Laugh Tracks

This Old Republican

By Brian McFadden, in today's New York Times.

45 More Days

As an added bonus for the Comics.com members that have migrated their accounts to GoComics, we will be extending your Pro membership for another 45 days.

By now you have probably modified your Comics page to incorporate even more of the comics you love.  With over 300 comics and political cartoons it can be daunting, but as a Pro member you can view all of the comics you want to follow on one page and in one email.  Over the next several months we have even more enhancements planned and look forward to working with you on thoughts and suggestions to improve the site.

So what next? Nothing, we will take care of everything, you just do what you do best and continue to read comics and comment on your favorites. 

 

Friday fun facts ... or are they? 7-29

Pooch Cafe's Paul Gilligan has never once been able to "avoid the Noid"!

Don Wimmer of Rose is Rose has a basement stockpile of popular '90s potato chip O'Boises -- enough to last two weeks of moderate snacking!

 

Tom The Dancing Bug's favorite style of dance is the Pasodoble, which he insists on performing at the extraordinarily fast pace of 127 beats per minute! 

Moderately Confused's Jeff Stahler has a "Burger Time" arcade console in his rec room -- but still can't get past the first level!

 

Tarzan, who was born in the jungles of equatorial Africa and adopted by apes, is widely believed by genealogists and comics scholars to be the brother-in-law of Mark Trail!

 

Big Nate creator Lincoln Peirce has gone through more than 100 straw boater hats — he frequently punches through the tops of them when his favored candidate loses an election! 

 

Based on recent statistical analysis, the GoComics blog is especially popular among purveyors of fake designer handbags, luxury eyewear and bootlegged Nike products!

Despite decades of intense, unrelenting practice, Cow & Boy's Mark Leiknes has never managed to win a pie-eating contest!

Lucas Turnbloom got the idea to add a panda character to Imagine This after a panda that escaped from the zoo climbed into his backyard and took a nap on his patio furniture! 

 

Lalo Alcaraz's La Cucaracha is the only syndicated comic strip that will be able to survive a direct nuclear attack!

Tik-Trek...

 

...do you see what I did there?

via the Magic of the Internet.

Behold, a lady

While reading today's Nancy, in which Sluggo leans reflectively against the fourth wall without ever really breaking it, I decided to explore the characters' looks over the years. The characters themselves have remained remarkably similar over the decades, but Nancy herself did get an electrifying pop-art makeover in the sixties and seventies at the hands of Andy Warhol and Joe Brainard. Check it out:

 

Above is Andy Warhol's "Nancy," from 1961

 

This is Brainard's "If Nancy was a painting by de Kooning," from 1975.

 

Above is Brainard's "Nancy diptych," 1974.

 

 

This last selection from Brainard is titled "If Nancy was a da Vinci sketch." There are a couple more by Joe entitled "If Nancy was a boy" and "If Nancy was an ashtray," but those are decidedly NAFTGCB (Not appropriate for the GoComics Blog), so you won't find them here.

 

The last artist I should credit here is Guy Gilchrist, who has been writing and illustrating Nancy since 1995. The whimsy, humor and charm Guy brings to the strip keep it lively after nearly a century. Not many people could pull that off AND hold down a career as a country singer, but Guy does it with gusto. Check out some of his tunes here.

Hey! I recognize those faces.

 

http://www.gocomics.com/culdesac/2011/07/27

 

 

 

Just in case you haven't seen this already

 

Warning - if you listen to the whole thing, it might be hard to get it out of head. Also: it's super weird.

Helloooo GoComics fans!

 

I regret only that I was standing too close to appropriately frame the muppet.

Remembering the Signings at SDCC

This is an incomplete list. I was not there for all the signings, but I hear they went well. Here are some photos of your favorite cartoonists signing some things!

Patrick McDonnell signing "Mutts" books!

Greg Evans signing "Luann" prints! (it was so busy, we ran out of prints! Luckily, this happened only 3 minutes before the signing was scheduled to end)

Technically this isn't a signing. This is Hector Cantu being hassled by Lalo Alcaraz (who did a "La Cucaracha" signing later, but I wasn't there so I don't have photos. Booo!) before the "Baldo" signing. It is one of my favorite photos from the convention...

(Hector is the *writer* of Baldo)

 
Lucas Turnbloom sketching before his "Imagine This" signing!

Chino XL and Lalo Alcaraz after the "La Cucaracha" signing!

 

Brooke McEldowney talking to fans at the "Pibgorn"/"9 Chickweed Lane" signing.

Mark Tatulli doing a sketch for a fan at the "Lio"/"Heart of the City" signing. It's hard to tell because we had to wind it around the corner, but the lines for his signings were ridiculous. He signed for more than an hour on Saturday and Sunday, and no one left without a book!

Keep in mind, these were NOT all the signings! We also had Shannon Wheeler, Keith Knight, Glenn and Gary McCoy sign at the GoComics booth. Thanks to the cartoonists for doing this, and thanks to the fans for coming to support us!

Famous last words

From today's "In The Sticks." Based on the packaging, I'm guessing the manufacturer can't be accused of not giving adequate warning.