This morning’s name was Fosdick — a famous liberal minister and also an outrageous cartoon character. Harry Emerson Fosdick. Fearless Fosdick.
Archive for the ‘Linguistics in the comics’ Category
Morning with the Fosdicks
May 4, 2015Define marriage
April 30, 2015The most recent Scenes from a Multiverse (available on-line here) tackles the task of the U.S. Supreme Court:
The legal issues here are genuinely complex, but apparently SCOTUS isn’t contemplating undoing the same-sex marriages that have already happened as a result of judicial actions (as opposed to legislation or popular vote), though it could conceivably let stand existing bans in some states.
Then there’s the question of extending protections against discrimination based on sexuality to those jurisdictions that don’t now have them — or not.
And there’s more.
It never ends
April 29, 2015Today’s One Big Happy:
Always upping the ante.
Note the (widespread) opinion that school teachers make big bucks — an idea that Joe certainly didn’t come to on his own.
Ignaz Pleyel
April 29, 2015Ignaz Pleyel’s Symphony in G Major (Benton 130) went by me on WQXR (classical music in NYC) yesterday, and I was reminded what a fascinating character Pleyel is. This will lead us to shapenote singing and then, via the composer’s personal name, to the Jesuits and Krazy Kat.
Morning: Jerry van Amerongen
April 28, 2015An excellent Dutch name this morning: the cartoonist Jerry van Amerongen. From Wikipedia:
Jerry Van Amerongen is a cartoonist based in the United States. His work includes the comic panel Ballard Street, which has run since 1991. Before 1991 he drew a comic panel entitled The Neighborhood for ten years.
Grimmy rides with Snoopy
April 28, 2015Today’s Mother Goose and Grimm does a crossover with Peanuts:
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That’s Snoopy, who imagines himself as a World War I flying ace, while imagining his doghouse as a Sopwith Camel.
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A blogging puzzle
April 27, 2015Recently I got a comment on a posting of a Bizarro cartoon (“Dinosaur connoisseur”), wondering why I hadn’t commented on the space alien and the stick of dynamite in it, and I explained — as I had a number of times before, to other readers of this blog — that this was just one of cartoonist Don Piraro’s things, a little game he plays with his readers: some number of “secret symbols” are salted in almost all his cartoons (they have nothing to do with the actual content of the cartoon), and then their number is noted in the cartoon, just above Piraro’s signature.
Here’s a recent Bizarro with a pun on boot, with two secret symbols:
The eyeball and the piece of pie. The symbols are listed here.
Now the question is: How can I provide this information to my readers?
Conversation with the Muffman
April 23, 2015Today’s Zippy, with another roadside fiberglass icon:
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There’s a Wikipedia article on Muffler Men, roadside fiberglass figures originally serving as commercial icons, usually holding a sample of whatever is advertised — a muffler in the case of the canonical Muffler Man. Muffler Men take many forms: images of Paul Bunyan, for instance, and the very popular cowboy figure, as above. Zippy fairly often engages Muffler Men (and other fiberglass figures) in conversation.
Dinosaur connoisseur
April 23, 2015Today’s Bizarro, with a portmanteau:
Dinosaur + Connoisseur. With some entertaining play on the style of wine writing.
Political cartoons
April 21, 2015Three more cartoons from the May issue of Funny Times, cartoons that are in some way “political”: from Ted Rall, Tom Tomorrow, and Ruben Bolling:
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