More Than A Little Humor

I’d almost forgotten about this, and technically he’s the competition, but if you haven’t checked out Tom Cheney’s “A Little Humor” addition to The Wall Street Journal’s Career Journal website, you’re really missing some fantastic cartooning.

Cheney’s one of those cartoonists that really makes me jealous. Wildly funny and original, his stuff is immediately recognizable and should find its way to Addams/Arno levels of appreciation in the not too distant future. Check him out…

Cartoon History – $0.23

I came across these postcards of famous cartoonists in some recent rambling online:

Sepia-tone photographs of important cartoonists, many with signatures and key characters. This is the original shrink-wrapped package with the gold descriptive sticker still intact over shrinkwrap. This full set of 18 cards features the following 19 cartoonists:

• Carl Anderson (1865-1948), creator of Henry

• A joint card of lifelong friends Al Capp (1909-1979), creator of Li’l Abner, and Milton Caniff (1907-1988), creator of Terry & the Pirates and Steve Canyon

• “Ad” Carter (1895-1957), creator of Just Kids

• Billy DeBeck (1890-1942), creator of Barney Google and Snuffy Smith

• Will Eisner (1917-), creator of The Spirit and the modern graphic novel

• Hal Foster (1891-1982), creator of Prince Valiant

• Harold Gray (1894-1968), creator of Little Orphan Annie

• V. T. Hamlin (1899-1993), creator of Alley Oop

• George Herriman (1880-1944), creator of Krazy Kat;

• Russell Keaton (1910-1945), Buck Rogers Sunday ghost and creator of Flyin’ Jenny

• Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993), creator of MAD, Humbug, Trump and Little Annie Fanny

• George McManus (1884-1954), creator of Bringing Up Father

• Jimmy Murphy (1981-1965), creator of Toots and Caspar;

• R.F. Outcault (1863-1928), creator of The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown

• Alex Raymond (1909-1956), creator of Flash Gordon and Rip Kirby

• Cliff Sterrett (1918-1964), creator of Polly and Her Pals

• Pat Sullivan (1887-1933), creator of the animated Felix the Cat

• Lyman Young (1893-1984), creator of Tim Tyler’s Luck.

Fun, no? Apparently you can also buy them individually.

I just might have to fork over some Paypal…

Yet Another Cartoon That Didn’t Work

Welcome to yet another edition of…

CARTOONS THAT DIDN’T WORK

I’d actually already earmarked this cartoon for the blog when my college roommate emailed me asking what the deal was with it, thereby confirming my suspicions.

OK, the joke here is that they’re outside. No one gets the speaking character’s joke because it’s an “inside joke” and they’re all outdoors.

Ta-daa!!!

This one’s a real heartbreaker too because I spent a lot of time on the art. Four guys sitting around a campfire at night in the woods? Yeesh! I must have gone through at least two different gray markers just shading the damn thing.

Sometimes I’m OK with a weird or obtuse reference and I know a lot of people aren’t going to understand the humor, but this one seemed so simple at the time… Damn my feeble brain!

Anyway, there it is. Much to my chagrin, there’s more to come down the road…

Uzbekistan Not Crazy About “Crazy” Cartoonist

Man on man; check this out:

Famous human rights activist Elena Urlayeva was detained last Saturday for disseminating leaflets containing cartoons of the state emblem of Uzbekistan. On Sunday, she was placed in a psychiatric clinic, head of investigations department of Sergeli district interior affairs department Shakir Yakubov said.

“The Prosecutor’s Office launched a criminal case against Elena Urlayeva, envisaging responsibility for desecrating state symbols of Uzbekistan,” Yakubov told Arena.

Urlayeva’s lawyer Vitaly Krasilovsky confirmed that the activist was in the psychiatric clinic. “I have established that the human rights activist is in the psychiatric clinic, but I was not allowed to see her. A doctor of the department where Urlayeva has been placed told me the activist is on a compulsory treatment according to the court decision,” he told Arena.

Note to self — cross Uzbekistan off list of countries to move to when Bush’s America goes down the toilet.