And we’ll start with the For Better or For Worse rerun that went through the after effects this week of Farley’s death that was shown the week before (originally from April 1995). Even after occasional readings over the 30 years since it first happened it is still a touching story (start here). Touching enough for one (new?) reader to write to her newspaper: To the Editor: The comic strip is supposed to make one happy. I read with dismay the strip For Better or Worse. The dog Farley dies after saving the child’s life from drowning. In the morning I have my coffee and one of my favorite thing ..read more

The Texas Observer is celebrating it 70th year and the most recent issue covers its skewering of Texas politicos by way of editorial cartooning. In its first issue, on December 13, 1954, the Texas Observer ran a political cartoon by Don Bartlett taking a swipe at the Republican-leaning tendencies of Democratic Governor Allan Shivers. Beside it ran Observer founding editor Ronnie Dugger’s ambitious, if eccentric, manifesto. “We will twit the self-important and honor the truly important,” he wrote. “We will lay the bark to the dignity of any public man any time we see fit.” It was the begin ..read more

Fiona Katauskas sets a familiar scene divided between old and young, which may be a stereotype, but putting the old fellow in a suit rather than Archie Bunker mode suggests another division, that between those who have and those who are still setting their goals. The parallels between the Student Strike of 1970 and the current moment have been much discussed, and I wonder if the conservative students who wanted order and good behavior then are having the same sorts of flashbacks as those of us who followed Bobby in quoting George Bernard Shaw’s “Some men see things as they are and say wh ..read more

The National Newspaper Awards are being presented at The Chelsea Hotel in Toronto tonight and the portfolio from Bruce MacKinnon of The Chronicle Herald has been judged the winner of the Editorial Cartooning category. Bruce is repeating his win of last year and it is his ninth winning year overall. Congratulations to Bruce! Bruce had been joined by Michael de Adder and Brian Gable as finalists for the 2023 Editorial Cartooning Award ..read more

A hodgepodge of recent comic related items. HarperCollins Publishers has announced the forthcoming publication of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and writer Jules Feiffer’s first graphic novel created for young readers. Amazing Grapes is scheduled for publication on September 24 under the Michael di Capua Books imprint. The middle grade graphic novel adventure follows a family in search of their mother and charged with the mission of saving another dimension. Publishers Weekly breaks the news; HarperCollins publishes the book. ********** David Potter, the comics editor and cartoonist for ..read more

In case you hadn’t noticed, when I feature a syndicated cartoon here, I add the name of the syndicate with it. For instance, I would label this one Barney & Clyde (Counterpoint). A few months ago, I’d have said “Barney & Clyde (WPWG)” but the Washington Post Writers Group has recently ended its syndication of comic strips. Obviously. I also try to avoid political gags that require a lot of international awareness, but this Liz Truss piece by Shaun McCallig cracked me up and I think a fair number of readers will remember that her time as Prime Minister was timed by a screenshot of a h ..read more

The satirical news website The Onion, and by extension cartoonist Stan Kelly, has been sold to Global Tetrahedron. From The Wrap: The Onion has sold to a new Chicago-based firm called Global Tetrahedron, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller announced [in a memo] Thursday, TheWrap has learned. TheWrap obtained Spanfeller’s memo in full below: “As I mentioned to you last month, we have been undergoing an extensive review of our portfolio with the intention of coring down to our leading sites in terms of audience and revenues,” Spanfeller wrote in his Thursday memo. “Today we announced great traffic g ..read more

Raw Story reports on a Rolling Stone article: Former President Donald Trump is enraged about how he looks in the courtroom sketches at his Manhattan trial — and thinks that the sketch artist is trying to make him look bad on purpose. According to Rolling Stone‘s Ryan Bort, Asawin Suebsaeng, and Catherina Gioino, the former president “privately asked people close to him if they agree that the courtroom sketch-artist must be out to get him, two of the sources say. Trump has critiqued the sketches of him that have circulated in the media this week, and insisted some of the images were likely dra ..read more

“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” — Stephen Dedalus As Doonesbury concluded back in 1971, putting Kent State into the memory hole allowed us to “concentrate on fresher, more recent, tragedies.” But as Senators Hawley and Cotton call for the National Guard to be sent to quell campus protests, it’s worth remembering what happened that other time, and the mood of a nation that let it happen. The factors that Herblock saw as leading up to the shootings seem to still be present today, as the nation remains divided, but with what seems a greater propensity for violence than ..read more

Some more thoughts on the lovely life of Trina Robbins from Andrew Farago at The Comics Journal, John Lent of the International Journal of Comic Art, and a few dozen more short remembrances from cartoonists and friends. Andrew Farago at The Comics Journal has a wonderfully detailed (halfway between profile and biography) obituary. Andrew and TCJ combine the obituary with remembrances from nearly three dozen people who knew Trina. Lee Marrs: … The woman had more energy than Niagara Falls. Although we disagreed A LOT, that made for good panels. I still can’t believe she’s gone. For a majority ..read more