Month: October 2004

What’s Wrong With Me?!

andertoons

OK, I don’t quite know what’s going on lately, but I’ve been coming up with some really weird cartoons.

Take this cartoon for example. Maybe I need more red meat in my diet or something. I remember thinking about the phrase “well done” and from there on it’s a mystery. This just popped into my head.

Or how about this one. I was in my office putting away some paperwork (OK, adding it to the pile) and the phrase “you should get that looked at” occurred to me. I know from there I began to think about something that people look at often showing up on someone’s body, but this is just plain odd.

This business cartoon takes the cake though as far as weird goes. I remember thinking bratwurst was a funny word, and then this. It does remind me vaguely of Jack Ziegler’s “Hamburger Madness” cartoon, but not exactly.

I can’t explain it, but to be honest I’m having a lot of fun with just doing strange stuff. I have no idea who, if anyone, might purchase these for publication, but it’s like I always say – sometimes you just gotta do ’em for you.

Hope you enjoy them!

Interview with Bob Mankoff (Audio!)

andertoons

There’s an interesting NPR interview with self-described “licensed humorist” Bob Mankoff in which he discusses the gigantic new The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker.

Bob discusses classic New Yorker cartoons, subway inspiration, and how the almost ten pound volume is “not just a book, it’s a workout.”

It’s about nine minutes long and includes commentary from cartoonist Matthew Diffee at no extra charge! Give it a listen!

(BTW, I’ll be writing a book review as soon as I can give the behemoth book adequate attention.)

“The Tick” – Review

andertoons

“I am the wild blue yonder. The front line in a never-ending battle between good… and not-so good. Together, with my stalwart sidekick Arthur, and the magnanimous help of some other folks I know, we form the yin to villainy’s malevolent yang. Destiny has chosen us. Wicked men! You face… The Tick!”

I’ve been looking forward to seeing The Tick for some time. I unfortunately never got around to seeing it when it originally aired in 2001/02, but thankfully it’s now available on DVD.

I almost bought it quite a few times at Best Buy. Indeed I made a few trips out to my local store in hopes of purchasing it only to find their website’s in-store availability accuracy sorely lacking. Now that I’ve seen it though, I think I owe the site’s glitch a thank you.

Not that The Tick isn’t a lot of fun, it certainly has its share of very funny moments. But in the end something is missing. The problem is I can’t tell you what exactly it is.

Seinfeld’s “Puddy”, Patrick Warburton, pulls off a nicely thick Tick (and the costume is actually quite good), but he can’t seem to find the right balance between the boxer-who’s-been-hit-in-the-head-too-much mentality and his Shatner-tinged superhero speak.

The supporting cast is better with David Burke as a pitch perfect Arthur, Nestor Carbonell as the swarthy Batmanuel, and the absolutely lovely Liz Vassey as Captain Liberty. All put in better than supporting role performances with Vassey’s Liberty being my favorite (although that may be due to her Statue of Liberty inspired costume’s flaunting her huddled masses).

My favorite episode is probably “The Funeral” in which Captain Liberty accidentally kills legendary superhero The Immortal during a tryst. There’s some good slapstick as they try to place the body back in his hotel room to make it look like an accident, and some great eulogizing by the Tick. (The best line of the episode is a military general remarking of the Tick’s tribute “I like the cut of this man’s gibberish.”)

I couldn’t help wanting The Tick to have a stereo’s equivalent of an equalizer. With a little tweaking of the right comedy frequencies the show might have been something extraordinary. Instead it’s just a fairly funny record that skips occasionally.

Although The Tick is definitely worth a rental, save your hard earned cash in case they ever release the animated version I loved in college.

Posted in TV

Lloyd Dangle – Inside the Cartoonist’s Studio

andertoons

This week we welcome Troubletown‘s Lloyd Dangle to Inside the Cartoonist’s Studio!

Shall we dance?

1) If you were to cast a movie entirely with cartoon characters, what movie would it be and who would star in it?

Popeye and Dick Rumsfeld would star as themselves. Rummy would be trying to put Popeye back into active duty even as a senior citizen who hasn’t served for more than forty years. Popeye would be annoyed by Rumsfeld’s bullying and kick his ass in an elaborate fight scene. Bluto is now the head of the Taliban and has Olive Oyl captive among religious fanatics in rural Afghanistan. Of course the story builds to a hilarious climax.

2) You’re a syndicate editor launching a new comic strip. What’s the worst possible title you can think of?

Puddles

3) A light bulb over a cartoon’s head signifies an idea, while a string of random characters denotes swearing. Invent a new cartooning icon and what it means.

A floating bowl of Boston Style clam chowder, always combined with drowsy characters below: represents the effect of John Kerry’s speaking.

A slab of swiss cheese in the shape of a skull and crossbones: floats over the head of any character infected with mad cow disease.

A cowboy boot tipped on end with a few grains of sand pouring out: always used to denote George Bush’s mind.

Thanks Lloyd! But what if the character is a mad cow disease stricken George Bush listening to John Kerry speak?

Be sure to check out Troubletown, as well as Lloyd’s other sites: LloydDangle.com & AuntEttie.com!

Good News for “Rhymes with Orange”

andertoons

You may remember an entry last week about Hilary Price’s “Rhymes with Orange” being in danger of losing its spot in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Well, you can rest easy. “Rhymes with Orange” is staying put in the paper, but not without some controversy surrounding the “comics poll” that was to decide the outcome.

Apparently the Plain Dealer had printed phone numbers for readers to call and vote. What was odd, however, was that the number for the competing strip was in a larger font.

The paper also had printed the incorrect phone number for RWO voters who apparently were routed to a random employee’s line. Voters calling the correct number (which had been listed on the Plain Dealer’s website) found constant busy signals which the paper later blamed on a phone system technical problem.

Price notified Editor and Publisher who contacted the paper and pointed out the flawed contest. Elizabeth McIntyre, assistant managing editor/features at The Plain Dealer acknowledged the problems, but said it didn’t really matter as Rhymes with Orange was winning anyway.

Whew! That was a close one! I was beginning to think we were going to be examining hanging chads again!

There’s a great article on it at E&P’s website. Give it a read!

Also, don’t miss reading Hilary Price’s answers to our goofy questions in “Inside the Cartoonist’s Studio”