Cartoon critics Phil Witte and Rex Hesner look behind the gags to debate what makes a cartoon tick. This week our intrepid critics take a look at fairy tale cartoons. We first hear fairy tales at an impressionable age, usually before we can read. The characters and their magical stories are part of our collective…
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Have Something Specific in Mind?
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Caption Contest Commentary
“Fruity Wedding” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
Anatomy of a Cartoon
Anatomy of a Cartoon: The Desert Island Cliché
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Anatomy of a Cartoon: Fairy Tales
“Terrifying Election” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
Bob Eckstein’s cartoon has three distinct frames of reference — Halloween, the election, and the pandemic. Addressing all three is a challenge. The woman who’s next in line for the voting booth is speaking. She’s also pointing with her left index finger, but at what? The skeleton? The man in the voting booth? Or is…
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Anatomy of a Cartoon: Unsocial Distancing
Cartoon critics Phil Witte and Rex Hesner look behind the gags to debate what makes a cartoon tick. This week our intrepid critics take a look at social distancing cartoons. Mid-pandemic, it feels there’s no end to the upending of our lives. Someday, looking back, we’ll marvel at the strange customs we adopted to cope…
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It’s Funny Because it’s True
“It’s funny because it’s true….” We’ve all heard that – but is it true? Certainly, there are things that are funny, and there are things that are true, and sometimes, there are things that are both. Here’s a prime example of exactly that, and everyone past a certain age can relate to it. BUY THIS…
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“Library Cadavers” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
Jeremy Nguyen’s cartoon is set in a library, where cadavers—their bodies covered with sheets, their left toes tagged—are stretched out on every available surface. Two librarians, one male and one female, are looking at a cadaver that’s on a bookcase in front of a “new arrivals” sign. The female librarian is speaking. Because corpses need…
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“Sheep Herding” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
A few weeks ago, we featured a Lars Kenseth cartoon that was set in an office building, where a wizard carrying a banker’s box (implying that he had just been fired or laid-off) was addressing his colleague. It therefore had two strikingly disparate frames of reference—downsizing at the workplace, and the wizard’s magical powers—and the…
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