Introducing...Dustin

The National Cartoonists Society handed out the Reubens recently. Richard Thompson (Cul de Sac) won for Outstanding Cartoonist, beating out Stephen Pastis and Glen Keane. The comic strip Dustin won for Outstanding Newspaper Comic Strip and The Flying McCoys won Outstanding Newspaper Panel Cartoon. A full list of winners can be seen here.

We've showcased many strips here that were nominated for the Reuben but we've never featured Dustin so here we go.

Dustin 05/22 thru 05/29

Well, that wasn't bad at all. I don't necessarily consider a rolled-up newspaper a blunt object but whatever. Special thanks to King Features Syndicate and their DailyInk website for actually having the last month of Dustin posted. Now let's look at some Sunday comics.

Heart of the City

Sadly, Mark Tatulli wasn't nominated for anything but it's good to see he can still have a good time. And speaking of Mark Tatulli...

Lio

Panels from Dick Tracy

What? When was the last terrorist attack in America? May 10, 2010 when a man tried to use a pipe bomb to blow up a mosque. He failed. Before that? The Christmas Day or Underwear Bomber in 2009. Also unsuccessful. Jim Doherty, quit trying to scare us.

Betty

Everything he's doing is kind of dangerous and since it is just a blinking turn signal, I don't think it's worth getting into a car wreck.

The Knight Life

Oh, no. It appears that Drinky Crow has finally drank himself to death.

Momma

Ha! Well, it's about time Momma learned that the people who work in banks are soulless. Even the tellers. They are the worst.

The Born Loser

Brutus, you go into a fancy restaurant by yourself so the waiter is probably thinking you are waiting for the rest of your party because who in the hell goes to a fancy, sit-down restaurant by yourself?

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Dinosaurs, Back Bras, and Flaming Poop

Hey everyone, Zachary the Stupid Inventor here with Wednesday's comic review!

Pickles: Pickles is one of those great strips that are so consistently good It's hard to review. Today's strip is of course good, but it has a visual punchline that I think was done very well. My only nitpick, and this is just my opinion, is maybe to take out the "oh" and just let the bumps speak for themselves....
Jump Start: The crook here seems genuinely hurt, which makes the joke that much funnier.

B.C.: The jokes a bit corny, but I love ankylosauruses so I'm posting it.

The Wizard of Id: So the gag of this strip is that instead of picking up poop after your dog you have to clean up fires after your dragon. There must have been a back and forth between the cartoonist and editor as to how to best convey that the flaming pile in the strip is NOT poop, I'm guessing that's why they had to add the smoke puffs by the nose....

Anyways, that's it for me. Until next time!
Zachary
Stupid Inventor

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Flash!

I was confused by yesterday's Adam@Home:

Adam@Home May 23, 2011

(click for larger versions of the strips, BTW.)

It wasn't apparent to me that the flash! was supposed to be a traffic cam.

Adam@Home May 24, 2011

I think yesterday's strip could have been executed a little better? Maybe by actually showing the light? I dunno. Kind of a weak gag anyway.

On the subject of weak.

Pluggers May 24, 2011

Thanks to Comics Curmudgeon, I've become fascinated with how utterly awful Pluggers is. Even with what seems like an unlimited supply of reader ideas, this strip just sucks. Today's Pluggers comes with an awful image if you think about it too much. So stop.

I'll help with a couple of good strips.

Lio May 24, 2011

Good stuff. 'nuff said.

How to Be Happy (Which seems to be Too Much Coffee Man again) May 25, 2011

Immediately, before I even really processed the font for the title and the brilliant simulation of the black spine, this looked like a New Yorker cover to me. Nice work. It also took me a sec to notice the guy lying by the bench.

Cul De Sac May 25, 2011

Cul De Sac at it's best.

Dick Tracy May 25, 2011

Dick Tracy continues with its rejuvenated pace, and Hot Rize appears to be earning her name!

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Bill Watterson Returns...Kind Of

Back in January, Richard Thompson, creator of the comic strip Cul de Sac, began a fundraiser for Parkinson's Disease. Since then, hundreds of cartoonists have signed up to donate their art for the auction. Among those, is Calvin and Hobbes creator, Bill Watterson. You can read the entire article here. And now, onto Sunday comics.

Nancy

Even without Fritzi's old age gunk she looks pretty good for someone who is technically 108 years old.

Grand Avenue

There's a crazy old woman who walks around my neighborhood and barks back at our dogs. At least our dogs are outside when they bark at people, not inside the house where they are not bothering anyone.

Momma

The pharmacist is clearly bothered by Mother Hobbs himself which makes me wonder why he doesn't just give her something harmful but tasty so she'll leave them alone forever. I don't think her kids would sue for negligence.

Pluggers

Pluggers don't want to read that much text. Nice try, Bill Beck but on your next entry make sure you keep your Plugger-ism between 5 and 13 words.

9 Chickweed Lane

Solange is a murderous psychopath.

The Born Loser

Why are those fortunes insulting? Also, that's pretty cool you get all you eat fortune cookies at this Chinese restaurant.

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Segregation

I am being true to my word, and posting stuff. As always, check out my group of websites because I need the vindication and there's stuff up on them. Now, I didn't really see anything that caught my eye while reading today's comics, but for some reason one of the services is showing us both the black and white and color versions of a few comics, The Barn:

When I first saw the black and white one, it just seemed older and unpolished compared to the colored one. It's not like the art is any different, and the only noticable difference is the pink on the sheep's nose. It makes him look more polished and sheep-like. The other comic was Scary Gary:

I actually prefer the black and white to the color version here.

Well, that's it. Lame, yes, but at least I posted.

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Ink Bottle Syndicate Special

Hey everyone, Zachary the Stupid Inventor here for today's review. For those of you who haven't heard, today marks the launch of a new syndicate, Ink Bottle Syndicate, run by Bill Kellogg, whose been working solely on promoting Tundra until now. According to The Daily Cartoonist, 8 more strips join the fold, 6 of which are of the "Gag-A-Day" variety. Let's review them shall we?


That Monkey Tune: A strip about two monkeys living in the human world. I like the odd drawing style, the monkeys are pretty darn cute. This particular strip seems like a Calvin and Hobbes copy though, so I'll have to read it for a while to get a real impression of it.

Sunshine State: I like the drawing style here, kind of looks like Pogo a bit. The tire and litter are good detailing. Again I'm going to have to review these strips again after a few weeks of them running but I'm curious to see how this strip goes.

Tundra: I think I've posted this strip before. It's good for a gag-a-day, focusing more on animal gags than pop culture references. It's a self promoted strip that has gone on to be in almost 450 papers, pretty darn impressive!

Half Baked: I like the joke, but it looks like a lot of different Gag-A-Day strips already out there.
Future Shock: Interesting style of drawing for a strip. Very realistic, so it stands out a bit on the comics page. But strong art doesn't make up for weak humor, so we'll have to see how funny this strip is.
Biz: David Blazek already makes the Gag-A-Day strip "Loose Parts", but this strip focuses exclusively on workplace humor. Being a mash-up of Dilbert and the Far Side, I'm sure editors are going to love it... I think it's going to go far.

15 Minutes: Another Gag-A-Day, I really have not much to say here. I do think it was clever framing to set up the gag, although I think I would have flipped it horizontally so that you see the polar bear last.
Holy Mole': Very simple art style, but the gag made me laugh. As long as it's always this funny this strip should find a place.

So what does this news hold in store for the future of newspaper comics? Will they succeed or fail? Only time will tell. I'll try to check in on them in a few weeks to see how these strips are doing.

Until next time!
Zach
Stupid Inventor

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Why Was the Breast Milk in the Freezer?

I don't think I have any Sunday to post today but I did get a good stash of Saturday comics so let's get on with it. Don't forget to check out my site which comes back from a Garfield-related hiatus.

All strips are from 5/14/11:

Pickles

If anybody is going to be a zombie, it would be Earl. A perfect end to a good storyline.

Dick Tracy

"Oh, I don't think we need a drug-sniffing dog. Do you have a straw or a rolled-up dollar bill?"

Big Nate

Why doesn't he just say "Thank you very much" and leave it at that?

Why do I do "what-if" scenarios with fictional characters.

Frazz

I know playing "cowboy vs. Indians" is politically incorrect and it should technically be "U.S. Cavalry vs. Indians" or something like that but I'm starting to get to sneaking suspicion that Jef Mallett had a terrible childhood and that he sniffs his own farts.

Speed Bump

Speaking of farts, that's what that web address looks like "fartin' cookie dot com". You know, a quick search shows that fortunecookie.com is taken but fortune_cookie.com isn't. Why didn't Speed Bump guy use fortune_cookie.com instead of frtn_cookie.com?

The Knight Life

Ew.

Brewster Rockit! Space Guy

Brewster Rockit. If he's ever been not funny then I don't want to hear about it.

Zack Hill

I completely agree with the boy's sentiment here. But MySpace's biggest draw is that it has Friendster? No wonder MySpace sucks.

Argyle Sweater

Uh, oh Billy. I'd quit taunting the zombies if I were you.

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