Welcome, Pilgrim.

April 12th, 2009

bat1s

shiningpalace

Greetings, pilgrim, and welcome to my Blog of Toons, a home for toons.  My toons, my friends’ toons, toons I love and perhaps even toons I hate. Toons can go anywhere.  You want quantum mechanics? daily life? coming of age? political fury? cute little furry animals pursuing their sexual delight?  history? civilization?  Toons can do it all.  Toons reach deep into our psyches and our culture.  You’ve heard of John Q. Public?  A toon.  Maybe you’ve heard of an infamous stain on American history, McCarthyism?  The term was coined in a cartoon by the great Herbert Block.  “We have met the enemy and he is us.”  A toon again, by the great Walt Kelly.  Maybe your district was gerrymandered?  The word itself comes from a cartoon.  Or consider, for example, Paul Revere, he of the famous midnight ride.   One if by land, two if by sea.  “The British are coming!  The British are coming!”  If you know a little more about him, you know he was a silversmith.  But did you know he was also a political cartoonist?  And speaking of political cartoonists, did you know that Dr. Seuss was a political cartoonist?

We will meet some of this rogues’ gallery, for rogues we are.  We are cartoonists!

And so, I open this blog with my homage to Second Fig by Edna St Vincent Millay.

Outrage By The Numbers

June 4th, 2010

Well, friends, sometimes you have to eat your words.  I said I stay away from charges of anti-antisemitism.   I’ll make an exception for Oliphant’s cartoon today.  I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Geeks

May 31st, 2010

xkcd says,

A geek, of course, is the guy who bites heads of off chickens at the fair.  Let us now follow the adventures of Senator Astute shaking hands and grubbing for votes at the fair.  As Larry Gonick points out in his fine book, The Cartoon Guide to Statistics, the good senator’s name is accented on the second syllable.  Sure enough, before he knows it, Senator Astute is gazing on imminent birdie death.  “Wait! Jim!  What on earth are you doing biting heads off chickens?”  Mirabile dictu, the geek is Senator Astute’s long lost cousin.  One thing leads to another, and the next thing to beer, and before long Cousin Jim has a job in the Senator’s office as the bag man.  And business is brisk.  Bribes here, bribes there, every day a dozen bribes to pick up and launder.  Things are hoppin’, but it sure beats chicken heads.

Well, this goes on for a year or so.  Cousin Jim is getting used to the big city ways, the hustle and the money grubbing, and thinks its time a little more of it was his.  “Senator, I want a raise.”  “You want a raise?  You miserable hick.  If you don’t like the pay here, go bite a chicken!”

Cousin Jim didn’t like this at all and went straight to the cops.  They wired him up, and the rest is history.

And the moral of the story is: Beware of geeks bearing grift.

Know Your Platonic Solids

May 25th, 2010

Walking The Planck

May 12th, 2010

That guest artist again, since she insists.

Teena Is Right

May 11th, 2010

We do need animated quantum mechanics.  And here’s the script: Quantum Mechanics Made Easy

The Artist’s Lament

May 10th, 2010

And then other times, she just gets sullen and won’t talk.

A Mountain Speaks

May 9th, 2010

Hey! Maybe That’s Why We Always Wear Our Hats

April 30th, 2010

With a tip of said hat to CIMC.

“Deeper Meanings”

April 24th, 2010

With a tip of the hat to B. Kliban.

Portrait Of Doc Kellogg As An Angry Cloud

April 3rd, 2010


Doc Kellogg is brought to you by the letter Q.