You decide

Thomas Nast: a casualty of The War On Christmas or of a three-year-old tree decorator?

Occupy Oakland

 

I’ve been following the tweets of cartoonist/journalist Susie Cagle as she attends Occupy Oakland. Fascinating and horrifying. I think you should try following her too if that’s your kinda thing. You can find her @susie_c

(Susie is a second-generation cartoonist. She’s the daughter of Daryl Cagle  so I’ve known Susie since she was a teenager coming with her family to the National Cartoonists Society’s annual gathering.)

 

 

 

 

What I’m reading – Slowpoke

 

I got to meet Jen Sorensen, creator  of the alternative political cartoon Slowpoke, when she came to speak at Ohio State University’s Festival of Cartoon Art. She also hung out with the other cartoonists and was suitably impressed, as you can see in this cartoon.

What I’m reading – Civil War cartoons

So last week I said that there isn’t a bookstore close by. Well, that’s not completely true. In a plaza of outlet stores there is a bargain bookstore. It’s the kind of store that only sells close-outs, which means it impossible to find anything in particular. That’s fine by me. I love looking through bargain books but this store has a notoriously bad selection of the stuff I’m interested in. Their humor section contains mostly written humor by stand-up comics. (Really, does the world need any more “Redneck” books?)

On this day I walked in and there was the above book staring me in the face. Then I looked in the humor section – same as it ever was. But I just happened to look through the literature section and, at the bottom, was a whole bunch of graphic novels. (Graphic novels=literature. Right on.) Since I was spending over $25 I was told I could have any one of three books that were on the counter for $1 and I got the one below. After I had paid I noticed the 50¢ clearance shelf next to the register. Even more graphic novels.

There’s treasure everywhere!

Christmas loot list – Part 2

And now for the cartoon-related stuff I gifted to myself. (And now that I think of it, it was all discounted. What a cheapskate I am.)

• Three book collections of Batman and Superman newspaper comic strips from the 30s and 40s.

• DVDs of Superman II, III and IV, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and a collection of King Features comic strip-based animation. Barney Google, Beetle Baily, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, The Phantom, Hagar the Horrible, Mandrake the Magician. “131 cartoons, 20 hours of hilarity” it says on the cover. (Prince Valiant funny? Who knew?)

• And from my favorite used book store, The Book Centre, in my hometown of Spencerport, NY: “To Afghanistan and Back” by Ted Rall, a Jim Borgman 25 anniversary editorial cartoon collection and book by French cartoonist David B. I don’t know his work at all but I’ve heard good things and, heck, it was a used book… The image below is from the original, not the English translation I bought. (At least I think it’s the same one. Can’t know for sure. I only took 6 years of French.)