In Lila Ash’s drawing, a young woman wearing sweatpants with the word PLINK emblazoned across the bottom is addressing (questioning? scolding?) a dog who’s looking down, as if shamed. Behind the dog are the outstretched legs of a murder victim. He’s lying in the doorway in a pool of blood, and there’s a bloody handprint…
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“Executioner and mom” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
Dr. Benjamin Schwartz has drawn a shirtless and hooded executioner introducing a kindly old woman (also wearing a hood) to his next victim: a prisoner who’s on his knees with his hands tied behind his back and his head above a chopping block. The executioner—whose expression, from what we can see, is not very threatening—is…
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Anatomy of a Cartoon: Taxes!
Cartoon critics Phil Witte and Rex Hesner look behind gags to debate what makes a cartoon tick. This week our intrepid critics examine cartoons about the trials of taxes. BUY THIS CARTOON April is the cruelest month, as T.S. Eliot observed and Mick Stevens illustrated. The tax deadline looms ominously from the first of the…
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“God’s Comedian” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
Kim Warp has drawn a prop comedian (he has an arrow through his head) performing a stand-up routine for that toughest of audiences: God. Because the comedian is in heaven, I first thought of the old saying that addresses both death and comedy: “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” I then thought of captions that…
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“Exploding Desk” Caption Contest Commentary with Lawrence Wood
The late Charles Barsotti drew an employee crawling out from under an exploding desk, addressing his colleague, and delivering the line that must address both the explosion and the office setting. Barsotti is perhaps best known for this cartoon of a friendly and anthropomorphic piece of rigatoni answering the phone by saying, “Fusilli, you crazy…
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