Comic Riffs on characters crossing between strips

I'd noted this and planned on posting on it, but Michael beat me to it - "Barrel of Laughs: Why Dennis Is Buck-Nekkid In TWO Strips Today," by Michael Cavna, April 28, 2009.

Cavna talks to Bell, Kurtz and other social networking cartoonists

Two are online at the Comic Riffs blog - "'Candorville' Cartoonist Finds His [Short-Form] Muse," By Michael Cavna, March 31, 2009 and "The Twitter Interview: 'PvP' Creator Scott Kurtz," By Michael Cavna, April 1, 2009. Cavna writes in that he would also like you to see "The Interview: Animator Bryan Brinkman," Michael Cavna, March 23, 2009, even though I had already linked to this as long ago as March 23rd.

In the physical post was "Cartooning's Webcrawler: The Micro-Blogs of Twitter," By Michael Cavna, Washington Post Staff Writer, Wednesday, April 1, 2009; C12. A similar article appeared on PBS's website - "Newspaper Cartoonists Engage Audiences (Including Haters) Online," by Mike Rosen-Molina, PBS Mediashift March 30, 2009.

Crane and Bell with Comic Riffs anecdotes

"Fave Fan Anecdotes: 'Pickles' & 'Candorville'," By Michael Cavna, December 26, 2008.

Darrin Bell of Candorville interviewed at Comic Riffs

Yesterday and today - "The Interview: 'Candorville' Cartoonist Darrin Bell" By Michael Cavna | December 17, 2008; "The Interview: 'Candorville' Cartoonist Darrin Bell (Pt. 2)," By Michael Cavna | December 18, 2008.

Bell's been riffing on Congressional hearings for comic book characters all week. It's been fun. As Tom Inge says (and in fact wrote a book about), "Anything can happen in a comic strip."

That darn Washington Post

Even its Sunday comics are liberal!

...now if only it's editorial page (with the notable exception of That Darn Toles) was...

Weingarten's clarification of Post's non-censorship of Candorville

From his July 31 chat update:

Third, I misrepresented The Washington Post's degree of guilt in the egregious Candorville affair. It turns out it the blame was more evenly shared between newspaper and cartoonist. Yes, The Post DID object to the suggested profanity that, in the readers' minds, would have transformed into "nuts." They asked Darrin Bell for a replacement strip. Instead, HE capitulated and transformed $#*! to "ears," thereby killing his gag on his own. He was Abraham, the joke was Isaac, and God (The Post) never said "stop."

Post doesn't really "censor" Candorville, just asks for alternative strip created specially for them

Yesterday, I quoted Gene Weingarten about the Post altering a Candorville strip. Today Dave Astor, a real reporter, has the larger story - "UPDATED: A 'Candorville' Comic Is Changed for 'The Washington Post'," By Dave Astor, Editor and Publisher Online July 30, 2008.

You know, honestly I think this is worse: "[Washington Post Writers Group comics editor Amy] Lago told E&P: "In Gene's chat yesterday, he made it sound like the Post had changed the July 25 'Candorville' strip. In fact, they asked for a sub. We offered them an alternate version, approved by Darrin, which they okayed."

What they asked to have changed was the "word" '@#$!,' which was standing in for 'nuts' as Jesse Jackson actually said (although readers of the Post are apparently too sensitive to read that and it makes one wonder what they reported about Jackson's comment on Obama) to 'ears,' which makes no sense whatsoever.

So the Post, rather than running a nonsense word, which in-the-know readers will understand is 'nuts,' as it's actually quoting Jesse Jackson, instead asked put in 'ears' which we should read as 'horse's ass.' Especially since their website ran the original, not the 'alternative' version.

Post censors Candorville again, again

From Gene Weingarten's chat earlier today:

Philadelphia, Pa.: I like how "Sally Forth" discovers that their 10-year-old daughter is really 36. This proves so many theories of alternate universes.

Gene Weingarten: I meant to add this to the comic picks. It's terrific. I am pretty sure I was the inspiration for this. Last week, in the Gene Pool, I noted Hilary's real age. Marciuliano mentioned this in his blog. I think he got that strip in in a hurry.

This also reminds me of an awful thing. Last Friday's Candorville contained some awful editing by The Post. In the version as drawn, and as appears online, the last panel contains comics-curse symbols to mean, obviously, "nuts." In The Post, they reworded it to say "ears."

Self-referentialism in today's Post comic strips

Three comic strips today benefited from some inside knowledge of reading them regularly perhaps.

Today's Pearls Before Swine builds on a week of Pastis referring to deaths in comic strips - after taking a passing swipe at Family Circus, Pastis killed himself in the strip - today he meets his syndicate rep as a giant floating head in heaven who tells him he can't kill the strip because of the ancillary products making money.

Candorville's been doing a tribute to the late comedian George Carlin all week, but today he got into criticizing obituary editorial cartoons which frequently feature a character at heaven's pearly gates. This almost certainly comes off a discussion at the Associations of American Editorial Cartoonists that Dave Astor covered.

Finally, Agnes (pick the July 12th one) is on the fact that Peanuts is still appearing in reruns years after Schulz's death.

In Saturday's Post ... Toles criticism, Superhero Movie, Candorville

Ok, I can't find it online just like last week as the Free For All section doesn't appear in searches or on the opinion webpage, but there's a letter to the editor criticizing Tom Toles for this cartoon. Surprise, surprise.

Also, Superhero Movie got a lousy review in "Spoofs Like 'Superhero' Make Anyone Climb the Walls," By John Anderson, Washington Post Saturday, March 29, 2008; C01.

Finally, Darrin Bell in Candorville is definitely criticizing the Post in Friday and Saturday's strips for not running his strips about Obama's security.

Darrin Bell's Candorville appears to chastise Post

Darrin Bell in today's Candorville appears to chastise the Post for dropping his strip two weeks ago. His main character Lemont Brown says "I wrote a series of posts satirizing how the Secret Service isn't diligent enough in protecting presidential candidates, and the Chronicle wouldn't run it!" Methinks he wrote chronicles that the Post wouldn't run.

Post censors Candorville again

Gene Weingarten posted the information about the Post censoring Candorville again on his chat - again the Post didn't tell us that they were keeping us safe from thinking on the comics page.

Weingarten wrote, Once again, The Post dropped a few Candorvilles because they (see them online here) dealt with security for Barack Obama. I am beginning to think this is a mistake by The Post. Darrin Bell has a point he wants to make: This one is based on stories in the Dallas paper that security was not as tight as it should have been for an Obama visit, given the unusual threats he faces.

They appear to have dropped the whole week of March 3rd strips.

Post censored Candorville two weeks ago

Earlier this week, Gene Weingarten revealed in his chat's poll that the Post censored January 19th's Candorville which joked about presidential assassination and illegal immigration.

His poll revealed that 73% of his readers thought it was the wrong decision with the other 27% split almost evenly in half over 'correct' and 'not sure.'

I of course, think it was wrong, WRONG, WRONG!

But -

Gene Weingarten: On the poll, this might surprise all of you, but I am not as sure as y'all are that The Post was wrong to pull that Candorville!

And I NEVER come down on that side.

This was a joke not only about assassination, but about the assination of a specific person. I would have had a serious taste question about that. I'm now second guessing myself a little, because so many of you did not.

and a later response that I agree with -

Washington, D.C.: The cartoon should have run because it expressed a sentiment that I think a lot of people are thinking/worried about but no one's saying it. I've only seen one interview with Obama that talked about security and even then it was very broad and he addressed it more broadly and they were off to the next question. I thought the illegal immigrant punchline was a perfect lampooning of where we're at as Americans right now.

Gene Weingarten: I'll buy that. Maybe.

and this one was way off base -

Candorville: The First Amendment and freedom of speech does not cover violence. The Post was right.

Gene Weingarten: Well, it wasn't ADVOCATING violence.

and a few more views -

London, UK : As an outsider you, as a country, can be a tad carefree with your presidents.

What Candorville seems to express is unspoken but not non-existant. The cartoon form is, and has always been, an ideal platform for such free speech.

Gene Weingarten: No one is questioning whether he is free to draw that strip. Of course he is. But newspapers do edit things for taste. It's not censorship, it's editing.

_______________________

Candorville: I read the strip you mention in today's poll last week online, not knowing that it had been cut from the print version of the Post, and I was surprised at it for the same reasons you mention. However, I don't think it's dangerous, and I think it is an important social commentary on the fact that racism and intolerance are still serious problems in American society. For that reason, I think the Post should have run it.

Gene Weingarten: Okay.

and -

Dogtown, Ark.: That Candorville was brilliant! Topical and poignant! What kind of maroon would think it offensive enough to pull from the comics page? Gene, it is your sacred duty to out this philistine so he/she may be duly ridiculed by the Chat.

Gene Weingarten: It was topical, though it was not a really original joke. It was a re-tooling of an old joke to fit a new topic.

and then -

Cambridge, Mass.: I would like to point out, as I'm sure many others already have, that the joke in the Candorville comic is a straight rip-off of a Dave Chapelle bit. Dave talks about how hard it would be to be the first black president and the likelihood of assassination, therefore he would only do it if his vice-president is Mexican, "for a little insurance. So everyone would just leave me and vice-president Santiago to our own devices." Great act by a native-D.C. comic.

Gene Weingarten: Dave was not the first to speculate on strategically having a terrible veep to make sure no one assassinates you. Those jokes were rampant during Dan Quayle's vice presidency.

Ok, after reading all the comments -- they were still wrong to drop it. It wasn't advocating assassination, so I think they just didn't want the outraged letters.

Richard's Poor Almanack on the transformation of Dick Cheney UPDATED

My wife, not a comics aficionado, really really liked this Saturday's panel on Dick Cheney's embodiment of the Heisenberg uncertaintity princle - he's not part of the Executive Branch, not part of the Legislative Branch, so what is he? She liked it so much I'm making photocopies so she can hang one up and mail one to her father.

It's not online yet (sigh - does the Post think you're going to run out and buy a 2-day old paper?) but you can see last week's Beach Houses.

Richard Thompson stalkers will be able to find him (and me) at tomorrow night's Cartoonapalooza.

July 4th update - it's online now. At the Cartoonpalooza event, many people were complementing Richard on this strip. Also this week, Doonesbury's been running strips on Cheney and the 4th branch, as did yesterday's Candorville.

Today's comics weren't all comic

Richard Thompson has a hilarious sendup of Free Comic Book Day that about 37 readers of the Post will get and appreciate. In their continuing effort to combat e-piracy, the Post hasn't put it online yet, although you can see last week's panel.

Meanwhile a few other strips in the Post are worth noting today (that's the May 5th strips).

Bud Grace goes for a dose of reality in the Piranha Club.

Bill Griffith's History of the washing machine in Zippy was just lovely.

Pearls before Swine breaks the 4th wall in a graphically-amusing way.

Speaking of graphic, what's the deal with yesterday's Baldo? First his aunt walks in on him naked in the bathroom and seems to suggest a Red Hot Chili Peppers fashion, and then we get this strip. Am I reading too much into this or is there a "size of his dick" joke here? For Better or For Worse had a PMS joke today, and Brewster Rockit had a fart joke with spiderwebs coming out of a character's ass (a Spider-Man 3 tip of the hat).

Finally on Monday, two diametrically-opposed cartoonists ran similar strips on the Virginia Tech murders right next to each other: Prickly City vs Candorville.