This Far Side sure seemed funny in 1984, but that was 40 years ago and times change. Also, it’s based on a janitor’s innocent error, not on the irresponsible, egotistical jackassery of editors and reporters. It came immediately to mind yesterday when two jurors dropped off the Trump trial because of having been effectively doxxed by irresponsible, egotistical jackasses in the media who chose to reveal all but the actual names and addresses of those who had made the cut. I’d love to blame Jesse Watters for his part, but there were non-Trumpers who also published way too much information, and o ..read more

From Interviewer William Schwartz: From 2006 to 2020, Norm Feuti wrote and drew Retail, a syndicated strip surprisingly low on wacky antics, preferring to deal with the mundane farce of retail employees stuck between intractable corporate policy and arbitrarily unreasonable customers. Feuti spoke with me about this and the other comics of his career. The Comics Journal presents an interview with cartoonist and children’s book author Norm Fueti. Now, you didn’t only write Retail. For a couple of years you wrote Gil, a more sort of generic premise about a cheerful, chubby child of divorced p ..read more

Tim Jones, who lives in Smithfield with his wife, Kathy, daughters, Eily and Jillian, and large dog, Ezzy, has spent the past decade developing and refining “Sour Grapes,” a self-syndicated comic strip featuring “Aesop,” a miserable flying dog, living in a strange, problematic and troubled world along with his odd family and pet cloud, “Ominous.” This week, “Sour Grapes” appears in The Breeze for the first time, and will run in the coming months as space allows. Cartoonist Tim Jones has placed his Sour Grapes comic strip in a nearby newspaper. The Valley Breeze (Lincoln, RI) introduces th ..read more

There are enough cartoons about Trump falling asleep in court, and, while they say nothing about his guilt or innocence, they make a reasonable argument about his overall fitness for office. From the earliest days of his administration, we heard about him coming to work in the late morning and being unwilling to sit through complex discussions. We even heard stories about his staff injecting his name into documents so he would read them. If nothing else, falling asleep in court could be an argument against persistent rumors that he abuses Adderall, an amphetamine used to treat ADHD and narcol ..read more

Signe Wilkinson, Anne Morse Hambrock, Zach Hansen, NCS Reubens, AAEC/ACC Conference, George, John, and Peter – the Gallaghers of Bergen County Signe Wilkinson retired a few years ago but returns occasionally when issues dear to her heart arise. Signe reacted when recently in Philadelphia: With the death of another toddler who accidentally shot themselves after discovering a relative’s gun, Signe Wilkinson endorses a must-have item for parents in Philadelphia. ********** A new addition to our Support Your Local (or Distant) Cartoonist … Anne Morse Hambrock engages in pithy monologues with he ..read more

Louis M. Glackens: Pure Imagination April 14, 2024 through March 30, 2025 Louis Glackens was a trailblazing figure who became one of the first illustrators of animated cartoons from 1915-1920, creating characters for production houses such as Baré, Pathe and Sullivan Studios. His fantastical depictions of mermaids, anthropomorphic beasts and pie-faced grown-ups carved a path for what would become the wonderful world of Walt Disney. Regrettably, Louis Glackens was out of step with the fashion of his time and bared the curse of the avant-garde. As such, his vast contribution to the history of c ..read more

Cartoonists are focusing on a few major stories and therefore everything today could be a Juxtaposition. For instance, Michael Ramirez mocks the notion that Israel is being urged not to set off a major war in the Middle East by responding to Iran’s launching of missiles and drones. Added to some similar expressions from other cartoonists, it would seem there is strong conservative sentiment for war, and the obvious answer from the anti-war side of things would be to point out that Tehran was responding to Israel’s targeting of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Syria. The response to that bei ..read more

Though in my mind Rose Gumbo is around thirty years of age, she turns forty today. At least her comic strip does. above: the first three dailies and the first Sunday Rose Is Rose began on April 16, 1984 with the title character portraying the life of a homemaker. Within a couple years creator Pat Brady moved the housekeeping away from center stage choosing to focus on Rose’s life as the wife and mother of a loving family. The strip began celebrating la joie de vivre et amour. Don Markstein explained what became the foundation of the strip: In few comics are the protagonists so obviously i ..read more

Rabbits Against Magic is swimming upstream against a rapid current, because whatever idiotic thing Elon Musk says today, he’s bound to exceed tomorrow. His latest brainstorm is that he wants new Xitter members to pay for each posting, which would discourage bots, his announced intent, but would also discourage people from signing up at all. If ol’ Muskie really wanted to offset his financial losses on Xitter, he’d trademark the phrase “I am not making this up” and charge people for using it in reference to him. Specific to today’s strip, the House is considering a bill to make it illegal for ..read more

The Girl Who Saved the World © Marvel Comics Below are some comic strip and cartoon books scheduled for April 2024 (and some March) release. Images and links from a variety of publishers and outlets, though ordering through your local comic shop or independent book store is a good idea. American Comic Book Chronicles: 1945-1949 by Richard Arndt, Kurt F. Mitchell, Keith Dallas At long last, this 1945-49 volume covers the comic book industry during the aftermath of World War II, when scores of writers and artists returned from foreign battlefields to resume their careers. It was a period when ..read more