Comic Riffs is a blog devoted to the comics fan. Come in, sit down and put your feet up as we celebrate, contemplate, eviscerate and pontificate on cartoons.
Comic Riffs: August 17, 2008 - August 23, 2008
The E-Mailbag: "The Caption Contest Results Are In, Jeffy...!"
We could not let the Family Circus leave Washington without a proper sendoff. Lacking balloons, bunting, pinwheels, confetti, parade floats or a key-to-the-city, we followed the strip's dotted-line trail to the Monument, where we instead honored them with: a...
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Michael Cavna
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August 22, 2008; 11:00 AM ET |
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The E-Mailbag
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The Morning Line: The Riffys: These Cartoons Are the Katt's Pajamas
After scouring the strips far and wide, we find before us a kitty after our own heart. At last, in Bucky Katt, here's someone on the comics page who appreciates -- nay, who understands -- the critic. In today's first...
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Michael Cavna
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August 22, 2008; 6:00 AM ET |
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The Morning Line
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The Rant: Improving "Prickly's" Rundown City
Art, and the beauty therein, may be in the eye of the beholder. But right now, we're beholdin' today's "Prickly City" and -- try as we might -- we're not finding a whole lotta beauty. Now, to be fair, we...
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Michael Cavna
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August 21, 2008; 11:00 AM ET |
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The Rants
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The Morning Line: Hot Cartoon Characters on Parade!
It's a debate as old as the beer commercial. The name of the game is: Which Fictional Character Is Hotter? As in: Rhett or Ashley? Ginger or Mary Ann? Or pretty much any of the characters in the current flick...
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Michael Cavna
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August 21, 2008; 6:00 AM ET |
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The Riff: From Harvey Pekar, the Power of Honest Comics
Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner tell their tale in the film "American Splendor." (John Clifford/Courtesy of HBO/Fine Line) Comics are often tagged as pure escapism, but that limiting a label does some of them a disservice. Emotionally true comics...
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Michael Cavna
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August 20, 2008; 11:00 AM ET |
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The Riffs
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The Morning Line: Cartoons That Just "Kill"...
A standup comic once offhandedly shared with us what audiences laugh the most at: "Nothing 'kills' like death." If that's the case, then today's Post toons are the height of hilarity. From the philosophical to the literal, they're to die...
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Michael Cavna
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August 20, 2008; 6:00 AM ET |
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Interview With the Creator: Writer Brian K. Vaughan
"Y: The Last Man." (Courtesy of Brian K. Vaughan) He writes for DC. He writes for Marvel. He bags his second Eisner Award this year for his own creation, the apocalyptic comic-book series "Y: The Last Man" (for which...
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Michael Cavna
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August 19, 2008; 11:00 AM ET |
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Interviews With Cartoonists
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The Morning Line: This Olympics Fever Just Won't Break
The Olympic marathon continues to hurtle by at the speed of sound -- as long as that sound is, say, the glacial golf dialogue in "Judge Parker." By "Olympic marathon," we speak not of the Beijing Games themselves but rather...
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Michael Cavna
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August 19, 2008; 6:00 AM ET |
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The Interview: "Cul de Sac's" Richard Thompson
CUL DE SAC Strip (Richard Thompson) ">Enlarge Comic It's not often, when promised a "Q&A," you are delivered a literal question-and-answer. As in one Question, one Answer. But -- voila! -- here 'tis. "Cul de Sac's" Richard Thompson (Courtesy of...
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Michael Cavna
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August 18, 2008; 11:00 AM ET |
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Interviews With Cartoonists
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The Morning Line: 'Frazz' & the Evolution of a Comic Mystery
FRAZZ: Is it (primordial) soup yet? (UFS) Enlarge Comic When a cartoonist develops a rep for lacing his comic with sly references, we begin to read that strip in search of secondary cues and clues. Suddenly it's no longer just...
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Michael Cavna
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August 18, 2008; 6:00 AM ET |
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