1
By Erich Vieth on October 24th, 2009
Swine flu cartoons
Cagle Cartoons has a big batch of swine flu cartoons ready to be viewed (after you sanitize your keyboard).
Category: Cartoons
By Erich Vieth on August 07th, 2009
Knowing someone versus loving someone
When I was a teenager, I sometimes got annoyed hearing people getting all excited when they talked with their children about the Disney characters Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. I thought this was strange, because very few people could tell me anything at all about the personalities of these cartoon characters, other than what they looked like. In fact, I had seen a few old cartoons involving Donald and Mickey, and many of them left me unimpressed, bored or disturbed. Donald often flew off in a fit of anger. Not always, but often enough. Mickey didn’t have the anger problem of Donald, but people who “loved” him usually couldn’t tell me anything about him other than that he appeared in some cartoons, including “Steamboat Willie.” Is he an exemplary character? Very few of the people who love him seem to care. I see the same phenomenon today.
Tonight, I ran across this especially disturbing cartoon of Donald Duck, probably not one that you’ll see featured at Disneyland. I can hear it now . . . “Hey, kids, look! There’s a funny cartoon where Donald Duck commits MURDER!” I’m sure that most people don’t care that Donald committed murder. They “love” him no matter what he has done.
This cartoon goes to show you that people can think that they love a character without knowing anything at all about that character. We are really good at projecting, filling a knowledge void with good things (or bad things) about a character, a movie star or even a God. Case in point is Jesus, whom many people claim to know or love yet they know so very little about him. Or think of the people who insist that God loves us, yet they aren’t interested in knowing about the many genocides committed by the God of the OT. Or consider a more modern example of a person who many people “love” or “admire” without knowing anything about her: Sarah Palin, who I’ve previously compared to “Helly Kitty.” It turns out that many modern corporate characters are intentionally left empty, allowing the public to drum up their personalities in their imagination.
By Hank on July 05th, 2009
An observation
Married To The Sea, sister comic to Toothpaste For Dinner (one of my daily indispensables). Go there!
[The above cartoon used with permission]
By Erika Price on June 29th, 2009
On past-love and future-hate
I know it is wholly unoriginal of me to link to the comic XKCD, but today’s strip was just too true to life:
Almost nothing annoys me more than the bemoaning of the future as an immoral, uneducated, unenlightened time. Many people- of both conservative and liberal ideologies- call up sunny images of a past where people were happier, smarter and “better”. Usually we can point to political and technological advancements that demonstrate this is not the case.
My deeply-held belief is that the future is bright and brimming with promise, that today’s youth are not hopeless or devolved, and that new fangled technology will not cause the collapse of our species. When bad things arise, we are tempted to look to the past with a fond and foggy nostalgia- as if fundamental human problems were not always the same. Bringing apocalyptic rhetoric into the discussion of modern problems is inappropriate, I think, because every generation has its big, scary troubles. As this comic advises, we should always look to the evidence and not catastrophize.
By Erich Vieth on May 09th, 2009
The Adventures of God-Man
Ruben Bolling has published this comic describing the adventures of God-Man. Such a dark and brooding superhero . . .
By Erika Price on April 30th, 2009
Air Force Cheesecake
A few weeks ago, I visited the National Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. I didn’t expect that I’d like the exhibition that much- my eyes tend to glaze over at the discussion of military specs. However, some of the museum, which is on a functioning Air Force Base, really surprised and impressed me. I liked that the museum had seven different Air Force Ones available, four of which could be explored inside and out.
I also really liked looking at the ways in which different air force jets and planes of different eras were decorated. I took many pictures of the cheesecake-style pinup gals, critters and skeletons that adorned these big flying weapons. The gals are not surprising I suppose- they echo the centuries-old tradition of masthead mermaids on ships. What really struck me was the use of contemporary cartoon characters as happy icons of war.
I decided to string together my photos of airplane cheesecake and cartoon characters in another simplistic Youtube slideshow. Check it out, and look out for the Seven Dwarves, Donald Duck, Goofy, The Jolly Green Giant, Dennis the Menace and Dumbo, all emblazoned proudly on the face of military jets.
American Culture • Art • Cartoons • Culture • History • Military • Uncategorized • Video by DI • Videos • War • photography
By Erich Vieth on April 24th, 2009
More on Facebook
This cartoon is being published at DI with the express permission of Dave Coverly.
By Erika Price on January 22nd, 2009
To avoid conspiracy kook-ery, Obama retakes oath.
After Tuesday’s Inaugural oopsie- now obviously Justice Roberts’ fault- Obama decided to retake the oath of office. I love the term that Greg Craig used when explaining the redo. “Abundance of caution”. Read: to keep the conspiracy wingnuts from trying to oust the President on the basis of minutiae. Read: to keep the people who [...]
By Dan Klarmann on January 19th, 2009
When Holidays Collide
One might say that this year we have an inordinately appropriate pair of largely ignored January holidays. Today is Martin Luther King day, and tomorrow Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th president. This morning PZ Myers posted excerpts from Kings Letters from a Birminagham Jail, plus links to the full text.
Tomorrow, the presidential [...]
By Erich Vieth on November 23rd, 2008
Street animation by Blu
It’s both enchanting and creepy, and it’s often large scale. It’s street animation by Argentine artist “Blu.”
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
By Erich Vieth on November 20th, 2008
Bailout gravy train
Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner
Reprinted at DI with permission of Cagle Cartoons
By Erich Vieth on November 17th, 2008
The Fall
Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen
Reprinted with permission of Cagle Cartoons
By Erich Vieth on November 16th, 2008
Detroit
David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star
Re-printed at DI with permission of Cagle Cartoons
