Category: Cartooning

Got Comics?

The GoComics service continues to be down. They posted this announcement on Facebook.

“Cybersecurity issues.” Hmm…

https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2022/11/21/gocomics-down-due-to-cybersecurity-issues/

There has been speculation that it’s actually an attack against Dilbert.com, but as Scott Adams explained today, he has a Domain Name issue. GoComics.com resolves to its IP address, but it doesn’t reply to a ping request. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a nefarious entity out to get Adams and is behind both outages.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nslookup dilbert.com
Server: Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home
Address: 192.168.1.1
*** Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home can't find dilbert.com: Server failed

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nslookup gocomics.com
Server: Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home
Address: 192.168.1.1
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: gocomics.com
Address: 66.6.101.183

C:\WINDOWS\system32>ping 66.6.101.183
Pinging 66.6.101.183 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 66.6.101.183:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss)

Update: Comics Kingdom says they also had trouble staying online, but they’ve been okay most of the day.

Blankety Blanc

A 20-minute podcast about Mel Blanc’s recovery from a coma, following his near-fatal auto accident.

A one-hour documentary about Blanc I haven’t watched yet. Glancing through it I see Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Stan Freberg, and Terry Gilliam, so it’s definitely worth watching.

Blanc was known to stretch a yarn or two about himself by more than a yard. Mark Evanier is the go-to guy for the most balanced take on the most versatile voice actor who ever worked in classic cartoons and old-time radio.

https://www.newsfromme.com/?s=mel+blanc

And here are eleven-and-a-half hours of old radio shows, featuring Blanc. This’ll fill up the day!

Swimming in India Ink

The new Black Panther movie brings Sub-Mariner to the MCU screen. He apparently now has some sort of an Aztec connection. Or maybe it’s Mayan. Whatever it is, he’s nothing like the character created by Bill Everett in 1939.

Sub-Mariner #57, on sale 50 years ago, October 1972, with art by Bill Everett

By 1972 Everett had stopped drinking, and he was helping other alcoholics through his work with AA. His art was better than ever, but then tragically he died only a few months after issue #57 was published. There is some more information at this link:

https://www.cbr.com/marvel-namor-bill-everett-final-days/

A glaring oversight is there’s no mention that Everett illustrated Daredevil #1. Although he had trouble meeting the deadline, Everett’s art is as fine as anything he ever drew. He was a master of inking with a brush, as was my dear old friend Joe Sinnott.