Laugh Tracks

15th Anniversary of Close to Home!

Happy 15th anniversary to Close to Home, which began this month in 1992. John McPherson's offbeat single-panel cartoon drew comparisons to Gary Larson's The Far Side in its early years; but while Larson's comics more often than not put a humorous spin on nature, McPherson finds the inspiration for his cartoons in everyday life, with normal people finding themselves in slightly (and not-so-slightly) abnormal situations. Close to Home has been a staple on the comics page and a hit in reprints, with cartoons featured in special collections, an extremely successful line of greeting cards, the best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series and even underwear.

Congratulations on your much-deserved success, John!

New Comic: Mythtickle!

Justin Thompson has had several jobs: jousting at the Renaissance Festival, performing stunts in full Batman costume at an amusement park, and employing his physical prowess to portray Robin Hood and King Arthur, among others. So naturally, when he decided his body had taken enough punishment, he transitioned to cartooning, as all men of action eventually do.

Right. It's not the typical resume of a cartoonist, but one look at former ComicsSherpa standout Mythtickle erases all doubt that a former stuntman could produce compelling comics. Thompson's colorful, dynamic strip is a fresh and welcome diversion from the norm, starring, as he puts it, "underused deities, mythical creatures, bees and such." Check out Mythtickle, the newest addition to GoComics.

New Comic: Birdbrains!

Thom Bluemel loves cartooning, and he loves nature. So naturally, he combined these two great loves to create a daily comic! Birdbrains is a colorful single panel cartoon that combines the natural and the unnatural for all kinds of unexpected and amusing results.

If you're looking for laughs, you'll find them in Birdbrains, a longtime feature on Comics Sherpa that makes its GoComics debut this week!

Try My Comics Page for Free!

Right now you can try out My Comics Page, the premium comics delivery service from GoComics, for free. Just click here, enter your email address, create a username and password, and you're on your way. The quick pitch: Choose as many comics as you want from 180+ titles. Have them sent to you daily, in one email or several. Save your favorites to online collections. Get unrestricted access to the archives, which feature every Calvin and Hobbes, Doonesbury, Boondocks, and Garfield strip, plus years of For Better or For Worse, Non Sequitur, Stone Soup, Adam@Home, FoxTrot, Bloom County and many, many more. There's no better deal than free, but the regular subscription rate comes close. When your 10-day trial is over, you can get a My Comics Page membership for less than $1 and month. It's a service no comic fan should be without.

New Comic: Pinkerton!

Pinkerton National Park has all of the wildlife you'd expect to encounter in the serene environs of the forest: a fox who loves kickball, a divorced rabbit with a drinking habit, a guinea pig who wears kitchen utensils for antlers...You know, your standard woodland denizens.

Pinkerton is Mike Witmer's new strip, launching on GoComics today!