'The Photographer' reviewed in Sunday's Post by Wolk

See "Memories of a Long War," By Douglas Wolk, Washington Post, Sunday, May 31, 2009 for his review of THE PHOTOGRAPHER, By Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre and Frédéric Lemercier, translated from the French by Alexis Siegel, First Second, 267 pp. $29.95.

I've got the book, but haven't read it yet. It's been getting very good reviews.

That darn Pett!

Let the Teenagers Alone
Washington Post Saturday, May 16, 2009

In republishing Joel Pett's political cartoon in the May 9 Drawing Board, you have taken your newspaper to a new low.

It is one thing for you to continue your efforts to destroy Sarah Palin, a political figure, but to do so by stomping on the reputation of a teenage girl was despicable.

Depicting Bristol Palin as a "guest speaker" at the "Church of Abstinence" was a contemptible effort to achieve your goals at any cost.

-- Vincent J. Cucuzzella
Ellicott City

Otis Sweat cartoon artwork returns in Post mag

Like last year, today's Post Hunt contest was started in the Post Magazine which had a ton of artwork by Otis Sweat and it's online too. Sweat's done cartoons for the early Florida-based hunts.

Weingarten's Chatalogical Humor chat on some comics

Comments on comics from the past two weeks including Chatological Humor: Denim Friendly Since 2001; Talking Susan Boyle (UPDATED 4.24.09) aka Tuesdays With Moron, Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, April 21, 2009; 12:00 PM.

--------------
What were they thinking?: So the comics editors brought back "Judge Parker." Okay, fine, I'm cool with that. I was wondering if Sophie was going to make the cheerleading squad. But to make room, they chose a strip to move to the KidsPost page, and the strip they chose was... "Agnes"? Um, has anyone involved with this decision actually read "Agnes"? It's often incomprehensibly edgy, certainly for the KidsPost demographic.

I have a ten-year-old daughter who likes to read some of the comics, and I can tell you without a doubt which strip most appeals to her: "Baby Blues." It manages to be truly funny but also understandable to kids. If the point of this exercise is to get more kids to look at KidsPost, they should really rethink the choice of strip.

Could you go slap the comics editors around for me, Gene?

Gene Weingarten: I am not allow to slap comics editors.

_______________________

I am not one of your sycophant groupies...: I want you to know how utterly reprehensible it is that your weekly harangue against Hagar the Horrible, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus et al should result in your comic strip being picked up by a syndicate. Many of us cut our teeth and learned how to read from those very strips and what you don't seem to understand is that not every comic has to appeal to the tastes of a 60 year old, old fart like yourself.

So go enjoy your ill gotten fruit but know that some of us recognize the dublicity of it all especially picking on poor little PJ -- I mean heck, he's just a little kid !

Gene Weingarten: I think P.J. is something like 48 years old.

_______________________

[apropos of a previous discussion of what makes a hero]

Krypt, ON: I find it interesting that Superman would not be considered a hero here for doing good since he risks nothing and expends, for him, little effort, but would be because he does it on his own time. Sometimes. When he isn't defrauding a newspaper. Which may be the real reason newspapers are going under.

Gene Weingarten: Whoa, whoa. He is a hero. It's not a question necessarily of what you risk, it's what you sacrifice. He sacrifices privacy. He sacrifices the ability to be a fully realized person. He is definitely a hero.

Rockville, Md.: Gene,

Is there something wrong with me because I was incredibly turned on by seeing Janis topless in yesterday's Arlo and Janis? I'm a happily married 39 year old guy if it makes a difference.

washingtonpost.com: Arlo and Janis, (April 20)

Gene Weingarten: I've said it before. Arlo and Janis is the hottest comic strip maybe ever.

_______________________

Funny Pa, PR: Since you're not allowed to bring this up: the April 17 Lio was genuinely unreadable at the size the Post printed it. The only way to make sense of it was to work backwards: there was a staggering drunk spider, so the spiderweb must have had something intoxicating in it.

At first there didn't seem to be anything in the middle of the web at all. Prolonged close study revealed what I guess was a beer can. Figuring this out was not worth the eyestrain.

Gene Weingarten: This was absolutely true. It's how I had to read it to get the joke. Liz, can you link to this? Online, it will be bigger; but imagine trying to figure it out at an inch high.

and a 'new' contest, although Cavna's been doing this off and on at Comic Riffs, usually with editorial cartoons.

Chatological Humor: Swine Flu Fever; Quiet Cars; Cat Calls (UPDATED 4.30.09), Gene Weingarten, Washington Post Staff Writer, Wednesday, April 29, 2009; 12:00 PM

Several weeks ago, Chatological Humor discontinued its regular Comic Pick of the Week feature, on the theory that it would be unseemly for me to critique comic strips if I were soon to be the author of one. I promised to find a replacement feature, and here it is. It's going to be reader-generated, and the first submission is by Justin Stone.

That's what we're doing. Rewrite dialog balloons for any current comic strip; you can either post your results on a Web site like flickr or Facebook, and send me a link, or you can send it right to me at weingarten(at)washpost.com. Important: You must make your dialogue fit the existing balloons. As Justin discovered, this can be hard. Comic-strip writing is Pinteresque.

Gene Weingarten: Ooh, this just in. Chatological Humor might have had a beneficial, tangible effect in the world.

Last week, a chatter noted, correctly, that "Agnes" was a tone-deaf joice as the comic strip chosen to appear on the KidsPost page. Very, very true: It's excellently cynical, even nihilistic, with big words and complex themes.

Someone apparently listened. I've just heard that it goes back on the comics page, and will be replaced in KidsPost by Frazz. Much better choice. Frazz or Big Nate would have been my choices.

I disagree here, as did some other Comic Riffs commenters. Garfield or Peanuts would have been a better choice. My 11-year-old daughter doesn't read Frazz.

Judge Parker returns to Post, Cul de Sac joins KC Star and Twitterverse

Michael Cavna of the Post's Comic Riffs blog naturally had the story first, but I think there's a few unattributed quotes in "Here Comes the Judge: Reader Protests Bring Back Comic Strip," By Harry Jaffe, Washingtonian's Capital Comment Blog Friday, April 17, 2009. Michael also noted that the Post's ombudsman felt compelled to address the Judge Parker issue tomorrow.


Also Cul de Sac has been picked up by the Kansas City Star. Yay, Richard! Ohh, and Richard's Tweeting. Boo, Richard!

Weingarten's comic strip picked up, opinions on other comics cease

From the April 7th chat, Gene Weingarten says,

I have a wonderful announcement about how Chatological Humor is going to get even better! This is exactly like announcements you've been seeing in other newspapers practically every day now about how they are cutting costs, paper quality, paper size, staff and features in order to bring to you, the reader, an EVEN BETTER, MORE STREAMLINED PRODUCT!

Well, this is the last week Chatological Humor will offer its picks for the best comics of the previous week. Yes, the CPOW [Comic Pick of the Week] is dead. All for your benefit!

Okay, as it happens, there is nothing dastardly or craven behind this decision and no one I can yell at self-righteously. Last week, the Washington Post Writers Group syndicate picked up its option on "Barney and Clyde," the comic strip being developed by me, my son, Dan, and cartoonist David Clark. Editors at The Writers Group feel that I can no longer offer my half-assed, semi-knowledgeable opinions about other comic strips that might, in the future, compete for space with mine. I hate to admit it, but they have a point.

_______________________

Alexandria: So, when does Barney and Clyde's run begin? And what will it replace? (this is news, not commentary, I'm asking for)

Gene Weingarten: No clear answer to either question; no way of knowing even if The Washington Post will run it. There are no obligations in any direction.

_______________________

Comics abomination: Gene, I noticed on Sunday that while some of the regular strips seem to have shrunk or the panels squeezed together oddly (Pearls especially got the short end of the stick), the Slylock Fox panel has grown significantly.

I'm all for encouraging youngsters' abilities to solve petty crimes through observation, but does it really need to be larger than most of the other strips?

Gene Weingarten: This may be deliberate, and smart. Pearls Before Swine (Pastis will hate me for this) seems to be drawn shrewdly, to deter shrinkage. Its characters are simple, dialogue simple, spaces big. It can shrink without injury more than most can.

_______________________

Re: Pearls Before Swine: I disagree with Pastis' strategy - I think he is inadvertently enabling shrinkage instead of deterring it. A comic editor might see his strip and assume that shrinking all comics won't hurt the content. What if the comics fought shrinkage by adding more art and content, so that readers would complain to the comics editors?

Gene Weingarten: Uh, that would be a lot of nose-cutting for face-spiting.

_______________________

Pearls shrinkage: I think you might be missing the point. Whether or not Pastis is deliberately drawing his strip to survive the Great Comic Shrink of 2009 or not, SLYLOCK FOX IS GETTING BIGGER!

Surely another comic deserves enlargement before Slylock.

Gene Weingarten: If you are going to run Slylock, you need to give it space! A lot of stuff is going on in there.

That Darn Auth

Tom Toles isn't the only editorial cartoonist that gets complaints at the Post. Even though he works for a Philly paper, Tony Auth came in for this gripe, although he was unnamed. The accompanying cartoon was signed.


Catholicism Under Attack
Washington Post Saturday, March 28, 2009; A11

Of all the cartoons published last week, why did you choose one that is anti-Catholic for Drawing Board on March 21? Not only was it offensive, but its implications were false.

The cartoon showed Pope Benedict XVI in an AIDS ward saying, "Blessed are the sick, for they have not used condoms." The implication was that condoms would reduce the incidence of AIDS.

However, no less an authority than Edward C. Green, a senior research scientist at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, was quoted as saying in National Review Online last week that "we have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates."

When asked to comment on a statement by Pope Benedict XVI on AIDS, Green said that the pope is correct, "or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope's comments."

The implication of the cartoon that the pope does not care about the plight of AIDS victims was insulting and outrageously untrue. What other group can match the care given to AIDS victims throughout the world by Catholic institutions and health-care workers?

-- Robert H. Follett
Lansdowne

Post drops, shrinks comics

The Post introduced its new 2 comics pages today. The strips are about 1/4 smaller. They justified themselves in several places recently. First the ombudsman, and then the managing editors:

"Why Monday's Post Will Look a Lot Different,"
By Andrew Alexander
Washington Post Sunday, March 29, 2009; A11

Another [way to cut costs] is to trim the physical size of the paper. The savings can be substantial.

A single page of newsprint in the daily Post, with its 650,000 circulation, costs roughly $2,500. A single page on Sundays, with its 870,000 circulation, costs about $3,500.

Shaving two pages from each daily and Sunday paper can save close to $2 million a year. ...

Reducing the number of comics and games was a simple matter of gauging reader preferences. The Post uses an outside firm to regularly question more than 3,000 adults in the Washington area and also conducts its own surveys. To evaluate the comics and games, adults were asked which ones they read, and adults with children were asked which ones their kids read.

Those scoring at the bottom with both adults and kids got the ax.

So, by that logic, if you cut printing the paper out completely at 100 pages (guesstimate for an average day) X $2,500 = $250,000/page/day. Multiple that by the 650,000 copies you print and you can save $162 billion dollars a day! They may have solved the economic crisis!

Ask The Post: Liz Spayd and Raju Narisetti, Washington Post Managing Editors
Monday, March 30, 2009; 12:00 PM

The Washington Post's managing editors, Raju Narisetti and Liz Spayd were online Monday, March 30 at 12 p.m. ET to discuss the recent changes and enhancements in both the newspaper and Web site. They will also answer your questions about the current state of the news industry.

Anonymous: "For all the choices we are making, we have used reader surveys to make sure we keep the features that are most popular."

Does that include comics? Because I never saw one, and I'm a faithful reader.

How was the decision made to drop six current, ongoing strips while keeping Peanuts reruns and tired old "zombie" strips that might as well be reruns, such as Family Circus, Garfield, Beetle Bailey, Mark Trail, and Dennis the Menace. those strips should have been put our of their (and our) miserry years ago.

Sacred cows, anyone?

Raju Narisetti and Liz Spayd: We do regular readership surveys both on the phone and in-person and the comics that moved online were the least popular with our readers.

_______________________

Silver Spring, Md.: Why don't you put Gene Weingarten in charge of the Comics section?

Raju Narisetti and Liz Spayd: We are putting it on our list of things to ask Gene!!

Weingarten on his comic strip, and the Post's

Gene W from the March 23rd chat:

Silver Spring, Md.: Re: Doonesbury CPOW - that's one thing that has always impressed me about that strip - he always seems to have a character already in place for any news event or trend or whatever that comes up. He can pick up a character and put he or she in the event without any problem or stretch. He has Joannie working on the hill, BD was set for any "hostilities", Bernie was perfectly positioned to be a high-tech mogul, Boopsie ended up in the movie industry. I loved it when Mike's youngish techie-wife turned out to be the Vietnamese orphan who had been adopted into the US years before.

Gene Weingarten: Obviously, this is not coincidence. Garry has more active characters than any strip ever, probably by a factor of five.

The strip my son and I are working on -- look for it soon, I hope -- is going to start with about 16. Absurdly high for a new strip, nowhere near Dbury.

_______________________

New strip: When your new strip debuts, can it replace Peanuts?

If you were able to, say, accidentally slip the email address of the comics editor, perhaps it may result that he or she is bombarded with enough requests to get rid of Peanuts repeats that his or her loins will be girded sufficiently to withstand the few complaint letters that will be mailed (from people who I don't think would folow through on their threat to cancel their subscriptions).

Gene Weingarten: I am beginning to think that no one will ever have the courage to replace Peanuts.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: AAAAAHHHHH! According to the notice on today's Style section, they're schwacking both "Pooche Cafe" and "Brevity" from the comics section. What's wrong with these people? They'll keep stale stuff like "Blondie," "Peanuts," "Mark Trail," "Family Circus," and "Dennis the Menace" but kill two of the comics that are actually, you know, funny? Isn't there anything we can do to stop this? AAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Gene Weingarten: They are also keeping Hagar the Horrible.

_______________________

Alex., VA: Do readers actually write in and support Peanuts?

Gene Weingarten: I don't know, but I doubt it. I think that newspaper comics deciders are loath to get rid of any strip so old that old loyal readers would miss it.

Very, very bad decisionmaking.

Post dropping 6 comics, not 5

Today the Post reported that it's dropping 6 comics - adding "Brevity" to the list of "Judge Parker," "Little Dog Lost," "Piranha Club," "Pooch Cafe" and "Zippy the Pinhead" - and shrinking the comics pages to 2 instead of 3. Dilbert is moving back to the comics section as the Business section goes down the tubes.

Comments are invited at comics@washpost.com

I'm sure they'll be announcing a price increase any day too. You know - this pisses me off - I actually subscribe to the paper and pay to get it and its ads, and they keep taking out stuff I read, but still offering it free on the web. Nice business model. Perhaps Madoff gave lessons on running newspapers too.

And for god's sake, drop Peanuts rather than a living strip. I loved it, I buy the Fantagraphics collections, and I don't need it in place of a current strip.

[I just made the last two paragraphs the core of my letter to the Post]

Post dropping comics

Mike Cavna's breaking the story that his colleagues are dropping Pooch Cafe, Zippy, Judge Parker, Piranha Club and Little Dog Lost as of March 30th. Bah.

I really like Judge Parker and Pooch Cafe, Zippy and Piranha Club (Bo Grace is local by the way) both have their appeal. Little Dog Lost didn't catch on with me. No notice as to why except that Dilbert is moving back from the Business section, but I'll bet they're putting in another Soduku type game since the NY Times just added one.

Times of London picks up Doonesbury's Post - Post story

"Cartoonist Gary Trudeau upsets newspaper image," Tim Reid, The Times March 3, 2009.

NY Times calls out Post on Doonesbury reprints

The Post started running the Doonesbury Flashback (ie repeat) strips where they laid off Rick Redfern and then stopped last week, and then restarted them. I didn't really think this was a story since they'd already run the strips about the Post firing Rick Redfern closer to the time that they actually laid people off. However, since the Paper of Record has noted it, we will too - see "Washington Post Corrects a Goof on Doonesbury," By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA, New York Times March 2, 2009.

Ward Sutton illo in Post Food section

Cartoonist Ward Sutton who turns his hands to quite a few things did an illo of a diner for the Wednesday, January 28th Food section in the Post. It's not online.

Post folding Book World, reports NY Times UPDATED

For the latest foolishness from the Post, see "Washington Post to End Book World as Stand-Alone Section," By Motoko Rich, January 28, 2009. Why, why, do they expect people to buy the paper?

Thanks to Tim for the tip.

The Post, scooped by the Times, has an article on their website confirming it now.

Schmucks. Tim the tipster says he's canceling his subscription. I don't really want to get into this, especially since everyone else is, but papers make no money online, don't pay for themselves by subscription, but rely on ad revenue which is proportionate to readership. So by cutting content, which affects both the physical and online papers negatively, they expect to increase readers how?

Bob Staake wrote in the other day after I posted something about him, and noted how long he's been in our paper - "17 consecutive years on the Style Invitational -- and over 25 with the Post." That's amazing. Here's 3 Style illos from the past year that caught my eye and got clipped.

That darn Oliphant... and the Post too!

Bygod, the Post isn't coordinating its editorial page, its syndicated editorial cartoons and its news reporting! For details, see "Forty miles (and some fuel): Oliphant and Washington Post ignorantly smear GM and plug-in hybrids," by Joseph Romm (Guest Contributor), Grist 15 Dec 2008. Cartoons aren't meant to be funny apparently, but should be educational and truthful without exaggeration. We should call them something else maybe. Any suggestions?

Post's Source section has list of best comics

This year's list - "The Best Books, CDs, Comics, DVDs and Video Games of 2008," Washington Post Sunday, December 7, 2008; N05.

Punisher and Bat movie bits from today's papers

Unsurprisingly, nobody appears to fond of the Punisher: War Zone movie. I must confess that I don't understand the popularity of the character, but I'm sure it ties into a thread that runs through the Shadow to Dirty Harry to the Mack Bolan novels and then into the comics. Anyway, here's some articles.

"A Comic-Book Avenger Strikes," By A. O. SCOTT, New York Times December 5, 2008.

"A Glut of Punishment," Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post Friday, December 5, 2008; Page WE28.

"DVD's Lack Of Ledger May Leave Fans Cold," By Jen Chaney, Washington Post Friday, December 5, 2008; Page WE32 on "The Dark Knight" Batman movie.

And surprisingly enough, New Yorker and New York Times (Science section, on Tuesdays) cartoonist Victoria Roberts did the cover of the Post's Weekend section. No pic online that I see.

Bob Staake, the Post's Style Invitational cartoonist

Here's a nice, if short, interview with Bob Staake, the Post's Style Invitational cartoonist. Staake's moving into children's books as well as New Yorker covers, but he's got some interesting how-to books out as well, iirc.

See "G FORCE | BOB STAAKE: He's got it covered," Boston Globe November 27, 2008.