frightful fiend that doth tread close behind him as well. The thought that Ted Cruz would be their fallback guy if trump doesn't get the nomination doesn't seem to be making anyone but Cruz loyalists and Democratic oppo people happy. And the thought that his unfavorables are roughly the same as Clinton's and far better than Trump's doesn't seem to be providing much comfort. They still dislike the guy. Good.

Many people have used the phrase "the soundtrack of my life" to describe their sense of loss at Prince's death. I enjoyed his music, and certainly respected his creativity and the number of issues he came down on the right side of, but I just never had the connection. Different life, different times, different soundtrack. (It's why not many people want to hear what it was like to find out about John Lennon's assassination from Howard Cosell. I get it.) And I appreciate that, if Prince was your soundtrack, the pressure of deadline cartooning mixed with the difficulty of getting past the initial sense of shock and loss might not help you produce your best work. That being said, if you didn't get beyond rain that was purple or two doves that were white, you didn't make the cut today.

And congratulations to the GOP for elevating their fascination with the question of who pees where to a national issue. LGBTQ advocates couldn't have caught a luckier break from a more unsympathetic group of opponents.

Today's toons were 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 Picks of the week: Mike Luckovich, Brian McFadden, Jeff Danziger, Joel Pett, Drew Sheneman, Tom Toles, Dan Wasserman, Nick Anderson, and Matt Wuerker.

p3 Best of Show: Rob Rogers.

p3 Legion of Merit: Signe Wilkinson.

p3 "Perspective: Use It Or Lose It" Award: Darren Bell.

Ann Telnaes looks at Earth Day as a poltical football. Or beach ball. Or whatever. And as long as we're celebrating Earth Day this week, time to bring back this gem.

Mark Fiore flies the (un)friendly skies.

Delicate sensibilities! Trial by followers! Unrealized goals! Tom Tomorrow has all that, and more, including a brief yet welcome cameo by Sparky the Penguin and Chuckles the Sensible Woodchuck. And a shocking twist ending! (I had a conversation a couple of days ago with a friend who'd never watched the original Twilight Zone and, with perhaps a little nudging from me, was working her way through them. She was so excited to see "To Serve Man" for the first time – and it was such a delight listening to her explain the story. The passing of the TZ torch is a wonderful thing to see.)

Keith Knight has one word for you. Just one word. Are you listening?

Reuben Bolling presents God-Man vs Human-Man: Dawn of Justice.

Comic Strip of the Day goes on a tear: Facts cannot be "good" or "bad." In a bit of irony (I decline to call it a juxtaposition), not that long after his post I stumbled across this item from an otherwise-sensible site, which sets nearly the opposite challenge for itself: debating the facticity of something that everyone concedes up-front was made up. (Yes, it's a word. You can look it up.)

A rabbit's woik is never done! "Hare Conditioned," directed in 1945 by Chuck Jones from a story by Tedd Pierce, was the short feature before "Rocky Horror" at a campus theater back in the day, so there was a patch when I saw it every Friday night for a now-embarrassing length of time. Watch "Hare Conditioned" at eBaum's World.

The Right-Sized Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman – who as it happens just won a Pulitzer – pays tribute to Donald Trump, who as it happens is a very smart guy. Just ask him.

Documented Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen knows a frightful fiend when she sees one.

Matt Bors captures a feeling I've had ever since I got out of the classroom biz.

Jesse Springer asks: What have you hit when marijuana sales in the first two months of legalization doubles the projected annual revenue from the program? Well . . .

Test your toon-captioning magic 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.