Category: Cartooning

Noteworthy Passings

Twin Peaks pushed the limits of network television beyond anything ever seen before. Co-created by David Lynch, who directed a half-dozen episodes, the series’ premise was shocking and it would never have aired if the subject matter hadn’t been presented in the surreal way that it was.

Jules Feiffer started in Will Eisner’s cartooning studio. His essay “The Great Comic Book Heroes” for Playboy in 1965 was well-timed for the Pop Art era. It was expanded into a popular and groundbreaking book.

Feiffer wrote the screenplay for the Mike Nichols movie Carnal Knowledge. Nichols talked Prue’s bestie friend, Cynthia O’Neal, into accepting a role.

Post-Washington Post

Ann Telnaes quit The Washington Post after a cartoon idea she submitted was rejected by the Editorial Page Editor. The cartoon is on Ann’s Substack post about her resignation.

https://anntelnaes.substack.com/p/why-im-quitting-the-washington-post

The rejection served only to widen the cartoon’s exposure, of course. The paper seems to be on a downward slide since Marty Baron retired.

At this point, Bezos may as well sell the Post for whatever he can get for it. If he hangs into it, and the editorial content starts turning in Trump’s favor, that will be the end.

Oh, look! Someone else is wearing Audio-Technica ATH-M20X headphones.

My take on the cartoon is that it’s far from the best work by Telnaes. The idea behind it is more obvious than it is clever. I would have rejected it for relying on the old “bags of money” symbolism.

Speaking of Belgium

Some of the early installments of Tintin by Georges Remi, aka Hergé, are racist. The Nazis allowed Remi to work undisturbed in German-occupied Belgium, leading to his arrest as a collaborator after the war. The case was later dropped.

The Adventures of Tintin, from 1991-92, is a mostly faithful cartoon adaptation of the books, minus the objectionable material. Some enterprising person has made the series available online in its original aspect ratio. Some other copies are zoomed and cropped to distraction.