The rant normally seen at this time ...

This was an exceptionally good day on the comics page, full of doubles and triples and not a few home runs, so let me do a quick NPR rant and say that, if you don't have a Comics Kingdom and/or GoComics account, well, you're missing out on supporting some good work, even if you are getting to see it for free.

That's not quite what I want to rant about today, though it's related. But, before we get to that, check out a few of many examples of how good a day it is in cartooning:

 

(Between Friends)

This is probably the most rant-inspiring, though I've already discussed the blatant, manipulative, sponsor-serving lies of women's magazines.

I'm with Harv on this one: Why do you let those parasites with their obvious fakery get under your skin? You might as well obsess over the plight of the widows of Nigerian tycoons as fuss over what women's magazines say you should look like.

I'm sure we'll revisit it more than once. Well, unless it all stops. (Just kidding. We'll be back.)

 

(Agnes)

Agnes is always worth a visit, but today's is so far above the normal "school's out" seasonal gag that I fell over.

Back when classroom visits were part of my normal routine, I had a rule that I wouldn't come to a school on the last day before a major holiday and teachers always laughed and conceded the point. But I also learned to keep my head on a swivel in the parking lot if I was leaving a school on Friday afternoon, because the kids weren't the only ones in a hurry to get the hell out of Dodge.

(Teachers work far into most nights, I know, I know. But Friday afternoon still looks like a shotgun start at a demolition derby.)

 

(Speed Bump)

Dave Coverly takes two over-played gags -- mimes and people staring at their smartphones -- and comes up with something that freshens them both. If I were ranting about this one, I'd point out that ranting about behavior is different and potentially more constructive than ranting about clothing trends, particularly when the behavior is not limited to a particular demographic and you don't want to just sound like an old fart.

But I'm not ranting about that. Another time.

 

(Real Life Adventures)

Ditto with this. Evil elves sneak into the house at night and coat all the ceiling fans with a mixture of molasses, dust and dog hair, then use their little magical hairdryers to cure it into an insoluble mess.

I haven't had a ceiling fan in several years, but I still haven't gotten over the last one. We'll discuss it another time.

 

(Arctic Circle)

In the last move, I gave up on ever converting floppy disk material to anything currently readable and tossed them all, realizing that not only did I not have a drive that would read them, but that they were almost certainly degraded to the point that they couldn't be read even if I had a slot to plug them into. 

That was the little floppies. The big floppies went out in the move before. But I still have the Super 8 movies so I don't have to try to convert the VHS copy to digital and lose another generation. ("Generation" of clarity, not of children.)

Never mind. Okay, one more, and then I'll get to the actual point of today's posting:

 

(Loose Parts)

This one not only made me laff, but brought back a memory from a fiction-writing class in college and a story in which a guy stood at the sink with a rose in his hand, remembering the girl who broke up with him. After a series of touching flashbacks, he put the rose down the disposal.

The major difference between that and Blazek's gag being that we don't have to come up with constructive comments about Dave's piece, and we're not only allowed, but actually expected and encouraged, to laugh at it.

 

So anyway:

The Kenosha Festival of Cartooning is shaping up to be, genuinely, "bigger and better than ever," with an exhibit at the local museum to get people ramped up for the festival itself.

The idea of having the festival at the end, rather than the kick-off, of this impressive museum exhibit is unusual but brilliant: Let people sample the work before you serve up the cartoonists themselves.

I should say that, while I've actively promoted this event each year, I'm on the media roster this time, which is both a disclaimer that I've got a personal interest in its success, but also an announcement that I'll be covering it here and that you also might want to add me to your Twitter feed and "like" the Comic Strip of the Day page at Facebook.

As I've said before, this free, public event is critical not because Kenosha is the nexus of the cartooning universe (I think that's actually in Columbus) or because it's the most influential commercial market in America (though people can, and should, drive up from Chicago and down from Milwaukee for it).

Rather, the success of the Kenosha Festival should inspire other people who love the art form to create their own free public (as opposed to "insider") cartooning exhibits and festivals. I'm all in favor of the Cons, too, but their impact on the general public is, at best, different, and cartooning needs this kind of broad-based, accessible outreach.

I want it to succeed, and I want other communities to take it up. I'm going to concentrate on the one of those two goals I feel I can actually help with.

If you can, you should come. It's free, after all, and certainly centrally located.

But, in any case, do keep tabs on something that matters to the art form.

As Mrs. Trudeau used to say, "We're in touch, so you be in touch."

 

(Note to Canadian readers: No, no, not that Mrs. Trudeau. Her rose went down the disposal -- sorry, "garburator" -- years ago.)

 

Comments

[Rich Powell]

I heard so much about this at the Reuben Weekend: it was all good! I hope I can make it up there. In addition to hearing that the festival was great, I heard that Kenosha itself is a really nice place.