Comics About Cartoonists!

Comics About Cartoonists - The World's Oddest Profession is a collection of stories which point back to their very real-world creation by referencing in some way the men (exclusively men in this collection by the way) who actually spilled the ink and fashioned them. The kind of fourth wall breaking stuff is always a hoot and has always been a feature of comics, an artistic form which has a really resilient quality for this kind of thing.

See above for a catalog of the talents contained in the pages within the tome. Besides a horde of public domain comics there are few which might surprise, such as a Will Eisner Spirit tale, a handful of strips from Elzie Segar's Popeye, and some stuff from Al Capp. Throw in great talents like Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Steve Ditko, Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta, Sheldon Mayer, Basil Wolverton, Joe Shuster, Jack Briefer, Jack Cole and so many more and you have a broad overview of different kinds of comics. There are funny animal tales, science fiction yarns, mystery tales, and simple gag comics. All kinds of weird stuff to tickle the comic book fan's inner self.

Here is a gallery of comic book covers which are featured inside the book, including the Punch Comics cover which serves as the decidedly memorable cover of the entire tome. These will give you a good sense of the wide array of different kinds of comics contained within.  Craig Yoe and his associates have done us all a favor.

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The World's Oddest Profession!

I've been wanting to snag this fun looking offering from  Yoe Books for quite some time. The price was a bit prohibitive though and I couldn't justify it. But I managed to wheedle a bit and got it from a dealer for small bucks and brought it home at last. Comics About Cartoonists - The World's Oddest Profession is a collection of stories which point back to their very real world creation by referencing in some way the men (exclusively men in this collection by the way) who actually spilled the ink and fashioned them. The kind of fourth wall breaking stuff is always a hoot and has always been a feature of comics, an artistic form which has a really resilient quality for this kind of thing.

See above for a catalog of the talents contained in the pages within the tome. Besides a horde of public domain comics there are few which might surprise, such as a Will Eisner Spirit tale, a handful of strips from Elzie Segar's Popeye, and some stuff from Al Capp. Throw in great talents like Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Steve Ditko, Wally Wood, Frank Frazetta, Sheldon Mayer and so many more and you have a broad overview of different kinds of comics. There are funny animal tales, science fiction yarns, mystery tales, and simple gag comics. All kinds of weird stuff to tickle the comic book fan's inner self.

Here is a gallery of comic book covers which are featured inside the book, including the Punch Comics cover which serves as the decidedly memorable cover of the entire tome. These will give you a good sense of the wide array of different kinds of comics contained within.  Craig Yoe and his associates have done us all a favor.

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Eat Up!

The always delightful House of Representatives has once again demonstrated an absolute ability to turn a blind eye to the suffering of those folks who just so happen cannot afford to make campaign contributions. The current dysfunction of the United States Congress is truly pitiful, a gang of full-grown and well-paid men and some few women who spend an inordinate amount of time behaving like spoiled children on a school playground.

The Farm Bill passed by the House of Representatives did not have any funding for the Food Stamp Program. This breaks a precedent of forty years or more, and suggests something  both banal and loathsome about the characters of those who somehow imagine that folks who need some help getting a meal day in and day out are those who require censure.

Lots of commentators point out with some indulgent sense of outrage that the number of folks on assistance has increased over the last several years. Duh! That's what happens in an economic downtown folks, that's what happens when elected leaders fail to reach out and help the situation but instead stand squarely in the path of assisting those who have been hurt, that is unless you ply your trade on Wall Street.

Times have been remarkably tough in the last several years because of the reckless and criminal behavior of financiers who have in the meantime been made whole and more. But others impacted by those crimes remain in tough straits, but receive no succor, they only get recrimination.

And equally pitifully the news media fails to cover this event, choosing to spend gallons of time on the show trial of the moment.

Here's a quote I chanced across yesterday while reading Gullivar of Mars by Edwin L. Arnold:

"What else is the good of a coherent society and a Government if it cannot provide you with so rudimentary thing as a meal?"

Now Arnold is critical of the languid Hither People, but in this instance his barb seems to speak directly to the reader, and it sure suggests that the modern American experiment in democracy is falling short of meeting the most fundamental needs of its population.

Where I grew up, we would say about someone who was particularly repulsive in their character that they were "Eat up with themselves". Well House of Representatives, I say you are all well and truly "Eat up"!

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